The ...d5 Sacrifice In The K.I.D and a Simaginfan Chain of Thought

Afternoon Everyone. I hadn't intended to post anything this week - been a busy one - but I thought that I would quickly share the chess stuff that I have been looking at with you - some nice games and pictures. Just because I have an hour whilst Sunday lunch is cooking.

So, my regular readers will know me by now. A game gets my attention and my mental database throws out loads more related ones. I go looking for them, come across other stuff, and on we go! I am one of the few who understands the concept I describe as 'Dylanesque chain of thought' which you find with Bob Dylan. Bob doing his impression of me with chess games in my head.

 So, last time round my dear friend @kamalakanta commented on one of the games I had included. This one - a masterpiece by Gipslis, with the  interesting idea of Black playing a Pawn sacrifice with ...d5 in the King's Indian defence.

Well, it is a common theme in the Saemisch Variation of the K.I.D. and is even a part of mainline theory there.

O.K. A bit of fun for those of us old enough. Todays quiz - no cheating guys! Do you recognise this game? If so, let me know in the comments. I guess nobody under 45 years of age will have a clue, but us pre-engine old-timers will recognise it.  

Well, 4 of the games which came into my head fall into two pairs. I am Simaginfan, and two of his games came to mind - what a creator he was! This one is 'only' a draw. Wonderful game.

This one is a monstrous game. Black's position out of the opening looks unpromising, but even in correspondence games Simagin tried to win with Black. Risky indeed back then, but it's who he was. As one Australian fast bowler ( cricket!) once said ' a leopard can't change his stripes'.!

I had a quick look for his opponent. He is mentioned here :- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannschaftskader_der_1._Division_(Schach)_1963/64   

It is possible that I have found a picture of him  via this.

The picture fits the timeframe, but who knows. 

The game.

The next pair of games come from the same tournament. I am lucky in that I have been able to follow the careers right from their early days. From back then I have a couple of books - the way se used to study chess back in the time. You really cherished such books, and went over every move of every game.

Back to that picture shortly.

The tournament.

A massacre by the two 'Soviets' - now Israel and The Ukraine.

As you can see, the winner lost just one game. No time to do notes, but even at that age Ivanchuk was capable of understanding chess on a level way beyond us mortals. Have fun annotating this one for yourselves.

It's no wonder that the great Mischa described Ivanchuk as 'the phenomenom' back then. A picture from the time - probably 1988 - from Ivanchuk's recent book which I can't translate the title of!

I remember this game well - it did the rounds of the magazines and newspapers as the best game in the tournament played by the winner. Gelfand going all out for the win with Black. Well, back then I predicted that one day Gelfand and Ivanchuck would both eventually play Kasparov for the World Championship. My hindsight is better than my foresight!

And to finish a quick gallery of relevant photos - with the appropriate accreditation! ( no naming names, but it would be respectful if those so-called 'chess historians', who steal my pictures without crediting me for doing the hard work, actually credited me and others for our hard work - something beyond a 1 second 'google images' search. Some of us actually have that old-fashioned thing known as integrity. Nuff said.)

O.K. I think that the Ivanchuk picture given above is one taken at the same time as this one. Different clothes but it looks like the same timeframe.

The header picture.