Rudenko Chess Brilliance

Today I will show you a game between the second women's world chess champion Lyudmila Rudenko and Rowena Bruce played in 1946 in the radio match between the USSR and England.

After a quiet Caro-Kann, Black played inaccurately and after move 12 the game reached the following position:

It's White to move.

Lyudmila Vladimirovna Rudenko continued by playing 13. Bxh6! after 13. ... gxh6 14. Qxh6 Nf8 the game reached another interesting position:

It's clear that White's attack is very strong but what should they do to continue this attack?

One of the most important principles when attacking is to try to use all the force that we have, all chess pieces have to take part in this attack. So by playing
15. Re3! Rudenko brought one more piece into play.
After 15. ... Ne7 16. Rg3+ Nfg6 another very important position arose:

What should White do next? It seems that 17. Bxg6 might very strong, but after 17. ... Nxg6 18. Rxg6 fxg6 19. Qg6+ Kf8 20. Qh6+ Kf7 21. Qh7+ the only thing that White can get is the perpetual because she sacrificied to much material and only her queen is at work right now. So intead of this forced variation White chose another calm move -
17. h4! with the threat of playing h5! and Black's position is hopeless. On the 28th move Rudenko checkmated her opponent.
Here is the whole game in pgn format:

[Event "ENG-URS radio"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Rudenko Lyudmila"]
[Black "Bruce Rowena M"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B13"]
[EventDate "1946"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. h3 e6 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. O-O
h6 9. Re1 O-O 10. Ne5 Bxe5 11. dxe5 Nd7 12. Qh5 Re8 13. Bxh6 gxh6 14. Qxh6 Nf8
15. Re3 Ne7 16. Rg3+ Nfg6 17. h4 Nf5 18. Bxf5 exf5 19. h5 Qh4 20. Nd2 Re6 21.
Nf3 Qe7 22. hxg6 Rxg6 23. Rxg6+ fxg6 24. Qxg6+ Kf8 25. Ng5 Qd7 26. Nh7+ Ke7 27.
Qf6+ Ke8 28. Qf8# 1-0

The chessboard is © www.pgnplayer.com where you can copy and paste any pgn moves and see the game on the board automatically.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com