It was very disconcerting listening to the Bears on streaming audio and watching the Blaze on the Internet Chess Club. I felt that the Bears' squeaker could easily have been a ten-point loss, but I was never worried about Philadelphia beating Chicago on the chessboard.
IM Arjun Vishnuvardhan (still a teenager!) makes an impressive debut for the Blaze!
When I was watching this game I was disconcerted by 46..Rc3?! I saw 46..Kf7, aiming to blockade the e pawn immediately, then launching an attack with ..Rc1-b1-b2. 47.Kg3 doesn't need to be prevented because after ..g5 the king can be driven back to the 2nd rank at any point.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't understand 53...Rb2?! surrendering the 'a' pawn. 53...f3 introduces the threat of ..Rg2+ followed by ..a2, and then ..Rb2-b1+ queening. So White must not allow ..Rg2 to be check. 54.Kh1 Ra1# is not possible, so 54.Kf1 is forced. Now 54...Ra1+ 55.Kf2 a2 and the threat of ..Rh1 is decisive.
Thoughts?