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Lubomir Kavalek vs Lajos Portisch
Amsterdam IBM (1969), Amsterdam NED, rd 13, Jul-30
Spanish Game: Closed Variations. Smyslov Defense (C93)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
0-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-16-10  MUG: 14.dxc5 dxc5 15.Qxd8 Rxd8 16.Nxe5 simply wins a pawn!
Jun-05-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Mateo: Interesting game. 41.h4? loses for sure. 41.f6 offered some chances. 41...g5 42.h4 gxh4 43.Bxh6 Kd6 44.Bg5 Kxd5 45.Bxh4.
Jun-05-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Mateo: However 45...Bd8 (threatening ...Ke6) should win, I think. 46.g4 (what else?) Ke6 47.g5 Kf5. The White Bishop is tied to the defence of the g5 pawn. Then Black can combine ...c4, ...Ba5 and ...Kg6-h5, for instance.
Jun-05-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Mateo: 38.Kf1 (?!) was the first mistake, in my opinion. 38.Bb5 is just in time to draw. One move later, after 39.Bb5, White is already in trouble after 39...Bb6. If 40.Ke2 Nf6 wins the 'd5' pawn although this should give Kavalek better chances to draw.
Jan-06-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: < MUG: 14.dxc5 dxc5 15.Qxd8 Rxd8 16.Nxe5 simply wins a pawn! >

yes it does. ..Bb7 or ..Bd7 is normal for this position. This may have been one of those glitch situations. Player B makes an opening move out of sequence. Player A may see it questionable but because player B is such a strong opponent, may figure he has a prepared trap etc, and just disregards it and moves on to the next "typical" move for the positions (b3) and so on.

It's hard to say. Otherwise, what explanation can one give for a 2600 player overlooking such a clear pawn?!

Jan-06-20  Olavi: It's also not so unusual to just not look at the board and keep making standard moves. A great example is Judit Polgar vs Spassky, 1993 where Spassky's 11th move in a position that he had seen thousands of times was not optimal...
Jan-06-20  Granny O Doul: Well, they're both still alive. Hey guys, what's the story here?
Jan-07-20  areknames: <Otherwise, what explanation can one give for a 2600 player overlooking such a clear pawn?!> They both did and they were both very strong players at the time. It's not a trap, there's no compensation, it's a clear pawn. It appears that Portish blended the Smyslov and Chigorin systems in an unfortunate way but luckily for him he got off scot-free.
Sep-27-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Honza Cervenka: 40.Bxd7 was a fatal mistake made from panic. Of course, Pd5 was lost but the position after 40.Bd2 Nf6 41.Bc4 Kd6 42.Ke2 Nxd5 43.Kd3 f6 44.Ke4 white cannot lose with a bit reasonable play.

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