A concerted action of two or more chessmen designed to achieve a specific objective, such as to gain material advantage or to win a more favorable position, or to effect a checkmate.
For a ‘Petite Combinaison’ (French names used by Capablanca), let us see the game Tartakower-Capablanca, New York 1924. Tartakower played 9.Bxb8 hoping for Rxb8 then 9. Qa4+ followed by Qxb4, but Capablanca played the subtle 9…Nxd5 threatening 10…Ne3 with a win.
For a ‘Longue Combinaison’ let us go the famous game Mason-Szymon [C50], Vienna 1st Vienna (27), 13.06.1882.
Botvinnik said: A combination is a forced variation with sacrifice.
ECHESSPEDIA
Quotes of the Day
It’s always more difficult to hold the title than to get it.
Vladimir Akopian 2012
When I saw MVL’s position, it is like a football match where you’re 3:0 down, with two minutes to go and you’re down to 10 men!
Lev Aronian 2016
When your house is on fire, you can’t be bothered with the neighbors. Or, as we say in chess, if your King is under attack, don’t worry about losing a pawn on the queenside.
Garry Kasparov
Peter Svidler clearly needs to be more ambitious and take more risk. 12 draws out of 14 games, I mean, come on, that’s not a Champion’s attitude there!
Anish Giri
We will note the openings used by the participants of a nine-round match. The age of openings is considerably higher than the age of both rivals. Some opening positions could be analyzed by Steinitz when he was preparing to his match with Zukertort.
Mikhail Tal 1966 (Petrosian-Spassky match)
