If you come home after a hard day's work and want to relax with a bit of chess, replaying heavy-blooded manoeuvring battles, in which after 60 moves someone finally gains a mini advantage, is not necessarily the best idea. Short games, however, are very popular with chess consumers: one side makes a clearly identifiable mistake in the opening, the opponent exploits it immediately, it becomes tactical, perhaps a nice final combination, and after 20 moves at the latest it's over. It's entertaining, instructive - and also somehow comforting when you realise that one of the really big names, such as a future world champion, can be caught out early ...
Candidates final 1974 - the invitation 12...Rb8? was gratefully accepted by Kortschnoj in Kortschnoj,V - Karpov,A 1-0 (annotations Igor Stohl). Incidentally, he later asked the arbiter whether it was allowed to castle with an attacked rook ...
9.h4! - in Fischer,R - Robatsch,K 1-0 Renato Quintiliano quotes Fischer's attacking motto against Dragon positions: "h4-h5, tear open the h-file, sac, sac, mate!"
Speaking of Scandinavian miniatures ...
On 11...Rxd2!! in Sutovsky,E - Van Wely,L 0-1 Martin Lorenzini comments: "It's very unusual for top grandmasters, who have both passed the 2700 mark at some point in their careers, to have a game in which the white player can resign on move 11!"
For CBM 225, we invited our authors to comment on miniatures with which they associate special memories. The result is a colourful mixture of their own successes/failures, outsider victories, Olympic highlights, classics and modern top-class encounters, a total of 25 hits from the period from 1962 to 2023 - we wish you the very best chess entertainment!
More miniatures
On 8...Ne5!! (Babula,V - Kurajica,B 0-1) Adhiban Baskaran writes: 'This brilliant move is precisely why I selected this game. Finding such ideas is key to becoming a stronger player - and they can absolutely be nurtured through dedicated training!'
Emanuel Berg contributes two of his own short works.
17...Ne5 and four black knight moves later White resigned (Tari,A - Berg,E 0-1).
Albin Counter Gambit - and open fire on the white king after 14...Rxd4! 15.exd4 Qxd4 (Gordon,S - Berg,E 0-1).
The innovation 10.Bxh6! from Maus,S - Huebner,R 1-0 was actually not from Soenke Maus, but from his former teammate Murray Chandler - Martin Breutigam knows the details.
Romain Edouard found himself on the winning and losing side.
After the line opening 12.e5! it quickly became very uncomfortable for the black king e8 in Edouard,R - Tkachiev,V 1-0.
20.Bd2?? (Edouard,R - Garcia Ramos,D 0-1) - 'A second after dropping my piece I suddenly felt like the most stupid person in the world!'
12.Qh5!+- - when he won Grigoriants,S - Kalugin,S 1-0 Sergey Grigoriants was just twelve years old!
In Sax,G - Szieberth,A 1-0 Black relied on 17.Nxg6 Qf7, but ... Imre Héra comments.
Michal Krasenkov still painfully remembers his opening blunder 10.Qe4? in Krasenkov,M - Kishnev,S 0-1.
Besides Sutovsky,E - Van Wely,L 0-1 (see above) Martin Lorenzini takes a closer look at another Scandinavian short game.
10.b4!! (Vachier Lagrave,M - Papaioannou,I 1-0) - 'A brilliant interpretation of the position by the great Frenchman! The advance of the b-pawn without piece development on the queenside and with the only central pawn still on its starting square (d2) is a clear exception to the rules.'
Knight on the edge - according to Jan Markos, 7...Nh5? was perhaps already the cause of Black's defeat in Bacrot,E - Sargissian,G 1-0.
And he also recognizes a clear culprit in Sasikiran,K - Bocharov,D 1-0: 12... f6??.
5...Bxf2+! - Karsten Mueller looks back on a junior win with the Traxler Variation (Talkenberg,R - Mueller,K 0-1).
You can also enjoy the miniature in Karsten Mueller's video presentation
Petra Papp's 16. Qd8+! in Papp,P - Lomineishvili,M 1-0 got the 'Move of the Day' award!
In Postny,E - Stevic,H 1-0 Black had a blackout with 14...Nxf2?? - Evgeny Postny remembers.
Renato Quintiliano not only analyses a storming victory by Fischer from the 1962 Varna Olympiad (Fischer,R - Robatsch,K 1-0, see above), but also a defeat of his own.
After 17...Nd5!? Black almost pulled his head out of the noose in Leitao,R - Quintiliano Pinto,R 1-0
In Thorsteins,K - Reeh,O 0-1, after 15...Nfd7 Oliver Reeh's knight soon ended up on c3!
In Ris,R - Spraggett,K 1-0 Robert Ris started the action with 12.Nxf7! Kxf7 13.Nxd5.
12.Qb3! in Stein,L - Birbrager,I 1-0 Yago Santiago found 'simply brilliant!'
Tanmay Srinath uses the same expression for 16.e4!! in Kramnik,V - Giri,A 1-0
18.Bd2! - the Indian also comments on Mamedyarov,S - Inarkiev,E 1-0 where Black waited too long with castling.
Igor Stohl looks back in detail at two duels from the 70s, Queen's Indian (Korchnoi,V - Karpov,A 1-0, see above) and Pirc - with the decisive mistake on move 12 in each case!
The Slovak himself in action - 12.Qc6? 0-0! 13.Qxa8 fxg5 gave Black overwhelming compensation for the exchange (Hnat - Stohl,I 0-1).
Krisztian Szabo analyses two games with a total of only 30 moves!
In the sharp Najdorf Bogner,S - Szabo,K 0-1 11.Bd5! would have been very interesting, however, there followed 11.Rhe1 Be7 and only now 12.Bd5? ...
Just don't automatically recapture - after 7.e5! Black already had their back to the wall in Szabo,K - Fodor,T 1-0.