Smooth Criminal, Part Two.
In the first part of this article we examined positions where a passed pawn was sacrificed to vacate a square in the center for a Knight. Today we'll analyze games where such a sacrifice clears files for an attack. Needless to say, the best target for an attack along the open files is a King. The next short but very instructive game by Paul Morphy illustrates the point:
Fastforward 125 years, and GM Efim Geller beats the Soviet Champion GM Lev Psakhis in a style Morphy would be proud of!
And here is a beautiful 'twin' played by a very young Kasparov in one of his training games. (Please note that Kasparov played his game before Geller so he obviously couldn't know Geller's masterpiece. From the other side, I really doubt that Geller knew a training game played by a 14 year-old boy...)
Even if your opponent's King has already left the center, a clearing pawn sacrifice is still a very dangerous weapon as the next game shows:
Most of you, my dear readers, probably have noticed that in the last three games the passed pawn was also an isolated pawn. Such isolated pawns are especially prone to sacrificing themselves and therefore should be carefully watched!
to be continued....
Want to work on your tactics?? Do some *training* !!
