Santasiere - Adams
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Chernev writes:
"It is poetic justice that Santasiere won a brilliancy prize with the Queen's Pawn,
an opening he thoroughly despises!"
[See the book,
{The} "1000 Best Short Games of Chess,"
by Irving Chernev.
Game # 635, pg.'s # 322-323.].
A
very pretty game by Santasiere, perhaps his all-time best.
(Any game that wins a brilliancy prize must be pretty.)
1. d4
d5; 2.
e3
e6; 3.
Bd3
Nf6; 4.
Nd2
Bd6; 5.
f4!?, (Maybe - '!')
White is employing the "dreaded" Stonewall Attack.
This formation has both pluses and minuses. White gains space, makes it almost impossible for Black to break ...e6-e5; and secures a wonderful outpost on e5. The drawback is that the move is kind of clunky, makes Whites QB kind of bad, and gives Black a nice outpost on e4.
[The more normal move was:
5.Ngf3
Nbd7; 6.0-0
c5;
7.c3
0-0; etc. ].
5...Nc6!?; (Maybe - '?!')
Conventional wisdom in chess is that you should
not block your QBP in double-QP openings.
(The P/@c7 to c5 lever should be
enabled as soon as possible.)
[
The best for Black was: 5...c5!;
("=") ] .
6. c3
Ne7!?; 7.
Nh3!, Keeping the f-file clear.
[
White could have also tried: 7.Qf3!?;
or 7.Ngf3!? ].
7...0-0; 8.
0-0
Bd7!?; This move is a little passive.
(Maybe too much so.)
[
Black should play: 8...Nf5!?; (!);
or 8...c5!?; {Unclear.} ].
9. e4, (!) A
nice pawn break, activating all of White's pieces.
9...dxe4; 10.
Nxe4
Ng6; 11.
Nxf6+
gxf6?!; (Possibly - '?')
This move
breaks up the King-side pawn cover.
(This is not a wise decision.)
[ 11...Qxf6[]; 12.Be4, ("+/=") When White is at least a little better.) ].
12. f5!
exf5; 13.
Bxf5
Bxf5; 14.
Rxf5, ("+/") White is clearly much better
here.
14...Kh8?!; (Maybe - '?') Probably an inferior defense.
This might be the losing move, although it IS a normal reaction
to hide the King in the corner.
[It looks like that the move 14...Re8;
was forced.
Then White should probably play: 15.Bh6,
("+/=") (Maybe - "+/") ].
15. Qh5
Rg8?!; Loses brilliantly.
But is also a VERY natural reaction to want to use the g-file.
[
Probably forced was: 15...Qe7; 16.Bh6,
when White was probably winning. ("+/-")
{White will follow up with Raf1.} ].
Now comes a move that was a complete surprise to virtually every on-looker. (This included more than one Master!) (The move may be a double-exclam.)
16. Qxh7+!, An incredibly beautiful and tactically alert move.
[ White could have played: 16. Nf2!? Re8; 17. Bh6, ("+/-") when White wins easily. ].
16...Kxh7; 17. Rh5+ Kg7; 18. Bh6+ Kh7; 19. Bf8#. An incredible mate. 1-0
I will say the game is beautiful and contains a perhaps an original mating pattern/combination.
(The game is only marred by the fact that Black played the opening less than
correctly.
In fact his defense was almost non-existant!)
1 - 0
(I
went over this game for the first time many years ago, I really do not remember
when.
Then in the summer of 1999, I began the project of transferring all of the games
in Chernev's book to my
computer's hard drive. I thought about annotating that game then, but at that
point my html skills really were
not sufficient to accomplish this adequately, in the manner that I thought it
should be done.)
This game is the full
length version of the game as it exists in my database.
(I have not shortened it for publication.)
If you would like a copy of that game to study, please contact
me.
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Copyright A.J. Goldsby I. © A.J. Goldsby, 1999 - 2004.
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2005. All rights
reserved.