Sunday 9 August 2009

The long march

The King March is a rare but enjoyable sight. It often involves tying your opponents position down so tightly that he is reduced to a helpless spectator as you king glides up the board to join in the fun. Possibly the most famous modern example of this is the Short-Timman game (Tilburg 1991), but IM Andras Toth has alerted me to a very recent example.
In the almost finished Artic Chess Challenge, young American IM Ray Robson sacrifices a piece to corral the white King and Rook into the corner. Then he marches his King all the way up the board to execute a nice checkmate.

Rasmussen,Allan Stig (2536) - Robson,Ray (2491)
Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 Scandic Hotel, Tromsø (6), 01.08.2009

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 c5 7.Bxb4 cxb4 8.Ne5 0-0 9.Nxc4 Nc6 10.e3 e5 11.d5 b5 12.dxc6 Qxd1+ 13.Kxd1 bxc4 14.a3 Bg4+ 15.Kc1 b3 16.Nc3 Rac8 17.h3 Be6 18.Rd1 Rfd8 19.f4 e4 20.g4 Nd5 21.Bxe4 Nxe3 22.Rxd8+ Rxd8 23.c7 Rd4 24.Bb7 h6 25.f5 Bd7 26.c8Q+ Bxc8 27.Bxc8 (D)
27. ... Kf8 28.Ba6 Rd6 29.Bb7 a5 30.Bf3 Ke7 31.a4 Rd4 32.Be2 Kf6 33.h4 Ke5 34.Rb1 Kf4 35.Nb5 Rd7 36.Nc3 Kg3 37.g5 hxg5 38.hxg5 Kf2 39.Bh5 Ke1 40.f6 gxf6 41.gxf6 Rd2 42.Ra1 Rc2+ 43.Kb1 Nf1 0-1

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