The other day I was annotating a game for the upcoming issue of Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly. The game started with Botvinnik Gambit in the Semi-Slav, and given how well known (and often played) this line is, it was hardly surprising I found the first 15 moves pretty familiar (especially as it involves a queen sac by White). In fact I even played the black side of the position back in 1995, and suffered the fate of most players with the black pieces (ie I lost). Doing a bit of digging to see how far back this specific line goes I was surprised that it was first played in 1959. Previously I had been aware of Hollis v Baumbach 1976 (via Jon Speelman's "Best Chess Games 1970-80"), and indeed Speelman himself believed the queen sac was a creation of Hollis', but it seems that it had been played at least 3 times previously.
Here is the original game, which actually ends in a win for Black. Since then however the scales are firmly tipped in favour of White, including the upcoming game in ACCQ.
Tan Hiong Liong - Sydor,Andrzej [D44]Legion tt Warsaw (3), 1959
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 Qb6 13.Bg2 0-0-0 14.0-0 Ne5 (D)
15.dxe5 Rxd1 16.Rfxd1 Bc5 17.Ne4 Bd4 18.Rd2 Rd8 19.Rad1 c5 20.Nd6+ Rxd6 21.Bxb7+ Qxb7 22.exd6 Qf3 23.Re1 e5 24.d7+ Kd8 25.h4 Qxg3+ 26.Kf1 Qh3+ 27.Ke2 Bxb2 28.Rb1 Bc3 29.Rd6 Bd4 30.Be3 Qg4+ 31.Kf1 a6 32.Ra1 Qh3+ 33.Kg1 Qf5 34.h5 Qxh5 0-1
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