Chess Puzzle #12279

CHESS PUZZLE, FEN 8/pp4pk/4Qb1p/3p4/2qP4/K7/P2R2PP/3R4 b - -

Added by:	9422m
Added on:	02-Jul-09
Description:
Difficulty:	chess puzzle 8/pp4pk/4Qb1p/3p4/2qP4/K7/P2R2PP/3R4 b - -
Attempts:	1514
Solved:	1140 (75%)


Black to move, mate in 5

Comments: (6) » Last

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phonybenoni
27-Oct-15, 05:29

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It's not enough to look at the finish. If you have never seen this game, you must play through the whole thing. Astounding.

[Event "St. Petersburg 1895/96"]
[Site "St. Petersburg RUS"]
[Date "1896.01.04"]
[EventDate "1895.12.13"]
[Round "10"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Harry Nelson Pillsbury"]
[Black "Emanuel Lasker"]
[ECO "D50"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "60"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c5 5. Bg5 cxd4 6. Qxd4 Nc6
7. Qh4 Be7 8. O-O-O Qa5 9. e3 Bd7 10. Kb1 h6 11. cxd5 exd5
12. Nd4 O-O 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Qh5 Nxd4 15. exd4 Be6 16. f4
Rac8 17. f5 Rxc3 18. fxe6 Ra3 19. exf7+ Rxf7 20. bxa3 Qb6+
21. Bb5 Qxb5+ 22. Ka1 Rc7 23. Rd2 Rc4 24. Rhd1 Rc3 25. Qf5 Qc4
26. Kb2 Rxa3 27. Qe6+ Kh7 28. Kxa3 Qc3+ 29. Ka4 b5+ 30. Kxb5
Qc4+ 0-1

As a fussy point, the game was actually played in January of 1896, The tournament began in 1895.

shsiii
27-Oct-15, 09:57

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great game from St. Petersburg

chesscode
27-Oct-15, 10:53

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lucky Lasker

With the loosing move 26.Kb2 ?? of Pillsbury instead of the winning move 26.Kb1 !! it was an easy win for Lasker

By thinking about Dr.E.Lasker most people are thinking about chess. Much more interesting is his MAINwork :
"Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar" , Leipzig , Verlag von Veit & Comp. , 1919 , 626 pages
and also his discussions with A.Einstein ( for example about the speed of light )
kindly regards to all here
Lutz

morphman
27-Oct-15, 19:12

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game

Fascinating game for sure, and 26. Kb2 was definitely a mistake, but 26. Kb1 is still very drawish, in spite of White's material advantage. With perfect play, perhaps Pillsbury could have managed a win, but based on the game as a whole, perfect play should not be expected from either player. For example, 24. ... Rc3?, while 24. ... Qc6! would have clinched the win for Lasker. Also, the sequence 17 ... Rxc3!?, 18. fxe6 Ra3!? was brilliant but flawed, and only succeeded because of white's blunder 19. exf7? White should have taken the rook on a3 and had drawing chances. But Lasker tries to throw away the win with 22. ... Rc7?. 22. ... Qc4! (threatening Bxd4+) wins.

But for OTB play without the benefit of computer analysis this was, as phonybenoni said it, "astounding".

mbomb007
27-Oct-15, 19:45

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First thing I tried, and saw every move right away. 1 star.

jayelthefirst
14-Mar-22, 07:00

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Amazing Game

Thank you phonybenoni! Mating from the position in the diagram is easy, especially when you're told to do it in 5, but how the players got there is fascinating. I know masters deliberately unbalance positions to seek advantage (that 6th game in the recent world championship stays in my mind) and I wish I had the skill to know when to do it. It's not that my games don't become unbalanced though
Thanks also to morphman for the analysis.

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