COTM62 - Final Spoiler

[Paul#42]

Anybody got a link for that game in any chess base or the turn log?

 

[I. Larkin]

Anybody got a link for that game in any chess base or the turn log?

Here it is: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032529,

I wonder what if 24 ... N g4 instead of N:f4?

 

[Paul#42]

Great, thanks.

Wild game, I'll have to take a closer look...

 

[templar_x]

ILarkin, i had a look at the game, that´s really awesome. but you sure you got the right turn for that alternative move you mentioned?

templar_x

 

[Lanzelot]

I wonder what if 24 ... N g4 instead of N:f4?

You mean on move 25? I ran Fritz for a couple of hours, and he decided it doesn't matter:
25... Ng4 +1.41
25... N:f4 +1.47

In both cases White keeps his three winning advantages:

1. the extra pawn on h4
2. the strong bishop pair in an open position
3. the white king is quite save at f1/g1, while the black king is going to "breath some fresh air" for a long time to come...

The Nf4 is too strong (attack on d5), so sooner or later black will have to exchange it. And I think a black N on g4 is not doing anything. It's much better placed on e5 (covers c4. Remember that in the original game Tal won as soon as his B appeared on c4...)
A plausible line would be:
25... Ng4 26. R:e8 R:e8+ 27. Be2 N:f4 28. R:f4 Kc7
(28... Bb5 can be met by 29. c4 Ba6 30. Kf1 and now the Ng4 is "hanging". If 30... Nf6, we just take 31 R:f5, and if 30... Ne5 31. c:d5, in both cases black looses a second pawn)
29. Kf1 Ne5 30. Ba6 and the black king gets under "crossfire". (White can pin the N later via Bf4 and then advance c3-c4.) And even if black survives the attack by exchanging queens and a couple of pieces, he will loose the endgame because of the strong pawn h4.
The game was lost much earlier. Salo Flohr said 22... b6 was the decisive mistake. Botvinnik should have played 22... Bc6. (The B has to go there later anyway, so b6 just looses time and destroys the pawn cover for the king: even if the black king gets to b7/a8, white finds an easy attack target now via a3-a4-a5.)

BTW: I looked up "Ivan Larkin" in the ELO list, but it doesn't appear. Did you play actively? I played a couple of tournaments between 1989 - 2002 and reached 2200 during that time, but stopped playing since then.

But back to topic: tao, I noticed you also went for Conquest, and I was very lucky that you reached it 3 turns later. Usually you play stronger than me. Can you supply a few notes of what went wrong in your game? I never expected to ever be able of winning a Conquest award, because usually all the "big guns" go for Conquest/Domination and I have no chance to compete on that level... This might have been my "once in a lifetime chance". Thanks for letting it hapen...!

Cheers, Lanzelot