Moran's Once-In-A-Lifetime Masterpiece! - Best Of The 50s - Moran vs. Franco, 1955

Moran's Once-In-A-Lifetime Masterpiece! - Best Of The 50s - Moran vs. Franco, 1955

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Pablo Moran Santamaria is not a player many will have heard of, but he was a respected chess journalist who wrote an acclaimed biography of Alexander Alekhine. In 1955, against a fellow Spaniard, he also played a masterpiece that rivals Alekhine's best games. With incisive play, and a queen sacrifice, he gains a large advantage, but it is final sacrificial king hunt that is truly memorable.

Top 10 Games of the 1950s

Franco makes, to my mind, one really significant error in the game. With 9...e5?, he loses a vital tempo in the opening and weakens his position. Moran responds with the required aggression with the queen sacrifice 16.exf6!!, and despite some resourceful play, Franco is never able to really get back into the game. 23.Rxg7+!! is a beautiful conclusion. Can you calculate the checkmate to the end in all lines if the rook is accepted?

My annotations are available below.



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SamCopeland
NM Sam Copeland

I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.

You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.