“ You see, but you do not observe.” - Sherlock Holmes

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

-Sherlock Holmes

As the day passes, we are slowly learning the games of a great player not only related to the chess field but outside of it also. We have seen blogs on Einstein and Napoleon,

Today we are about to see a match of a fictional character who is well renowned by the name of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

I have read the entire volume 1 of sherlock holmes. There have been only three fictional characters I am inspired by since childhood. One of them is sherlock holmes, who came early and recently after starting to watch anime. I am fond of two characters, GOKU and L Lawliet, from dragon ball and death note respectively. 
To anyone who knows Sherlock Holmes knows his biggest rival is J. Moriarty. Today we see and analyse their match which was shown in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Which is one opening that is most common at higher-level games? Of course, it's Sicilian. This opening is favoured since its most dynamic and potential of creating imbalances is more. 

Here Moriarty plays the accelerated dragon Sicilian and Sherlock creates what we called Maróczy Bind. If you do not know about this watch my blog to understand this structure,

https://www.chess.com/blog/siddharth026/mastering-pawn-structure-and-pawn-breaks

Opening-

Now as we came up from the opening stage, we see the most common manoeuvre that happens in this position.

Here the idea is to create a battery and take that dark square bishop creating vulnerable squares near the king.
Now both of them develop their bishops and castles for safety.

Mid Game-

Now Rd1 centralize the Sherlock. Bc6 and Nd5 bringing more pieces to the centre are played. Re8 plays Moriarty and f4 strikes Sherlock.
f4 has a simple plane to push for an f5 break and open phile for the rook to attack the king. Nc7 and f5, are played as planned.Na6 plays Moriarty to reroute his knight in a way, he could take the central pawn. bg4 is played, creating more pressure. Nc5 Finally knight reaches the desired square. As a result, fxg is played by Sherlock.hxg is played by Black.Qf2 creates a strong battery against a weak f7 pawn. Rf8 defends the attack. f5 is played now by Sherlock pushing an attack towards the king. bxf5 and Qh4 are played here with the intention of white very clearly to mate black. Bxd5-Rxd5 plays Sherlock. He takes with rooks since it exerts pressure more than a pawn would.
Now Ne6 is played, and Rf3 replies Sherlock, Indication of battery on h phile. Bf6 attacks the queen, and Queen moves to h6 by Qh6.bg7 again attacks the queen.

Endgame-

Now here is a series of moves that is interesting. Find a move Sherlock plays in this position.

Now here is a series of moves that is interesting. Find a move Sherlock plays in this position.
If you guessed it, congratulations. The move is Qxg6. The sacrifice of a queen for a deadly attack on the king. fxg is played and then the Be6 check says the Sherlock. Kh7 saves Moriarty.Rh3 check again by Sherlock. Moriarty defends with Bh6. Bxh6 plays Sherlock.Rf5 sacrificing a rook for the position.Rxf5-gxf, is played. Bf7 cutting the king's escape square. Qb6 check by Moriarty. King moves to h1. Qxb2 by Moriarty and Bxf8 says Sherlock discover check and mate.

This is how Sherlock Holmes defeats his strongest opponent Moriarty in chess.

This is how Sherlock Holmes defeats his strongest opponent Moriarty in chess.

Overall match-

Things to be noted-
1- Sherlock doesn't rush for trade in the mid-game unless it was necessary
2- Understanding of opening.
3- Piece placement and activity.

I hope you love this small blog. Of course, Sherlock is a fictional character so his playing chess with Moriarty is imaginary. In any case, this was a game played by Bent Larsen vs Tigran V Petrosian. For the sake of moving the End game was edited. 

Comment down below if you love this blog and do mention our favourite Fictional character.