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The following game (flaws and all) is one of my favorites since it shows a nice integration of tactics and strategic savvy by both players (my lemming-like desire to self-destruct gives it flavor!). Petrosian (again!) was famous for his positional Exchange sacrifices, and his games taught me the value of giving up material for positional compensation.

R Ervin-Silman
San Francisco 1976
1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Nb3 Nf6 7.Nc3 d6 8.0-0 0-0 9.h3 Bd7 10.e4 Ne5 11.a4 Rc8 12.Nd4 a6 13.Nce2 Bc6! 14.f4 Ned7 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.Be3 Rb8 17.b3 c5 18.Rb1 Qc7 19.c4 (I hadn't played the opening particularly well and now was facing slow suffocation due to my lack of counterplay [it's almost impossible to attack b3 in any meaningful way], White's two Bishops, White's superiority in space, and White's long-term chances against my King. Realizing that the situation was critical, I thought for an hour and came up with a very interesting plan.)

Black to move. Can you find a good plan for him?

19...Rfc8!! 20.Qd3 Nf8 21.g4 Ne6 22.g5 Nd7 (It was only now that White saw what I was up to!) 23.Kh1! Nd4! (Now the point of 19...Rfc8 can be seen: by making the f8-square accessible to my Knight, I was able to maneuver this piece to d4 where it can take part in an assault against b3. If White chops on d4 and wins a pawn, the newly opened queenside lines and my remaining Knight's access to c5 gives Black tremendous compensation and active play.) 24.Nxd4 cxd4 25.Bxd4 Bxd4 26.Qxd4 (White's 23.Kh1 was important, since Black could force the trade of Queens by 26...Qc5 if the White King still stood on g1. Why would Black want to exchange Queens when he's down a pawn? Because Black is doing very well on the queenside, while White's main hope is a counterattack against the Black King. This wouldn't be possible if the Queens were no longer on the board.) 26...Rb4 27.Qd1 Rcb8 (Though a pawn behind, Black's position has suddenly turned into a thing of beauty: he is exerting tremendous pressure against b3, can increase it by ...Qb6, and his Knight will rule on the luscious c5-square.) 28.e5! (A lovely move! White gives the pawn back to activate his Bishop and also clogs up the e5-square in anticipation of a f4-f5 advance. The immediate f4-f5 would let Black's Knight leap to e5, and would also doom the White Bishop to permanent passivity.) 28...dxe5 29.f5 gxf5!? (With the thrill of battle burning through my veins, I "forgot" about my new "safety first" approach [29...Nc5 was a sensible move] and decided to enter into a long tactical sequence that seemed so interesting that I simply couldn't resist it.) 30.Rxf5 e6 31.Rf1 (31.Rf6 fails to 31...Nxf6 32.gxf6 Qxc4! 33.Qg1 Qd4.) 31...Nc5 32.Qh5 Rxb3 33.Rbe1 Nd3?? (This pushes the envelope a bit too far! Instead of the suicidal text, the obvious 33...Rb2 would have given Black the advantage.) 34.Be4 f5 35.gxf6 (Why would anyone in their right mind purposely enter such a situation? I was caught up in the tactics and forgot about the lesson learned from Petrosian: always deprive your opponent of counterplay! I thought [in my "manly" frenzy] that I had calculated everything through to the end but, of course, such positions are full of surprises and the slightest miscue can turn a well earned win into a tragic defeat.) 35...Nf4 36.Rxf4?? (This is what I had expected. For some reason I had completely missed the obvious 36.Qg5+ Kh8 37.f7 Rxh3+ 38.Kg1 when Black can resign. Fortunately, my opponent shared my hallucination.) 36...exf4 37.Rg1+ Rg3 38.Rxg3+ fxg3 39.Qg5+ Kh8 40.f7 (This was the position I had envisioned when playing 33...Nd3. My opponent thought he was winning [40...Qxf7 41.Qe5+ picks up Black's Rook with check], having completely underestimated my reply.) 40...g2+!, 0-1. This nice move turns the tables, but his resignation was premature. He should have played on by 41.Kg1 (41.Qxg2 allows 41...Qxf7, while 41.Bxg2 Rb1+ is even worse.) 41...Qb6+ 42.c5 Qb2 43.Qf4, though 43...Qd4+ 44.Kxg2 Qg7+ followed by 45...Rf8 would not be pleasant for White.

The Ervin game brings to mind a possible chess fortune cookie: "Man that desires adventure in place of common sense will often end up face down in gutter!" In other words, playing for tactics for the sake of tactics is a foolhardy pursuit.

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