Pawn Chains

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SCHACHVERLAG u. VERTRIEB OLBRICH GmbH WURZBURG 1994

CJP-Titclaufnahmc dcr Deutschen Bibliothek

C1"0uch, Colin: Pawn Chains: The present book looks at one J1ar1icular tyrc 'lf pawn tormntion. the central pawn chain, and \\ith various examples the various ways in which the positions resulting from such a fonnation may be handled.

(Schachvcrlag u. Vcrtricb Olbrich Gmbll) ISBN 3-929J24-10-S

ISBN 3-929324-10-5

0 1994 by Schachverlag u. Vertrieb Olbrich GmbH All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system

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£.ontentH

FOREWORD by Colin Crouch ................................................................ 6

1.Pawns chains: the basics .................................. . ................... . . ........ ... 9 Game 1 Korchnoi- Kasparov, Amsterdam 1991 ... . ............................. 14

2.The French is not the King's lndian . . . ............ . ........ . . ..... .. .......... . .... . .. 19 Game 2 Abramovic- Kovacevic, Yugoslav Ch. 1989 .......................... 22 Game 3 Gallagher- Crouch, Krumbach 1991 ... . . ............ : ................. 25

3.Pawns or squares? ........................................................................... 30 Game 4 Larsen - Bareyev. Hastings 1990/91 ...................................... 32 Game 5 Nimzowitsch- Salwe, Car1sbad 1911 ..................................... 38 Game 6 Korchnoi- Geller, Moscow 197Q (1 st iiiei!\:,�. �c.ii-•c) . . . ............. 43

4.The Tarrasch French ....................... . . ................................. .............. 48 Game 7 Ljubojevic- M.Gurevich, Linares 1991 .................................. 49 Game 8 Pyda - Likavsky. Czechoslovakia 1991 .................................. 53 Game 9 Smagin - Vaiser. Bamaul1984 .......... . .............................. . . ... 60 Game 10 Ernst- Crouch, London 1991 ............................................... 64

S.The unt>roken c:llain . . ........................................ .... . ............................. 69 Game 11 Piket - Kasparov, Tilt>urg 1989 ........... . ....... . ........ ......... . .... 69 Game 12 Cet>alo- Cvitan, Yugoslav Championship 1986 ................. 75

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6.The paradoxical push ....................... .......... . . . .............................. . .... 80 Game 13 Khalifman- Gelfand, Reggio Emilia 1991/92 .................... 80 Game 14 Lobron - Renet, Novi Sad 1990 ........ . . . . ... ................... ...... 82 Game 15 Mircovic- Todorcevic. Yugoslav Championship 1991 ........ 85

7.Biock and t>reak ............ ................... ...................... .. . . ............. . . . ...... 94 Game 16 Olafsson- Petrosian, Bled 1961 .......................................... 95

Analytical exercises ......................................................................... 1 02

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The computer age has brought about a remarkable informa­tion explosion in chess, and this has meant that a certain type of writing, pioneered by lnformator, has become prevalent . .. Languageless" notes, using sequences of moves and a range of symbols, can be read by anyone, and can be stored in comput­ers. The convenience of such notes can often hide the fact that while it is possible to examine tactics {precise sequences of moves} in great depth, it is made very difficult to write about strategy, xd6 for example says very little about why a weakness on d6 should be a dominant feature of the position; to explain, one needs to write notes in natural language. Pawn structure lies at the heart of strategy, and thus to begin to write about strategy it is necessary to write about particular types of pawn structures. We can leave such generalities as ucontrol the center", "develop your pieces", .. attack where your opponent is weakest" for the relatively elementary texts; more specific ques­tions need to be addressed. In the current book I examine the types of position which result from when a pawn chain (d4, e5 v d5, e6, or e4, d5 v e5, d6} is estab:ished in the center. This was a natural starting point for me since when I started writ­ing the book the French Defence was my front-line reply to 1 e4, and since in the age of Kasparov many of the most interesting theoretical debates and games are in the King's Indian. I hope that other titles, covering other types of position will follow. There is of course no single way of playing a pawn chain position, and indeed games played in the French and the King's Indian often appear as though they have nothing in common ... It is pre­cisely this variety of different approaches which I wished to cover in the illus&:rative games I have presented. Even sub-themes {e.g. the battle for control of the d4 square in Fiench Defence) could have books devoted to them, but in practice the strong player will gradually acquire a stock of understanding of such themes. All I can hope is that I have given the reader something to think about.

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As part of the basis for my own notes, I have of course made much use of already existing notes, in lnfonnator or elsewhere. Often even the best written notes leave questions unanswered, and often published not�s can be dubious or quite simply wrong. I have deliberately avoided entering analytical debates in the main text, not through laziness. but because I felt it would be useful for the reader himself or nerself to face the same analytical problems that I faced when annotating the game. Thus at the end of the book there is a series of about twenty analytical exercises for the reader to try out.

London.Janua�. 1994

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1. Pa"·n Chains : The Rasles

At the heart of the opening struggle in chess is the battle for the center. Naturally, with players of similar strength, the opening battle is unlikely to be resolved decisively; what in­stead happens is that particu­lar types of opening battles lead to particular types of pawn structure, and that the pawn structures which result set the agenda for middle game battle. In this book we examine one typical pawn structure, the central pawn chain, we see how this struc­ture arises, and we consider t�.e typical middlegames which result. Most of the examples are taken either from the French Defence or the King's Indian Defence, but the basic central formation can arise from other openings as well, for example the Ruy Lopez, the Sicilian (particularly the 2 ... d6 3 Bb5+1ines), the Caro­Kann (3 e5 lines), the Nimzo­lndian (where Black plays ... d6 and ... e5), the Hungarian, the Philidor, and many others be­sides. Firstly, we consider in detail

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how and why the basic struc­ture arises. 1- French Defence Stage one - the small center

The French Defence is the best illustration of the small center.

1 e4 e6 2 d4 dS

Familiar enough, but what has been happening? With his first move, 1 e4, White has laid claim to some space in the center. Black has vari­ous ways in which to respond. The .. classical" method would be for Black to stake an equi­valent claim with 1 . . . e5. White· e sole advantage then would be his extra move, and he would use this advantage by trying to lay siege to the e­pawn, starting perhaps with 2 Nf3 (attacking) 2 ... Nc6 (de­fending) 3 Bb5 (attacking the

defender).

Black has his center, but this center can be attacked. The small center approach !s based instead on the idea of creating a central strong­point so secure that it can­not possibly be overrun. In the diagram position for ex­ample, thera is simply no point in trying to attack the d5 square; White must seek his advantage in ether ways. The most important point in his favour is that he has an advan­tage in space ; White has con­trol and use of a central square ( e5) in the Black half of the board, whereas Black has no corresponding outpost in the White half of the board. Note however that Black is attack­ing the White pawn on e4; this creates some tension in the central position. In such position, with one pawn being attacked by an­other, there are three choices:

( I) Simplify by exchanging pawns (3 exd5)

(II) Advance the pawn (3 e5) (Il l) Maintain the tension by

protecting the attacked pawn (3 Nc3; 3 Nd2)

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With the second option, 3 e5 White can create a pawn chain immediately; we shall consider a little later why he generally prefers not to. The third option is the most common, and takes the central battle to a new stage. Stage two - central tension.

3Nc3

White protects his attacked pawn. Now Black must decide whether to simplify by ex­changing pawns (3 . .. dxe4), or whether to add to the central tension by a further attack on e4 (3 ... Bb4; 3 ... Nf6). After 3 .. . dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 Black's position is perhaps sound enough, but White has unquestionably got an advantage in space and freer piece mobility. Black must play carefully to equalize.

3 ... Nf6

Again White has a threefold choice: simplify (4 exd5), ad­vance (4 e5) or maintain the tension (4 Bg5). Simplification does not ach­ieve very much here, but 4 e5 is a perfectly valid altemative

to the text move.

4 BgS Be7

Black in his turn maintains the tension, which he could also have done with 4 ... Bb4, meet-ing 5 e5 with 5 ... h6 6 Bh4 (6 Bd2 is better) 6 ... g5. He could also have relieved the tension with 4 ... dxe4 5 Nxe4 Be 7, more popular here than on the previous move since it is easier with the White bishop already on g5 for Black to offer exchanges to make his position less cramped. After 4 . .. Be 7 we reach a critical posi­tion.

Stage three- formation of the pawn chain. White still has his three-way choice, but his alternatives are slowly diminishing; 5 exd5 of­fers little, while the pressure on the e-pawn is now strong en-

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ough to force White into a de­CISIOn.

Further protection of the e­pawn gives White less than nothing after 5 Bd3? Nxe4 6 Bxe7 Qxe7 (6 . . . Nxc3 7 Qg4 is unclear) 7 Nxe4 dxe4 8 Bxe4 Qb4+. White could keep some tension by removing an attacker of the e-pawn with 5 Bxf6 Bxf6 6 Nf3, but then d­pawn comes under attack with 6 ... c5. Maybe White can try to claim a tiny edge after 7 exd5 exd5 8 Bb5+ Nc6 9 dxc5 QaS 10 Na4, but after 10 . . . 0-0 or 10 . .. Bd7 Black can cer­tainly dispute this claim. Really, 5 eS is the only way to try for an edge.

5e5

Now the pawn chain has been formed; White's pawns on d4 and e5 encounter Black pawns on dS and e6. The next few moves indicate how the strug­gle might develop. Stage four - s�ruggle over the pawn chain (early stages)

5 ... Nfd7 6 Bxe7 Qxe7 7 f4

0-0

If immediately 7 . . . c5? then 8

NbS is awkward.

8 Nf3 cS 9 Qd2 Nc6

The form of the struggle is gradually becoming clearer. White has more space and his pawns look imposing, but all this gain of space is at the ex­pense of compactness of stru­cture. Black can attack the central White pawnsl The priority for Black is to at­tack the base of the pawn chain, the White pawn on d4. Should this pawn be dis­lodged, the White pawn on eS will be open to challenge with a t imely . .. f6 . Quite often White's d- and e-pawns will be exchanged for Black's c- and f-pawns, leaving Black with an isolated pawn couple on e6 and dS, and leaving the dark squares on d4 and eS open for occupation by pieces. Should White be able to establish a

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secure blockade of these dark squares, than he will have the advantage; Black for his part can aim for counterplay along both c- and f-files. This is one way in which events can de­velop from such a position; other possibilities will be out­lined in later chapters. The small pawn center strat­egy may also be employed in queenside openings, although it is not quite as easy for Black to establish a stable d6-e5 center as to establish a d5-e6 center. The main line of the King's Indian Defence leads however to a pawn chain after a phase of tension.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Be.2 eS

i! �.-i 'iV !: l!t� : 1Ail. i.Q.il '

I. 1.1·, i I.

r, t\ ;�\ : t."'""\ ,:-, .

f . . (L_j 1-;1 I .

