Fun attacking game

Sacrificing a rook in blitz and running away with the goods!

Chapter two of the same. 

General remarks:

1) Don't ask me how come I went up 103 points in two days. I really have no idea. 

2) I told you on another thread that I understand absolutely nothing in the King's Indian. I'm totally mystified with this opening. I have no tactical bearings and drop pieces right and left. 

Nevertheless, this opening is just so crazy, that sometimes even AFTER you lose all of your pieces, you STILL deliver mate and the opponent can do nothing about it. 

Watch how a FIDE Candidate Master falls victim to this fickle opening - in which when you think that you win, you lose; and when you know that you lose - watch out, there may be a win. 

I love the white side, the Q-side initiative, the play for the d5 square, the subtle pawn sacrifices with Ne6 at times (when bishop takes). It's the black side that I'm in the process of getting smashed at, right and left. 

I see that you didn't miss my little Nimzowitsch reference - I was thinking about you when including it...

And what's your take about my first game?

25. Be2!!! Right!!! Totally forgot about it. I was even blind to it in analysis and in doing the annotations, as you can obviously notice. Fantastic catch!!!! I really wonder how I could miss such a typical and simple attacking move. 

About 20...Rh8 - it did flash through my mind, I think - but the temptation to perform such a beautiful move (20. Rf4) was simply too much. You can say that I fell in love with the idea and couldn't resist it - and the opponent was enthralled, hypnotized, by the strange charm of this move. Mystic, doesn't begin to describe it. 

(I'm not a mystic, but when inspiration strikes...)

This is true. 

Mind you - ...Rh8 is waiting to be played, but it's waiting for one move only. After that the chance is gone forever. 

And - we're talking three minute blitz... so sometimes you do (or I do) really silly stuff... if I lose, I lose :-)

Not only that, please notice that 20. Rf4 has ABSOLUTELY no point if black doesn't take the rook. This rook threatens to go nowhere.

To h4 maybe? It's true. It CAN go there - but now imagine the fun if instead of 20...Rh8, black just plays 20...Bd7(!?) in order to play 21...Rh8 after 21. Rh4... Silly stuff. But some people chop wood (20...gf) instead of taking a deep breath - and there you have it, such threads as this one are created. 

Maybe in blitz, it wasn't so easy to see what's wrong with taking that rook right away. That's probably the thing. 

Things that you see in analysis you don't always see in real time. Players who count on this mental point can sometimes do silly stuff and get away with it!!

Because it's fun, obviously. For laughs and kicks. 

And if I get to see the Tal game you're referencing and learn something - here's another great motivation. 

I could... who knows :-) but I'm going to take a look - most definitely - now with my dinner (steak and spinach, some ice cream for dessert). 

What a game, <Urk>!

But you know, you can't really compare me to Tal!!

After all, as sacrifices go - there are two types of them. Correct ones - and mine!

Always fun when it happens!

Rf4 is a fun move, but that's my only complaint, if black ignores it it's just a misplaced piece.

Of course - not to mention that he can play 20...Rh8 and take on f4 on move 21, when the best definition for ME becomes DEAD MEAT!!!

Thing is, he didn't !!!!! :-)

Sacrificing to open the king for some kind if nebulous king hunt that can't quite be calculated is a current interest of mine, so I enjoyed looking at the game.

In these positions often things that look totally wrong the engine tells me are a forced win. And other times I think my sacrifice must be good enough, but the engine says it's just equal or I'm slightly worse. I'm often amazed how just two pieces near an enemy king can get a lot of work done.

In your game it's just queen and bishop... but you had a forced mate with 23.Qh6 (which you didn't mention in the notes by the way).