Your Moves for the Day: h7-is-a-great-square-to-sack-a-piece Edition

Two moves today, both of which offer a standard motif, but with a catch! From the insanely complicated game Alexander Morozevich vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Biel 2009.


After a very complicated opening, a complicated middle-game ensued. Here, Black is getting the worst of it. 

Morozevich vs. MVL

Position after 27 h5!?

27...Rh7!!

Anish Giri offered this assessment in his book After Magnus (a review of which will be forthcoming):

This stunning move doesn't save the game, but considering that the alternative was resignation, it is especially strong. Now Morozevich began to lose his cool. (pg 58)

[Incomplete Anecdote Alert! - ed.] Pace [name withheld due to poor memory], I can imagine certain players would rather resign the game than play such a move!

[UPDATE from 2015 November 17: Paul Leggett supplied the answer. It was Taimanov! More here.]

Later, the same game produced the following position. By now Black was theoretically winning. But he still had that knot of pieces on the king-side.

Morozevich vs. MVL

Position after 52 Kd5

Black is up a rook and a knight for a couple of pawns, but can he activate them? The knight seems stuck. For example, 52 ... Nxg6 53 Bxg6! Kf8 54 Ke6 and Black's king is trapped, no progress can be made, and the half-point is saved! (Incidentally, computers aren't good at 'seeing' this idea.) However,

52 ... Nh7!!

saves the day, and it's the only way for Black to escape.

So the motif in question is the piece sacrifice on h7 in return for a pawn. The catch is that this time Black offered the piece for the pawn.

The whole game is full of strange and wonderful stuff, but it'll leave your mind feeling like Jello. Full game below.