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Anatoly Karpov vs Wolfgang Unzicker
"Squeeze Play" (game of the day May-23-2012)
Nice Olympiad Final-A (1974), Nice FRA, rd 4, Jun-18
Spanish Game: Closed Variations. Chigorin Defense (C98)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 6 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jan-06-07  sixfeetunder: I think 14.a4 causes then more problems.
Jan-31-07  Major Dude: Can you say "Light square weakness"?
Feb-06-07  sanyas: Where is this game properly annotated? Thanks.
Feb-06-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Probably lots of places, but OMGP V is one.
Feb-06-07  Plato: This is one of my favorite Karpov games. 24.Ba7!! is just brilliant.
May-02-07  somitra: What a classic by Karpov. Black resigns as Ng4 was coming.
May-02-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Troller: Mar-17-06 fadaly3000: why did unzicker resigned?it doesnt make sense

Mar-17-06 devilwolfdog: He resigned because he had a root canal scheduled and he thought that would be a little more pleasant than playing this position as black.

Heh - just saved my day.

Sep-10-07  Karpova: Unzicker after the game: <One is permitted to lose to Karpov with black> http://www.olimpbase.org/1974/1974i...
Oct-16-07  zdigyigy: 33.Ng3 34.Bd1 35.Bh5 a lovely play. I wonder if Unzicker was happy to be rid of a piece in his cramped space? God, what's a guy to do? Hats off to you Karpov!
Nov-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  GlassCow: One of my absolute favorite games, featuring one of my favcorite moves ever played - 24. Ba7! The way Karpov completely paralyzes Unzicker is absolutely breathtaking.
Dec-26-07  M.D. Wilson: I know, <GlassCow>. It's one of my favourite games, too. Karpov could do just about anything in chess, but his prophylactic play was supreme, and perhaps unsurpassed. Karpov is one of the two or three best practitioners of prophylaxis, along with Petrosian, Nimzowitsch or Capablanca, in the history of the game.
Jan-26-08  kevin86: It looks like black's knights and rooks are trapped in a snowglobe or a genie's lamp. Only minimum forces are needed to win a position like this.
Mar-30-08  Kwesi: This game probably inspired A Greet vs R Van Wessel, 2006
Jul-20-08  Woody Wood Pusher: This is such an amazing game, black is paralyzed across the whole board, 44...Qxg6 45. fxg6 and then 46.Nf5 is crushing. This must have been so painful to play as black, his position was choked an inch at a time.
Aug-01-08  dumbgai: My god, that bishop on a7 looks so awkward but in fact it dominates the position, completely tying down black's pieces to the queenside while his queen decisively penetrates on the kingside.

This is a brilliant game, and true to Karpov's style. There are no flamboyant queen sacrifices, but rather a number of maneuvers that slowly squeeze the opponent to death.

Aug-01-08  RookFile: Karpov made the point, in annotating this game, that usually you hear about a 'bad bishop' - but in this game, his strategy was geared toward the 'bad knight' on b7.
Aug-02-08  PinnedPiece: <Rookfile>

Dude, you're stripped ....I see no avatar today!!!!

It's like you've got a paper bag on your head.

Aug-10-08  Phoenix: <Kwesi> is quite right. Blocking a file in this way has become a standard motif.

For example, Bareev vs Salov, 1992 White to play:


click for larger view

23.Na5!

Sep-23-08  fictionist: Superb!
Sep-23-08  whiteshark: Splendid!
Oct-07-08  Geronimo: Hey this is a beautiful game. I just found it by chance. The aesthetic beauty of white's position after 21.Ng3 should turn heads, and there should be a book about 24.Ba7.

This is a Karpov gem. I agree <aazqua>, he is underappreciated. Highly instructive for positional play in a closed position. Why not a game of the day <CG.com>?

Oct-07-08  parisattack: I saw this game recently somewhere else and - yes - its sweet! I enjoy Karpov's games on balance much more than Kasparov's. Karpov definately underrated - the stigma of the Fischer non-match (obviously not his doing) and of being a good little Communist in the 70s.
Dec-18-08  Helios727: Fischer might have been the better player, but I think Karpov's "closed center" approach to the white side of the Ruy is easier for a lower level player to emulate.
Dec-18-08  Travis Bickle: if Karpov Fischer would have happened in '75 it would have been position and complications of Anatoli vs tactics and attack by Bobby.
Dec-18-08  JuliusCaesar: I know what you mean, Travis, but Fischer was much more than just tactics and attack. Like Karpov, he, too, was a great positional player as well as a master technician. To my mind, the main differentiator between the two was Fischer's attitiude with Black. While Karpov would almost always (note the almost) settle for equality, Fischer (and Kasparov) were more ambitious with the black pieces.

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