Table Of ContentTWO YEARS WITHOUT DAVID BRONSTEIN
By IM Nikolay Minev
Almost two years have now passed that the chess world is without grandmaster David
Bronstein (1924-2006). I enjoyed the privilege of playing with him twice, and also spoke
with him on three other occasions. He was the most fascinating chess personality that I
ever met. I know many of his games and studied them profoundly in my earlier years.
Most of them are stored forever in my memory.
Such as the following example, which includes a unique and surprising move with a
pawn.
Caro-Kann B16
K. Aseev
David Bronstein
USSR 1982
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6 6.Bc4 Bf5 7.Ne2 Nd7 8.Ng3 Bg6
9.O-O e6 10.h4?
This move is a bad idea after short castling!
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10…f5!!
One of Bronstein’s fantastic tactical ideas! This is not a surprise, this is a shock!
11.h5 Qh4 12.Qf3
After 12.hxg6 hxg6 13.Re1 f4 14.Bxf4 Qxf4. Black regains the sacrificed piece, still
maintaining his strong attack.
12…Bd6 13.hxg6 hxg6 14.Re1 Bxg3 0-1
For if 15.fxg3 Qxd4+ and 16,,,Qxc4.
(Note: this game and notes are excerpted from my recent book, David Bronstein: Fifty
Great Short Games. The book is available on the internet – search for ISBN 978-0-
9661889-2-9 or visit thechesslibrary.com or lulu.com).
Bronstein’s priceless heritage is not only in his performances over the board, but also in
his annotations. Believe me, you will learn and understand many important things about
our beloved game after reading the following quotations from his works.
Bronstein teaches YOU!
“No one has ever been able to study chess in its entirely, not even the World
Champions, but everybody can play and receive a lot of enjoyment from it.”
***
“From my own experience, I have learned that in a complicated middlegame
position, when pawns and pieces are engaged in battle, it is often wise to sacrifice a
Rook for an enemy Bishop.”
***
“The dimensions of a chessboard are not large. Space is a very relative notion. You
can play on a pocket chess or on a demonstration board, but in either case you will
have no more than 64 squares at your disposal. It goes without saying, that if you
want to win the battle, you will need to control as much space as possible. To achieve
this it is logical to use far-reaching pieces such as Bishops.”
***
“A big advantage in space can often change into a decisive attack, if the sacrifice of
a piece succeeds in creating mobile pawns.”
***
“If a chess player plays his Rook’s pawn up one square too early after having
castled, there is always the danger that this pawn will be attacked.”
***
“When evaluating a chess position, the first thing we should look at is the position of
the Kings. In closed positions they can wait to castle, but if the positions appear to
be open, then it is better for them to go into their hide-out as quickly as possible.”
***
“What is a combination in the game of chess? There are many opinions and nobody
has a uniform answer. Sometimes I think that a combination consists of a - not too
long - series of moves with material sacrifices which contend a high element of risk.
But if there is a risk, why a string of moves considered to be forced? Because it only
appears to be forced, but in reality a combination contains many possibilities which
are almost impossible to see while playing a tense game and which are, during
subsequent analysis in a more relaxed atmosphere, still difficult to find.”
***
“Without mistakes, chess is not interesting. Routine games can be played by
computers, but human mistakes create very unusual situations and it is always a
challenge to find a way out of trouble.”
***
“As far as I have observed from thousands of games, if both white and black Rooks
are still in quiet positions an a1 and a8, the Rook that centralizes first usually helps
to decide the battle.”
***
“Avoid minor mistakes! Most often he loses who makes the first minor mistake,
because it signifies the beginning of an incorrect strategically plan.”
***
“For the chess player the most difficult moment in his work is playing in time
trouble. And so for the chess player it is vitally necessary to practice almost every
day at playing fast.”
***
“It is a well known fact that during a practical game, players often do not check
variations entirely but just trust each other.”
***
“Independence of thought is a most valuable quality in a chess player, both at the
board and when preparing for a game.”
***
“Not every sacrifice wins immediately. But the fact remains that the person
sacrificing feels spiritually uplifted, his emotions are clearly positive ones, whilst the
person forced to accept a sacrifice is invariably upset, if even only slightly.”
***
“The most powerful weapon in chess is to have the next move!”
***
“The Queen and Knight, in the opinion of many specialists, work together
considerably more effectively than do a Queen and Bishop. What is the reason for
this fact? The Queen and Knight supplement each other’s actions, whereas the
Queen and Bishop often duplicate each other’s work by creating excessive strength
down a diagonal, whilst lacking striking power in other directions.”
***
“It is my style to take my opponent and myself onto unknown grounds. A game of
chess is not an examination of knowledge, it is a battle of nerves.”
***
“Generally, it makes sense to sacrifice a pawn, sometimes even a piece, in order to
keep the enemy King in the center and assail it with Rooks and Queen.”
***
“The prime consideration in one’s choice of an opening plan should be the
harmonious development of the pieces, but sometimes we forget about the
development of the Queen. Since the Queen is, after all, the most important and the
most valuable of the pieces, the success of the whole piece configuration may depend
on how well the Queen plays its part.”
