How do you beat a GM? Game 1

IM Gary Lane runs Australian Chess Enterprise (ACE) and sells all matter of chess books and equipment.

https://www.chessaustralia.com.au/?p=catalog&g=bargains

This week’s good buy –

Chess Informators for $4.95. These books were the must have book for serious players for decades. They contain annotated games from the period by the best players in the world along with middle and endgame puzzles. They were $50 to $70 when first released. At this price (4.95) I would suggest ordering a couple to reduce the postage per item.

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Each week we will be looking at a win by Australian Olympian, IM Gary Lane, over Grandmasters.

How long is this going to take?

Well, he has beaten over 50 so put your feet up and enjoy.

On a more serious note, RCC will be delving into the playing careers of IMs Lane (over 50 victories) and Solomon (over 25 victories – mostly in Olympiads) to find out what goes into beating a GM.

Why do we need to do this?

Because our 2 Junior Teams (RCC Juniors and Highlanders) need to know how to win. Simple as that. We are looking for commonalities in the 80 games. In the first game against former World Champion, GM Boris Spassky, I notice that Gary got castled safely and kept the two bishops. Maybe that’s it. Mystery solved. My point is that IMs shouldn’t be able to beat GMs – but they do! How?

Will these 80 games be won by mostly tactics, strategy, positional play or even overconfidence by the stronger player. One game won’t tell us much, but 80 games with strong IMs beating strong GMs should give us a trend.

What is my prediction! Don’t ask me. I haven’t beaten a GM.

Hopefully we will nail down that extra ingredient that these two players brought to these games. And then we will organize some online Training Sessions focusing on the secret ingredient.

Maybe it was overall game strategy.

Maybe it was opening prep.

Maybe it was tactical mistakes. Let’s find out.

The first game is from a simul given by the former World Champion in London 1979.

[Event "Simul, 30b"]
[Site "London ENG"]
[Date "1979.01.20"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Boris Spassky"]
[Black "Gary W Lane"]
[ECO "C36"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. Nf3 exf4 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Bc4
Qe7+ 7. Kf1 Bg4 8. d4 c6 9. Bxf4 cxd5 10. Bb5+ Nc6 11. Nc3 Rc8
12. Qd3 Qd8 13. Ne5 Bd7 14. Re1 Be7 15. Bg5 O-O 16. Bxf6 Bxf6
17. Nxd5 Bh4 18. Re2 Qg5 19. g3 Nxe5 20. Rxe5 Qc1+ 21. Kg2
Rxc2+ 22. Re2 Rxe2+ 23. Qxe2 Bh3+ 24. Kxh3 Qxh1 25. Qe5 Bd8
26. Bd3 Qf3 27. Be2 Qf2 28. b3 Bf6 29. Nxf6+ Qxf6 30. Qxf6
gxf6 31. Kg4 Rd8 0-1

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