Mar-28-06
 | | Honza Cervenka: 26.Na3 doesn't work for 26...Rxb2 27.Bxc5 Rxa2 with a threat 28...b6 29.Be7 Kf7 30.Bb4 a5 winning one of white's minor pieces. Of course, 28.Nc4 Rxc2 or 28.Nb1 Ra1 wins the piece for black too. |
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Mar-20-24
 | | FSR: I'm surprised that Huebner got so ambitious in this game. A draw would have given him outright second behind Fischer. And he would have known that Geller, the only person who could have tied him (had Geller won) had drawn in 12 moves. D Minic vs Geller, 1970. As it was, Huebner had to settle for a tie with Larsen and Geller. |
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Mar-20-24
 | | perfidious: <FSR>, could well be that Huebner, with nothing to play for, decided to have a go at it. After all, by winning, Smyslov gained no more than the right to play off for the reserve place in the Candidates cycle. |
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Mar-21-24
| | FSR: <perfidious> Why do you say Huebner had nothing to play for? Clear second is better than equal second, no? More impressive, more prize money. Of course if he'd beaten a former world champion that would have been nice too. No doubt Huebner couldn't have anticipated that they'd play a Candidates match one day, giving him many more opportunities to beat Smyslov. |
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Mar-21-24
| | FSR: Why not 12...g5? A perfectly fine move, but Opening Explorer shows that it had led to perpetual check after 13.Nf5 gxf4 14.Qg4+ Kf7 15.Qh5+! Kg8! (15...Ke6?? 16.Ng7+! Kd7 17.Qf5+ Ne6 18.Qxe6#) 16.Qg4+! in several prior games. Huebner would have been happy with this, which would have given him outright second in the tournament. Smyslov was not, since as <perfidious> noted a win gave him the right to play off for the reserve place in the Candidates cycle. Had Huebner been <really> eager to draw, he could have tried something like the Four Knights. See, e.g., O Sarapu vs Korchnoi, 1967 (1/2-1/2, 8 - another game from the last round of an Interzonal). Against the Rubinstein Variation 4...Nd4, 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.e5 often leads to a quick draw, albeit not in Short vs Kramnik, 2011 (0-1, 43). There are other drawing lines against the Rubinstein. E.g., F Rhine vs S Renard, 2024, except that that line was only worked out in the next millennium. Black also has 3...g6!?, as Gufeld had unhappily learned the year before in Gufeld vs Petrosian, 1969 (0-1, 24). But there was no need to grovel à la M Gurevich vs Short, 1990 (0-1, 42 - yet another game from the last round of an Interzonal). What Huebner played was fine. Had he played the sensible 14.Rf1 he would have been in no danger. |
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Kibitzing
