Karpov - Mariotti , 1975 (Portoroz/Ljubljana) - Question

Can someone tell me why black resigned in the final position. It just seemed a little premature to me. I know that he was about to lose a pawn, but isn't there some fight left in the game?


[Event "Portoroz/Ljubljana"]
[Site "Ljubljana"]
[Date "1975.06.17"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Karpov, Anatoly"]
[Black "Mariotti, Sergio"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C64"]
[WhiteElo "2705"]
[BlackElo "2495"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "1975.06.02"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "15"]
[EventCountry "YUG"]
[EventCategory "10"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. O-O Qf6 5. c3 Nge7 6. b4 Bb6 7. Na3 g5 8. d4
g4 9. Nxe5 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Qxe5 11. Qxg4 Qxc3 12. Rb1 Rg8 13. Qh5 Qg7 14. g3 c6
15. Bd3 d6 16. Nc4 Bg4 17. Qh4 Nc8 18. e5 dxe5 19. Bh6 Bd8 20. Bxg7 Bxh4 21.
Bxe5 f5 22. Na5 1-0

Sitting across the world champion,a pawn down,4 isolani's scathered across the board,king wide open.

My guess:
Mariotti felt like a christian in a Roman arena.
With the difference that the christians stood a better chance.

White appears to have quite better prospects.

Black is quite lost here,Its hard to even suggest a Move...look at the piece-placement its very depressing for black!

In terms of total compensation, white is up by more than a pawn, I think.

1) Black's b7 pawn bishop on h4 are both under attack. It means the b7 pawn will probably fall, and white's knight on a5 will become more active and take up a better position in the process.
2) Black's queen's rook is not in the game, and it will be hard to get it in the game, given white's initiative.
3) White's king is more secure, while black's king is a target trapped in the center of the board.

Basically, black is in a markedly inferior, even dangerous position, and does not even have the luxury of escaping into an ending, as that would be a lost cause as well.

To your point, I think many of us here on the site would keep playing a few more moves just to look for a mistake, but against Karpov, this is like Bill Paxton in Aliens: "Game over man! Game over!"

EDIT: It's also possible that all his buds had finished their games and were down at the pub, and he just thought he would save the time and call it a day!

From http://chessgames.com/player/sergio_mariotti.html

"According to Pal Benko, GM Sergio Mariotti is a very dangerous tactician but he has no stubbornness. If he does not succeed in sacrificing, if his trick does not work, if his opponent does not fall into his trap --- then he loses interest in the game. Sometimes he even resigns in adjourned positions that could be saved."

Black's only real hope is that white takes the bishop on h4. Which would allow black to mate after Bf3+. This trick wouldn't even work against 1400+ players.
Resigning this early against Karpov seems justified.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
From http://chessgames.com/player/sergio_mariotti.html

"According to Pal Benko, GM Sergio Mariotti is a very dangerous tactician but he has no stubbornness. If he does not succeed in sacrificing, if his trick does not work, if his opponent does not fall into his trap --- then he loses interest in the game. Sometimes he even resigns in adjourned positions that could be saved."

From this, it is clear to me that "GM Sergio Mariotti" is really a cover for our own Greenpawn34! Much in the same way that "Cludi" is really...

Oh, never mind.

Originally posted by watchyourbackrank
Black's only real hope is that white takes the bishop on h4. Which would allow black to mate after Bf3+. This trick wouldn't even work against 1400+ players.
Resigning this early against Karpov seems justified.

Capturing the bishop instead of playing Na5 is probably equal, but I don't see the mate.

White will block with the dark-squared bishop (backward piece moves are hard to see). He'll probably lose it after ...f5-f4 and have not much more than equality which is why Karpov left it hanging there on h4 to collect later if needed.

The book I have on Portorez/Ljubljana has this game annotated by Marriotti and he says at the end simply "Black loses a pawn without any counterplay".

I imagine that he didn't want to play it out against a player of Karpov's caliber as I'm sure it's quite lost. Nonetheless, I suspect a lot of us would play on here, at least for a little while, until the "lost" became a little more obvious to us mere mortals.

Originally posted by Erekose
The book I have on Portorez/Ljubljana has this game annotated by Marriotti and he says at the end simply "Black loses a pawn without any counterplay".

I imagine that he didn't want to play it out against a player of Karpov's caliber as I'm sure it's quite lost. Nonetheless, I suspect a lot of us would play on here, at least for a little while, until the "lost" became a little more obvious to us mere mortals.

I thought about this some more, and I wonder if we here (me included) all say we'd probably play on a few moves simply because the position is new and fresh to us, while the player who resigned had obviously spent a lot of time and energy on the game leading up to the position we have in front of us.

It is very possible, even likely, that black reached the "I'll play on a few moves, take a shot or two" mentality a few moves prior to the position we have, and resigned when he got to the end of his "few more moves".

It is so different for us, looking at a position in a clinical, sterile environment, compared to the player sitting at the table for a long period of time with a ticking clock under tournament conditions, that sometimes it's hard to relate.

This is one of the advantages of playing through games in a book on a tournament. You can follow a player from round to round, and get a feel for the ups and downs and the flow of events that connects the games together to tell a story.

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
Capturing the bishop instead of playing Na5 is probably equal, but I don't see the mate.

White will block with the dark-squared bishop (backward piece moves are hard to see). He'll probably lose it after ...f5-f4 and have not much more than equality which is why Karpov left it hanging there on h4 to collect later if needed.

so like the notes said, it comes down to just being a pawn down against a world champ, he can't save the pawn. then rook checks coming up bishops swarming all over black space, something would surely give in a few moves after the pawn dies.

Originally posted by sonhouse
so like the notes said, it comes down to just being a pawn down against a world champ, he can't save the pawn. then rook checks coming up bishops swarming all over black space, something would surely give in a few moves after the pawn dies.

You're refering to the actual game, right? I was just commenting that white can safely capture the bishop on h4 without being mated, contrary to what had been posted previously. It's just not good to capture, because the position is roughly equal after the capture, whereas Karpov's Na5 is winning.

I think we're on the same page, but I wanted to make sure I understood you correctly.