I � i.\ ;: '-� ;� .. lS i\ 1\i i-£ _A· �Y r/_!j gl l_ - ·-- -- . ------"

The small center established: White cannot win a pawn here because of 7 dxe5 dxe5 8 Qxd8 RxdB 9 Nxe5? Nxe4 and

Black is already better. As in the French example, White has three options here:

(I) Exchange with 7 dxe5 (7 ... dxe5 8 Qxd8 Rxd8 9 BgS!)

(II) Advance the pawn (7 d5) (Ill) Maintain the tension

(7 0-0).

Again, as in the French De­fence, White usually prefers not to release the tension with a pawn advance until abso­lutely necessary.

7 0-0 Nc&

More pressure o� the d4 square; note how the fianche­ttoed bishop on g7 adds to the pressure. White must soon make an important decision as to how to handle the central position. Black can also play 7 ... Na6 (probably best met by 8 Be3) or 7 ... Nbd7. The position af­ter 7 •.. Nbd7 (diagram) merits closer attention. White can form a pawn chain here with 8 d5?1, but it is not

advisable. Black replies with 8 . .. Nc5 9 Qc2 aS with a se­cure queenside position.

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(after 7 ... Nbd7) Later Black will be able to set in motion his thematic attack on the kingside by preparing .. .f5. White's d5 move sells control of the c5 square far too cheaply: similarly, if White were to play e5 in the French before Black has played ... Nf6, Black would have extra defen­sive options based on .. . Nge7 or ... Nh6. keeping an eye on the correspondingly important f5 square. With d5 in the King's Indian, or e5 in the French, White guarantees himself a spatial advantage on his leadingflank. This spatial advantage ne­eds to be converted into an

attack. The most appropri­ate form of attack is the pawn storm. In the King's Indian, White pre­pares to open lines with c4-c5; in the French Defence the cor-

responding break is f4-f5. If the breakthrough square is well blockaded by Black, then it is generally prema­ture for White to form the pawn chain. If 8 d5 is a poor response to 7 . . . Nbd7, then what should White play instead? Remem­ber that even without the move d5 White still has the advan­tage in space (pawns on e4 and d4 versus pawns on d6 and e5), and as a result has more freedom of action to maneuver pieces behind his pawn center. White has scope for a greater number of con­structive waiting moves than Black. He should therefore play q uietly and see what Black does. One possibility is 8 Qc2 Qe7 9 Rd1 c6, and only now 10 d5. 10 . .. Nc5 is inef-fective, and 10 ... aS is weak-ening, so Black generally chooses to close the queen­side with 10 ... c5, after which White prepares to renew the queenside attack with a3 and b4. After 7 . . . N c6 (instead of 7 . .. Nbd7) the d-pawn is under great pressure, and White has no really effective way to play quietly. 8 Be3 has been tried,

but Black seems OK after 8 . .. Ng4 9 Bg5 f6 10 Bh4 g5 11 Bg3 Nh6. The time is ripe however to form the pawn chain; Black cannot successfully blockade c5.

8 d51 Ne7

Both players are losing! Black is positionally lost on the queen side, but once. he has

·· played .. .f5 and ... f4, \1\/hite is positionally lost on the king­side. The result on the game depends on which comes first; Black's collapse on the queen­side or White's collapse on the kings ide.

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Ga•e I Korelanol • K•sparo"

_ J\tDs&erd•• 1991

From the diagram we follow the illustrative game Korchnoi-

Kasparov, Amsterdam 199 1. One could fill a textbook on King's Indian play from Kas­parov's games alone.

9 Ne1 Nd7 1 0 Be3

We shall not consider ques­tions of opening theory too deeply here; it is the general strategic shape of the game that is important. With the text move White announces that he is happy to allow Black to get on with his pawn storm on the kingside, so long as White can have the queenside to work on. A generation ago, VVhite would usu;�lly have pre­ferred to sidestep Black's pawn storm with for examp�e 10 Nd3 f5 1 1 exf5 Nxf5 (11 .. gxf51?) 12 f3 Nf6 13 Nf2 Nd4, Gligoric - Fischer, Bled 1961. Black is comfortable though.

1 0 .. .f5 1 1 f3 f4 (diagram)

Extendind the pawn chain. It would have been pointless to play 1 1 .. .fxe4? since after 12 fxe4 all Black's attacking chances on the king side would have vanished, while White, with the d5 pawn still firmly an-

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chored, could continue to play for a queens ide attack.

White's e4 is so firmly held as to be virtually immune to at­tack. Therefor Black gain s space on the king side, and prepares to prise open lines against the White king with ... gS and ... g4. Fischer said of this variation that ��Black's king side attack has practically been worked out to a forced mate", yet if White responds vigorously enough on the queenside, anything could happen - including a White vic­tory:

12 Bf2

Here the bishop helps both in defence and attack.

12 ... g5 1 3 a4

One cf Korchnoi's attempts to

enliven White's play. Previ­ously the standard plan was to roll away with b4 and c5, con­tinuing perhaps with Rc1, cxd6, a4, NbS, etc. But what is White actually doing with his b-pawn? Perhaps not very much. Korchnoi reasons that if he can force through c5 with­out having to play b4 first, he might be able to save an im­portant tempo . In su ch a sharp variation, every tempo c ounts. Both sides must strive to deploy their pieces with the utmost efficiency.

13 ... Ng6

Black gets on with his plan. If 13 ... aS 14 Nd3 (preparing cS) 14 ... b6 15 Be1! with advan-tage to White, Kozul- Popovic, Yugoslavia 199 1. The idea is to clear the f2 square for knight, making it difficult for Black to play ... g4 ( ... hS is met by h3), while also preparing to play NbS and b4, opening up lines on the queenside. De­fence combined with attack.

14 Nd3 Nf6 15 c5 h5 (diagram)

16 h3

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White understands that he cannot stop ... g4 forever, but at least he can make it more difficult to play. Black must now rearrange his kingside pieces to prepare for his natural break. This gives White a little more time to prepare his own attack. In an earlier game, Larsen -Torre, Bauang, 1973, this po­sition was reached by transpo-

··sition {13 Nd3 Nf6 14 c5 Ng6 1S a4 hS) and White pro­ceeded with rather less sub­tlety: 16 cxd6? cxd6 17 aS g4 18 NbS. (diagram) White has ·won" on the queen­side, but now 18 . . . g3! for once, the effect of the exten­sion of the pawn chain is to open the position up. If now 19 hxg3- fxg3 20 Bxg3 h4 21 Bf2 Nh5 fol lowed perhap s by .. . Qg5, and Black's kingside attack must surely be decisive.

In the game White tried 19 Bxa 7, but Black still had his at­tack: 19 . .. Nh7 20 h3 Qh4 21 Bb6 Bxh3 22 gxh3 Qxh3 23 Rf2 Nh4 24 Qf1 gxf2+ 25 Nxf2 Qg3+ 26 Kh1 and now simply 26 ... Nxf3 should win. After 26 ... Rf6??, as played, White's material loss suddenly looked like a formidable sacrifice: 27 Nh3! Ng5 28 NxgS QxgS 29 Nc7 Ng6 30 Qh3 and White later won the game. Back to the Korchnoi - Kaspa­rov game, and 16 h3.

1 6 .. . Rf7 17 c6 (diagram)

An incredibly sharp position, which Kasparov tends to skate over in his analysis in Infer­mater. It is a good exercise for a player of any strength just to get out the pieces, set up this position and analyze it for an hour or ai1 evening. to try to

l -- P;.w., Chams 17

find out what is happening here.

17 ... g4? is obviously incorrect; White has 18 fxg4 hxg4 19 cxb7 Bxb7 20 Bxg4. Kasparov also questions 17 .. . Bf8 because of 18 NbS a6 19 Na7, an unusual maneuver designed to exchange Black's light squared bisnop and make it more difficult for him to play ... g4. Black can vary however with 18 .. . b6, intending to meet 19 aS with 19 . . . g4 20 axb6 cxb6. What do you the reader make of this position? Which is more important - that White has his protected passed pawn? or that Black has al­ready playe� ... g4? You will soon come to appreciate that White will have a few regrets about the placement of his knight on bS; if he should later play fxg4 then ... Nxe4 could be dangerous.

17 ... a5!?

Kasparov chooses a different plan of defence. He is quite prepared to let White have a passed a-pawn, provided he can keep all entry squares on the b-file under control. Thus if White should try 18 b4, Black is quite happy to play 18 ... b6 19 bxa5 bxaS and if nec­essary just let his a-pawn drop.

18 cxb7 Bxb7 19 b4 Bc81 20

bxa5 Bh61 21 Nb4?

Too greedy. Kasparov sug­gests that White had to try 21 a6 Bxa6 22 Nb4 Bc8 with an unclear position. One passed a-pawn is enough I Maybe this is another position for the re­ader to examine more carefully (Exercise 2) . I suspect that most strong players would rather be Black here.

21 ... g4 22 Nc6?1 Qf8 (diagram)

White bangs in his horse on c6, just to show how much ground he has taken on the queen side. Yet does it really matter? White is not going to queen. He will

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not be able to control the back ranks and thereby press Black i.'lto one small comer. And his proud knight?

Merely a statue; it does noth­ing to protect the White king.

23 fxg4 hxg4 24 hxg4

Or 24 Bxg4 Nxg4 25 hxg4 f3 with a winning attack.

24 ... Bg5 25 Bf3 Qh6 26 Re1

White's only hope is to escape with the king via e2. He is just a little bit too slow.

26 .. . Nh4! (diagram)

To meet 27 Kf1 with 27 ... Nxf3 28 gxf3 and a piece sacrifice on g4. Black's pawn roller has done its job; now it is the turn of the piece mass to weigh in. Should White play quietly,

... Rh7 will follow.

