Greetings everyone! The following game is well known because the unusual way that White won--using the King as an offensive piece! It's a fantastic game where even with heavy pieces still on the board, White was able to march his king into the enemy camp and used it to help deliver mate to the enemy king.
The game was played in 1991 between Nigel Short, then Britain's top player who challenged Gary Kasparov for the PCA World Championship in 1993. His opponent was Jan Timman, the Dutch top player who was also a World Championship challenger to Anatoly Karpov in the FIDE World Championship in same year (1993).
1.e4 Nf6 The Alekhine Defense, aiming to invite White to play e5 which Black will undermine later with moves like d6, Bg7.
2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2 usual moves per database are Ng5 going after the f7 pawn and preparing f4 or a4 to displace the b6 Knight. However from e2 the Queen adds another protection to e5, eyes c4 and b5 while freeing the d1 square for the Rook.
The game continued 7. ...Nc6 8.O-O O-O 9.h3 a5 10.a4 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nd4 12.Nxd4 Qxd4 13.Re1 e6 14.Nd2 Nd5 another option is Bd7 with the idea of Bc6.
15.Nf3 Qc5 16.Qe4 Qb4 17.Bc4 Nb6 (17.Bxd5 exd5 18.Qxd5 winning a pawn looks good to me)
18.b3 I must admit I don't understand this sequence. The move leads to an ugly pawn structure and gives up the Bishop pair but it keeps the Queens on the board and computer analysis likes it.
Black happily took the Bishop 18. ...Nxc4 19.bxc4 Re8 20.Rd1 Qc5 21.Qh4 b6 22.Be3 Qc6 aiming for White's Kingside together with Bb7 but here Stockfish prefers Qf8 to prevent White's Bh6.
23.Bh6 Bh8 (23. ...Bxh6 24.Qxh6 Bb7 25.Rd5! exd5 26.Ng5 is winning)
24.Rd8 Bb7 25.Rad1 Bg7 26.R8d7 Rf8 Black is tied down and his pieces are passive.
27.Bxg7 Kxg7 28.R1d4 Rae8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.h4 h5 31.Kh2 Rc8 Now White has achieved an amazing position and finds the idea of marching his King to Black's h6 square. Consequently, Black seems to be in zugzwang and cannot do anything to prevent this idea. This is why I liked this game 😀
32.Kg3 Rce8 33.Kf4 Bc8 34.Kg5 1-0
Link to the game
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