9.0-0 ...
Momentarily the white king is safe.
9...Nf6 (D)
Now White’s doom is sealed. His queen cannot escape and Black threatens 10...Ng4 (among other things) with a concentrated onslaught that will wind up the game in short order.
10.c3 ... (D)
A feeble attempt to stem the tide. The idea is to play d4 blocking out the menacing black bishop. But White never gets that far. The threats are too numerous and too urgent.
As a matter of fact, Blackburne can now wind up the game directly, but he misses his chance! This is rare indeed in master play, but his trouble stems from the fact that he sees another way to win.
In the diagram position Black can win quickly and elegantly by 10...Bh3! attacking White’s marooned queen. There follows 11.Q×a8 and now Black plays 11...Qg4 threatening immediate checkmate. (D)
Analysis after 11...Qg4
White replies 12.g3 – he has nothing better – whereupon 12...Qf3 leaves White helpless against the coming 13...Qg2 mate.
Actually Blackburne’s checkmate is only one move longer, but it’s not quite so forcing; and in any event it’s a point of honor among the masters to choose the shortest winning method.
This gives us something to think about: the masters are not infallible! (We’ll go into this in more detail in the next chapter.)
10...Ng4 (D)
Threatens 11...Q×h2 mate. White has only one reply.
11.h3 Bf5! (D)
This move looks like sheer madness as it loses Black’s remaining rook. But Black is well aware of what he’s doing. White’s king is at his mercy merely because the white queen is far afield and other white forces are underdeveloped.
12.Q×a8 B×f2+ 13.Kh1 ... (D)
Black has two ways to force checkmate. Here’s the most obvious: 13...Qg3 (threatening ...Qh2#). Then after 14.h×g4 we get 14...Qh4 mate. But Blackburne’s method is much more elegant.
13...Q×h3+!! 14.g×h3 B×e4 mate! (D)
As we’ve seen, there’s always a special charm to mates that are executed with the minor pieces. Their power seems to be so slight in comparison to the enormity of their assignment.
True enough. What makes this magnificent achievement possible is the enforced idleness of the white pieces.
Look back at the final diagram and note that White’s c1-bishop, his b1-knight, and his a1-rook are still bottled up. Such emphatic lack of development always creates the opportunity for spectacular counterplay.
In the case of Alekhine, the greatest master of them all of the art of attack, such examples are filled with an even more furious energy.
Amateur – Alekhine Italian Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 (D)
This somewhat constricting move (instead of the developing 3...Bc5) gives White the courage to play for attack against his formidable opponent.
4.c3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Qd7 6.Ng5 ... (D)
White’s attack looks very promising, especially when you consider that’s he holding Q×b7 in reserve. But Alekhine has a counterattacking resource that not one player in a million could hit upon.
6...Nh6
He doesn’t mind the reply 7.Q×b7, for after 7...Rb8 White’s queen will be out of play. (Think of the previous game!)
7.B×f7+!? ...
White tries a different way, which is very ingenious. Unfortunately for him, the master is much more ingenious.
7...N×f7 8.N×f7 Q×f7 9.Q×b7 ... (D)
Now White’s plan unfolds. He attacks rook and knight, thus regaining the sacrificed piece. Most players with the black pieces would give up the knight, but Alekhine sees much more deeply into the position.
9...Kd7!!
He reserves the knight for a special sacrificial purpose.
10.Q×a8 Qc4! (D)
Threatening checkmate. Suddenly we find that Alekhine has snatched the attack into his own hands. The same old story! White’s queen is out of play and his queenside pieces are roosting on their original squares.
11.f3 B×f3!! (D)
Very fine. Black still threatens checkmate.
12.g×f3 Nd4!! (D)
And again he threatens checkmate. All these moves look strong but mysterious; their purpose has yet to be revealed. For example, White can play 13. c×d4 but then comes 13...Q×c1+ 14.Ke2 Q×h1 and Black has a winning attack.
13.d3 Q×d3 14.c×d4 ...
