ODT061219

=**David Bronstein 1924-2006**=


 * Problem:** White to play and mate in 4.

David Bronstein died earlier this month at his home in Minsk, Belarus. Born near Kiev in the Ukraine, Bronstein was at the forefront of the postwar generation of Soviet grandmasters, playing an exciting new brand of highly tactical and strategically complex chess.

The pinnacle of Bronstein's competitive career was winning through the then new FIDE qualification cycle to challenge the formidable Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Championship title in Moscow in 1951. The tense and hard fought match was drawn 12-12, with Botvinnik retaining his title. While many other successes followed, Bronstein never again reached that level - perhaps because the sporting aspect of chess took second place for him to the artitistic. More than any other player before and perhaps since, his games were filled with new ideas and the fresh treatment of known positions, occasionally at the expense of his results.

As well as his games, Bronstein's legacy to chess players includes his justly famous books //International Grandmaster Tournament, 200 Open Games//, and //The Sorcerers Apprentice//, along with his many articles as chess correspondent for the Russian newspaper //Izvestia//. In the first of these, his frank and penetrating analysis of all the games of the Zurich Candidates tournament of 1953 was a landmark in chess writing.

I first encountered a Bronstein game in Murray Chandler's //Listener// column in 1981 and immediately became a life-long fan. The game is given below and is from the Keres Memorial tournament of the same year in Tallinn, with Bronstein playing White against another strong Soviet grandmaster, Eduard Gufeld. Today's diagram is from Bronstein's key victory over Paul Keres in the final round of the 1950 Candidates tournament. media type="custom" key="27004662" Bronstein often played offbeat openings such as the Torre Attack, as he liked to force his opponent onto their own devices as early as possible. Here he comes up with an original manouvre to make room on d2 for the Nf3, unblocking the f-pawn and the queen's attack on h5. Eyeing the weak a-pawn and threatening Qe8. Bronstein responds with an ingenious plan – sacrificing the pawn and more in return for central domination. Typically, castling is not part of it, as both rooks are already developed on their home squares! Defending against 24 Bxe6+ winning a piece. We see that White's exchange sacrifice has removed Black's most effective piece, his queen, from the main theatre of action. Foreseeing that the coming exchange of queen's will not lessen White's initiative. Despite his material deficit, White's centralised minor pieces completely dominate. This pawn advance pressages an extremely rare event – a queenless mating attack on a central king! The final position expresses by itself the genius of David Bronstein.
 * 1.Nf3 g6**
 * 2.d4 Nf6**
 * 3.Bg5 Bg7**
 * 4.Nbd2 d6**
 * 5.e4 h6**
 * 6.Bh4 g5**
 * 7.Bg3 Nh5**
 * 8.c3 e6**
 * 9.Nb3 ---**
 * 9. --- Nd7**
 * 10.Nfd2 Nxg3**
 * 11.hxg3 a5**
 * 12.a4 O-O**
 * 13.Bd3 f5**
 * 14.Qe2 Nf6**
 * 15.f4 gxf4**
 * 16.gxf4 Bd7**
 * 17.e5!? Nd5**
 * 18.g3 Qe8**
 * 19.Kf2 dxe5**
 * 20.dxe5 Bxa4**
 * 21.Rxa4!? Qxa4**
 * 22.Bb5 Qa2**
 * 23.Bd7 Ra6**
 * 24.Rb1 Ne7**
 * 25.Qc4! ---**
 * 25.--- a4**
 * 26.Nc5 Qxc4**
 * 27.Nxc4 Ra7**
 * 28.Rd1 Rfa8**
 * 29.Bxe6+ Kf8**
 * 30.g4! ---**
 * 30.--- b5**
 * 31.Ne3 fxg4**
 * 32.f5 g3+**
 * 33.Kg2 Nc6**
 * 34.Nd7+ Ke8**
 * 35.f6 Bf8**
 * 36.Nf5 Nd8**
 * 37.f7+! Nxf7**
 * 38.Nf6 mate**


 * 1-0**


 * Solution:**1 Qh6+!! Qxb1+ 2 Kh2 Rg8 3 Qxh7+! Kxh7 4 Rh4#.