An Oren Brilliancy

In the 1954 Olympics, on September 8th, Menachem Oren (Black) had played a brilliancy against the Dane, Palle Moelle Nielsen. While not exactly news, it is not often one sees a queen sacrifice in the chess olympiad -- and as Black, too...

(Game details: Chessbase 9.0 and Shlomo Kandelshine's book, Oren Ba'Tsameret [see details in previous posts]; annotations: Kandelshine's book, pp. 82-83.)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 h6 6. Bh4 Nbd7 7. Nf3 O-O 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Qc2 Re8 10. Rd3 c6 11. Bg3

Better is 11. O-O.

11. ... Nh5 12. Be5 Nhf6 13. O-O Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Ng4 15. Nxg4

Better is 15. Bh7+ Kf8 16. Nxg4 Bxg5 17. Bf5.

15. ... Bxg4 16. f3

Weakens White's position. Correct was 16. Bf5.

16. ... Be6 17. Qf2 c5 18. Rad1 cxd7 19. exd4 Bh4! 20. g3

Better is 20. Qd2.

20. ... Bf6 21. Bb1 Qd7 22. Qc2 g6 23. Qb3?

Correct was 23. Qd2 or 23. Qf2.

23. ... Bh3 24. Rf2

24. Qxd5 was necessary.

24. ... Bxd2 25. Nxd5



25. ... Re2!!

A well-calculated queen sacrifice.

26. Nf6+ Kh8!

26. ... Bxf6 27. Rxe2.

27. Nxd7 Bxf2+ 28. Kh1 Bd4! 0-1

White resigned since 29. Rg1 Bg2+ 30. Rxg2 Re1+ mates next move.