Fireworks in November
GM Sergei Rublevsky GM Imre Hera
This weeks' Shelby Lyman chess column featured the moves from a game between Russian GM, Sergei Rublevsky (2676), and the new Hungarian GM, Imre Hera (2544), played at the World Cup tournament in
(November-December 18).
The Rublevsky-Hera game reminded me of the famous Marshall-Burn "Pipe Game," in that the combination started with a surprise move and each successive move was just as spendid. Even the final move turned out to be a shocker.
Jonathan Speelman also mentioned the game in the (London) Independant:
Here the 2005 Russian Champion Sergei Rublevsky made short work of his Hungarian opponent.
After a complicated opening battle, Hera initiated hand to hand fighting with .14...Qd5 and 16...Qxa2 but had surely missed 17.d5!!. The idea was that if 17...exd5 18.Na4 traps the queen though Black could surely fight a bit after 18...b5 19.Ra1 Qxa1 20.Qxa1 bxa4 21.Qxa4 0-0. Instead he tried to brazen it out he got hit by 18.dxc6 and 19.Qd7+! and was blown away.
Sergei Rublevsky who was born in Kurgan, Russia in 1974, hovers near the superGM level and, in fact, has beaten many of them, such as Ponomariov, Karpov and Kasparov in individual games.
Imre Hera was just recently bestowed the GM title.