How To Attack The Classical Way
Making forecasts is not one of my best skills. Actually it is quite the opposite: Usually my predictions of the future are quite bad.
Yet one of my forecasts was a no-brainer, since I couldn't possibly have gone wrong with it. Almost four years ago, I wrote: " I see the new crop of talents growing in Uzbekistan: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, Javokhir Sindarov, etc."
Today, Abdusattorov and Sindarov are already grandmasters and Vokhidov is a very strong IM who recently beat Magnus Carlsen!
Let me add a new name to this list of rising chess stars. IM Ortik Nigmatov is not a household name yet, but when you see one of his recent games, I think you'll agree that he is another strong grandmaster in the making!
The game I am about to present was played a couple of weeks ago in the Uzbekistan championship, which was won by Sindarov. Here is what I wrote about him in that old article: "Javokhir Sindarov took advantage of his opponent's mistakes using the classical style typical for many players from Uzbekistan."
As you will see, Ortik Nigmatov knows his classical chess heritage. Let's look at the beginning of his game:
Right out of the opening Black managed to grab the initiative and now he is about to start a direct attack against the opponent's king. How did he manage to do it, especially playing Black?
Actually, it was quite easy for him because he followed the footsteps of the world champion Boris Spassky, who played this set-up three times in his Candidates' match vs. Efim Geller.
While all three games were very complicated, and in some of them Geller had an advantage, the outcome was the same in every single game. Black's king was simply annihilated.
Even though Spassky played White and Nigmatov played Black, he still managed to borrow all the opening ideas of the world champion! The attacking pawn structure on the kingside, placement of the pieces and even the defensive move 16...Rab8 were all well known thanks to these classical games.
Take a look:
At the critical moment of the game, when it looked like White was going to survive, Nigmatov found an astonishing combination that immediately decided the game. Before we look at this gem, let me show you the classical games that should make it easier for you to find Nigmatov's combination.
First, a little lesson from the master of swindles, GM Frank Marshall:
It was easy, wasn't it? Here is something more difficult to solve. Mikhail "The Magician" Tal offered Geller a free knight. Why did Geller reject the sacrifice?
Of course, Geller smelled a rat, rejected the sacrifice and won the game:
Now that you know where White's king is going to be checkmated, you should be able to find Nigmatov's combination:
I can only repeat the main message from the old article: When the chess team of Uzbekistan stuns the chess world again in the future, don't be surprised!
