Tactics: Benoni Bombs

John Upper's picture
Submitted by John Upper on Thu, 01/19/2017 - 16:45

This week's Canadian Tactic comes from the final round board 1 game of the 2017 Ottawa Winter Open between Svitlana Demchenko and David Gordon.

Black needed only a draw to clinch first place; but played the Benoni anyway. Clearly, there are some players who even today have learned little from Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik -- Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School -- and still prefer to imitate the hooliganism of Tal. :)

White has just played 26.Nc4, going after Black's backward d6-pawn. What should Black do?

Hint:

Spoiler: Highlight to view

Sorry, no hint this time. But try to evaluate it to the end, not just a "safety-net" position.

Solution in the game notes:

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 Round:  Result:

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