Sunday 22 April 2007

Yakov Estrin - Happy Birthday

Yesterday (21st April) was the 84th anniversary of the birth of Yakov Estrin. Estrin covered a lot of ground as a chess player, being a Grandmaster in both the Correspondence (CC) and "Over the Board" (OTB) versions of the game. He was CC World Champion from 1972 to 1976 as well as author of a number of books, especially in the areas of chess openings. His book on the Traxler (Wilkes-Barre) opening is a particular favourite of mine.
Now in honouring a player I would normally find a spectacular win to publish. However while looking through Estrin's games I found a game where he played one of my all time favourite players, Rashid Nehzmetdinov. Unfortunately Estrin lost to one of Nehz's trademark attacks, but it looks so good I decided to use it anyway.

Nezhmetdinov,R - Estrin,Y [C92]
URS-ch sf Baku (4), 1951

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 d6 7.c3 Be7 8.Re1 0-0 9.h3 Be6 10.d4 Bxb3 11.Qxb3 Qd7 12.Nbd2 Rfe8 13.Nf1 exd4 14.cxd4 Na5 15.Qc3 Nc4 16.Ng3 c5 17.b3 Nb6 18.Bb2 b4 19.Qd2 a5 20.dxc5 dxc5 21.Qg5 h6 22.Qf4 c4 23.Bd4 Ra6 24.Nf5 Qe6 25.Bxb6 Rxb6 26.Nxg7 Kxg7 27.Nd4 Qc8 28.Nf5+ Kg8 29.Qg3+ Ng4 30.Qxg4+ 1-0

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