Susan Polgar – Anatoly Karpov, 1994
White to move. Can you find the best continuation for White?
2r2nk1/pb2qpb1/1p2p1p1/3r3p/2NP1B2/2PB3P/P3QPP1/2R1R1K1 w – – 0 1
- About Us
- Chess Improvement
- Chess Puzzles
- Chess Research
- College Chess
- General News
- Home
- Major Tournaments
- News
- Polgar Events
- Privacy Policy
- Scholastic Chess
- SPICE / Webster
- Susan’s Personal Blog
- Track your order
- USA Chess
- Videos
- Women’s Chess
- Contact Us
- Daily News
- My Account
- Terms & Conditions
- Privacy Policy
Be4
My first thought is Be4. After the rook moves, then Bxb7. However black recaptures on b7, white has a fork with Nd6 that wins an exchange.
Be4 Rd7
Bxb7 Rxb7
Nd6
Given what happened at Linares in 1994:
The field at Linares 1994 was one of the strongest ever, and Kasparov prior to the event commented that the winner could call himself “world champion of tournament chess”. He were to regret having said that. Karpov smashed the world elite to bits and pieces with an amazing score of 11/13 (+9 =4 -0) and a record performance rating of 2985, after having won his first 6 games and left Kasparov and Shirov 2.5 points behind. This was arguably the greatest achievement in the history of tournament chess.
I think maybe White should maybe just resign here.
1. Be4 should win the exchange.
Any of black’s “safe” squares to move the rook to will result in
2. Bxb7
followed by black capturing back and white has a fork with
3. Nd6
A 4 player Chess variant- Please see:
http://www.judtho.com/index2.html
1.Be4 Rd8 or Rb5 2.Bxb7 Qxb7 3.Nd6 fork +-
1.Be4 looks good, maybe with winning the exchange
1….R5d8 2.Bxb7 Qxb7 3.Nd6
yes thats right to show some puzzles from your own games
your blog is nice
I guessed 1.Be4 as well, and in case of Rd7, then 2.Nd6, winning the exchange. (as other people suggested, first Bxb7 works equally well).
So it is probably best for black to play something like 1…Rcd8 to cover d6 and just let white capture on d5. At least black would still have a strong bishop.
On 1. Be4 a nice refutational line could be: 1…g5
2. BxR BxB
and Black is threatening to take both on c4 and on f4
“Given what happened at Linares in 1994: . . . “
Polgar’s victory over the great Karpov in Monaco is all the more impressive.