27 Bxh4 Bxh4 28 g5

A vain attempt to divert Black's attention from the h-file. 28 Kf1 offers more resistance, but Kasparov points out that Black is winning after 28 ... Nxg4! 29 Bxg4 (29 Ke2 Ne3 etc.) 29 ... Bxe1 30 Bxc8 Qh1+ 31 Ke2 Qxg2 + 32 Kxe 1 (32 Kd3 Qg3+) 32 . . .f3.

28 ... Qxg5 29 Re2 Ng4 30 Rb1 Bg3 31 Qd3 Qh4 White resigns.

2. The French Is �ot T•e King's Indian

In the Korchnoi - Kasparov game, Black was attacking on a very narrow front, with only one possible pawn break, and yet his attack succeeded. White was operating on a bra-

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ader front, which in theory should give him more scope for maneuver and the opening up of lines, and yet his attack was only partially successful; he took comniAte control of the queenside, and yet there was little he could do with this con­trol. So why the difference? The answer lies in the place­ment of the kings; Black's kingside attack is potentially a mating attack: whereas White is playing for lesser stakes, the Black king being far away from the firing line. Black's plan of playing ... f4 and aiming for a break with ... g4 (even though it sacrifices a pawn) would not look so impressive if the White king were nowhere in sight. What of the French Defence? Outside the Winawer Variation (1 e4 e6 2 d4 dS 3 Nc3 Bb4, often with later . . . Bxc3+), where the doubled White c­pawn changes the strategic complexion of the position, it is rare for Black to play .. . c4. Either the move is so strong that White will not allow it, or the move is irrelevant to the needs of the position. There are few intermediate cases. Consider for example the fol­lowing sequence:

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4

Already we have almost a mir­ror image of the King's Indian pawn structure. White is aim­ing to gain space on the kingside; Black is aiming for queenside counterplay. There are however two important dif­ferences from the Kina's In­dian, one of which w�rks in White's favour, and one of which works in Black's favour. Black's problem is that to try to castle queenside and tuck his king behind a fianchettoed bishop would be more time­consuming than the corre­sponqing plan, involving king­side castling, in the King's In­dian. By the time that Black has played . . . b6, ... Bb7, ... c5, . . . N c6, . . . a6 (to circumvent Nb5), .. . Qc7, ... 0-0-0, ... Kb8, etc., White will be away on the kings ide.

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In compensation however, Black will be able to create pressure on the base of the pawn chain with ... Qb6, a plan which is simply not available in the King's Indian. The battle for the d4 square in the French is likely to be more intense •than the .. b.attie " for e�i in th; . . - .. _.._. . .__,.. __ �

King's Indian.

5 ... c5 6 Nf3 Nc6 7 Be3 aS

7 ... cxd4 is also possible, meeting 8 Nxd4 with 8 .. . Bc5. The immediate 7 ... Qb6 has a slightly suspect reputation; Black has to sacrifice a piece for thr&a pawns after 8 N a4 Qa5+ 9 c3 cxd4 1 0 b4 Nxb4 11 cxb4 8xb4+ 12 Bd2 Bxd2+ 13 Nxd2 g5, but might have sufficient play. ·

8 Qd2 b5

Here no strong player '.vould

contemplate 9 0-0-0?? Tnis move would be positional l y di­sastrous; Black plays 9 .. . c 4 and prepares to give check­mate. White must therefore try to find other ways to make progress. In Anand - Dreyev, 4th match game, Madras 1991, Wh i te tried 9 h4 Bb7 10 h5?!, but with the central position still unre­solved, this proved extrava­gant: 1 0 ... b4 11 Na4 and now 11 .. . cxd4 was good, but 11 . . . Nxd4! 12 Nxd4 cxd4 13 Bxd4 Bc6 would have been even better. Not however 11 . .. c4? 12 b3 when the stabiii­zation of the center (d4 is no longer under pressure) will greatly assist in the develop­ment of White's kingside ini­tiative. Black has no compen­sating initiative on the queen­side; his pawns are advanced, but they do not really attack.

A more common response 1s

9 dxc5 Bxc5 10 Bxc5 Nxc5

when the position looks as much l ike a Sicilian as a French.

11 Qf2 Qb6 12 Bd3

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In this position Black should be OK. but he needs to be a bit careful. Note how the ex­change of pawns in the cen­ter has shifted the emphasis away from pawn play and on to p·iece play. For example, if Black castles here. V\'hite is itch:�g to play 13 Bxh7+ (ana­lytical exercise: is 12 .. . 0-0 playable here? what happens with best play?). Even if Black delays castings until .a safer moment . White can play for a kingside attack with pieces. A game Mokry - Eruk, Haifa 1989, continued 12 ... b4?! 13 Ne2 aS 14 0-0 Ba6 15 Kh1 Bxd3 16 cxd3 Rb8 17 Rad1! 0-0 18 Qh4 f6 19 Ng3 and White had some irritating, but not yet decisive. kingside pres­sure. Perhaps Black too would have done better to play with pieces rather than pawns: 12 . .. Rb8!

13 0-0 Nb4 14 Rad1 Na4! 15 Nxa4 bxa4 and because of the pressure on the b-pawn, White has nothing better than 16 b3 with equality, Bareyev - King, Hastings 1990/91. 12 .. . Nxd3+? is a positional blunder; after 13 cxd3 the Black bishop is by the worst minor piece on the board; it will be able to attack nothing. All the above is far removed from the violent attacks on the opposite flanks characteristic of the King's Indian or the Si­cilian, yet it only takes a slight difference in move order to make a big difference in the character of the game.

Ganae 2 Abramovlc • Ko"'acevlc

Yugoslav Ch. 1989

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 c5 6 Nf3 Nc6 7 Be3 cxd4 8 Nxd4 a6 9 Qd2 Bc5 (diagram)

In such systems it is inevitable that Black's c-pawn will at some stage be exchanged for White's d-pawn, the base of his pawn chain. It makes a difference though, whether Black or White ini-

tiates the exchange.

If White exchanges with dxc5, d4 becomes an empty square,

---- ---�--------=-

a lot of ten!!Q.!1_jQJtut��nter is ·r�!������-�--�d WQ.ttfi l§I�IayJWJ. ��L� .. ��� ���1Q..I1�1, ���-If as here Black starts the ex-

.....

�hange wit� ... cxd4, .. then the d4 square becomes occupied. Black then Qressurjz'!s�_tb.�

p_i_���-�-�cupying that squ,.:

.C!!e.,. It is not so easy for White to move the knight from d4 -White must for examJ,Jie watch out for ... f6- but for as long as

- . the knight can be safely main-

\ tained on d4 it has a genuinely cramping effect on Black. The center is in effect sti�l blocked by a pawn chain, even though part of White's chain happens

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o be a knight! With the center blocked, pawn play on the flanks becomes the indicated strategy.

1 0 0-0-0 0-0 11 Kb1

1 1 Nb3 is possible, but decen­tra l i zes the k n i g ht: .B lack avoids the exchange of bish­ops with 11 . . . Bb4 or 1 1 . . . Be7

11 . . . Nxd4 1 2 Bxd4 b5 1 3 g4

Sti l l paying the blocked center strategy, although may be the­re was a strong case for emp­tying the d4 square by 1 3 Bxc5 followed by 1 4 Qe3 or Qf2. White's most effective strategy in the French is often to play solidly, gently pressing, rather than relying on al l-out attack. To be firmly holding· the da(k squares and to be making it difficult for Black's queen's bishop to get into play - that is enough to cause defensiva headaches.

1 3 . . . b4 14 Ne2

If 14 Na4 Bxd4 1 5 Qxd4 f6 ! and suddenly Black is the one attacking on the kingside. The destruction of the White half of the pawn chain ! 1 3 h4 (in­stead of 1 3 g4?! ) would have avoided this particular prob­

lem.

23

14 .. . a5 15 Bg2 Ba6

The first sign of real progress: Black is preparing to exchange his bad b ishop for Whi te 's much more useful knight.

16 Bxc5 Bxe21

All Black's efforts would have been wasted after 1 6 . . . Nxc5 1 7 Nd4! Qc7 1 8 Qe3. White's d4 square would then be com­pletely secure , and occupied b y a powerfu l kn i g ht . H i s spearhead pawn on e5 would a l so be complete ly secure (with . . .f6 being ineffective) , and this gives him the oppor­tunity to work on a pawn storm on the king side. Such a storm would be as forceful as any queenside pawn storm. Such a storm would be as forceful as any queenside pawn storm in the King's Indian, and would be doubly effective in that the

Black king is fixed in the storm's path. Black's attack on the queenside would be puny in comparison.

17 B xf8?!

White misjudges the pace of the position. Kovacevic gives

..... 17 Qxe2 Nxcs; 8 Qe3 Qc7 19 Rhe1 Rfc8 20 f5 Nd7 21 Rd2 Qd8 as .. unclear". It may look as though Black is still on the defensive, out once he has played ... N b6 that impression will change.

17 ... B xd118 B xg7 B xc2+ 19 Q xc2 ReS 20 Qd2 Kxg7

A lot has changed in the few moves. Would it be too cat­egorical to suggest that it is be­cause White no longer con­trols d4 in any meaningful sort of way that Black has the ad­vantage? There are other fac-

24

tors as well. Although White's kingside pawns look danger­ous, Black's queenside pawns are in fact farther advanced and he already has control of an open file leading directly to­wards the White king. Should White oppose rooks on this file, as is probably correct, Black will still have the better endgame: 21 Rc1 h6 followed by . .. Rxc1 + and ... Qb6. Black would have three main advan­tages in the endgame: his passed d-pawn, the fact that his knight would have more scope than the White bishop, and the weakness of White's kingside pawns, especiaily the f-pawn. Not liking this, White plays for an attack.-

21 h4?1 Qc7 22 h5 h6 23 Bf3 a4 24 gS

The endgame is lost: 24 Rc1 Qxc1+ 25 Qxc1 Rxc1+ 26 Kxc1. (diagram) And now Black destroys the last remnants of the White pawn chain with 26 .. .f6! (a move you will see often in later chapters). 27 exf6+ Kxf6 28 Kd2 Nc5 29 Ke3 (had White gone into the endin� a

n\ovu uarlier, with 23 Rc1 in­P4tnnd of 23 Bf3, . . . Na4 would 11nw hnve been playable) 29

,e:il �iO bxa3 hxa3 31 Kd4 (3 1 r,d:lloses to 31 . . . d4 and . . . e5) :\ 1 N b3+! 32 Kc3 Nc1 33 Kb4 Nxa2+ 34 Kxa3 Nc1 fol­lowed by . . . Nd3 (variation by Kovacevic) .

