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Michael Adams vs Smbat Lputian
11th ECC final (1995), Ljubljana SLO, rd 2, Dec-01
French Defense: Tarrasch Variation. Open System Main Line (C09)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Mar-02-10  gofer: Well it looks like a simple case of where white thinks he is protecting against Pd3-d2 with Ke3 and Rf2, but in reality he isn't.

51 ... d2

White must stop the pawn or it will promote

52 Ke2 d1=Q+ winning
52 Rf1 d1=Q 53 Rxd1 Rxd1 winning

Main Line

52 Rxd2 f4+
53 Kxf4 Rxd2 winning

White is now a bishop down and cannot defend both Pg2 and Pa5. Also Pa5 is indefensible, so white will defend Pg2 and lose Pa5 at which point white is now down a passed pawn. So in the end I am not sure when white will resign, it might be immediately after 51 ... d2, but it might be after 52 Rxd2 f4+...

Time to check...

Mar-02-10  whiteshark: <51...d2> to channel the rook, followed by <52.Rxd2 f4+> deflecting his guard.
Mar-02-10  A Karpov Fan: got him
Mar-02-10  nuwanda:

for me today a little confirmation of the often mentioned rule with those small little tactics: change the move order

my first thought was 51...f4+ followed by 52...d2, but of course 52.Kd2 is an adequate defence. a little change does the trick, never forget to try...

another amazing small detail how the human brain works: many people here, me too, saw the importance of the black bishop in covering d3/e2. but d3 is irrelevant as its covered by the black rook, the only thing that matters is e2, funny

...

Mar-02-10  wordfunph: i didn't get it...i was looking at f4 move huh!
Mar-02-10  goodevans: About par for the course for a Tuesday "Easy" puzzle, which begs the question why Adams didn't see it. <51 Rf2> looks like a real stinker to me!
Mar-02-10  WhenHarryMetSally: missed it arrrrrrrrrr :'(
Mar-02-10  desiobu: A case of poor calculation on my part. I saw 51...f4+ and didn't bother to cross-check all of white's responses before looking at the solution.
Mar-02-10  patzer2: <goodevans><51 Rf2...looks like a real stinker to me!> Indeed 51. Rf2?? is a loser, since 51. g3 seems to offer good drawing prospects. However, the "real stinker" IMO was 18. Nc1? (instead of 18. a5 ), because it cost White his winning chances and was the source of his trouble for the remainder of this game.

Still, it was a valiant effort on the part of Adams to recover from a near lost position and bring the game back to the point that 51. g3 could have held the draw. Too bad he overlooked 51...d2! .

Mar-02-10  Patriot: I considered 51...d2 first, but after 52.Rxd2 (what else?) I didn't immediately see 52...f4+. So I continued my candidate search and looked at 51...Re5+ 52.Kd2 Re2+ 53.Rxe2 dxe2. I saw nothing there and returned to 51...d2 52.Rxd2 and then spotted 52...f4+, winning the rook.

<agb2002> I'm curious why you calculated the second line, <B) 52.Rxf5 d1=Q 53.Rff7 Qe2+ 54.Kf4 Qf2+ 55.Rd4+ and mate soon.>, since even 52...Rxf5 is winning and doesn't offer a challenge to black's pawn push. No offense intended, just wondering...

<gofer> There's a slight error: 52.Ke2 is illegal.

Mar-02-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  chrisowen: Well played black he'l put I anticipate the pawns in use and flog the king. It is even stevens up until Kh7. The feature of this position is the bogey cleric and of course the links with the pawns. 51.Rf2 is taking the mic. Hail the power of the passed pawns.. d2 Rxf2 f4 does lift the lid of the roof off.
Mar-02-10  lost in space: Missed it.

I thought the right sequence is 51... f4+ and afterwards 52... d2.

I overlooked 51... f4+ 52. Kd2!

