[Event "London Wch 16"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "1883.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Zukertort, Johannes Hermann"]
[Black "Blackburne, Joseph Henry"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A13"]
[WhiteElo "2600"]
[BlackElo "2570"]
[Annotator "Kasparov,G"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "1883.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]
[SourceTitle ""]
[Source ""]
[SourceDate ""]
[SourceVersion "2"]
[SourceVersionDate ""]
[SourceQuality ""]
{The Players Johann Zukertort (1842–88) was a Polish-born player, who for
many years was considered second only to Wilhelm Steinitz in the chess world.
In 1861 he enrolled in the faculty of medicine at Breslau University. Rather
than attending lectures, however, Zukertort spent most of his waking hours
playing chess, including many friendly games against Anderssen, and he was
finally struck from the university register due to non-attendance. Zukertort
gradually built up his reputation as a chess player, and this was enhanced
when a match of off-hand games ended in a 5–2 victory over Anderssen in 1871.
He arrived in London in 1872, and spent the rest of his life there as a
professional player. Many successes in tournaments and match-play followed,
including first place at the 1883 London Tournament, ahead of all the
world’s best, including Steinitz. His triumphs were rewarded with a battle
against Steinitz in New Orleans in 1886, which has been recognized as the
first official World Championship match. Steinitz won by the score of +10 =5
–5. Joseph Blackburne (1841–1924) was for many years the leading English
chess player, as well as being one of the world’s best. Inspired by Paul
Morphy’s brief but explosive accomplishments in Europe, the
eighteen-year-old from Manchester decided to learn the game. He proved to be
an excellent student. After spending much of the 1860s developing his game, he
made his breakthrough by winning the British Championship in 1868, and
following this he became a full-time professional player. Blackburne’s
excellent results were helped by his brilliant combinative powers, his ability
to create awesome kingside attacks, plus his knack of producing swindles from
seemingly lost positions. The tournament book of Vienna 1873 called him “der
schwarze Tod” (The Black Death), a nickname that has stuck ever since. The
Game A deceptively quiet opening and a strategic middlegame give us no warning
of the fireworks that eventually decide this battle. Blackburne starts off
well, but then makes a minor slip, which Zukertort immediately exploits. The
rest of the game is played to perfection by the Polish player, who builds up
impressively on the kingside. When the position finally opens up, Blackburne
appears to be fighting back strongly, but Zukertort’s concept turns out to
have hidden depth, and he wins by a spectacular combination. Look out in
particular for White’s sensational 28th move.} 1. c4 e6 2. e3 {Zukertort
plays the early part of the game in a very innocuous way indeed, allowing
Black to reach a comfortable position with no effort at all. Later on Richard
Réti was to develop a more potent, “hypermodern” method of development
against 1...e6, involving a fianchetto of the king’s bishop. At this
particular moment, however, the theory of flank openings had not really
developed at all.} Nf6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Be2 Bb7 5. O-O d5 6. d4 Bd6 7. Nc3 O-O 8.
b3 Nbd7 9. Bb2 Qe7 $6 {After some effective opening play, Black now starts to
drift. There are two basic pawn breaks for Black in this position, namely ...
c7-c5 and ...e6-e5. Both advances will lead to pawn exchanges and thus an
opening of the position. With 9...Qe7 Black connects his rooks and keeps his
options open on which advance to make, but forgets one vital factor, the
generalization that “in open positions bishops are better than knights”.
For this reason Black should take one move out to preserve his d6-bishop. Only
after 9...a6! can Black safely continue with such moves as ...Qe7, ...Rad8, ...
