Time flies, only “a few years ago” I was watching on Soviet TV an interview of a 27 year old Garry Kasparov while he was playing his last match against Karpov in 1990, and now he suddenly turns 50!
As a little tribute, here is a recent video I made of one of his last successful performances:
DDT3000 – perikitosax, ICC, 2009, 15 minutes per game
I posted several days ago a great game by Tiviakov, where the rook sacrifice on the ‘f’ file was the winning idea after White played ‘f4-f5’ in Sicilian Scheveningen. I then remembered having played something similar myself on ICC not that long ago. Well, such games do stay in the chess player’s memory and warm his heart at night, so that’s indeed what has happened, and I was easily able to find that game.
Black made a similar mistake in my game, underestimated White’s initiative and captured with 23…fxe4?? (23…Nc2!? 24. Rxc2 Qc4! was correct). After 24. Rxf7! he had to resign on the next move.
Black really has to watch out for this theme in this line of the Sicilian, if it works, it is usually quite deadly!
Tiviakov – Van Wely, 1995
In this typical Sicilian Scheveningen, White has developed pressure on the kingside, and had just opened up the ‘f’ file via f4-f5-fxg6. But then Black also has some threats, and his knight has just grabbed on ‘c2’ (which actually was a mistake). How can White unleash his potential on the ‘f’ file in the most aggressive manner?
Click Here to replay the whole game. Or watch the youtube video from my channel:
Geller – Andersson, 1982
Ulf Andersson is a renowned endgame specialist, so this game is a rare case of Andersson being outplayed in his area of expertise. After obtaining two bishops, Geller sacrifices a pawn for initiative and activates all his pieces to win in only 31 moves.
For the solution, and brief overview of the entire game (taken from the “Mastering the Endgame” book by Shereshevsky) - watch the YouTube video from my YouTube channel:
DDT3000 – In-lightning, 15 minutes per game, ICC, 2011
It depends, and while this is a question of judgement but I would argue that 20. Rxf6!? is not really a sacrifice, but instead a fair trade off. I took on f6 without much thought, and went on to lose a complicated game by dropping a bishop in a probably drawn endgame. But given the opportunity – I would take on f6 again and have a fun game. On to the actual positional justification of the move:
I was not too happy with my position, since my bishop was passive, rook on b1 - awkwardly placed, and while the knight had some prospects on f5 and d5 - Black has ability to cover those squares. So I took an opportunity, which, given that both White and Black had about 10 minutes left on the clock (no increment) - I would take again. In a standard time controls game - I would likely not take such a decision very lightly, but in rapid chess - this move is almost standard.
After 20. Rxf6 gxf6 21. Ng3 
1) The knight gets a permanent control over f5
2) The bishop - permanent control over d5. Opposite coloured bishops definitely contribute to compensation.
3) Black's king is somewhat weakened.
Sure an exchange is worth something, sure White does not have any immediate threats; but the long term control over the light squares - is enough to create threats for your opponent, which given limited time - make things equally hard for White and Black. White has no bad pieces and a lot of positional trumps, so even if Black has a chance to try to convert an advantage, he would first have to defend for 20 moves. The game was not without mistakes, but here is a position which we arrived at after a few more moves
Even though I went wrong with 32. Nd6? – I still maintained a lot of chance until the very end. The risk White takes upon with Rxf6 in my view is equal to the risk that Black takes by allowing such sacrifices.
Geller-Anikaev, 1979
On his way to winning chess USSR championship at the age of 55, Yefim Geller wins this brilliant attacking game. Watch the video for the solution and to see the whole game. A pawn storm on kingside results in the attack and invasion on the ‘f’ file. White’s play is a response to Black’s negligent 13… Rfc8, which weakened f7 pawn. Hint: the final shot aims at bringing the dark squared bishop to the long diagonal.
Salov – Gelfand, 1998
The d4 knight is attacked, but it is an essential piece for White’s initiative. How to keep the attack going and justify White’s pile of heavy pieces on the ‘h’ file?
Watch the video for the answer and to see the entire game – White actually got a bit carried away with his sacrifices and was lost right before the time control, but a fortunate swindle brought him a full point.
I continue to study the typical middlegame positions by making YouTube videos with grandmaster games.
Today it is Ivanchuk – Topalov, 1996.
Here are few key moments:
The game makes a great impression, given how White sacrifices the pawns to open up the diagonals for his bishops. Here are more observations about this middlegame structure:
You can also replay through the game in the pgn viewer at chessgames.com.
Jiganchine – Change He Li, Vancouver, 2008.
Black has somewhat delayed the development of his queenside, and I had a combination at my disposal. I missed the chance, during the game, but now made a youtube video about it – watch it to see the solution!
(I am still working on making the audio in my clips sound better, this one is yet another attempt).
I recorded a video about an online 15 minute game I played. Over the course of the game, I played a nice sacrifice, but also missed several tactical shots that would have won the game on a spot. You can try to solve the positions below for White, there are two bishop sacrifices, one exchange sac (that was the one I found during the game), and a rook sac! The video will contain the answers.
Replay through the video to actually see the solution and the entire game:
What does your best chess game look like?
I’ve put a complete video on ChessVideos site: http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5940, and split it up into two parts for youtube since the most popular video sharing site has a limit of 10 minutes per clip: Part 1 and Part 2. Why put up this game? It was my only win in a tournament, and it turned out quite nice. The game could have concluded with a really spectacular finish if Black did not resign and continued to the bitter end:
23.Qf6!! would threat with Qg7x and Qf7x, so the only response is 23… Nxf6, but then 24. Nf6 is mate
Alfred still has a positive score in our personal encounters (that started in 1998), so of course him walking into my opening preparation was the main reason for such a disaster. Our games are always more fighting than my average game, so I am sure I'll have to prepare even harder for to survive our next battle.
Replay the game in the viewer with all variations:I came across this interesting chess game, where in the course of 5 moves White gives up a two bishops and a rook, forcing immediate resignation!
Acs – Paresishvili, 1999
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. a4
Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. f4 Qc7 11. Kh1 Re8 12. Bf3 Rb8 13. g4 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 e5 15.
fxe5 dxe5 16. Ba7 Ra8 17. g5 Rd8 18. Qe2 Ne8 19. Be3 Be6 20. Bg4 Bc4 21. Qf2
Qc6 22. b3 Bxf1 23. Rxf1 f6 24. Nd5 Rxd5 25. exd5 Qxd5+ 26. Bf3 e4 27. Be2 Kh8
28. g6 h6 29. Rd1 Qe5 30. Rd7 Nd6 31. Rc7 Bd8 32. Rc5 Qe6 33. Qh4 f5 34. Qh5
Kg8 35. Bxh6 gxh6 36. Qxh6 Qf6
37. Bc4+ Nxc4 38. Qh7+ Kf8 39. Rxf5 1-0
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