Excalibur electronic 404-2 - Manuel (Page 13)

for the attack. In fact, Korchnoi at
the time of this game was one of
the best in the world, and his forte
was defense. Many fine players
would attack him ingeniously, only
to break up on his rock-like fortifi-
cations. Still, World Champion
Karpov crushes him in only 27
moves with a mating attack! In a
classic manner against Black's
Sicilian Dragon defense (so
named probably because of the
"tail" of control Black's bishop
makes from g7 to a1), Karpov
plays the St. George attack,
castling queenside and prying
open the h-file to slay the dragon.
14. Boris Spassky vs. Tigran Petrosian,
Moscow, 1969
Spassky won the world champi-
onship from Petrosian in the match
that produced this game. In this
English Opening that becomes a
Queen's Gambit, you'll see that
once again White gets a strong
center and quick development of
his pieces. As early as 13. Rd1,
you can sense that Black is in dan-
ger. His king has no piece defend-
ers; his forces seem passive while
White's are aggressively coordi-
nated. As often happens in such
situations, White breaks through
with a pawn push in the center, in
this case 15. d4-d5! It clears the
board for White's more active
forces. Petrosian, one of the best
defenders of all time, tries repeat-
edly to trade queens, but White
wisely rebuffs these offers, which
would take much of the power off
the board. White's d-pawn
becomes a star, advancing all the
way to the 7th rank. Because of
this queening threat, White is able
to sacrifice his queen for one of
Black's defending rooks. In the final
position, it's hopeless for Black
because White will either promote
his pawn to a queen or capture
whatever Black uses to block on
d8.
15. Robert Fischer vs. Reuben Fine,
New York, 1963
Nine years before winning the
world championship, Bobby
Fischer played this Evan's Gambit
(a variation of the Giuoco Piano)
against his famous elder. Bobby
sacrifices two pawns in order to get
his pieces out quickly. Then he
plays 14. h2-h4!, sacrificing anoth-
er pawn to force the Black queen
away from the g7-square. After
that, Black's king will be stuck in
the center and in danger of the h4-
d8 diagonal. Bobby's final move,
17. Qg3!, forces Fine to resign,
because he must move his queen
from the critical black diagonal h4-
d8. Even on 17. … Qxg3, White
ignores the capture of his own
queen and plays 18. Bf6 mate!
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