24 ... hxg5 25 Rg1 b 3 26 Rxg5+ Kh8 27 Rg2

White also loses after 27 axb3 axb3 28 Bd1 Qc4 29 Rg3 Nc5 followed by . . . Qe4+.

27 ... Qc1 +I White resigns. 25

28 Qxc1 Rxc1 + 29 Kxc1 bxa2 and queens.

At one level, a typical game with players castling on oppo­site sides and attacking furi­ously. At a deeper level, no­tice how the fortunes of the game fluctuated according to the degree of control White kept on the d4 square . We shall cover this subject in more detail in the next chapter. Be­fore that we consider one of the rare examples i n wh ich Black can treat the F rench Defence in the manner of the King's Indian.

Game 3 Gallagher • Cro•eh

Krunabaeh 1891

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Be7 5 e5 Nfd7 6 Bxe7 Qxe7 7 f4

The game pawn structure as in the previous game, but with the dark squared bishops al­ready exchanged. White's ba­sic aim with this early simplifi­cation is to take some of the s�ing out of the battle for the d4 square; there is going to be no tension, for example , be-

tween a Black bishop on c5 and a White bishop on e3. Fur­ther more, the Black queen on e7 is not particularly well pla­ced if queenside pressure is the aim; b6 is the natural de­veloping square. The immedi­ate attempt to rectify the situ­ation by 7 . . . Qb4? i s easily re­pu lsed: 8 a3 ! and if 8 . . . Qx b2?? 9 Na4 traps the queen.

7 ... 0-0 8 Nf3 c5 9 Qd2

9 dxc5 is perhaps more stan­dard . With the text White tries to keep the Black queen away from c5.

9 ... Nc6 1 0 0-0-0?1 c41

A strong move unj ustly ne­glected by theory as a result of a twenty year o ld game lost by Black through a positional blunder! My own analysis had convinced me Black·s attack

26

wa s s l ight ly q u icke r th a n White's.

For 1 0 . . . cxd4? see the Larsen - Bareyev game in the next chapter.

11 NbS RbB!

My attention was drawn to this variation by a passing mention of this position by Dolmatov, who noted that White was bet­ter after 1 1 . . . a6 �2 Nd6 . Why· though should Black waste a tempo with . . . a6 when White is planning to play Nd6 any­way? It is more important for Black to unravel his queens ide pieces, and to be prepared for immediate attack as soon as the White knight leaves b5.

1 2 g4-Nb6 1 3 Nd6 Bd7 (diagram)

Black's plan beg ins to take

s ha p e ; he i11ten d s to p lay . . . NcB, and if White exchanges or c8, he wi l l recapture with the king's rook, leaving rooks on both b- and c-fi les to back up the pawn storm.

White's kingside pawns are in fact farther advanced than the Black queen side pawns , but are less well supported by pieces. Thus 1 4 f5 is met by 1 4 . . . f6 ! and Black is the one to benefit from the opening up of l ines on the kingside, for ex­ample 1 5 Qf4 Nc8 ! and al l l ines look good for Black ( in lnformator I g ave 16 fxe6 Nxd6 here; a sl ip of the pen ! 1 6 . . . fxe5 wins of course) . A radical demonstration of the power of the ... f6 break, made even more effective by the un­prot�cted position of the knight on f3 . 1 4 h4 NcB 1 5 f51eads to a po­sition from Kapengut- Weste-

27

rinen, Vi lnius 1 969; the actual move order after 1 0 . . . c4 was 1 1 h4 Rb8 1 2 Nb5 Nb6 1 3 g4 Bd7 1 4 Nd6 NcB 1 5 f5.

Here 1 5 . . .f6 ! is the thematic move , when it i s Black, not White, who wil l be able to take advantage of the opened l ines on the kingside. Black is better. In the Kapen­gut - Westerinen game how­ever, Black snatched the pawn with 1 5 . . . Nxd6?, the conse­quences being 1 6 f6! gxf6 1 7 exd6 Qxd6 1 8 Qh6 Qe7 1 9 gS! f5 20 h5 f6 21 Rg1 KhB 22 Nh4 Be8 23 g6 (diagram) 23 . . . Rg8 24 Bh3 Qg7 25 Qe3 hxg6 26 Nxg6+ Bxg6 27 Rxg6 Qf7 28 Rh6+ Kg7 29 Rg1 + Kf8 30 Rxg8+ Qxg8 (30 . . . Kxg8 31 Qg3� Kf8 32 RhS+ Ke7 33 Qc7 mate) 3 1 Rxf6+ Ke7 32 Rg6 Qf7 33 Qg5+ Kd6 34 Rg7 QeB 35 Qf4+ e5 36 Qh6+ Qe6 37 Rg6 Black resigns.

A punchy attack by White , but with just a little care by Black it could have been repulsed be­fore it started . I n the French Defence Black must, if he can, blunt the spearhead of the White pawn chain on eS, otherwise he is going to get overrun on the kingside. Back to the 1 991 game.

14 c3 Nc8 1 5 Nxc8 Rfxc8 1 6 Qc2

1 6 . .. f6!

Yet again , Black plays a well-28

timed defensive move on the king side , and succeeds in slo­wing the opponent's attack to a crawl. Ng5 is prevented, and there is no obvious way for White to advance his kingside pawns to batter the Black defences. When both sides are attack­ing on opposite sides of the board , as quite often happens when pawn chains are length­ened , the principle of mini­mum defence becomes im­portant. Most of your moves in such situations should be at­tacking moves, but you should play just enough defens ive moves to s low your opponent down on the flank where he is attacking. Play too many de­fensive moves and you wi l l never get your own attack go­ing (and furthermore it is un­l ikely that you wil l be able to hold off your opponent's attack in the long run) . Play too few .defensive moves and you will lose - very quickly! Let us suppose that it takes three moves to set up a real ly big threat; c3, Qc2 and Ng5 to threaten Qxh7+. The kingside is not to be defended in the long run, so it is not worthwhile to play a series of fussy l i ttle

defensive moves. It is better just to play one defens ive move - the one preventing the m ove wh ich creates a b i g threat. I n this case, it i s better to prevent Ng5 rather than to find a cure for Ng5 once it has been pla yed . By l imiting your own d efens ive moves to a minimum . you are giving your­self more time to develop your own attack.

17 h4 b5 18 Kb1?

A surpri se. The king decides not to desert his burning ca­stle ; a misplaced sense of ho­nor! H iding in the forest with Kd2 and Ke1 offered better defensive chances; the gate­way on b2 could have been protected by Rh2. Too many defensive moves? Maybe, but B lack's attack is gett ing too dangerous to ignore.

18 ... b4 19 cxb4 c3

Overe laborate. The straight­forward 19 . . . Nxb4 20 Qc3 Nxa2 21 Kxa2 Rb3 followed by . . . Rxf3 i s an easy technical . w1n .

20 exf6 gxf6 21 Qxc3!

29

On 21 bxc3? Nxb4 is crushing . Now Black must be a bit care­ful , otherwise the win wi ll s l ip.

21 ... Nxb4

The endgame after 21 . . . Ne5?! 22 Qa3 Nxf3 23 Qxf3 Qxb4 2A Qb3! is not particularly clear. Had Whit� played 20 Qxc3 im­mediately, without inserting the pawn exchange 20 exf6 gxf6, then 20 . . . Nxe5 would be a capture . and Black would have had a clear extra pawn for the endgame.

22 Q a3 Q d6!

The or:-ly clear way. Now the f4 square must fal l . White the­refore seeks counterplay, but Black! having control of more squa res! is quicker.

23 Bd3 Q xf4 24 Rc1 KhS!

So that Bxh 7 is not check. Now . . . Qxf3 a n d . . . Qe3 are rea l threats.

2 5 Rxc8+ Rxc8 26 Rf1

26 Qxb4 Qxf3 wins for Black. But now for something a bit prettier.

26 ... Bb51 27 BxbS Qe4+ 28 5d3 Nxd3 29 Nd2 Qe2 30 QaS Qxf1 + White resigns.

3. Pawns Or Sqaares?

By advancing a pawn in the center to form an i nterlocking pawn cha in . White i nd isput­ably lays claim to more terri­tory in the center. The extra space for White is perhaps not s o i m porta nt ; what re a l l y counts i s Black's lack of space. If for example Black's pawn are pinned down to e6 and d5 by the White pawns on e5 and

30

d4, it i s difficu lt for Black to deve lop his bishop on cB , or to move pieces across from the Gueenside. One way for Black to deal with this problem is, as we have a l ready seen, to bypass the White pawn chain with . . . f5-f4 in the King's I ndian, or, more occasionally, by . . . c5-c4 in the French. The skeletc:>n position in the dia­gram may then be reached.

Each s ide spearhead s h i s pawn chain with a pawn on the fifth. g iving perhaps an initia.l impression of symmetry and of equa l i ty of space . Wh ite's spearhead however is in the center, whereas Black's is on the flank. Lateral ly therefore White has more space; he can develop his attack on a wide front (a, b, c, d fi les) whereas Black must work in restricted territory (f, g , h fi les). For Blac� this i s quite a handicap, and

for the most part the bypass­ing maneuver is worth trying only if the White king presents a tempting target (as in the Korchnoi - Kasparov and Ga­llagher - Crouch games). I n the French Defence, this target is usually not there . A more common plan i n the French is a direct att�ck on the White pawn chain . The ad­vanced pawn on e5 is of co­urse the real long-term target, as that is the pawn which is doing the most to cramp Black, but no real progress is made if B lack attacks solely the pawn on e5, as it is wel l pro­tected by the d4 pawn. Fir�tly B lack must underm ine the base of the pawn chain wit:-. . . . c5. To this attack White has two basic responses. One i s to play . . . c3, preserving the pawn chain with pawns. After . . . cxd4, cxd4 White's d­pawn is effectively isolated . (diagram) Black has various strategic op­tion �open with th is type of pawn formation, usually involv­ing some combination of direct pressure against the d-pawn, play along the open c-fi le, and . . . f6 break, opening up the f-

31

file.

