"I wonder if Taimanov knew the Herlin problem?" asks Martin too - and it's a good question.
It also demonstrates the kind of either/or questions I'd been asking before - either Intrigue or Improvement, either Beauty or Bulldozers, or comparing Herlin with Taimanov, we might say either Comedy or Competitiveness - were wrongly phrased. There is no contradiction, unless we force one upon ourselves.
(Incidentally, here is the whole game. Which in turn, made me think of something else again.)
1 comment:
Most unusual for Karpov to lose at all at the time, let alone with the White bits: after being declared champion his first loss as White was to Andersson in Milan in 1975. I can find only three others between that and the Taimanov game. At least one is from a simul and I suspect a second one (a Schliemann) may be too.
The Taimanov defeat may have shaken him though, as he lost his next White but one, to Beliavsky.
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