What a pleasure it must be to follow a game, in which a super-attacker plays with White and tries to take down one of the world's best defensive players! Unfortunately, I was too young to follow the clash between Ljubomir Ljubojevic from Yugoslavia and Ulf Andersson from Sweden at the traditional Hoogovens tournament in Wijk aan Zee 1976, which exactly followed the scenario outlined above.
Anderssen opted for the Scheveningen Sicilian, a line, in which his opponent usually felt like a fish out of water. But on his 12th move Ljubojevic came up with a staggering pawn sacrifice that Black had to accept. Fortunately Andersson was bold enough to enter the complications that followed, a veritable storm of tactical twists and surprising moves, in which he more than once had to find the only move to survive.
However, despite his inventiveness he could not prevent a double attack by White that seemed to be deadly (see diagram). As Jan Timman, who analyzed this game in his famous book "The Art of Chess Analysis", put it: Ljubojevic threatened to mate on one side of the board while threatening to win a rook on the other.
Andersson, who was in time-trouble, did not find an adequate defense, but later analyses showed that Black indeed had a way to save himself. Do you see how Black can hold?
This week’s show (for Premium Members only)