Now Black is a rook and knight down. Yet he has a winning game – by sacrificing more material. (D)
14...Be7!! 15.Q×h8 Bh4 mate! (D)
To appreciate the stunning finish we must go back to Black’s 11th move, ...B×f3). The bishop sacrifice set up a mating position and made it imperative for White to capture the bishop. But by playing 12.g×f3, White’s g-pawn disappeared from the g-file.
This made the mating position possible. If White’s g-pawn were still at g2, then White could answer 15...Bh4+ with 16.g3. In that case Black would have no checkmate; his whole combination would be faulty. But the masters don’t play chess like that; they fit all these delicate details into a beautiful pattern.
Because of the way Black’s moves dovetail so neatly, this charming game is worth playing over repeatedly. Alekhine’s superman chess makes you feel that chess is a very easy game after all.
These examples of the chess master’s art have been very enjoyable. We’ve seen that the masters are the supermen of chess, displaying a brand of moves that are way beyond the rest of us. They maintain a very high standard of accuracy, one that the rest of us can well envy.
Nevertheless, the masters are not infallible. They do make mistakes. Remember the discussion on page 76 (Amateur-Blackburne, after White’s 10th move) in which we saw that Blackburne overlooked a rather elementary win? So let’s turn to the subject of the master’s mistakes – if only as a means of consoling ourselves for our own mistakes.
Chapter Five
To Err Is Human
Masters Blunder Too
The story is told of one of Morphy’s games against a formidable opponent named Paulsen, that Morphy became very impatient because of Paulsen’s slowness. At the critical stage Paulsen “studied an hour over a move, and Morphy responded a little impatiently, thereby transposing two moves and changing a win into a draw.” As a rule Morphy was a very quiet and calm individual, but this time he was furious. “Paulsen shall never win a game of me while he lives!” Morphy exclaimed.
While I don’t believe a word of this story, it’s still a good story. It shows that the chess master is human after all. When he makes a blunder and has it pointed out to him, he blows his top, just like the rest of us.
The Morphy-Paulsen story reminded me in still another way that even great masters have their off moments. Perhaps you’ve seen the next position from the most famous of all Morphy games. (D)
Paulsen – Morphy Match Game, New York 1857
Black to move
Morphy staggers his unsuspecting opponent with:
1...Q×f3!! (D)
This is considered Morphy’s most beautiful sacrifice. Unquestionably it is dazzling, although the exile of White’s queen is likely to provoke violent repercussions.
2.g×f3 Rg6+ 3.Kh1 Bh3 (D)
Threatening 4...Bg2+ 5.Kg1 B×f3 mate.
4.Rd1 ...
Not 4.Rg1 R×g1+ 5.K×g1 Re1+ and Black mates next move. All this is beautifully calculated by Morphy and explains why his sacrifice has been so enthusiastically admired. (D)
4...Bg2+ 5.Kg1 B×f3+ 6.Kf1 ... (D)
Here Black has a forced mate in four moves, thus 6...Rg2! 7.Qd3 (if 7.Q×b6 R×h2 forces mate) 7...R×f2+ 8.Kg1 Rg2+ 9.K-moves Rg1 mate. Wouldn’t you expect this to be child’s play for a Morphy? Yet he misses the mate! The game continues.
6...Bg2+ 7.Kg1 ... (D)
And now Morphy can force mate by 7...Be4+ 8.Kf1 Bf5! 9.Qe2 Bh3+ 10.Ke1 Rg1 mate. (D)
Analysis: after 10...Rg1 mate
And the great Morphy misses this mate too!
7...Bh3+ 8.Kh1 B×f2
Another blunder! B
lack can still get on the right track with 8...Bg2+ 9.Kg1 Be4+! as previously pointed out. (D)
9.Qf1 ...
White gives up his queen to prevent ...Bg2 mate.
9...B×f1 10.R×f1 Re2 11.Ra1 Rh6 12.d4 Be3! Resigns (D)
For if 13.B×e3 Rh×h2+ 14.Kg1 Reg2 mate.
