Is there anything more disheartening to discover, after an encounter with one of the world's greatest players, that in one moment you had the opportunity to win with the most spectacular move of your career? This was the unfortunate mishap of the Swedish international master Lars-Ake Schneider in the 13th round of the Olympiad in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Poor Schneider did not know what he had missed until his opponent on the Soviet team, Mikhail Tal, a former world champion pointed out the devastating queen sacrifice that would have decided the game. Tal had not seen the move until after his hand had quit his move and then there was nothing to do except look nonchalant and hope.
Gari Kasparov, the Soviet No. 2 player, was standing behind Schneider and saw it. Several other spectators saw it, but no one betrayed anything. And Schneider played routinely and quickly lost.
As if this was not bad enough, Schneider was keenly aware that winning this game would have given the Swedish team its first victory over the Russians.
The 6 P-B4 system against the Najdorf Sicilian that Schneider used often creates dangerous attacking chances, but if the attack fails, White has little to fall back on.
After 13 Q-R4, Tal preferred 13 . . .P-R3 to 13 . . .0-0; 14 B-R6, B-N2; 15 N-N5, with a tricky attack on the black king. For example, one trap that has to be avoided here is 15 . . .N-R4?; 16 BxB, KxB; 17 RxPch!, RxR; 18 N-K6ch, winning the queen. However, Tal's alternative brought up the question of how Black could get castled.
On 17 B-Q2, it is not clear whether Tal should have played 17 . . .P-QR4. This would not solve his castling problem, but how would White defend his loose QP in a constructive way?
Schneider's 19 QR-Q1 still prevented 19 . . .0-0? since 20 BxNP!, BxN; 21 RxB, PxB; 22 Q-B4ch recovers the piece and thus wins a pawn. Finally Tal achieved 21 . . .0-0 at the price of the doubled pawns created by 22 BxB, PxB. On the credit side of the ledger, the black pieces became active - the prime threat was to seize the initiative with 23 . . .R-B5.
The indirect exchange of pawns with 25 QxP, R-QB3; 26 Q-R3, QxP was good for Black provided he could defend his king after 27 R-Q7. And he could have - with 27 . . .R/3-B3.
However, Tal played 27 . . .P-K5?!, but after Schneider's 28 N-N5ch, it was necessary to avoid 28 . . .K-N1?; 29 RxBch!, KxR; 30 Q-Q7ch, forcing mate.
Tal did, with 28 . . .K-R1, but after 29 N-B7ch, he should have agreed to a draw with 29 . . .K-R2 allowing White to begin a repetition of position with 30 N-N5ch. Instead, still thinking to win the game, he erred with 29 . . .K-N1?
Now Schneider's moment for glory came - and went. He overlooked the chance for the tremendous queen sacrifice with 30 QxP! that would have smashed the black position to smithereens.
Thus, 30 . . .BxQ permits 31 NxBch, K-R1; 32 RxRmate. Moreover, 30 . . .RxN permits 31 R-Q8ch, R-B1; 32 R/8xRch, BxR; 33 RxBmate. And the defense with 30 . . .QxNP could have been annihilated by 31 Q-R8ch!, BxQ; 32 N-R6mate.
Consequently, Tal would have had to play 30 . . .P-N4, but after 31 QxP, he could not put up a fight. Thus, 31 . . .QxNP; 32 N-R6ch!, K-R2; 33 N-B5, RxN (33 . . .R-KN3; 34 Q-R5ch, K-N1; 35 N-K7mate); 34 QxRch is hopeless. In this same line, 32 . . .RxN; 33 RxRch, K-R2 (33 . . .KxR; 34 Q-Q8mate); 34 Q-B5ch, R-N3; 35 RxBch!, KxR; 36 R-B7ch, K-R3; 37 Q-R3ch, K-N4 allows 38 R-B5mate.
Still another hypothetical defense (after 30 . . .P-N4; 31 QxP) would have been 31 . . .K-R2, but then 32 Q-B5ch, R-N3; 33 N-N5ch, K-R3 (33 . . .K-R1; 34 QxRch!, BxQ; 35 RxBch, R-N1; 36 R-R7mate); 34 Q-R3ch, KxN; 35 R-Q5ch forces mate.
But the Swede played the pedestrian 30
P-KN3? and saw his attack quickly dissipate itself. After 36 . . .KxR,
Schneider gave up. SICILIAN DEFENSE White Black Schneider Tal 1 P-K4
P-QB4 2 N-KB3 P-Q3 3 P-Q4 PxP 4 NxP N-KB3 5 N-QB3 P-QR3 6 P-B4 Q-B2 7
B-Q3 P-KN3 8 0-0 B-N2 9 N-B3 QN-Q2 10 K-R1 P-K4 11 Q-K1 P-QN4 12 PxP
PxP 13 Q-R4 P-R3 14 P-QR4 P-N5 15 N-Q5 NxN 16 PxN B-N2 17 B-Q2 BxP 18
BxQNP N-B4 19 QR-Q1 B-K3 20 B-K4 R-QB1 21 B-Q5 0-0 22 BxB PxB 23 BxN
QxB 24 Q-KN4 K-R2 25 QxP R-QB3 26 Q-R3 QxP 27 R-Q7 P-K5 28 N-N5ch K-R1
29 N-B7ch K-N1 30 P-KN3 P-KR4 31 N-N5 QxNP 32 N-K6 RxRch 33 QxR B-B3 34
R-Q8ch K-B2 35 N-N5ch K-K2 36 NxP KxR Resigns TAL/BLACK rk R Nb p r pp
P p Q Pq PP R K SCHNEIDER/WHITE 1/23/83 Position after 29 . . .K-N1