Game of the week June 21, 2020 by Robert Huntington Vladimir Simagin, who would have celebrated his 101st birthday today, was a greatly underappreciated Soviet grandmaster. [Event "Moscow 1939"] [Round "?"] [White "Victor Ljublinsky"] [Black "Vladimir Simagin"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C46"] [Annotator "ATH"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "1939.??.??"] [SourceTitle "StarBase 4.56"] [SourceDate "2004.11.04"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2004.11.04"] [SourceQuality "2"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 d6 ({The Four Knights Game with} 3... Nf6 {is usual and better}) 4. d4 (4. Bb5 {is the main alternative}) 4... exd4 5. Nxd4 g6 $6 ( 5... Nf6 $14) 6. Be3 (6. Nd5 $1 $16) 6... Bg7 7. Be2 ({Better is} 7. Qd2) 7... Nge7 $6 (7... Nf6 $14) 8. Qd2 (8. h4 $1 $16) 8... O-O $6 (8... Be6) 9. h4 d5 $5 (9... Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Bxd4 11. Qxd4 Nc6 12. Qd2 $16) 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. O-O-O (11. Bc5 $1) 11... Be6 (11... Qd6 {is better}) 12. Bh6 $6 (12. Bc5 $1 $16) 12... Bh8 $5 {Objectively (i.e., according to the computer), this is unsound, deserving a ?, and} (12... dxe4 $14 {is much better but leaves Black defending a position that offers no winning chances. The text increases both sides' winning chances (and Black's losing chances).}) 13. Bxf8 Qxf8 14. a3 $2 { Already White goes astray} (14. h5 $16) 14... Rb8 15. Bd3 $6 (15. f3 Bg7 16. h5 dxe4 17. h6 Be5 $44) 15... c5 16. exd5 $6 (16. h5 c4 17. hxg6 fxg6 18. Be2 d4 19. Na4 Bg7 $17) 16... Nxd5 $19 17. Na4 $2 (17. Nb5 {puts up more resistance}) 17... Bd7 $1 18. Qa5 $6 ({as does} 18. Qg5 Bxa4 19. Qxd5 Bxb2+ 20. Kd2) 18... Bxa4 19. Qxa4 Qh6+ 20. f4 Nxf4 (20... Bxb2+ {is even more bone-crushing}) 21. Rd2 Bxb2+ 22. Kd1 Bc3 23. Rf2 $2 {White obviously wanted to be put out of his misery as quickly as possible} Rb1# 0-1 your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard; alternatively your wordpress theme might suppress the html iframe tag from articles or excerpts