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
16. “By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don’t swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking.
Anatoly Karpov
When you see a good move, look for a better one
Emanuel Lasker
If the FIDe elections were not decided by the votes of the delegates but by the world’s chess society as a whole, there would not even be a competition.
Anatoly Karpov NIC 2010
Kramnik was the luckiest man in the history of chess. He never won a single cycle, he got all the matches that he played for political reasons.
Veselin Topalov 2014
Botvinnik and Tal are among the best; I also like Spassky, but I think Petrosian is better than all of them. His weakness is too many draws, even against players he could beat easily. Maybe he lacks self-confidence.
Robert Fischer 1960
