Horde Chess

Author: Problemist

One of the variants that attracted me to BrainKing was Horde chess. There has always been something about pawns and their movements that attracted me, particularly pawn chains and big groupings of pawns. In “regular” chess, one of my favorite sacrifices for potential advantage was the sacrifice of a piece for a pawn chain. Grandmaster Gligoric wrote some articles about this in the 1970s, and one of the most famous games with a very spectacular – and speculative! – sacrifice of this sort was made by the chess artist and “World co-champion” GM Bronstein:

Bronstein,D - Rojahn,E

Moscow Olympiad 1956

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.d3 h6 7.Nf3 e4 8.dxe4 Nxc4 9.Qd4 Nb6 10.c4 c5 11.Qd3 Bg4 12.Nbd2 Be7 13.0–0 0–0 14.Ne5 Bh5 15.b3 Nbd7 16.Bb2 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 Nd7 18.Bc3 Bf6 19.Rae1 Bxc3 20.Qxc3 Qf6 21.e5 Qf5 22.f4 Bg6 23.Ne4 Rab8 24.Qf3 Bh7 25.g4 Qg6 26.f5 Qb6 27.Qg3 f6 28.e6 Ne5 29.h4 Kh8 30.g5 Rbc8 31.Kh1 Qd8 32.g6 Bxg6 33.fxg6 b5 34.d6 Qb6 35.d7 Nxd7 36.exd7 Rcd8 37.Nxf6 Qc6+ 38.Qg2 1–0

If that game doesn’t impress the power of the pawns, I don’t know what will!