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Clapham vs Stephen C Pride
"Pride Goeth Before a Fall" (game of the day Sep-18-2007)
ENG-ch M corr (1987) (correspondence), England
King's Indian Attack: Symmetrical Defense (A05)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Sep-18-07  NitrousPeak: Looked like an odd game to me.
Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  al wazir: 30. Qf8+ Ne8 31. Ne6+ Kc8 32. Nxg7 would have won too.
Sep-18-07  MadBishop: Quite an interesting game for the King's Indian Attack. White seems to take his time getting Rdh1 out, trying to avoid material concessions instead of striving for the initiative. But he gets there eventually and Qa3 was a very nice trick! Really caught Black unawares!
Sep-18-07  King mega: OUCH! 3 passed pawns in total?!
Sep-18-07  sfm: What a stranglehold! Good old Dr. Symm's defense may need improvement somewhere.
Sep-18-07  Ghizza: 8. ... Kh7??
Black was lost since that move.
Sep-18-07  cyclemath: The original quotation from Proverbs [16:18] is 'Pride goeth before destruction ...', which is equally appropriate.
Sep-18-07  ted90034: on move 30 why doesn't black defent by putting the knight in front of the king? it seems to be a good defense
Sep-18-07  Mole125: I think he's worried about:
31 Ne6+ Kc8 32 Nxg7 Qxg7 33 Rxe8+ and whatever black does it ends up with loosing the queen, rook or mate (or most likely all 3
Sep-18-07  DragoKD: yeah black is dead after 29. Rxg7
Sep-18-07  rogermorin: ..27c5 seems to hold
Sep-18-07  rogermorin: ...25 c5
that is
Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: <"Clapham Uncommon"?>

<ted90034> Black is lost long before that. If 30...Ne8 31.Ne6+ Kc8 32.Qa6+ Kb8 33.Nxg7 wins easily.

Or 31...Qxe6 32.fxe6 Kc7 33.Rxe8 Rxe8 34.Qxa7+ etc.

Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: <Ghizza> 8...Kh7 is quite OK -- White's knight sac with 10.Ng5+ is enterprising and sharp, but not a forced win. For example, Black can later improve with 12...Qc8, or perhaps 16...Nd7 (instead of ...f6).

In fact White plays too conservatively and lets Black back into it for a while. 19.Rdh1 Qd7 20.dxe5 Rxe5 21.e4 d4 22.Rh7 looks like a quicker win. In the game, black could have got counterplay with 25...c5.

And 27.Nxd4 was unnecessary. White can play 27.Rxg7! here or on the next move. 27.Rxg7 Rxg7 28.Rh8+ Kc7 29.Rxa8 is winning for white.

Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: "If you have hands, prepare to Clapham now..."

... is another possible title. Or just "Clapham Omnibus".

Sep-18-07  kevin86: I always like the games where one player castles on the queenside and attacks on the kingside. This one had a nice theme where black's king was reluctantly ushered to the queenside while white strafed his army. In the end,the only thing left on black's kingside were two white pawns.
Sep-18-07  JG27Pyth: I like this game. The early N sac is quite comprehensible despite not paying off in a flashy combination for material or mate. A truly positional sac. White plays most of this game down a piece yet one almost forgets about that static disadvantage because of white's dynamic advantage in <active> pieces.

I don't know what stronger players think but to me it looks like white has by 17.g6 a clearly winning position. Because of the material deficit however, that win has to be converted accurately or the whole thing could come unravelled quickly. White does a nice job IMO, black never gets any counterplay, none that I can see.

<domdaniel 27.Rxg7! here or on the next move. 27.Rxg7 Rxg7 28.Rh8+ Kc7 29.Rxa8 is winning for white.>

I think 28. Rh8+ Qe8 might be a stronger continuation in that line for Black, although I think white's King side pawns would still prevail.

Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Domdaniel: <JG27Pyth> Yeah, in that line (27.Rxg7 Rxg7 28.Rh8+ Qe8) White should still win easily. It's not *really* a Queen-vs-two-rooks position, thanks to white's extra pawns, kingside passer(s), centralized queen against disconnected rooks, etc.

For instance, 29.Rxe8+ Kxe8 30.Qxd4 Ke7 (the only way to defend f6) -- and now White can pick up more material with 31.Na5 Rb8 32.Qa7 (or even 32.Nxc6+ bxc6 33.Qxa7+ Kf8 34.Qxa6 -- when the black rooks have some activity but white has four extra pawns).

31.Qe3+ Kf8 32.Qe6 could be even stronger. And Black alternatives to 30...Ke7 don't amount to much, eg 30...Re7 31.Qxf6 and black is doomed.

Sep-18-07  pawnofdoom: Amazing game! I can't believe someone could calculate that he would eventyually get a winning advantage after 20 moves from a sac on move 10!
Sep-18-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <pawnofdoom: Amazing game! I can't believe someone could calculate that he would eventyually get a winning advantage after 20 moves from a sac on move 10!>

I can't believe it either, even if this is a correspondence game. I'm sure that White sacrificed on principle as much as calculation; you can usually bet that an open h-file with the heavy pieces ready to use it plus a pawn on g6 are going to be worth a piece.

I think the only difference that this being a correspondence game meant was that Black was able to hold out as long as he did. Over-the-board, most players would have been splatted well before move 30.

Sep-18-07  Thrajin: Pride goeth before the Clap... which may actually be true in some cases.
Sep-22-07  Cactus: Hmmm... cg.com lists this as the symmterical defence.
Aug-24-14  AnowonTheRuinSage: This was a great game by white. According to Houdini, white was never worse at any point in the game.

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