South Hams Chess Club Database of Games

30 October 2016, 11:11 am	Phil McConnell
Very well played, Ken - a high class of chess. The game obviously turned on your rook sacrifice at move 23 - you correctly judged (a) that Black would take it and (b) that this would leave you with a winning attack on Black's king. What were Black's alternatives to taking the rook? 23. ... fxg6 would have been fatal. There were, however, a couple of options for Black which arguably made the rook sacrifice unsound: 23. ... fxe6 is a strong move, giving Black an advantage (according to Shredder) of 0.6 23. ... Qe3+ 24. Kb1 fxe6 gives Black at least equality. Still, you were playing a human being, not a computer, and against most players the rook sacrifice works.

Submitter's comments:

29 October 2016 4:39 pm

Ken Ashby

Very well played, Ken - a high class of chess. The game obviously turned on your rook sacrifice at move 23 - you correctly judged (a) that Black would take it and (b) that this would leave you with a winning attack on Black's king. What were Black's alternatives to taking the rook? 23. ... fxg6 would have been fatal. There were, however, a couple of options for Black which arguably made the rook sacrifice unsound: 23. ... fxe6 is a strong move, giving Black an advantage (according to Shredder) of 0.6 23. ... Qe3+ 24. Kb1 fxe6 gives Black at least equality. Still, you were playing a human being, not a computer, and against most players the rook sacrifice works.

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