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06 June 2007

Not a Misprint

When I first saw the diagrammed position (in 'Petrosian's Legacy' by Petrosian, p.43), I thought it was a misprint. It wasn't indicated who was on move and I couldn't see how the position could arise by any logical sequence of moves.

Budapest 1950
Candidates Tournament
Keres, Paul

Kotov, Alexander
(After ?)
[FEN "r2q1rk1/p1p2p2/bp2p1np/n2pP1p1/2PP3B/P1P2P1N/2Q3PP/RB2K2R w KQ - 0 16"]

In fact, the position is a good exercise in retrograde analysis. White is on move and the previous moves were 14...g7-g5 15.Qa4-c2 Ne7-g6. Now Kotov played the surprising 16.Nf4! and won on the 33rd move. To play through the complete game see...

Alexander Kotov vs Paul Keres, Budapest ct 1950
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1072299

...on Chessgames.com.

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1 comment:

  1. Robert Pearson08 June, 2007 00:56

    16. Nf4--what a move, and what a game! Thanks for noting it,as I've never seen it before; I've played over quite a few of Keres' games from his Grandmaster of Chess but obviously this wasn't included there.

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