2011 SA Championship Round 1
The past several days I have been reading the book The Modern Openings in Theory and Practice by A.P. Sokolsky. Now I have had the book for many years and only took notice of Part II where he explains all the modern openings and their more popular variations.
However, in Part I of the work he explains the general principles of the openings and he goes further to explain several themes and strategies that reoccur in many systems. My goal here is not to give a complete review, but only to mention one key point that came to my attention as I was reading.
On page 19 the author presents the game Bronstein-Simagin, 28th USSR Championship (the notes before move 12 are of Mr. Sokolsky).
This seemingly minor note came as a startling revelation to me because it was this exact theme that appeared in one of my own tournament games! And I lost to this combination. You can imagine my surprise. If I had read this sooner, I might have avoided disaster! But as the saying goes: "We learn more from losing than we do by winning."
Knowing the "thematic bishop sacrifice on KR2" is now an idea likely not forgotten anytime soon.
Thanks for reading!