A more detailed discussion wil l fol low in the next chapter. There is no reason however for Black to be terrified by this formation. White's other option is to omit c3 and to prepare to recapture on d4 with a piece, as in the Abramovic- Kovacevic game. This does not mean that White is abandoning the pawn chain ; rather, he i s constr�cting a piece-and-pawn chain. What i s restricting Black is not so much White's occupation on d4 and e5, but rather his con­trol of d4 and e5. If White, af­ter an exchange of c-pawn for d-pawn , ca n keep the d4 square firmly under his control , and can a l s o provid e ad­equate s u pport for h is e5 pawn, then Black has a diffi­cu lt position to play, as we shall shortly see. If however

White loses his grip on d4 , as in the Abramovic - Kovacevic game, Black usual ly has chan­ces for counterp lay.

Ganae 4 Larsen • Bareye''

Bastings 1990191

1 e4 eS 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 NfS 4 Bg5 Be7 5 e5 Nfd7 6 Bxe7 Qxe7 7 f4 0-0 8 Nf3 c5 9 Qd2 NcS 10 0-0-0?! cxd4?!

10 .. . c41

1 1 Nxd4

The basic central structure is now estab l ished . Black here has to decide whether to base h is hopes on an attack on the q ue e n si d e , o r whether he s hou ld attack the White e­pawn with 1 1 . . .f6 . Here 1 1 . . .f6 just creates weaknesses; af­ter 1 2 exf6 Qxf6 1 3 g3 ! Nb6

32

1 4 Bb5 Bd7 1 5 Rhe1 Rac8 1 6 Kb1 Black's pos ition is not par­ticu larly comfortable , in th is line , White sti l l has the squares d4 and e5 wel l covered, whi le Black's backward pawn on e6 is under siege . Black decides instead to get things moving on the queen­side. And White, what does he do? He must make every ef­fort to consolidate his center, to keep d4 and e5 under con­trol . If he can do this , h is cen­tral ized pieces will help defend the queenside and at the same time attack the kingside.

11 ... N b6 12 Qe3 Bd7

12 . . . Qc5? ! 1 3 h4! Bd7 1 4 Rh3 Rac8 1 5 - Rg3 ! Nxd4 1 6 Rxd4 Qe7 1 7 h5 f5 1 8 exf6 Qxf6 1 9 Rg5 ! and Black's position i s very unpleasant, Short - Gul­ko, H astings 1 989/90.

The maneuvering of the \/Vhite rook is attractive. From h3 it protects the White queen on e3, thus unpinning the knight on d4. From g3 it pressurizes the Black king, the move 17 h5 forcing B lack to move his t­pawn at an inconvenient time. After an exchange on f6, the e5 square is open to the White pieces, and White's Rg5 move consolidates White's hold on the critical square .

Fi rm control of d4 a n d e5 with pieces is least as effec­tive as o c cu pati o n with pawns.

1 3 Kb1 Qc5 14 h4 Rac8

1 4 . . . NaSI? , as suggested by Larsen , is a n a lternative. If B lack chooses this plan , he must do so whi le the White queen is sti l l u n protected .

1 5 RhJ (diagram)

As in the Short game. How­ever, White has taken time out to p lay Kb1 , and so Black has an extra half-tempo to p lay with .

15 ... Na5?

3- Pawn Chains 33

A miserable little move of the type which leaves the French Defence player so often wear­ing a gloomy counte nance . Black makes a gesture on the queenside, but White can im­mediately force an exchange of queens with 1 6 Nb3. This, as we shall see, accentuates White's central advantage ; without the queens Black has l ittle active play on the queen­side and he 3ti l l has to decide I

what to do with his bishop on d7. So oftere i n the Cl a s s i c a l French it seems that Black is condemned if he exchanges queens (a bad endgame) and condemned if he leaves the queens on (a kingside attack) ; and indeed if Black remains passive, then he is h eading quietly for a loss. To defend, he must play actively, take ev­ery possible tactical opportu-

nity that arises, before White can lay the b ig squeeze on h im . A n ifty . . . f6 at the right time can work wonders, and here is one such moment -maybe. Ou r fourth readers �,..�.-cl�c i.:. &.u ct11alyze the po­sition which results after 1 5 . . . f6. Larsen passes over this pos­sibil ity without comment!

1 6 N b3 1 Qxe3 1 7 Rxe3

What a contrast to the position which coul d h ave been re­ached after 15 .. .f6 1 6 exf6 e5! White has a stable positional advantage. There is no single feature of h is position that one could point to as causing over­whelming problems to Black, but there are l ots of little things which irritate Black.

- Black's bishop is by a long way the worst minor piece

34

on the board . It has l ittle scope for movement at pre­sent, and even if the posi­tion opens up, it will have little to attack.

- White has firm control of the dark squares in the center, with the empty d4 square be­ing a useful outpost, and the pawn on e5 cramping Black.

- White has extra control spa­ce on the kingside, again be­cause of his pawn on e5. Black must always beware an attack on this part of the board.

- It is difficult for Black to cen tralize h is king, because of th� potential weakness of the kingside.

What connects all these ad­vantages? They are features of a position where White has successfu l ly mainta ined h is d4/e5 s trongpo ints i nto an endgame. Furthermore it is al l gain; White has no real weak­nesses for Black to attack.

17 ... Nac4

1 7 . . . Nxb3 1 8 axb3 makes it even more difficult for Black to

gain counterplay; how does he bring either of his minor pieces into the game?

1 8 Rf3?1

i...at ::,�n �uyy�SL� u·aat 18 Ree1 , keeping pressure on the e-file. would have bee n more harmo­nious. Maybe during the game he wanted to avoid having to spend a tempo protecting the f-pawn with g3 (after 1 8 Ree1 f6 a� �xi6 Rxf6 20 g3) , but this is not something which should worry White; he can besiege the e-pawn with Nd4 and Bh3. If after 1 8 Ree1 Black plays passively, th9n White could quietly bui ld up with g3, Nd4, Bh3, etc. , and leave Black to worry about the possibil ity of f5. Or maybe he could keep something else up his sleeve . .

There is no hurry; Black has no play.

1 8 ... f6 1 9 exf6 Rxf6

If 1 9 . . . gxf6, White has a stan­dard reply - 21 f51 wrecking Black's pawn formation.

20 Nd4 RefS (diagram)

21 Bxc4

35

In such positions White should n ever be rel u ct a n t to e x­change bishop for knight; af­ter all , the White king's bishop is not involved in th.e struggle for the dark squares; the Blac� knight is, though.

Even so, White would have liked to have played 2 1 g3, but here the drawback of his 1 8th move shows itself; Black has 21 . . . e51 (22 Nxd5 exd4 ) .

21 ... Nxc4

21 . . . dxc4 22 Rdf1 keeps uo the pressure for White .

22 b3 Nd6

Again if 22 . . . Nb6 23 Rdf1 , or. even better, 23 Nce2 fol lowed by Re3. Not though 23 Nde2. when 23 . . . e51 is again trouble ­some.

23 Re3

Yet again 23 g3 is met by 23 . . . e5! White just needs to play one litt le pawn move , g3, be­fore he i s in com plete posi­tional control again.

23 . . . bS?

Black ought not to g ive White time to consol idate. He can probably scrape a d raw by liq­uidating weaknesses with 23 ... Rxf4 24 Nxe6 Bxe6 25 Rxe6 N e4 26 Nxd5 Rxh4, as 27 Re7 can be met by 27 . . . Rf7 .

24 a3 a5?

Stil l 23 . . . Rxf4.

25 g3

At last!

25 ... b4 26 axb4 axb4 27 Na2

36

Rb8 28 Kb2 Ne4

Presumably the position that Bareyev been aiming for. He has blocked off the e-file, and has reached e4 just in time to keep the knight on a2 out of the game (29 Nc1 Nc3 etc.). While Black's b-pawn is obvi­ously week, it is surprising ly difficult for White to get a rock to d4, since 29 Ne2 is met by 29 . . . Bb5. The White rooks have no inroads e ither. So Black is safe?

29 Nf31

No. White takes advantage of a tactical trick (29 . . . Nxg3? 30 N e5 Nf5 31 Nxd7 Nxe3 32 Rd3!) to gain time to shift the knight to the other critical dark square in the center, e5, o r to challenge Black's own strong knight with Ng5.

29 ... Be8 30 Ng5 Bh5 31 Nxe4 Bxd1 32 Nxf6+ gxf6 33 Rxe6 Kf7 34 Re3 Bh5 35 Rd3 Ke6 36 Rd4

The b:-pawn goes as wel l , and the Black bishop , although no longer stuck behind pawns, re­mains targetless.

36 ... Rg8 37 Nxb4 Bf3 38 Rd3 Be4 39 Re3 Kf5 40 Nc6 Black resigns.

The b-pawn is ready to run. Not quite the smooth perfor­mance as it appears to be at first sight, and for that very rea­son al l the more instructive . The blockade of d4 and e5 "hangs by a hair", to borrow a p h rase from N imzowitsch . If the b lockad e h olds , and White can permanently re­strain the Black pawns on e6 (especial ly) and d5 , without a l lowing s ign ificant counter­play e lsewhere , then White has every cha nce of being able to congratulate himself on a smooth positional victory. Yet the blockade is not always so easy to maintain, particularly if Black is seeking active co­unterplay. Two lapses in concentration in

37

the Larsen - Bareyev g ame come particu l a r ly to min d . Firstly there was Bareyev:s fail­ure to take advantag e of a fleeting opportunity to play . . . f6 before White was properly co­ordinated . He could have bro­ken the blockade and created wild complications; instead he subsided into a clearly inferio r position. Then Larsen retumed the compliment with his care­less 18 Rf3?! leaving severa l possibilities open for tactical breaks by Black with . . . e5; had he secured the center by re­treating the rook along the e­fi le, and secured the f-pawn with an early g3, then Black's chances of creating active play would have been minimal . Our next game shows the d4 and e5 squares being cleared at a very ear ly stage, a n d White successful ly mai nta in­ing the blockade . I t is of h is­torical interest i n that N im­zowitsch describes it as lithe first in which my new phi loso:. phy of the center was exhib­ited". Chess historians , or h is­torians of chess thought, may d i scu ss wh eth er the re a re clear antecedents ; the game itself looks modern enough not to be out of place here .