So there you have it: this game, universally admired, contains serious flaws. But these flaws are mild indeed compared with some of the hair-raising blunders in world championship matches.
The mere notion that world champions can blunder strikes us as astonishing. Surely these immortals are infallible? Well, they aren’t, especially when they’re playing under great tension and every single move may spell the difference between success or failure. Take this game from the world championship match of 1892. (D)
Chigorin – Steinitz
White to move
It would be harder to find a more piquant contrast than between these two men: Wilhelm Steinitz, the world champion, an excitable, irascible midget of a man who tried to put chess on a scientific basis, and Mikhail Chigorin, a man of handsome, imposing presence with snapping black eyes and a magnetic personality which was thoroughly revealed in his chess. For Chigorin was an artist to his finger tips, always seeking the creative and the beautiful.
Both of these masters played with such concentration that by a strange paradox they blundered fairly frequently. In pursuing a train of thought they sometimes overlooked the obvious.
Here’s the situation in the diagram. Steinitz leads by 9-8. If he wins this game he retains the title in this match. If Chigorin, the challenger wins, he ties the match. Having adopted the King’s Gambit to obtain lively complications, he has forced the pace and is now a piece ahead. An easy win, you say? Well, not so easy, Black threatens ...R×d5 attacking White’s bishop and knight and thus regaining the piece.
But there is an easy win thanks to a neat little finesse that ought to be duck soup for a great master of attack like Chigorin.
1.R×b7! R×d5 2.Nf4! ... (D)
Forking both rooks and thus winning the Exchange and coming out a rook ahead. What could be simpler? Unfortunately poor Chigorin, worn out by the struggle and overmastered by excitement, plays...
1.Bb4?? ...
Analysis after 2.Nf4
After 1.Bb4
1...R×h2+ 2.Kg1 Rdg2 mate!
It seems unbelievable. The challenger in a world championship match has overlooked a simple two-move mate!
Some thirty years later a very similar blunder occurred in the 1921 world championship match between Dr. Lasker, the “grand old man” of chess, and José Capablanca, the “chess machine.”
And this blunder too is humanly understandable. For though Lasker had held the world title for 27 years, he approached this match in an uneasy frame of mind – as well he might against such a formidable opponent.
I stress this point because one of the most dependable rules of thumb in chess is that all negative emotions – anger, fear, irritation, despondency – are highly conducive to blunders. Every chessplayer can verify the truth of this observation from his own experience.
In the first four games of the match both players proceeded cautiously, with a draw resulting each time. In the fifth game, however, the nervous tension exploded. In a critical struggle right in the opening, Capablanca forced the pace, and Lasker defended with his famous resourcefulness, giving up the Exchange for a pawn. After a lively battle the following position was reached. (D)
Capablanca – Lasker
Black to move
The best move, according to the experts was 1...Kf6!. In that case, with a pawn for the Exchange, Black could put up a long struggle. Whether White could win at all would be a very moot point, given the very considerable reduction of forces and the black queen’s checking powers.
Instead, what happened? The world champion – the great Lasker – plays the one move that must not be played.
1...Kf8? 2.Qb8+! Resigns (D)
Why this sudden decision?
If 2...Kg7 3.Qh8+ wins Black’s queen. Or if 2...Ke7 3.Qe5+ Q×e5 4.R×e5+ winning the knight and remaining a rook ahead. To think that a world champion could overlook such an obvious continuation in a battle for his title!
Probably the most extraordinary world championship gaffe occurred in 1937. It is worth dwelling a bit on the personal background of the match. In 1935 Alekhine, then in his middle forties, had to defend his title against Dr. Max Euwe, a young Dutch mathematics teacher.
Alekhine, grown cocky and flabby with the years, was still a magnificent fighter. Euwe, less brilliant but more methodical and a player of fabulous staying power, was as they say, a foeman worthy of his steel.
