2007 U.S. Senior Champion and author of “Formation Attacks”.
Please email games for future annotation to me at: bigbear12@hotmail.com.
For those of you who do not know me, the fi rst 46 years of my life were primarily spent living in Massachusetts. Roughly 30 years of which, I competed in New England chess tournaments and was very active at many chess clubs throughout the state.
My chess coach during my early years was Harry Lyman of the Boylston Chess Club in Boston. Harry’s aggressive style is still very evident in my play. For those of you who never had the pleasure of meeting Master Emeritus Harry Lyman, I present the following attack game.
White: Tomasko
Black: Harry Lyman
Boylston at Lynn, Boston MET
League, Lynn, MA, 2/28/1941
[C50] Giuoco Piano
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.Nd5 Qg6 9.Nh4 Qg5 10.Nxc7+ Kd8 11.Nxa8 Qxh4 12.0–0 Bg4 13.Qe1
13. … Bf3! 14.gxf3
What else? Especially when considering 14. … Qg4 15. g3 Qh3 is coming.
14. … Nd4 15.Kg2 Qg5+ 16.Kh1 Qh5 17.Qa5+ b6 0–1
Next up is one of my games from when I lived in Massachusetts.
Jeff Svoboda 2015
Joel Johnson 2320
31st Pawn Eater, Providence RI
October 1990
[B00] St. George Defense
1.d4 b5 2.e4 a6 3.c4 bxc4 4.Bxc4 e6 5.Nf3 Bb7 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Qc2 Be7 8.0–0 d5 9.Bd3 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Nbd7 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 Nd5 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.a3 0–0 15.Rac1 f5 16.Nc5 Nxc5 17.dxc5 Nf4
The purpose of this move is to prevent c6 long enough for my bishop to get in front of the White c-pawn.
18.Be2 Be4 19.Qd2 e5 20.g3 Rad8 21.Qe3 Nh3+ 22.Kg2 Ng5 23.Rfd1 f4 24.Qb3+ Kh8 25.h4 Rb8!
The White queen needs to defend both the knight on f3 and the b-pawn.
26.Qc3 Nxf3 27.Bxf3 Bxf3+ 28.Kxf3 fxg3+ 29.Kxg3 Rf4 30.Rh1 Rbf8 31.Rc2 Qf6 32.Qe1
Black has a bunch of winning moves but the upcoming move is the most devastating.
32. … Rg4+! 0–1
Checkmate follows on every possible Black move. The choices were 33. Kxg4 Qf3#; 33. Kh3 Qxh4#; and 33. Kh2 Qxh4#.
The remaining games are recent and very interesting attack games from around the world.
GM Baadur Jobava 2713
GM Namig Guliyev 2549
World Cup, Khanty-Mansiyak,
Russia 2011
[B20] Sicilian Defense
1.e4 c5 2.Ne2 Nf6 3.Nbc3 d6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0–0 e6 7.d3 Nc6 8.f4 Be7 9.h3 0–0 10.g4
The closed Sicilian appears tame but it can be transformed into an all-out pawn storm attack like this game.
10. … a6 11.g5 Nd7 12.h4
Many players would be unwilling to risk moving all their kingside pawns in front of their king. Here, White has the right idea.
12. … b5 13.Ng3 Re8 14.f5 Nd4 15.f6 gxf6 16.gxf6 Bxf6 17.Nh5 Be5 18.Qg4+ Kh8 19.Bg5 Qc7 20.Rxf7 Rf8? (D)
Black is more concerned with the unraveling of the pins (knight on d7 and pawn on e6) than the protection of his king. Black needed to protect his g7 square with Rg8.
21.Raf1 Rxf7 22.Rxf7 Rf8 23.Bf6+Bxf6 24.Nxf6 1–0
White has too many checkmate threats and Black is short defenders.
A three minute game from this year’s ICC Open, which was won by Hikaru Nakamura (CapilanoBridge). Nikaru suffered this setback during the event at the hands of Armenian Grandmaster Simonian Hrair (EREBUNI).
EREBUNI 3314
CapilanoBridge 3396
1st ICC Open (3 0), 06/05/2011
[B00] Owen’s Defense
1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.e5 Ne4 7.0–0
White gambits a pawn in order to activate and lift his queenside rook.
7. … Nxc3 8.bxc3 Bxc3 9.Rb1 d6 10.Rb3 Ba5 11.Bg5 Qd7 12.Qe2 Nc6 13.d5
When a player falls behind in development as in this game, the aggressor should open up the position to expose the issue.
13. … Nxe5 14.Nxe5 dxe5 15.Bb5 c6 16.dxe6 Qxe6 17.Bc4 Qf5
18.Bxf7+!
The most direct method of exposing the Black king.
18. … Kd7
Black chose to run because the alternatives were unsatisfactory, i.e. 18. … Kxf7 19. Rf3 or 18. … Qxf7 19. Qxe5+ Kd7 20. Rf3.
19.Qh5 g6 20.Rf3 gxh5 21.Rxf5 Raf8 22.Rd1+ Kc8 23.Be7 Kc7 24.Bd6+ 1–0
The following game is perhaps the best played in 2011.
Zhao Jun 2580
Xiu Deshun 2508
Chinese Championship 2011
[E26] Nimzo Indian Defense
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 c5 6.e3 b6 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.Ne2 Ba6 9.e4 0–0 10.Bg5 h6 11.Bh4 g5 12.Bg3 d6 13.f4 Na5 14.fxg5 hxg5 15.0–0 Nh5 (D)
16.Bxd6!
The fi rst move in a series of maneuvers designed to shut out Black’s queenside pieces from the defense of his king.
16. … Qxd6 17.e5 Qe7 18.Ng3 Nxg3 19.Rf6!
This move shuts off the Black pieces from the defense of the Black king.
19. … Kg7 20.Qg4 Rg8 21.hxg3 Nb7 22.Raf1 Nd8 23.Qe4 Qb7 24.d5 Rh8
25.Qg6+!!
White fi nds the crushing move leading to a forced checkmate.
25. … fxg6 26.Rxg6+ Kh7 27.Rxg5+ Kh6 28.Rg6+ Kh7 29.Rg4+ Kh6 30.Rf6+ Kh5 31.Rh4+ 1–0
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