Sigh

Mar-02-10  awfulhangover: First I looked at 51.-d2 but thought that black just play 52. Rxd2 Then I thought 51.-f4+ was it, but no, coz 52. Kd2! Oh, wait! Ahhh! First 51.-d2 and then 52.-f4+!

(A patzers thought-process!)

Mar-02-10  agb2002: <<agb2002> I'm curious why you calculated the second line, <B) 52.Rxf5 d1=Q 53.Rff7 Qe2+ 54.Kf4 Qf2+ 55.Rd4+ and mate soon.>, since even 52...Rxf5 is winning and doesn't offer a challenge to black's pawn push.>

You're right. The main reason is that I felt curious about White's counter chances along the seventh rank.

I often like to explore crazy/fantasy lines (see for example B Garfinkel vs F Wren, 1933) for fun and to exercise chess calculation and lateral thinking (there's no clock ticking!).

<No offense intended, just wondering...>

No offense taken, of course.

Mar-02-10  kevin86: Funny,I saw the solution almost immediately. The king can only guard d2 at e3-the white squares are barred by the bishop. Black "sacs" the pawn to force white to defend d2-then he chases him from the only square he can defend it.

White is lost.

Mar-02-10  Formula7: Got it. 51...d2 52.Rxd2 (the only way to stop the pawn from queening) f4+ 53.Kxf4/Kf3/Ke4/Kf2 Rxd2 wins a rook.
Mar-02-10  Refused: I think 49.Rc1 was the real problem from white.

I totally understand the desire, to free the rook from the burden to block that pawn and leave this duty to the king.

so instead of 49.Rc1 the immediate 49.Rf2 looks a bit more accurate to me. Now black doesn't have that nasty check on f4.

I might be wrong though.

Mar-02-10  jsheedy: 51...d2! White can stop the advance only by losing the Rook. After 52. Rxd2, f4+! forces the King away from the Rook, e.g., 53. Ke4, Rxd2 and wins.
Mar-02-10  YouRang: After toying with 51...f4+ for a while, and unsuccessfully trying to figure out what to do if white answers with 52.Kd2, my pattern recognition mechanism finally kicked it.

The pattern in question is the one where a king is defending a piece, but it can only defend it from one diagonal square because the adjacent squares are taken away (typically by a bishop, as in this case, or by the king's own pawns). Its a highly vulnerable defense because it's fun and easy to kick such a king.

Anyway, we can set up that pattern with 51...d2 52.Rxd2 -- and THEN comes 52...f4! kicking the king from it's defensive role to win the rook.

Mar-02-10  wals: White played 51.Rf2 (-5.11) which took him from an even game to disaster. Better was g3 (0.00) maintaining the even playing field.

Courtesy of Rybka 3 1-cpu: 3071mb hash: time 4 min: depth 22:

Mar-02-10  Nullifidian: Coincidentally, I had the pleasure of playing the same tactic in a club game last year as Black on the 51st move too. The diagram begins after White's ♔c2.


click for larger view

In this position, I played 51... ♙d1♕+ 52. ♖xd1 ♙b3+ 53. ♔xb3 ♔xd1 and my opponent resigned the game.

That's the same tactic at work here:

51... ♙d2 52. ♖xd2 ♙f4+ 53. ♔xf4 ♖xd2 and Black will be up a minor piece in the endgame, which is more than sufficient to win.

Mar-02-10  reti: very easy. God bless Tuesday.
May-23-17  PJs Studio: The problem for GM Adams here is; he HAD to see d2 AND f4+ before he played 51.Rf2 . Since he did not, he was completely busted immediately upon moving the rook.

Adams is a fantastic Super GM so, it's a nice win for a second tier Super GM Lputian.

May-23-17  User not found:


click for larger view

White just played Nc1?? I saw Nd3! Coming, I thought this must have been a blitz game because there's a lot of mistakes especially that Rf2? move at the end!

May-24-17  morfishine: Ugly slip up at the end here, but quite an intriguing game overall with much originality and imagination

*****

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