MARK RUBERY CHESS
For many years the famous game Levitsky-Marshall, Breslau 1912 was considered by many as possessing the most impressive move ever played over a chessboard (the American author, Horowitz, always gave it three exclamation marks!). In that game Marshall put his queen in front of his opponents castled king (...Qg3) where it could be captured by either of two pawns or the queen-all of which led to disaster for Lewitsky. This apparently induced the spectators to shower the board with gold coins-or so the legend goes... On a more contemporary note, the following game could also rank as containing one of the most stunning moves ever played..
Vladimirov - Epishin USSR, 1987
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.g4 (The Keres Attack is somewhat out of favour these days)...h6 7.h4 Be7 8.g5 hxg5 9.Bxg5 Nc6 10.Qd2 a6 11.0-0-0 Bd7 12.f4 Nxd4 13.Qxd4 Bc6 14.Rg1 Qa5 15.Bh3 Qc5 16.Qd3 b5 17.f5 b4 18.Be3 Qa5 19.Qc4 Bb7 20.fxe6 bxc3 21.Rxg7 d5 22.Qb3 cxb2+ 23.Kb1 Qb5 24.exf7+ Kf8 25.Rdg1 Qxb3 (Black must have fallen out of his chair when he saw White’s astounding reply) 26.Bh6!! (Neither recapturing the queen nor giving a check, Vladimirov simply throws a bishop on to the fire...to which there is no defence)
26...Ng4 (26...Rxh6 27.Rg8+ Kxf7 28.R1g7#)
27.Rh7+ Nxh6 28.Rxh8+ Kxf7 29.Rh7+ 1-0 (Since now White intends to recapture the queen when he will have a decisive material advantage)
Levitsky,S - Marshall,F [B40]
Kongress Breslau (6), 1912
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.exd5 exd5 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0–0 Be7 8.Bg5 0–0 9.dxc5 Be6 10.Nd4 Bxc5 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Bg4 Qd6 13.Bh3 Rae8 14.Qd2 Bb4 15.Bxf6 Rxf6 16.Rad1 Qc5 17.Qe2 Bxc3 18.bxc3 Qxc3 19.Rxd5 Nd4 20.Qh5? (20 Qe4 was better)…Ref8 21.Re5 Rh6 22.Qg5 Rxh3 23.Rc5 Qg3!! (Since the best White has is 24 Qxg3 Ne2+ 25 Kh1 Nxg3+ 26 Kg1 Nxf1 and he remains a piece behind) 0–1
‘…Chess waits in the wings, taking deep breaths, ready to burst on the stage as a planetary spectator sport…. Chess offers its audience the soap opera of opposed personalities in genuinely bitter combat, deploying an unbounded repertoire of feint, bluff , trap, poeticism, profundity, brilliancy, together with a complementary array of blunders, howlers, squanderings… … What stands in its way? Not the epic slowness of the game, nor its frieze-like immobility. What stands in the way is the gap, the chasm, the abyss that lies between the watcher and the watched. The difficulty is the thing separating the ordinary player from Garry Kasparov. The difficulty is the difficulty.’ (Martin Amis)