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Isaac Lipnitsky vs Mikhail Tal
4th Soviet Team-ch prelim (1955), Voroshilovgrad URS, Sep-??
King's Indian Defense: Fianchetto. Yugoslav Variation (E65)  ·  1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-03-07  ianD: Great save bt the young M Tal
Oct-28-24  Twilight of the Idol: According to SF, black was doing all right until he chose he chose the tempting 26. ... Rb2 over the consistent 26. ... a4.

What makes 26. ... Rb2 so much worse? It's simple enough, though hard to foresee without machine assistance. After 26. ... a4, immediately breaking up the pawns there follows:

27. Rd8 Rxd8 28. Rxd8 Kg7 29. Bd4+ f6 30. Rd7+ Kg8 31. Rxb7 bxa3 (also possible is 31. ... a3, but it's a more difficult route to the draw) 32. Rxb3 Rc2 33. Rc3 Rxc3 34. Bxc3 the bishop endgame is a draw: the c-pawn isn't as powerful and black can create a passed h-pawn to counterbalance it.


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But that's really hard to see in advance.

So, Tal wound up in a losing position and Lipnitsky botched it with 38. Bc1? instead of 38. gxf4 Bxf4 39. Kf4 Bb4 40. Ke4 Ke6 41. f4! and black is lost.


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What's the difference? Well, the key difference is that the white bishop will be able to actually participate in the struggle. White has gained three(!) tempi and has an f-pawn rather than a g-pawn, meaning the pawn can get up to f5 or f6 and suddenly the a1-h8 diagonal is relevant both for protecting the white pawn and for restricting the black king's defense of the h-pawn.

Compare the sample line 41. ... Ba7 42. Bd4 Bb8 43. Be5 Ba7 44. b8=Q Bxb8 45. Bxb8 a3 46. f5+ Kf7 47. Be5 with the game continuation.

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