Ganae 5 Nlm.w»wltseh • Salwe

Carlsbad 19 1 1

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Qb6 6 Bd3

At the moment the fashion­able, and controversial move • I

IS 6 a3 . White's intention is to pre-empt Black's queenside play with an early b4 (6 . . . Bd7 7 b4), but the weakness of the b3 square al lows Black to ex­tend the pawn chain with 6 · . . c4, bypassing the d4 square.

6 ... Bd7?1

More accurate is the immedi-ate 6 . . . cxd4 7 cxd4, and only then 7 . . . Bd7. The theory of the day suggested that White then had to play 8 Be2 in order to protect the base of his pawn chain, a possible continuation being 8 . . . Nge7 9 b3 Nf5 1 0 Bb2 Bb4+ 1 1 Kf1 , and now Nimzowitsch recommends 1 1 . . . 0-0 ! 1 2 g4 Nh6 13.Rg 1 f6 1 4 exf6 Rxf6 1 5 g5 Rxf3 1 6 Bxf3 Nf5. (diagram) This position is worthy of close study, as it is almost an ideal French position for Black de-

• I

sp1te the missing exchange.

38

White's d-pawn is evidently very weak, and should it drop, Black's d- and e-pawns wil l beco m e a powerfu l mobile force in the center. Black also has the potential for consider­able pressure along the f-file , where White's g4-g5 thrust has left many weak squares. And White does not even have control of the eS square , gen­era l l y the m ost vul nerab le point fQr Black after the ex­change of f-pawn fore-pawn . White has no central control· I

only central weaknesses. Nimzowitsch gives as a likely continuation 1 7 Rg4 Be8 ( 17 . . . Rf8!?) 18 Qe2 Ncxd4 1 9 _Rxd4 Nxd4 20 QeS BbS+ 2 1 Kg2 Nf5 2 2 Bxd5 exd5 23 Qxf5 Rf8 24 Qxd5+ Rf7 and Black wins ; White has defi­nite ly not solved h is problems of poor development and king exposure.

Should the tempo loss with 8 Be2 not appeal ,the Mi lner­Barry Gambit with 8 0-0 Nxd4 9 Nxd4 Qxd4 1 0 Nc3 has to be considered. Black can try snatch ing the second pawn with 1 0 . . . Qxe5 1 1 Re1 QbB; White has obvious compensa­tion but no clear advantage.

7 dxc51 1

Nimzowitsch's l l

7 ... Bxc5 8 0-0

White is more concerned to maintain his strongpoint on e5 than to maintain the integrity of his pawn chain. Indeed , cir­cumstances being right, he is quite happy to exchange his d-pawn for the Black c-pawn, leaving the d4 square open, in order to remove from him­self the obl igation of protect­ing the d-pawn. For this plan

39

to be successful , White must be in a position to provide the eS pawn with very secure pro­tection . Indeed, Nimzowitsch uses the term l&overprotection", ·

and advises that White should pile up all h is pieces behind the strongpoint, defending it so securely that any attack by the opponent is fruitless. The two basic points about overprotection are firstly that the overprotected strongpoint shall be maintained, and sec­ondly that the overprotective pieces themselves have flex­ibil ity. If a strongpoint is mini­mally defended, it can be held, but the pieces protecting the strongpoint are tied down to defence; none can move with­out abandon ing the strong­point to liquidation or wo.-se. If however the strong p oi nt i s overprotected, any of the overprotective pieces may be­come involved in opportunis­tic forays elsewhere without having to worry about the sa­fety of the strongpoint.

8 .. .f6

"Black swells in triumph and throws himself hungrily on the last remaining member of the

once so proud chain-family, to destroy h i m . H is war cry is ·Room for the e-pawnr but it h ap pe n s q u i te otherwise . ·· (N imzowitsch)

9 b4

Maybe Black could have tried 8 . . . aS to prevent this move . .

9 ... Be7 1 0 Bf4

White's p lan is beginning to take dear shape. If he can find time for Qe2, Nbd2 , Nb3, then m aybe a3 and c4 , B lack is g oing to suffocate . I n the meantime B lack's kings ide pieces get in each other's way. B lack must act very quickly. I n the game he tries an immedi­ate exchange on e5, but th is does not help him much . Our fifth reader's exercise is to de­termine whether Black could h ave got a satisfactory game

40

by breaking up White·s queen­side with 1 0 . . . a5 .

1 0 .. .fxe5 11 Nxe5 Nxe5 12 Bxe5

So the pawns may have gone, but w h o cou l d d o u bt that White has full control of the d4 and e5 squares? 12 . . . Bf6 fails to 1 3 Qh5+ and if 1 3 . . . g6 14 Bxg6+

1 2 ... Nf6 1 3 Nd2

To tighten his grip on the cen­tral dark squares . White a­voids dabbling with shal low tactical threats (1 3 Qc2?) and concentrates on strategy. Af­ter 1 3 Qc2? 0-0 1 4 Bxf6? Rxf6 1 5 Bxh7+ Kh8 Black is happy; White's grip o n the

·· center has gone, h is queen­side is weak and undeveloped, and Black is ready to advance in the center ( . . . e5) and attack on the kingside. it's not worth chasing the pawn_!

1 3 . . . 0-0 14 Nf3 Bd6 1 5 Qe2

Con_scientious and necessary overprotection of e5 . White ensures that h is outpost is both occupied and defen-

ded. N imzowitsch points out that 1 5 Bd4? Qc7 1 6 Qe2 would be inaccurate; Black frees himself with 16 . . . Ng�! 1 7 h3 e5 ! with total freedom for Black. We leave it as a rea­der's exercise (number 6) to determine whether White can successful ly play 1 7 Bxh7+ instead of 1 7 h3; some typical French Defence tactical sequ­ences are involved.

1 5 . . . Rac8 16 Bd4 Qc7 1 7 Ne5

The piece chain is complete! The pawns have gone; long l ive the squares! Of course the piece chain will not last long as Black will feel obliged to exchange on e5 at some stage. In such an ex­c h a n g e however on e of B lack's "dark square" minor pieces wil l be exchanged for a White 11dark square" minor

41

piece, with the end result that White will continue to domi-· nate the dark squares. On the l ight squares, White's bishop on d3, patroll ing an important open diagonal leading to the Blac'< king, is vastly more ef­fective than the hemmed-in bishop on d7. Blaci< may already be position­ally lost.

17 ... Be8 1 8 Rae1 Bxe5 1 9 BxeS Qc6 20 Bd4 Bd7

Black behind the cathedra l doors .

21 Qc2 Rf7 2 2 Re3 b6

23 Rg3?1

A sl ip; Nimzowitsch for once forgets about the i ron logic of overp rotectio n . Now B lack cou ld have fought h i s way bac'< into the g ame with 23

. . . N e4 ! , meeting 24 Rg4? or 24 Rh3? with 24 . . . es . And if 24 Bxe4 dxe4 B lack is preparing to play . . . Qd5 and . . . e5 (al­though perhaps 25 Qd2 keeps an edge) . F inal ly, if 24 Re3 Black can of course repeat with 24 . . . Nf6, whi le the pawn sacrifice 24 . . . Qd6!? (25 f3 e5!) looks p romising ; if 25 Bxe4 dxe4 2 6 Qxe4 RfS! and Black's posit ion is d ifficult to break. The correct move is of course 23 Rfe 1 !

23 ... Kh8? 24 Bxh7

Since if 24 . . . Nxh 7 25 Qg6 win­ning. The rest :s simple mop­ping u p; Black is a pawn down and h i s king is exposed.

24 . .. e5 25 Bg6 Re7 26 Re1 Qd6 27 Be3 d4 28 Bg5

Black's attempts at counter­play h ave come to nothing; af­thoug h h e has gained space in the center, h is pieces are poorly coord inated and h is king is exposed.

28 ... Rxc3 29 Rxc3 dxc3 30 Qxc3 Kg8 31 a3 Kf8 32 Bh4 Be8 3 3 Bf5 Qd4 34 Qxd4 exd4 35 Rxe7 Kxe7 36 Bd3

42

Kd6 37 Bxf6 gxf6 38 h4 Black resigns.

We can see this ga;-ne that in the fight against the Wh ite pawn chain, it is not enough simply to exchange a couple of pairs of pawns, if White can sti l l keep control of the critical squares he keeps h is posi­tional advantages. Natural ly a similar situation can arise i n the King's I ndian; "every Rus­s ian schoolboy knows that Black must not take on e4 in the King's Indian", but what are the consequences? Again our i l lustrative game is taken from the history books, for the s im­ple reason that in modem tour­nament practice White is ge­nerally q�ite happy in the main l ines to play f3 at some stage, allowing the bypassing move . . . f4, and seeing h is play on the queenside. It is now more fu l ly appreciated that, fero­cious though Black's king-side in itiative may be, it is stil l pos­sible for White to win on the queenside first. Twenty o r th i rty years a g o Black's standard kingside at­tacki-ng plan was much more feared, and White often tried to avoid playing f3 , so as to

give Black no kingside weak­nesses to b ite o n . I n such cases the e4 square often be­came the focus of st�uggle . Twenty years a p a rt , both Fischer and Kas parov have ut:en great King's Indian aficio­nados, yet their games in this opening look completely differ­ent. It is White who has chan­ged plan though, not Black. Our next game is a gentle re­minder that F ischer was not the only strong player in the early 1 970s.

Ganae 6 Kerehnol • Geller

Itloseow 1970 (1st mat:eh game)

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0-0 6 Nf3 eS 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d 5 Ne7 9 Nd2

Two games later Korchnoi was to try 9 Bd2, getting somewhat the better of the draw. Ta i� manov, whe n be ing wh ite­washed by Fischer, also tried the bishop move, and twice lost from better positions. I t might be interesting to follow one of these games for a bit, to see how opening was be­ing handled in 1 970.

