Earlier this week, I wrote a post on the Ruy Lopez Breyer games that Anand and Carlsen have been playing recently. So, when Mamedyarov uncorked a lovely novel idea against shirov yesterday at the Tal Memorial in Moscow, I had to post it here. In the game, the new idea involves the pawn sacrifice 17…b4! This breaks up white’s queenside pawns, and black will get excellent play with his queenside rook along the open file and 4th rank. The rook swings into action and crosses along the fourth rank all the way to the kingside of the board, where it harasses white’s king for the rest of the game. A lucid and fascinating concept from the Azerbaijani – comments by chessvibes-
Comments by Chess Vibes
2 Responses to “Novel Idea in the Ruy Lopez, Breyer Shirov – Mamedyarov, Tal Memorial”
All 5 games in the 4th round ended in a draw today, with Nakamura/Kramnik ending in a perpetual after Naka missed a few chances to win with Ke2! instead of Kd1.
I was going to mention that actually. Nakamura also missed the tactical blow 31.Rxg7! It’s, surprising that a player of his strength wouldn’t see the continuation, though it’s possible that he placed more faith in Kramnik’s evaluation of the previous move than his own. Missed win aside, still a nice game from naka, getting kramnik on the ropes in the petrov is no easy task.