Personal Mona Lisa of GM Nataf
Grandmaster Igor-Alexandre Nataf is not exactly a household name in the Chess World. There is no article about him in Wikipedia and according to the FIDE web site his rating never crossed the 2600 mark. Yet, the game he calls his most beautiful is truly stunning. Therefore without further ado, let me present the personal Mona Lisa of GM Nataf.
(Just like in most of my articles I give you a chance to test your attacking skills, so the games are given as a Quiz. Please remember that you can always replay the whole game from the first move if you click "Solution" and then "Move list".)
White has just played 10.g3 to force a favorable trade 10...fxg3 11. hxg3. What should Black do?
Black has sacrificed a pawn but it is not clear yet if he has enough (or any!) compensation. How should Black continue?
Black has sacrificed more material to keep his initiative alive but it can evaporate instantly if Black doesn't play very energetically. What should he play now?
Now it is obvious that Black's attack is very strong. Try to find the best way to continue the King-hunt.
Here you don't need to be Michail Tal or Garry Kasparov to see that Black's attack is way too strong for White to survive. Moreover, you can take the poor Bf3 with a check in two different ways. So which move is the best?
In conclusion I want to thank Igor-Alexandre Nataf for creating such a masterpiece!
