Tuesday 28 August 2007

Hacking the Slav

The Russia v China match is taking place as I post this, and I have been receiving updates courtesy of Chess Today. In yesterdays issue they featured the following game, where Evgeny Alekseev cleaned up Zhang Pengxiang in 17 moves.

Alekseev,E (2689) - Zhang Pengxiang (2649) [D25]
IV RUS-CHN Match Nizhniy Novgorod RUS (6), 26.08.2007

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 Be6 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Ng5 Qc8 7.a4 a5 8.e4 h6 9.Nxe6 Qxe6 10.e5 Nbd7 11.Be2 Nd5 12.0-0 N7b6 13.Bg4 Qg6 14.e6 Nf6 15.Bh3 Qd3 16.Qe1 0-0-0 17.Qe5 1-0

The key manoeuvre was 14.e6! which reminded me of a game where I hacked into a Slav, with similar results. It was played at a time when I gauged the success of a tournament by the number of pieces I sacrificed, rather than the score I ended up on.

Press,S - OBrien,R [D15]
ACT-ch Canberra, 1993

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.Be2 Bg4 8.Ne4 Nd7 9.Nfg5 Bxe2 10.Qxe2 h6 (D)
11.e6 hxg5 12.exf7+ Kxf7 13.Nxg5+ Ke8 14.Qe6 Qb6 15.Qf7+ Kd8 16.Ne6+ Kc8 17.Qe8+ Kb7 18.Qxd7+ Ka6 19.Nc5+ Ka5 20.Bd2+ b4 21.a3 Kb5 22.axb4 Nxb4 23.Bxb4 Kxb4 24.Ra4+ Kb5 25.Ra6 Qxa6 26.Nxa6 Kxa6 27.Qxc6+ Ka5 28.Qxa8 1-0

2 comments:

TrueFiendish said...

I remember watching this game as you guys played it. Does Rory still play?

Shaun Press said...

Rory moved to Sydney after finishing his Law degree, and apart from the odd appearance in the Sydney Barristers V Solicitors chess match, is in retirement.