The Kernighan Experience

Goeller - Kernighan
White to play.

I have annotated Goeller - Kernighan, KCC Summer Tourney 2011, from Thursday night.   As often happens in my games with Mark, I sacrificed material to drive his King into the open and had a great attack going until I lost on time.  I call this "the Kernighan experience."  You might prefer to call it "repetition compulsion." But I found the experience very enjoyable despite the potentially traumatic result.  Always in my games with Mark I am reaching toward Tal-like artistry, but that perfect game remains always just outside my grasp.  I came pretty close this time to grabbing it, which was satisfaction enough for me.


Before we started, Ian Mangion (seated at the next board) joked that I should definitely play for a sac at f7 as he had done in a recent win over Mark.  At that point, I decided to try the Cochrane Gambit if Mark went in for his usual Petroff. When Mark played the Caro-Kann, however, I said to Ian, "Oh well, no f7 sac." But the idea was definitely planted in my head and likely influenced my play in the game.  In the diagrammed position above, I began my attack by playing 12.f5! exf5 13.Nxf5 gxf5 14.Nxf7!!