43

Taimanov - Fischer {Vancou­ver, 3rd match game) contin­ued 9 Bd2 NeB 10 Rc1 ( 1 0 b4 !? f5 1 1 Qb3 Nf6 1 2 exf5 gxf5 1 3 c5, Korchnoi - Gel ler, 3 rd g a m e . Wh ite has h i s q ueenside play, and Black's ki ngside attack has had its teeth drawn, but White has no control of e4) 10 ... f5 11 Qb3 b6 12 exf5 gxf5 13 NgS Nf6 14 f4

N ow White i s attacking the Black pawn center! Black has recaptured on f5 with his pawn rather than a piece , so as avoid giving White long term control of the e4 square ; this h owever makes h i s pawn structure a bit vulnerable . I t h as long been appreciated that in such positions as that i n the diagram , Black gains very l ittle i n creating a pro­tected passed pawn with . . . e4; aft9r Nd 1 -e3 the passed pawn

i s n ice ly b lockaded, Black's pawn structure lacks mobil ity, and White can gradually pre­pare for a b reak with g4. Even so this might have been pref­erable to the game: 14 . . . h6 1 5 fxe5 ! dxe5 1 6 c5l Nfxd5 (as 1 6 .. . hxg5 1 7 d6+ Kh8 1 8 dxe7 Qxe7 1 9 cxb6 fol lowed by 20 Bxg5 is unpleasant) 1 7 Nxd5 Nxd5 1 8 cxb6 axb6 1 9 Rc6 ! (the threat of Bc4 gives Black n o time to capture the knight) 1 9 . . . Kh8 and now White ner­vously retreated with 20 Nf3? Bb7 21 Rg6 Nf4 ! with a big ad­vantage to Black. I nstead 20 Q h 3l N f6 21 Bc3 , maki n g maximum use of open l ines , would have been strong. Among other strategic possi­b i l ities, it must not be forgot­ten that if e n o u g h centra l po ints are keenly fought over b y both sides, a pawn chain position can quickly become an open position. Back now to our main game.

9 ... aS!? (diagram)

Gel ler introduces an interest­ing idea. Naturally Black must a im to play . . .f5, and of course the knight on f6 must move f irst - but where?

H i s in tention is to p lace a clamp on White's queenside acti\litu ""'" "',.,,..inn hie! knl"ght on 1.1 • ''"� - J ,.., , .... �.,��I llv

c5 and pawn on aS. This ef­fectively el iminates any possi­bil ity that White has of playing for an early c5 break; the prob­lem is however one of time. Black is using his king's knight as though it were a q ueen's knight, but what is he to do with his quean's knight, currently

··on e7? Turn it into a k i ng's knight by maneuvering it to f6? Perhaps - the idea is less far­fetched than it seems, a s we shall see later.

44

It would be much eas ier for Black if he could have p laced a quean's knight on c5 ( Na6-c5 or Nbd7-c5 , rathe r than Nf6-d7-c5). And th is exp lains why- White usual ly waits for Black to play ... Nc6 before he plays d5. The sequence 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4

d6 5 Be2 0-0 6 Nf3 e5 7 d5 (the Petros ian System) is cer­tain ly playable. but White wi l l have hard work to prove an .ad­vantage after 7 . . . a5 .

1 0 b3

Taking things quietly. A more obviously thematic sequence is 1 0 a3 Nd7 1 1 R b 1 f5 1 2 b4 Kh8 1 3 Qc2, and now a recent try is 1 3 . . .fxe4 1 4 N cxe4 Nf5 1 5 Nb3 axb4 1 6 axb4 Nf6 1 7 B d 3 Nxe4 1 8 Bxe4 Q h4 "equal", Stohl - Mari n, Stara Zagora 1 990.

If this pos ition is on ly equal , does th is mean that we can consign to the dust bin of his­tory all Russian schoolboy les­sons? N ot q u ite ; the p oi nt about this particular position is that B lack's g rip o n the d4 square counterbalances Whi­te's grip on the rather poorly

45

supported e4 square. White's knight on b3 wil l never be ab le to sit proudly on its favo rite empty square; indeed it may soon be exchanged after 1 9 Bd2 Bd7 20 Bc3 Nd4 2 1 Nxd4 exd4 22 Bd2 Rae8 . It should be added that in recent games Whit� .. has preferred to play 1 3 f3 so as to recapture on e4 with a pawn. In The French Defence, if the d4 square is open , an impor­tant method of counterplay is . . . Nc5-e4 ; correspondingly in the King 's I nd ian , i f B la ck should find himself forced to leave the e4 square open, it is often essential for h im to p re­pare counterpiay with . . . Nf5-d4. It is hoped that the reader wil l appreciate that in many such positions the King's I n­dian is almost a mirror image of the French .

1 0 ... Nd7 1 1 Ba3 NcS 1 2 b4

In the King's Indian it does n ot matter so .. :nuch which l i nes White opens up on the queen­side, so long as he opens up some l i nes . After the e x­change of pawns on b4 White wi l l concentrate his attention on attacking the c5 squa re ,

and if Black plays . . . b6, then play for an a5 bre ak. 1 2 Bxc5 dxc5 v;ould ue meaningless; White wou ld h ave doubled Black's pawns, but he would also have cut out h is chances of making space for his pieces.

1 2 .. . c:xb4 1 3 Bxb4 Na6 1 4 Ba3 b6 1 5 Nb3 fS 1 6 Bb2

1 6 .. .fxe4?!

The classic mistake in this type of pos·ition. In his younger days Gel ler was one of the great pioneers of the King 's Indian, so why does he appear to ig­nore e lementary principles? When a strong p layer plays an obviously anti-positional move, it often means that he is trying to squeeze something out of the position that simply is not there . In th is case Geller was presumably eyeing up the d4 square , but it tu rns out that

46

control of this square g ives him nothing .

To play 1 6 . . . f4 would also be a serious error with Bg4 sti l l a possib i l ity fo r White (even though not necessarily immP.­diately strong) . After 1 7 a4 Nc5 1 8 Nxc5 bxc5 1 9 N b5 White has a clear plus on the queen­side, while lack of influence on the light squares makes it d if­ficult for Black to storm tha kings ide. T he correct plan is to attack the base �f the pawn chain , and this is done by 1 6 . . . KhB ! followed by . . . Ng8 and . .. Nf6. Should White find himself de­fending with f3, then it is time for the bypassing maneuver .. .f4 followed by . . . g5 etc.

··1 7 Nxe4 NfS 1 8 a4 NcS 1 9 NbxcS bxc5 20 Bd3

White's strongpoint o n e4 is now secure , and given time

White wi l l quite sit on Black,s position. Black s hou ld now probably play an immediate 20 . . . Nd4 (analytical question 7: what is then happening after 2 1 Bxd4 ?) . Instead he plays for counterplay on the k ing­side, a doomed effort g iven the power radiated by the White knight.

20 ... Bh6?1 21 a S Qe7?1 22 Ra3! Ba6 23 Re1 Qf7 24 Bf1

The resemblance to a French Defence is b e coming ever more apparent. Just as in the French the ebb and flow of p lay depends on how much control White can keep on the d4 square (Abramovic - Kova­cevic; Larsen - Bareyev) , here a lot depends o n how much grip White has on e4. As you play through the rest of the game, o bserve how Black can make no progress

47

whatsoever on the kingside, despite his massing of pieces there . Yet i f both p layers knights could be removed from the board, Black �auld have the makings of quite a reason­able attack against the White king (as in Abramovic - Kova­cevic). Black's most immediate prob­lem is that White's quean's rook is starting to look good; therefore he attacks along the b-fi le to force an exchange.

24 ... Rab8 25 Rb3 Rxb3 26 Q�b3 Nd4 27 Bxd4 exd4

Or 27 . . . cxd4 28 c5 Bxf1 29

Rxf1 and there is not much to stop the White a-pawn. I have not stressed the importance of the outside passed pawn in my notes, since it can almost be regarded as an incidental fea­ture of the position ; if Black can have an extra pawn in the center, White is "entitled" to an extra pawn elsewhere . Sti l l , the pawn must be respected.

28 Qb2

Avoiding the cheap threat of . . . Bd2.

Ndf3 Qb6

The assault st�rts. An interest­ing alternative is 7 . . . cxd4 8 cxd4 f5 ! ? (blocking White's activity on his stronger flank) with the idea of . . . Nb6 followed by . . . Kd7-c7-b8. White would then have l ittle to attack on the kin gside, whereas Black has chances to create pressure on the queenside.

8 h4

The pawn chain needs a lot of protecting ! 8 g3 is the usual move, but 8 . . . cxd4 9 cxd4 Bb4+ 1 0 Kf2 g51 stops White stab il izing the pawn chain; if 1 1 Be3 f6 . We shall consider al l this later in the chapter.

8 ... cxd4 9 cxd4 Bb4+

10 Kf2

50

Th is rather awkward looking move is forced because of the weakness of the d4 pawn. But White cannot have every­thing; the sl ight d isplacement of the king is merely the price that White has to pay for al l the time he has spent creat­ing his formidable pawn cen­ter. The important question is what happens next. Quiet play holds absolutely no future for Black; he is cramped on the kingside, his queenside is hard to develop, and he has less space in the center. White's d­pawn is under a bit of pres­sure , but this can soon be re­lieved . Black has only one re­alistic possibil ity - to explode the position. Maybe then his lead in development and the exposure of the White king will count for more than White's space advantage.

1 0 . . .f6

Now a capture on e5 is threat­ene d , whi le 1 1 exf6? Nxf6 leaves White seriously weak on the light squares. He must break the pin on the g1 -a7 di­agonal .

1 1 Kg3

Possibly 1 1 Be3 is safer, alt­hough. it g ives Black a chance to organize counterplay against the pawn on b2, for example 1 1 Be3 Be7 12 Qd2 0-0 1 3 Rd 1 a5 1 4 Kg3 a4 1 5 Bd3 Qd8 1 6 Ne2 f5 1 7 h5 Nb6 with a fully satisfactory position for Black, Belyavsky - Kinder­mann, Munich 1 991 .

