Abdul-Razzaq Ahmed Taha was an Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player and former president of Iraqi Chess Federation.

He represented the Iraqi national team in the Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

 on three occasions, 1972 in Skopje

Skopje

Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...

, 1974 in Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

 and 1984 in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

. In the 1972 Olympiad he played the top board for Iraq which eventually finished second last, Taha scoring 4 wins, 4 draws and 9 losses. However his upset win over the grandmaster Walter Browne in the match against Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 was spectacular and became part of the chess education for all Iraqi chess players, and Simon Webb in Chess for Tigers selected this game as one of two examples of "How to trap Heffalump

Heffalump

A Heffalump is a type of fictional elephant in the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. Heffalumps are mentioned, but never appear, in Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner and later featured in the animated The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Pooh's Heffalump Movie...

s", in a chapter on how to play against opponents who are considerably stronger than oneself.

Win over Walter Browne

White: Walter Browne

Black: Abdul-Razzaq Ahmed Taha

Opening: French Defence

French Defence

The French Defence is a chess opening. It is characterised by the moves:The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, though it can result in a somewhat cramped game for Black in the early stages...

, Classical Variation

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Nb5 Nb6 8.a4 a6 9.a5 axb5 10.axb6 Rxa1 11.Qxa1 (diagram)

White is threatening 12.Qa8 which will win either the b8-knight or c8-bishop. Webb notes that castling is Black's main continuation. However, Taha decides to continue far more audaciously with a bold piece sacrifice

Sacrifice (chess)

In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....

.

11...c6 12.Qa8

Again, Webb notes that White has little choice but to accept the sacrifice, or else Black simply castles and will eventually win the b6-pawn. However, after White moves his queen to take the material, White has still not developed the kingside and Black prepares to attack the White king.

12...0-0 13.Qxb8 Qb4+ 14.c3 Qxb2 15.Ne2 b4 16.cxb4 Qxb4+ 17.Kd1 Qb3+ 18.Kd2 Qb4+ 19.Kd3

Browne is the stronger player, and still hoping to win the game, he (perhaps unwisely according to Webb) decides to avoid 19.Kd1 with perpetual check

Perpetual check

In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. Such a situation typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate; while failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance...

.

19...c5 20.Qc7 c4+ 21.Ke3 Qb3+ 22.Kf4 Qd3 23.f3 Qd2+ 24.Kg3 Qe1+ 25.Kh3 Qf2 26.Kg4 f6 27.exf6 e5+ 28.Kh5 gxf6 29.dxe5 fxe5 30.Qe7 Rf5+, White resigns

Mate will follow in a few moves