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Classy or not classy ?

Well, you know, sometimes you look at a game with friends, and you stop in front of a move. It's surprising, it's original, but it can't work, can it ? So you try to refute it, but you don't manage to. This is just a great move, a classy move...

Good players play this kind of moves. Do you think you can recognize the touches of class in the following game ? Bonus question : who do you think are the players involved ? Can you identify them ? (no database of course). Or if you can't, maybe you can guess in which era this game took place, or the nationality of one of the player, or his age ?!

Try to guess and understand as much as possible by yourself, or with friends. That's a tremendous learning experience. Tell me what are the classy moves you've spotted.

More detailed comments next week. Yours are of course welcome. The computer's aren't :-)

Comments


  • 13 months ago

    dnleary

    A really interesting game, and enlightening annotation. Thanks.

  • 13 months ago

    hicetnunc

    Well, well, time to tell the story Tongue out

    Believe it or not, this game was played by one of my team mates, Pierre Agrech, in a local town championship. Pierre is a 20 y.o. strong player, rated 2130 elo. As you can see, even a young fellow can play very nice positional chess. I was very impressed by this game, as I found his dominating play had a nice positional touch like in the games you see in the books.

    A 2130 player can play like a master from time to time Cool

    Here is the game with my comments and the highlights of "classy moves".

     

  • 14 months ago

    soothsayer8

    Yeah, I felt like this was an older game as well, perhaps even pre-Soviet chess prominence.

  • 14 months ago

    Petrosianic

    I'm guessing an older game, I don't think modern masters would have their King march away from the action.  Plus the time of resignation was late.

  • 14 months ago

    Britneyfan

    I would guess petrosian on the white side?

  • 14 months ago

    soothsayer8

    I don't think Botvinnik is involved, Reti might be a good guess.

  • 14 months ago

    hicetnunc

    Steve, I agree with you : 13.Nd1! is indeed a classy move, leaving black's exposed bishop in all sorts of trouble.

    Development is not that important in the position, as it's fairly closed : what is important is to put the pieces on the right squares.

  • 14 months ago

    RED_CHESS

    may be

  • 14 months ago

    OnionTerror

    I guess I'll be the first to open myself up to criticism by much stronger players than myself by giving my thoughts on classy moves. I've no idea who the players might be.

    13. Nd1 looks classy to me.  N@c3 doesn't look particularly active with the Black pawn on f5 pretty much ruling out any long term posting on e5.  The bishop on b4 is out of the game, and allowing an exchange on c3 would just help Black. Nd1 prevents the exchange and signals intent to target f5, ultimately forcing Black to weaken his kingside pawn structure by defending the pawn with g6 (in this game).

    I think that I would naturally be inclined to develop the c1 bishop at move 13 in this game.  This is almost instinctive, as I have a strong urge to maintain tempo advantage as White and activate my pieces. There isn't an obvious good square for it, but I would probably put it on d2. Here, Nd1 is part of a longer term plan, and it is worth delaying piece development to avoid the exchange on c3. This is why I see it as a classy move. Masters know when to break the "rules" of development.

    A common theme I've noticed in master level games is that the minor pieces regularly come back to the first rank early in the game, destined for better squares. I think that this feels unnatural to the majority of even fairly strong players. To me, this demonstrates the importance of having a plan and making moves consistent with it.  I've found GM Dzindzichasvili's video lessons very instructive in this regard, even though I'm sure he'd wince at most of my games...

  • 14 months ago

    cooldude_4

    WELL atleast tell us who is it?

  • 14 months ago

    SchachMatt

    My guess is Botvinnik as white

  • 14 months ago

    kostya117

    i'm not sure , but look like one of my games;)

  • 14 months ago

    infinex

    you look like kramnik

    Its part one in the several step plan on how to play like him

  • 14 months ago

    nepaliho

    [COMMENT DELETED]
  • 14 months ago

    hicetnunc

    No, it's not one of my games. But thank you for this flattering comparison (unless you thought I was on the black side, of course Wink)

  • 14 months ago

    rohit2rule

    possibly its one of ur games

  • 14 months ago

    tesasembiring

    It can be Botvinnik couse he like English game, let me guess it Botvinnik versus Tall, maybe i was wrong, but it is an awesome game,though.

  • 14 months ago

    MakeUBlink

    petrosian? capablanca? murphy? Many possibilities but a great game overall

  • 14 months ago

    metallictaste

    I think Richard Reti and Alexander Alekhine, Richard Reti white.

     

    but of course I'm wrong :P

     

    EDIT: Actually, its probably Richard Reti and Jose Capablanca, Reti white.

    I'm pretty sure that Richard Reti is white, its just black im having trouble guessing... probably Capablanca though.

  • 14 months ago

    Morph27

    May be - young Fischer or Capablanka ?!

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