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Subject: GM Christiansen's rook sac from today's US Championship. Unsound?

Author: Peter Kappler

Date: 18:26:19 01/06/02



Christiansen sacrificed a rook for two pawns here, with Rxe6!?

[D]r3k2r/pp1n1pbp/2p1p1p1/1q6/3P4/1QP2N1P/PP3PP1/R1B1R1K1 w kq - 2 14

He went on to win the game (see PGN below), but is this sac really sound?
You'll probably want to skip ahead a few moves and start from this position:

[D]r1k4r/pp1n2bp/2p1Q1p1/1q4B1/3P4/2P2N1P/PP3PP1/R5K1 w - - 2 17

Christiansen played Re1 here, which Chess Tiger thinks is losing for White (-2
pawns or so).  Instead, Tiger prefers Qf7, and sees a lot of compensation for
White, but not enough to justify the sacrifice.  For example: 1. Qf7 Bf6 2. Bxf6
Qf5 3. Ne5 Nxf6 4. g4 Nxg4 5. hxg4 Qxf7 6. Nxf7 Rf8 7. Re1 Kd7 8. Ne5+ Kd6 and
White has a pawn for the exchange but is probably losing.

Crunch this one for a while and tell me if you find differently.

-Peter

[Event "US Championships"]
[Site "Seattle, Washington"]
[Date "2002.01.06"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Christiansen(GM)"]
[Black "Foygel(FM)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2571"]
[BlackElo "2474"]
[Opening "Robatsch defense"]
[ECO "B06"]
[NIC "KF.05"]
[Time "15:34:06"]
[TimeControl "6000+30"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 d5 5. h3 Nf6 6. Bd3 dxe4 7. Nxe4 Nxe4 8.
Bxe4 Bf5 9. Bxf5 Qa5+ 10. c3 Qxf5 11. O-O Nd7 12. Re1 e6 13. Qb3 Qb5 14.
Rxe6+ fxe6 15. Qxe6+ Kd8 16. Bg5+ Kc8 17. Re1 Rf8 18. Qe7 Kc7 19. Qxg7 Rxf3
20. Re5 Qxb2 21. gxf3 {White wins} 1-0




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