At the outset of the match Alekhine took a runaway lead, but Euwe, with the proverbial stubborn courage of his countrymen, gradually whittled down Alekhine’s lead and eventually won the match and the world title. Two years later they played a return match. Far from being chastened by harsh experience, Alekhine relied more than ever on dazzling tactical tricks. His fearsome barrage led to a shattering experience for Euwe in the sixth game of the match, which started like this:
Alekhine – Euwe Queen’s Gambit Declined
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d×c4 4.e4!? ... (D)
This will lead to complicated play – and well does Alekhine know it.
4...e5!
Enterprising counterplay: if now 5.d×e4 Q×d1+ 6.K×d1 Be6 with a splendid position for Black.
5.B×c4 e×d4 6.Nf3?! ... (D)
Here is an unprecedented situaion! On the sixth move of world championship game White offers a piece for a highly speculative attack.
Euwe is non-plussed. To take or not to take, that is the question. Has Alekhine prepared this variation in advance in all its details? Does he have it all figured out? Is the game hopelessly lost for Black?
Or – is it played on the spur of the moment? Is it a feint, a gamble to upset Black? Is there a way out? Is there more than one way out? If so, what is Black’s best course?
Euwe studies and studies. The minutes tick away on his clock as he pores over a maze of variations. He sees that if he plays 6...d×c3 there follows 7.B×f7+ forcing 7...Ke7. The comes 8.Qb3 as the only way for White to continue the attack. (D)
Analysis after 8.Qb3
Now here is where Euwe goes wrong, grievously wrong in his calculations. He thinks only of saving the attacked piece by 8...Nf6 – remember, these moves are still in his mind – and finds that this leads to inordinately complicated play in which his king is in great danger.
The way he should have reasoned is this: “Alekhine may or may not have foreseen this line of play. But the fact remains that the whole variation is highly complicated and dangerous.
“The defenders job is always more difficult than the attacker’s. Therefore, my proper course is to find a good, straightforward way to reply, giving back the sacrificed piece if I can – as long as I get rid of this shattering defensive burden.”
Here are the moves that solve the problem – directly and simply:
6...d×c3! 7.B×f7+ Ke7 8.Qb3 c×b2!
A good interpolation, as it takes the attacked bishop off his best diagonal and also has a purpose which will immediately become clear.
9.B×b2 Qb6!! (D)
Analysis: after 9...Qb6
What? Offer the exchange of queens at the very moment when White is threatening to win back the piece?
10.B×g8 R×g8!! (D)
The simplifying point.
11.Q×g8 Q×b2 (D)
Analysis after 11...Q×b2
Black stands well. His king is fairly safe because of the previous exchanges. With two bishops for a rook he is ahead in material.
This is what Euwe should have done – but didn’t. Bewildered by all the possibilities he played what is perhaps the feeblest move on the board:
6...b5?? (D)
He thinks this forces the bishop back while still keeping White’s knight under attack. But he has overlooked White’s masterly reply:
7.N×b5!! ... (D)
Now Euwe realizes to his chagrin and embarrassment, that 7...c×b5 won’t do because of 8.Bd5! winning his a8-rook!
Thus, through his preoccupation with a wealth of confusing detail, Black has overlooked a simple tactical resource. His position is shattered and he subsequently lost in only 22 moves.
But Euwe’s hard luck didn’t end there. He was so crushed by his quick defeat that he went to pieces and lost game after game. And so his loss of the match and the world title may be attributed to this oversight. What made it all the deadlier – as he later frankly admitted – was that he had no inkling of the possibility of 7.N×b5!!.
Reciprocal Blunders
Probably the notion that the masters can blunder comes as a surprise to you. But you’re in for an even bigger surprise: there are times when a master’s blunder is answered by another blunder!
There’s a famous old game which is a perfect case in point. It was played in a match between Schiffers and Chigorin – the “hero” of the frightful blunder which occurred on page 83 (Chigorin-Steinitz).
How to Play Chess like a Champion Page 8
