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(Diagram 1)BLACK(Diagram 2)BLACKWHITEWHITEWhite moves(D agram 4)* BLACK SPASSKY(Diagram 3)BLACKKARPOVSMYSLOVWHITEcalvoWHITEWhite loses materialence?structThe overwhelming preoccupationof all chess strategy is crassly materialistic: separate the opponentfrom his pieces! But winning material usually is only a final moment ina long arduous struggle. Often, infact, the win of material becomes an-ticlimactic.Nevertheless the final harvest almost always is a distinctly pleasurable event. For it is the culmination and reward for one s work. And an esthetic denouement furnishes an extra bonus.High-ranking among the esthetical-ly preferable wins are those in which the opponent is forced willy-nilly to seal his own doom. When the defensive effort only tightens the snare, when the defender's pieces only interfere with each other, the resulting irony seems to heighten the esthetic appeal.Sometimes the end may come simply and unexpectedly abruptly, as inthe position given in the first diagram. Black's position isDiagram 1rather strung out. His knight is protected only from afar by his queen.and he can barely meet white’s Q-K8 check with R-Ql. In fact it seemsthat 1. P-Q4 would win immediately for white, if his own knight weren't “on the loose.”Diagram 2But look again (see Diagram 2). An immediate 1. P-Q4 does win, since black’s defensive resource, 1. . .QxN, interferes with the defensive inter-position of the rook. After 1. P-Q4, PxN; 2. Q-K8 check, thequeen is lost. An unusual self-pin.Our third position borders on thefantastic. In a chaplinesquemanDiagrammimicry of maneuvering, Karpov's opponent seems to have been hypnotized into playing “upside down chess. Though Calvo apparently was trying to defend his position, the congestion in the white king's corner would seem to be the result of a deliberate spoof by the white player. It is Calvo’s move, but there is no defense to 1. . BxN.Our last position shows a clever entrapment by Spassky. Former world champion Smyslov has no adequate defense for his knight at KR5.The natural retreat 1. N-N3 onlvwblocks the white bishop at R4 which must defend KB2. Black then would play (if 1. N-N3) 1. . .N-Q2! Thisbeautiful “echo move lt;knightblocks bishop, knight unblocks bishop) would force a breakthrough at KB7. Smyslov chose instead to play 1. Q-N5. but after 1. . .QxQ; 2. BxQ,B-N5, he lost the exchange.Copyright 1074 by Shebly Lyman Address your questions in care of this column to Paddock Publications, P. O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, III.,
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Buffalo Grove Herald
Buffalo Grove, Illinois, US
Fri, Sep 06, 1974
Page 20
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