Zukertort - Blackburne, London 1883
Zukertort - Blackburne, London 1883 is considered to be one of the most fascinating and beautiful games in the history of chess . It drew the attention of generations of chess players through the deep playing system of its winner, Johannes Hermann Zukertort . Even the loser, the British Joseph Henry Blackburne , included them in the anthology of his best roles.
It was played on the occasion of the great international tournament in London in 1883 . Zukertort won the tournament with three points ahead of the world's best chess player applicable Wilhelm Steinitz . It was the greatest success of his career and led to his being challenged by Steinitz to a duel in 1886, which resulted in the first World Chess Championship .
History with annotations
- 1. c2-c4
Zukertort chooses the English opening against Blackburne from Britain .
- 1.… e7 – e6 2. e2 – e3 Ng8 – f6 3. Ng1 – f3 b7 – b6 4. Bf1 – e2
Zukertort strives for the Zukertort system of the queen pawn game , which he always operated in such a way that he placed the white-squared bishop on the e2 square. Nowadays the bishop is usually placed on d3. There are a number of reference games from the world's greatest expert on the Zukertort system, Grandmaster Artur Jussupow , who also analyzed the game in detail (see below at the sources).
- 4.… Bc8 – b7 5. 0–0 d7 – d5 6. d2 – d4
The queens pawn game has now been reached.
6.… Bf8 – d6 7. Nb1 – c3 0–0 8. b2 – b3 Nb8 – d7 9. Bc1 – b2
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Position after White's 9th move
- 9.… Qd8 – e7
A normal move at this point would have been 9.… c5. Blackburne moved the queen to e7 with the intention of swapping the bishop for the knight and thereby seizing the c-file. Grandmaster Zenón Franco Ocampos does not agree with Blackburne's election. He recommends 9.… Ne4 or 9.… a6. Zukertort himself expected 9.… c5.
- 10. Nc3-b5 Nf6-e4 11. Nb5xd6 c7xd6 12. Nf3-d2 Nd7-f6
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Position after Black's 12th move
Zukertort considers this to be the crucial loss of time that made the white attack possible.
- 13. f2-f3
Jussupow recommends the move 13. Nd2 – b1 !, which seems absurd for Zukertort and his contemporaries, in order to then drive away the black knight on e4 with f2 – f3, after which Nb1 comes back into play with excellent prospects. Franco is also enthusiastic about the proposed move and warmly recommends it in his analyzes.
- 13.… Ne4xd2 14. Qd1xd2 d5xc4 ?!
Franco recommends 14.… Bb7 – a6 !?
- 15. Be2xc4 d6-d5 16. Bc4-d3 Rf8-c8
“ When I made this move, it was my intention to give my knight on d7 the f8-square; I wasn't aware that it made a difference which rook you move to c8 first to get the c-file under control. "(Blackburne)
- 17. Ra1-e1
Steinitz particularly praised this move in his analyzes.
- 17.… Rc8 – c7 ?!
Franco thinks this move is a mistake and instead wants 17.… a5! play.
- 18. e3 – e4 Re8 – c8 19. e4 – e5 Nf6 – e8
Blackburne states that his original idea of playing 19.… Nf6 – d7 seems to him to be an afterthought for the correct game.
- 20. f3-f4 g7-g6
Zukertort thinks this move is too compulsory and recommends 20. f5 !; Blackburne and Franco join in.
- 21. Re1 – e3!
At this point, Zukertort already had the combination in mind, which was also possible in move 28. With his tower move he only enables the later fruit-bearing turns.
- 21.… f7 – f5
21.… Ne8 – g7, which would have been followed by 22. g2 – g4, would be slightly better.
- 22. e5xf6! ep
“ The beginning of a wonderful combination. "(Yusupov)
- 22.… Ne8xf6
Zukertort recommends striking back with the queen: 22.… Qe7xf6 23. Qd2 – e1 Ne8 – g7 24. g2 – g4, after which White would have all the time in the world to begin an irresistible attack.
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Position after Black's 22nd move
- 23. f4 – f5!
Steinitz described this move as "the beginning of a remarkable conception of grandiose proportions" and was extremely enthusiastic about it.
- 23.… Nf6 – e4 24. Bd3xe4 d5xe4
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Position after Black's 24th move
- 25. f5xg6! Rc7-c2
The audience in attendance had to believe that Zukertort had hired a character, but the Polish master thought well in advance. Blackburne's move is actually losing. What was necessary at this point was 25.… Bd5 and Black can still fight a little. (Blackburne)
- 26. g6xh7 + Kg8-h8
If 26.… Qe7xh7, then of course 27. Re3 – g3 + Kg8 – h8 28. d4 – d5 +; or if 26.… Kg8xh7, then 27. Re3 – h3 + Kh7 – g8 28. Qd2 – h6.
