Great game, but white was never that far down on material. Black had to keep giving back material. Keeping track of the sacrifices: on move 11 there's the initial exchange sacrifice, then on move 16 black gave back a piece to facilitate an attack (so it's two pieces for a rook at that stage), this is black's only voluntary sacrifice. Then on move 19 there's the queen sacrifice. On move 20 black's unconditionally forced to give up a bishop and to avoid checkmate has to give up a rook on move 23. That leaves rook and 4 minor pieces again Q+R+B, which is dead level, in fact white was briefly a pawn up. Then on move 28 white gives up a bishop and then a rook for the final checkmating attack. I wonder if black could take the knight on move 27 or just try for a repetition with Qxe2 then. It's nice to see the Benko torn to pieces.
19 Mar '15 14:37Great game, but white was never that far down on material. Black had to keep giving back material. Keeping track of the sacrifices: on move 11 there's the initial exchange sacrifice, then on move 16 black gave back a piece to facilitate an attack (so it's two pieces for a rook at that stage), this is black's only voluntary sacrifice. Then on move 19 there's the queen sacrifice. On move 20 black's unconditionally forced to give up a bishop and to avoid checkmate has to give up a rook on move 23. That leaves rook and 4 minor pieces again Q+R+B, which is dead level, in fact white was briefly a pawn up. Then on move 28 white gives up a bishop and then a rook for the final checkmating attack. I wonder if black could take the knight on move 27 or just try for a repetition with Qxe2 then. It's nice to see the Benko torn to pieces.