A remarkable position {2}: Kavalek - Huebner (1979)

While reading an old tournament book about the prestigious Montreal 1979 tournament, I came across an incredible sacrifice by L. Kavalek against R. Hubner: Kavalek sacrifies a whole rook on move 15 for some initiative...This sacrifice just looks crazy, a cheap blitz swindle and yet, as we will see below, this is far from clear (courtesy of our silicon friend Stockfish)


A few takeaways:

• When attacking, 
• Always try to involve all your pieces (cf. 21.Re1!!)
• Try not to exchange your attacking pieces unless there is a clear gain in sight (True that 21.Nxh8+ grabs the exchange but White still remains a piece down with a dying initiative)
• Even if the attack is not going your way, keep trying to find resources and counter chances; even after Nxh8+, Kavalek probably misses a draw at some point in the game (28. Ba5!? instead of 28.Qf3)  
• When defending,
• Sit tight and calculate variations!
• Don't be afraid to make "ugly" moves (24...Qh7; 28...Qh8) as long as they are backed up by your calculations
• Be patient and your time will come! (30...Qxc4+)

We have to credit L. Kavalek for his inventiveness and courage to play such a bold move, what a pity that he was not able to follow up with the right idea!

A remarkable position {1}: Anderssen - Zukertort

A recent post from the excellent Hufftington Chess blog caught my attention. It talks about the quite amazing story of a training game between Adolf Anderssen (famous for the "Immortal Game") and his pupil (!) Johannes Zukertort (who will eventually become one of the strongest player of the 19th century).

I encourage you to read the whole article for the background story (which demonstrate, one more time, Alekhine's amazing blindfold skills).

After reading the whole thing and with the help of my silicon friends, Hiarcs, StockFish and Komodo, I decided to take a crack at the intriguing starting position: I felt that the attack could be improved somewhere...and I was right!

Minor pieces in action!

The analysis below shows how agile can be minor pieces when it comes to attacking the King: here is one more example...enjoy!

Feel free to comment, praise or demolish the analysis and share yours!