Monday 9 February 2015

Burning bridges

One thing I learnt very quickly when I started playing Chess Olympiads was never to 'burn your bridges'.  While the 'kitchen sink' attack might work at the club level, the further up the ladder you went, the harder it was to justify throwing away all your material on a hunch, especially if there were good alternatives to play.
While I could dig up so of my old games to show, a more recent example occurred at the Grenke Classic.  I'm not sure what Baramidze saw, but it turned out to be a mirage, as Naiditsch just took what was offered and hung on to it. To be fair the exchange sacrifice was only 'dubious', but giving up the knight was just a waste.


Baramidze,David (2594) - Naiditsch,Arkadij (2706)
GRENKE Chess Classic 2015 chess24.com (4), 06.02.2015



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