- 27. d4 – d5 + e6 – e5
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Position after Black's 27th move
- 28. Qd2 – b4!
An enthusiastic spectator, according to Blackburne he was not present, then described the situation among the assembled spectators as being electrically charged when this move was made. Grandmaster Franco Ocampos, who could not have been present (he was born in 1956), even gave two exclamation marks in his charge.
- 28.… Rc8 – c5
“I thought this was sufficient, but overlooked the following tower sacrifice. At this point I was walking around the tournament room and looking at the other games. Suddenly one of the players spoke to me: 'You caught the little man!' 'I'm not sure,' I answered him, 'it's incredibly difficult.' When I returned, Zukertort hadn't made his move, but it dawned on me that the tower sacrifice would be fatal, and the only question that remained was whether or not he would find it. But this doubt did not last long: when I looked at the other boards again, I suddenly heard a noise as if a person were hitting a piece on the board with all the intensity that the muscular strength of his body made available to him. Shortly afterwards I felt a tap on my shoulder: 'Your watch has started moving, I did my move.' he said, and from the look on his face and the way he posed all his weight, I sensed that I now had to feel like the playwright whose play just failed the audience. "(Blackburne) 28. ... Qe7xb4 led to mate: 29. Bb2xe5 + Kh8xh7 30. Re3 – h3 + Kh7 – g6 31. Rh3 – g3 + Kg6 – h6 (if 31.… Kg6 – h7 or 31.… Kg6 – h5, mate follows in three moves.) 32 Rf1 – f6 + Kh6 – h5 (32.… Kh6 – h7 33. Rf6 – f7 + Kh7 – h6 34. Be5 – f4 + Kh6 – h5 35. Rf7 – h7 #) 33. Rf6 – f5 + Kh5 – h6 34. Be5 – f4 + Kh6-h7 35. Rf5-h5 mate; Black has no move: if 28.… Rc2 – c5, then 29. Qb4xe4 Rc5xd5 (ideally) 30. Bb2xe5 + Rd5xe5 31. Qe4xe5 + Qe7xe5 32. Re3xe5 etc .; If 28.… Rc8 – e8, then 29. d5 – d6 De7 – e6 30. d6 – d7 etc. (given by Zukertort)
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Position after Black's 28th move
- 29. Rf1-f8 +
Steinitz was ecstatic about this train. In his newspaper Turf, Field and Farm he wrote about it: “The previous moves and the move just made by White form one of the greatest combinations, perhaps even the most beautiful of all that has ever been made on the chessboard. Words are missing to express our enthusiasm for the high mastery of Zukertort, with which he played the game. "Jussupow remarks:" Steinitz loved chess so deeply and was so enthusiastic about beautiful ideas that he [he stood for years in competition with Zukertort for the Champion of the World ].
- 29.… Kh8xh7
If 29.… Qe7xf8 then White answers with 30. Bb2xe5 + Kh8xh7 31. Qb4xe4 + and mate in four moves.
- 30. Qb4xe4 + Kh7-g7 31. Bb2xe5 +
31. Rf8 – g8 +! is Franco's choice, 31.… Kg7xg8 32. De4 – g6 + De7 – g7 33. Qg6 – e8 + Qg7 – f8 (33.… Kg8 – h7 34. Re3 – h3 + Qg7 – h6 35. Qe8 – f7 + Kh7 – h8 36.Bb2xe5 #) 34. Re3 – g3 + Kg8 – h7 35. Qe8 – g6 + Kh7 – h8 36. Rg3 – h3 + Qf8 – h6 37. Bb2xe5 mate.
- 31.… Kg7xf8
31.… Kg7 – h6 (Franco) 32. Re3 – h3 + also leads to mate.
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Position after Black's 31st move
- 32.Be5 – g7 +!
“A nice move,” comments Yusupov.
- 32 ... Kf8 – g8 33. Qe4xe7
Black gave up.
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Position at the end of the game
swell
- JH Blackburne: Blackburne's Chess Games. London 1899 (here: Reprint New York 1979), pp. 136-137.
- CW Domański and T. Lissowski: The Grand Master from Lublin. Berlin 2005, pp. 119-120.
- Z. Franco: ABC Asuncion. [Paraguay] 2003.
- A. Jussupow and M. Dworezki : The independent path to becoming a chess professional. Hollfeld 1991, pp. 67-74.
- G. Kasparov: Moi welikie predschestwenniki. [My Great Predecessors], Volume 1, Moscow 2003, pp. 69–71.
- W. Steinitz: Turf, Field and Farm, 1883.
- JH Zukertort: The Games Played in the London International Chess Tournament 1883, pp. 10-13.