dxc4 and ...e5 (or ...c5). Needless to say, Zukertort is quick to seize his
chance.} 10. Nb5 $1 Ne4 11. Nxd6 cxd6 12. Nd2 Ndf6 13. f3 Nxd2 14. Qxd2 {
At the moment the position remains reasonably closed, but without being really
blocked up. In effect it has the potential to become open and it is this
situation which the bishops are waiting for.} dxc4 ({With this move,
Blackburne allows just one open file, but in doing so he accepts a lifeless
position. The advance} 14... e5 $5 {is more enterprising, and ensures more
counterplay.}) 15. Bxc4 d5 16. Bd3 Rfc8 17. Rae1 $1 {It is deep moves like
this which often separate good players from great players. Many players would
have been very tempted to oppose the only open file with 17. Rac1, but this
would have been an incorrect plan, leading only to a mass exchange of the
major pieces on the c-file. It’s true that White could still advance in the
centre later on, but with fewer pieces on the board, Black’s defensive task
would be greatly eased. As we shall see later on, the presence of white rooks
is an important factor in the success of the attack. This is not to say that
giving up the only open file is a business that should be taken lightly. Here,
however, White correctly assesses that Black’s occupation of the c-file is
not so important, especially as all the possible infiltration squares (i.e.
c1-c5) are covered more than adequately by White’s pieces and pawns. As a
further point it should be mentioned that this is definitely a case of the
“right rook”. The other rook is excellently placed on f1, where it will
support the eventual advance of the f-pawn.} Rc7 18. e4 Rac8 19. e5 Ne8 20. f4
g6 21. Re3 {We now begin to see for sure that Black’s counterplay along the
c-file is proving to be more apparent than real. Meanwhile, White’s attack
on the kingside builds up at his leisure behind the impressive pawn-centre.
The next stage of the plan will involve forcing the f4-f5 breakthrough with
moves such as g2-g4. Rather than waiting to be squashed without a contest,
with his next move Blackburne understandably tries to fight back. However, by
doing so he stumbles into a long forced line, ending in a brilliant win for
White.} f5 22. exf6 Nxf6 23. f5 $1 {(in the words of Steinitz, 'the start of a
remarkable conception of grandiose scale')} Ne4 {Black was pinning all his
hopes on this move.} (23... gxf5 24. Bxf5 Ne4 25. Bxe4 dxe4 {was
unsatisfactory in view of} 26. Rg3+ Kh8 27. d5+ e5 28. d6 {.}) 24. Bxe4 dxe4
25. fxg6 $1 {'This unexpected move, allowing Black to invade with his rook on
c2 and "win" a piece, was undoubtedly foreseen by Zukertort much earlier. The
essence of the remarkable combinative idea concealed in it is still far from
obvious.' (Romanovsky)} Rc2 ({'Despite its ruinous consequences, this is
perhaps the only chance.} 25... hxg6 26. Rg3 Qg7 27. d5 e5 28. Qg5 Re8 29. Rf6
{is hopeless for Black.' (Zukertort)}) 26. gxh7+ Kh8 27. d5+ e5 {Suddenly it
seems as if Black has dealt with the threats and White is left facing the loss
of a piece.} 28. Qb4 $3 {The point of White's idea is the diversion of the
enemy queen! An extraordinary idea against which there is no defence.} R8c5 ({
If} 28... Qxb4 {there would have followed} 29. Bxe5+ Kxh7 30. Rh3+ Kg6 31. Rg3+
Kh6 ({or} 31... Kh7 32. Rf7+) 32. Rf6+ Kh5 33. Rf5+ Kh6 34. Bf4+ Kh7 35. Rh5#)
({while if} 28... Qe8 29. Rf8+ $1 Qxf8 30. Bxe5+ Kxh7 31. Qxe4+ {.}) 29. Rf8+
$1 {'In conjunction with White's previous play, this forms one of the most
noble combinations conceived over the chessboard.' (Steinitz)} Kxh7 ({Or} 29...
Qxf8 30. Bxe5+ Kxh7 31. Qxe4+ {with a rapid mate.}) 30. Qxe4+ Kg7 31. Bxe5+
Kxf8 32. Bg7+ $1 Kg8 (32... Qxg7 33. Qe8# {.}) 33. Qxe7 {. Lessons from this
game: 1) Look out for sneaky knight moves. It’s very easy to overlook
annoying ones like Zukertort’s 10. Nb5, which secured the advantage of the
two bishops. 2) Open files should be studied carefully. Sometimes they are the
most important feature of the position. In this game, however, the open c-file
was virtually irrelevant. 3) A queen sacrifice, based on a forced checkmate in
seven moves, is a pleasing way to end the game!} 1-0
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