Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Guess the next move


From a 1972 international tournament. The last move played before the diagram position was 28....Nc7-e8. What was the next move played?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wild guess based on nothing but two seconds thought...

Rc1

Tom Chivers said...

d5xc6 e.p.?

ejh said...

No and eh? respectively.

(The "eh?" is also a "no".)

Tom Chivers said...

I figured it might be something a bit wacky...

ejh said...

Now would I do something like that?

Anonymous said...

I have no idea. I can't see a sac for a breakthrough; f4 for White doesn't, so far as I can see, achieve anything; and, I can't see anything strategic (for example, repositioning the White-squared bishop to h3 doesn't seem to do anything).

Does White have something which is winning?... Or does he have to be concerned about ...f6? In default, I'd play Rhg2.

Angus.

dfan said...

I remember a story about a player making two moves in a row (taking a break, coming back, and assuming his opponent had moved because it's a closed position with nothing much going on, and making another move), so I'm going to guess this is it.

ejh said...

Apologies to the last commentor but one, who correctly observed a error in the diagram but whose further observations would have obliged me to explain the answer in response - without anybody having got it yet!

So I removed their perfectly decent and indeed helpful posting.

And while I was doing so, and corecting the diagram.... up pops Dan with the right answer. So I couid have left it anyway.

Apologies again.

ejh said...

The game is Larsen - Gligoric, San Antonio 1972 and the move that the databases will show is not the move that was actually played on the board, for the reason that Dan gives.

For a full explanation you may have to wait until Friday as I'll not be able to get hold of the relvant book and the internet until then (there's a holiday tomorrow and I'm away).

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking R2g2 in anticipation of f6 or f5. If either, then gxf6 and black loses g6 too.

Having checked black's initiative, I would think about preparing to push f4, by perhaps moving Bc2 first.

Having exchanged on f4, white can double-up rooks on the e-file. Black's knight on e8 hinders Rae8, so an exchange on e5 is on the cards, leaving white with a passed pawn on d.

I can't see a Bxh5 sac working.

ejh said...

Right, where was I?

My source is How To Choose A Chess Move by Andrew Soltis (Batsford, 2005, pp. 68-9).

Soltis writes that Gligorc played the last move in a position where not much was going on and left the board:

He returned a short time later to find his opponent missing. He saw there was no meaningful change in the position and assumed White had played some innocuous pass but had forgotten to punch his clock. He didn't care which pass.

So Gligoric played 29....Raa7

which is the answer to the puzzle.

(Soltis adds by way of explanation:

Yes, Black made two moves in a row. He didn't realize his opponent had gone to the men's room without making a move.)

Anonymous said...

Bd1-c2 or Rg1-e1.

Before playing f3-f4,

the e4 pawn must be kept.