Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Short Stories from the Nineteenth Century

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin – Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov
4th Gashimov Memorial; Şəmkir, April 25, 2017
Caro-Kann B12

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. dxc5 e6 5. a3 Bxc5 6. Nf3 Ne7 7. Bd3 Ng6 8. 0-0 Nc6 9. b4 Bb6 10. Bb2 Nf4 11. c4 Nxd3 12. Qxd3 dxc4 13. Qxc4 Ne7!? For 13. ... 0-0 14. Nc3 Ne7 see Istratescu – Grachev, 15th Hilton Chess Festival, Basel 2013. 14. Nc3 Bd7 15. Qg4 Bc6. Black’s strategy of not castling will turn out to be disastrous. 16. Rad1 Qc7 17. Ng5! Qxe5? This cannot be good, but I think by now Topalov no longer liked his game. 18. b5 h5 19. Qh4 Bxb5 20. Rfe1 Qf5 21. Nxb5 Qxb5. As Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine said, it takes two persons to create a chess artwork. 22. Bxg7 Nf5


23. Nxe6!! In Morphy’s style. 23. ... fxe6. Not 23. ... Nxh4?? 24. Nc7 mate. 24. Rxe6+ Kf7 25. Qf6+ Kg8 26. Bxh8 Bxf2+ 27. Kh1 Qa4 28. Red6 Rf8 29. Qg6+ Kxh8 30. Rd7 1 : 0. No one, seeing the final position, would ever suspect that Black did not castle!

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