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Your support makes all the difference.Few players can have tried so many different defences to 1.e4 as Tony Miles has experimented with in his career. After a misspent youth with the Dragon Sicilian, he dabbled in several variations of the Caro- Kann, beat Karpov with 1...a6, and has recently been playing 1...Nf6 and 1...Nc6. To judge from his first place in the recent Madras tournament, however, he has recently discovered the best move of all: 1...e5. Here is how he beat one of the best Indian players in an old line of the Ruy Lopez.
At first glance, Black's opening play looks absurd: four of his first nine moves are made with one knight, and two with the king. But he does obtain a solid position and good control of the white squares. Miles's 10...a5 is better than the 10...h5 he played against Karpov in the same position six years ago. That game had continued 11.Rd1 Be7 12.Bg5 and the exchange of black-squared bishops left White with the advantage.
This time, Miles exchanged his bishop for a knight, reachine approximate equality until White over-reached with 16.e6. White's game became too loose after swapping e-pawn for a-pawn, and thanks to the opposite-coloured bishops (never as drawish as many people think when rooks are still on the board) Miles won the endgame with ease. At the end, the threat of a mating attack with Rg4+ is fatal.
White: Pravin Thipsay
Black: Tony Miles
1 e4 e5 18 f4 Bxe6
2 Nf3 Nc6 19 Bxa5 h5
3 Bb5 Nf6 20 g5 Kd7
4 0-0 Nxe4 21 Bd2 Rha8
5 d4 Nd6 22 Be3 Bxh3
6 Bxc6 dxc6 23 Bxc5 Nf5
7 dxe5 Nf5 24 Nxf5 Bxf5
8 Qxd8 Kxd8 25 b4 Kc6
9 Nc3 Ke8 26 Re7 fxg5
10 b3 a5 27 fxg5 g6
11 Bb2 Bb4 28 c4 Ra4
12 h3 Bxc3 29 Re5 b6
13 Bxc3 c5 30 Bf2 Rxb4
14 Rfe1 h6 31 c5 b5
15 g4 Ne7 32 Be3 Rb2
16 e6 f6 33 a3 Ra4
17 Nh4 Ra6 White resigns.
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