Showing posts with label Pete Karagianis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pete Karagianis. Show all posts

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The 110 most fantastic moves ever played

...is an online collection by the fabulous Tim Krabbé.  (The link goes to fantastic moves 101-110; you'll find links to the rest of the list at the bottom of Krabbé's page.)

He really should have included Frederick Rhine's favorite move.  But all "best" lists are necessarily imperfect.  (Edited in a few hours later: in the comments, Frederick reminds me that Burn's move was only recently rediscovered by his chess biographer, Richard Forster, and that Krabbé himself said that it belonged near the top of his list. Krabbé discusses interference sacrifices similar to Burns's—check out the amazing move that Peoria native, and newly minted Life Master, Pete Karagianis dropped on a Grandmaster!  It's not a Novotny, and it doesn't win by force, but it's mighty purty.)


Karagianis-Anka, 2004 National Open
White to play and astound (though not necessarily win)

John Emms liberally "borrowed" from Krabbé's site for his 2000 book The Most Amazing Chess Moves of All Time.  On Krabbé's home page Chess Curiosities (where you'll find many days of fun reading) he refers to his 110 most fantastic moves collection as "his most frequently emmsed page." If you prefer books that aren't plagiarized, I can heartily recommend  Secrets of Spectacular Chess by Levitt and Friedgood.  (The first edition can be bought used for a pittance.)