En Passant Summer 2009 | Page 3

My friend Fritz (or Rybka, or...) – Part 1 David LeMoir There was a lot of fuss surrounding Garry Kasparov’s use of computers in the analysis for his “On My Great Predecessors” series of books. (Incidentally, I can unreservedly recommend them for historical interest and wonderful content.) Some people feel cheated if a writer uses electronic assistance in his analytical work. I will not attempt to answer for Kasparov - I will simply state that I could not do without it. I hope that my readers are entertained and instructed by my books, but I am happy knowing that no-one can easily pull apart the analysis contained in them. In the preparation of my books, I have made several exciting discoveries that, if ‘my’ analysis is correct, should alter our perception of some well known games. The first example is from Essential Chess Sacrifices, and is the famous Greek Gift game Colle-O’Hanlon, which featured in Vukovic’s The Art of Attack. (I have an early English Descriptive Notation edition.) Vukovic claimed that O’Hanlon could have refuted the sacrifice, a claim that Baburin correctly disproved in Mega Database 2001. Baburin agreed with Vukovic’s assessment that O’Hanlon could have forced a draw in another line, but both missed a clear win for White. Colle has just played a Greek Gift (Bxh7+) sacrifice and followed up with a knight check on g5. After the game continuation, 13...Kg6 14 h4! (threatening 15 h5+ Kf6 16 Qf3+) O’Hanlon played 14...Rh8? and lost quickly after 15 Rxe6+!. Vukovic claimed a win for Black by 14...f5 15 h5+ Kf6 16 Qxd4+ Be5 17 Rxe5 Nxe5 18 Nh7+ Kf7 19 Ng5+ Kg8 20 Qxe5 Qd1+, but Baburin pointed out 17 Qh4! (instead of 17 Rxe5) 17...g6 18 f4! and a bishop move loses the queen to 19 Nxe6+. Here 17...Qa5 protects the bishop and pulls the queen out of danger, but it loses to 18 b4! Qd5 19 Bb2!, when the threat of 20 c4 wins the bishop. Instead of emerging via g6, the black king had the option of retreating to g8, and after 13...Kg8 14 Qh5 Ne5 15 Rxe5 Bxe5 16 Qxf7+ Kh8 17 Qh5+ Kg8 both commentators assumed that White has to settle for a perpetual check, missing the immediately decisive 18 b3!, which I found with the help of Fritz. White threatens 19 Qh7+ Kf8 20 Ba3+, and 18... Bd6 loses to 19 Qh7+ Kf8 20 Qh8+ Ke7 21 Qxg7mate. Part of the excitement at finding such an improvement is that it fits the logic of the position. When the king is short of breathing space, it often requires just one more piece to join the attack to make the defence crack. White left his dark-squared bishop at home in order to play a very early Greek Gift sacrifice. That bishop delivers a coup-de-grace by joining the attack in a way which would have been impossible from any other square but c1. Another exciting point is that Baburin’s 3