BtM 17A: All work is good work
March 1989, Position H
White to play
Tukmakov - Yurtayev, Armed Forces Team Championship Riga/Moscow 1988
Contributions to the comments box are welcome. I’ll reply with what the Masters have to say about their choice to anybody who suggests a move.
Scroll down to see some commentary from me and the Masters’ feedback.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
At some point in our preparation for the 1979 Riga Interzonal, Jim [Tarjan - JMGB] had an idea to prepare of Lev Polugaevsky and wanted to explore the labyrinth of the Polugaevsky Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf. The hope was that we might find a new idea, catch him there and steal away a whole point. Great idea! One day of mind-numbing analysis followed another followed another. The days turned into a week and into a second week. At long last! We had found something and were overjoyed.
"Okay, let’s see how we got here!" As we reconstructed the whole variation we discovered to our lament that we had simply stolen a tempo along the way. At some point in mid-week we had set up our analysis 'tabiya' position wrongly. Good grief. I was particularly crest fallen, and Jim tried to cheer me up by saying "Yasser, don’t worry. All work is good work. Even if it is wrong, it will help teach us what is right. All work is good work."
Chess Duels, Yasser Seirawan, Everyman Chess
Worth remembering that. When you set up the Beat the Masters position and spend half an hour or more thinking before checking your analysis and realising you picked the wrong side to move. Like I did here, for instance.
At least it was getting on for about 100 positions since I’d done it before (BtM 1).
I chose 1 … h4, by the way.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
POINTS
10: bxc6
9: Nb3
8: Nc2
7: Nxc6, f5, Qd2
3: e5
MASTERS
bxc6: K. Arkell, Pein
Nb3: Kosten, Levitt
Nc2: Norwood
Nf3: Horner
Nxc6: Suba
f5: Davies
Qd2: J. Littlewood
e5: Plaskett, Howell, Mephisto Almeira
SOURCE
1 e5 Tukmakov - Yurtayev, Armed Forces Team Championship Riga/Moscow 1988
I went for 1. bxc6 bxc6 2. e5, with the idea 2. ... dxe5 3. Nxc6 and 4. Nxe5, or 2. ... Nh7 3. Nxc6 Qc8 4. Qxd6 and I think White gets away with it, hitting the queen if it moves to a different square.
ReplyDeleteHi Adam,
DeleteAs the feedback article notes, there was a very wide spread of opinion from the panel for this position. 8 different moves chosen and all only getting 1 or 2 votes (with all due respect to the Mephisto Almeira."
Keith ARKELL is quoted:- "1 bxc6 ... After 1 ... bxc6, 2 e5 followed by Nxc6 Black will be forced to sacrifice something."
Anyway, another 10 points for you.
Incidentally, the game continuation was 20 e5 (? - according to the feedback article) dxe5, 21 fxe5 h4! "a terrible blow for White."
ReplyDeleteWhich I suppose goes a little way towards the argument that my analysis of the position from the wrong side wasn’t entirely a waste of time.