***
“ A chessmaster’s skill lies not only so much in perceiving the correct plan as in
carrying it out with exact and sometimes “only” moves.”
***
“One general rule of chess strategy holds that a target point should be surrounded
or isolated before it is attacked.”
***
“The most precise knowledge of opening theory can not guarantee one against over
the board surprises. Therefore, a grandmaster will frequently avoid the “best”
continuation in favor of his own, whether accepted by theory or not.”
***
“The King’s Indian is a greater risk for Black, than the King’s Gambit for White.”
***
“Open files are important when they contain targets, or when they serve as avenues
of communications for the transfer of pieces, usually Rooks, to the main theater of
action.”
***
Mikhail Tal: 15 (g/15) Games
M. Tal – D. Bronstein Match (g/15)
Riga 1974
In 1974 Tal played a match of 8 games against David Bronstein, with time limit of 15 minutes per
player per game. Tal won the match with score 5.5:2.5. The interesting fact is that no game of the
match was lost because of time! Below are two games from this match.
B93 D. Bronstein – M. Tal
Riga (m-2) (g/15) 1974
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Nbd7 7.O-O g6 8.f4 Bg7 9.Be3 O-O
10.Kh1 e5 11.Nb3 Qc7 12.f5 b5 13.fxg6 hxg6 14.a3 Bb7 15.Bf3 Rad8 16.Qe1 Rfe8 17.Qh4 d5!
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Proving once again that counter play in the center is the best answer to the opponent's attack on the
wing.
18.exd5 e4 19.Bxe4 Nxe4 20.Nxe4 Qxc2 21.Ng5 Bxd5 22.Rf2 Qxb3 23.Qh7+ Kf8 24.Bd2
In case of 24.Bd4 Black can play either 24...Ne5 25.Bc5+ Re7, or 24...Re5 may be even stronger.
24...Nf6!
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25.Rxf6 Bxg2+! 26.Kg1 Rxd2 27.Rxf7+ Qxf7 28.Nxf7 Bd4# 0-1
B34 M. Tal – D. Bronstein
Riga (m-5) (g/15) 1974
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bc4 Bg7 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5 Ng8 9.Bf4
Theoretically, White has more attacking chances with 9.Qf3 f5 10.Bf4 Rb8 11.O-O etc.
9...Qa5 10.O-O Nh6 11.Ne4 Nf5 12.Re1 Bxe5!?
Risky, but forced. After 12...O-O 13.g4 Nh6 (13...Nh4 14.Bg5) 14.h3 White clearly has the
advantage.
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13.Bxf7+! Kf8 14.b4 Qc7 15.Bxe5 Qxe5 16.Bb3 d5 17.Nc5 Qd4 18.Qe2
Perhaps the immediate 18.c4!? is stronger.
18...a5 19.c4
Sacrificing a Knight, and demonstrating his belief that in games with a fast control, to attack with a
piece down is easier than to be in defense with an extra piece. But this time Tal comes up against
resilient and ingenious defense by another great grandmaster with an intuitive style of play.
19...axb4 20.cxd5 Qxc5 21.Rac1 Qd6 22.Rxc6 Qf4 23.g3 Qd4 24.d6
Instead 25.g4 Kg7 25.gxf5 Re8 is unclear.
24...Kg7 25.Rd1 Qf6 26.Rc7 Ba6 27.dxe7 Rhe8 28.Qe4 Rac8 29.Ra7 Rxe7 30.Rdd7
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30…Rc1+ 31.Kg2 Bf1+ 32.Kf3 Nd4+ 33.Ke3 Re1+ 0-1
“Sahs” (g/15)
Riga 1986
A03 M. Tal – A. Shabalov
Riga (g/15) "Sahs" 1986
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Bg5 c5 4.e3 Qb6 5.Nbd2 d5 6.Bxf6 gxf6 7.c4 cxd4 8.exd4 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Nc6
10.O-O Be7 11.d5 Na5 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Re1 Bd7 14.Qe2 Nxc4 15.Nxc4 Qa6
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16.Nfe5! fxe5 17.Qh5+ Kd8 18.Nxe5 Kc8 19.Rac1+ Kd8 20.Nf7+ 1-0
B09 M.Tal – A.Vitolins
Riga (g/15) "Sahs" 1986
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Bd3 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.e5 Nd5 9.Nxd5 Qxd5
10.Qe2 Nc6 11.Bc4 Qd8 12.Be3 Qa5+ 13.c3 b5 14.Bxb5 Bb7 15.O-O a6 16.Bc4 e6 17.Qf2 Rfc8
18.Rad1 Ne7 19.Rd7 Bd5 20.Bd3 Bxf3 21.Rxe7 Bf8
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22.Rxf7 Kxf7 23.Qxf3 c4 24.f5! Kg8 25.fxg6 Bg7 26.Bxc4 Rf8 27.Bxe6+ Kh8 28.Qh5 Rxf1+
29.Kxf1 Rf8+ 30.Kg1 h6 31.Bxh6 1-0