Plan 8 in action ! White has de­veloped his pieces, but has not improved his pawn structure. Black meanv�hi le has played the blocking move . . . f5 (com-pare also the move . . . c5 in the King's Indian), which prevents White 's stan d ard k ings ide pawn storm. White would l ike to open up the position with g4 but his king on g3 is in the way; Kindermann in fact criticizes White's 1 4 Kg3 in his notes, preferri n g 1 4 Bd3 . On the queenside Black has the in i­tiative thanks to his regroup-

51

ing with . . . Qd8 and . . . NbS; now . . . a3, . . . Nb4 and . . . Nc4 are al l possibi l ities. After 1 8 Kf2 Nb4 1 9 Bb1 Nc4 20 Qc3 Bd7 2 1 a 3 Nc6 22 Rdg 1 b� 23 g4 b4 it was dear that Black's queen­s ide p lay was deve l o p i n g much faster than White's king­side play. A typical example of "full pawn chain" play, with each player in a blocked position pressing hard on his stronger wing; the King's Indian provides many mirror images. But the Ljubo­j evic - Gurev ich. g a m e , to which we now return, provides a completely different resolu­tion to the central pawn ten­sion.

1 1 ... 0-0 12 Bd3?

Definitely a mistake. Gurevich g ives as the only move 1 2 Nh3, and now 1 2 .. . fxe5 1 3 dxe5 (1 3 fxe5? Rxf3+ is a strong exchange sacrifice, de­stroying the White center) and now the position is assessed as .. unclear". Exercise 9 - cla­rify!

In the game something really unpleasant now happens.

1 2 . . . Nxd4! !

I n the Fre nch Defence espe­cial ly, it is always worth con­sidering sacrificing material in order to destroy an oppos­ing pawn ch ain. Often the compensation l ies in Black's having a mobile central pawn mass (part icu l a rly aft�r a n . . . fxe5); here the payoff is in the form of open l ines against the White king.

1 3 Nxd4

Pe rh a p s W h i te h a d ove r­looked 1 3 exf6 g6 ! 1 4 h5 Nf5+ 1 5 Bxf5 gxf5. The sacrifice on h7 h e re i s com p l ete ly un­sound: 1 3 Bxh7+? Kxh7 1 4 Ng5+ fxg5 1 5 hxg5+ Kg8 1 6 Qh5 Nf5+ .

1 3 ... fxe5 1 4 fxe5

52

On 14 Nde2 e4 followed by . . . Nf6 B lack has h is mobi le central pawn muss, while 1 4 Nc2 exf4+ 1 5 Bxf4 Bd6 1 6 Bxd6 Qxd6+ 17 Kh3 eS is not too happy for White either. fi­nally, 14 Qh5? e4 is hopeless.

14 . . . Nxe� 1 5 Bc2

The bad position ing of the White king crops u p in tactic after tactic, for exam pl e 1 5 Bxh7+? Kxh7 1 6 Qh5+ Kg817 Qxe5 Bd6 winning the queen.

1 5 . . . Ng6!

A useful move which blocks off any counterattack along the b1 -h7 diagonal , prevents Bf4, clears the b8-h2 d iagonal , and

·· leaves the Black e-pawn free to advance, thereby opening up a d iagonal for the other bishop. 16 . . . Bd6+ 1 7 Kh3 e5+ is now a big threat.

1 6 Bxg6 hxg6 1 7 Nde2

Horrible, but how else is White to save h is extra p iece? If 1 7 Ndf3-Bd6+ 18 Kh3 Qf2 1 9 Qe1 e5+ 20 g4 Rxf3+ wins.

1 7 . . . Qf2+ 1 8 Kh3 Bd6

_:.... humiliating position for any grandmaster to reach! Rarely has a pawn chain bee� d�­stroyed with such complete brutality. Black now threatens a mating attack with 1 9 . . . e5+ 20 g4 Bxg4+ 21 Kxg4 Qf5+ 22

Kg3 e4+ 23 Kg2 Qg4+.

19 Qb3 e5+ 20 Kh2 Qxh4+ 21 Nh3 Bxh3 White resigns.

The endgame after 22 Qxh3 e4+ 23 g3 Rf2+ 24 Kg·1 Qxh3 25 Rxh3 Rxe2 is not worth playing. Quite often Black is forced to react even more violently on the kingside in order to break up the d4-e5-f4 pawn wedge. Not infrequently th is early ac­tivity backfires completely. My own advice to p layers with 31ack would be to forget about destruction of the White's spa­�e advantage on the kingside,

53

and then to concentrate on queenside play. The more vio­lent l ines are interesting, but so many games are unneces­sari ly lost because· one of the p!,�'�rs seeks to do som ething .. interesting". Here is one, per­haps.

Game 8 Pyda • Llkavsk,-•

£zeehoslcn'akla 199 1

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 c5 6 c3 Nc6 7 Ndf3 cxd4 8 cxd4 Qb6 9 g 3 Bb4+ 1 0 Kf2 g5!?

Bold ly p l ayed , i ndeed o ne might possibly suggest over­boldly played? What is Black trying to do, given that . . . g xf4 will not even break the White pawn center? Black can o pen up the g-fi le, certain ly, but if White develops his bishop to h3 , the one important e ntry

square, g4, will be safely cov­ered. The answer is that Black wants to p lay . . . g5 and . . .f6 , p re pari n g with two sets of pawn exchanges to rip open l ines against the White king. But where does the Black king go in all this? One cannot ex­pect to be able to open up the position so violently and then be al lowed to play a few quiet m oves to tuck h i s majesty away on the queenside. Nei­ther is the king safe in the cen­ter. Surely he cannot be con­templating kingside castl ing? Just wait and see! 1 0 . . .f6 does not look too he­althy after 1 1 Kg2 0-0 1 2 Bd3, wh i le 1 0 . . .f5 , the blocking move . leads to loss of tempo after the inevitable regrouping maneuvers with . . . QdB, . . . Nb6, . . . Be7, etc.

1 1 Be3

1 1 fxg5 is also perfectly play­able; Black removes the e5 pawn , but White gains the e5 square in standard French style . O'Donnell - Foisor, Saint J o h n 1 9 88 , cont i nued 1 1 . . . N dxe5 1 2 Nxe5 Nxe5 1 3 Kg2 Nc6 1 4 Nf3 Bf8 1 5 b3 ! Bg7 1 6 Bb2 Bd7 1 7 Qd2 wit

advantage to White.

White has no real i ntention here of occupying e5; the key to the position is that Black's bishop on d7, stuck behind the Black pawn chain, is extremely passive, and Black is gasping for the chance to free it with . . . e5 . So long as White has good dark square control , this is not possible, and Black must seek counterplay . . else�here.

·· In the game cited, Black tri�d to open up the queenside, but as so often when one's p osi­tional vulnerability rather than one's security forces one to open up lines, it was the op­ponent who was the ben efi­ciary: 1 7 . . . a5 1 8 Be2 a4 .1 9 Bc3 h6 20 bxa4 Rxa4 21 Rab1 with pressure; note the tactic 21 . . . Qa7 22 Rb2 Nxd4? 23 gxh6 Bxh6 24 Bxd4.

54

All th i s tempting , but B lack may well be able to improve

(1 3 . . . Nc4 can also be consid­ered) . With 1 3 Be3 however, White g ives Black the chance to destroy his own king�ide.

1 � . . .f6

Profess ional p layers wi ll be well famil iar with the concept of the "ghost variation": a move is tried once, commended in p ri nt, and then never seen again . Neither examples nor refutation are published. What usually happens in such cases is that a refutation i s found , perhaps by every master who looks closely at the position , but is not published. Indeed, what possible incentive can there be to publish? Much bet­ter to win an easy game armed with pre-match analysis, and only later to publ ish. One such ghost variation is 1 1 . . . g4 , p layed i n J akovich -Machulsky, USSR 1 985 . Our tenth reader's exercise is to ask you to find out why th is move i s no l o nger p layed . Jakovich gives 12 Nd2 f6 and now: ( I) 1 3 Qxg4 Bxd2 1 4 Bxd2

Qxd4+ winning for Black.

( I I ) 1 3 a3 fxe5 1 4 fxe5 Rf8+

55

1 5 Kg2 Be7 16 Qxg4 Ndxe5 and Black, having successful ly broken the White center, stands better.

( I l l ) 1 3 Nb3 fxe5 1 4 dxe5 Bc5 1 5 NxcS Nxc5 1 6 Bg2? (16 Bxc5 QxcS+ gives chances for both sides) 16 . . . d4! 1 7 Bxd4 ( 1 7 Bc1 hS with advantage to Black was the game) 1 7

. . . Nxd4 1 8 Qxd4 Nd3+ 1 9 Ke3 Qxd4+ 20 Kxd4 Nf2 winning material.

1 2 Bh3

An explosive position! Some­th i n g drastic m ust happen soon. I n some of the earl iest games in this l ine, Black tried to keep the lid on with 1 2 . . . hS, but the piece sacrifice 13 Qd3! g4 14 Qg6+ KdB 1 5 exf6 looks da;,gerous.

Black's only real option is to castle and attack down the f­fi le; the question is whether he wants to preface this with an exchange of pawns. The im­mediate 1 2 . . . 0-0 used to be quite popular, and there are many tactical tricks; a game Dobrovolsky - Tibensky, Cze­chos lovakia 1 988 , showed however that with simple de­velopment ( !) White can con­solidate h is center and main­tain an edge: 1 3 Bxe6+ Khtj 1 4 Ne2 ! fxe5 1 5 Nxg5! exf4 1 6 Nxf4 Nf6 - 1 7 Kg2. N o quiver­ing tension , just a safe edge to White. So:

1 2 . . . fxe5 1 3 fxe5 0-0

i n such positions , Bxe6+ is rarely especially dangerous for Black, who usually has freeing combinations in reserve with . . . N cxe5 or . . . Ndxe5 or . . . Nf6 .

14 Rc1

Designed to sidestep a sur­prising tactical resource found by Botteri l l : 1 4 Bg4 BcSI I 1 5 Bxe6+ Kh8 1 6 dxcS Qxb2+ 1 7 B d2 g4 ! 1 8 Bxd5 (After 1 8 Bxg4 Qd4+ Black regains his p i ece with a s l ightly better

56

game) 1 8 . . . Ndxe5 1 9 Bxc6 bxc6 20 R b 1 Qd4+ 2 1 Be3 Nd3+ 22 Ke2 gxf3+ 23 Nxf3 Qe4 24 Qxd3 Ba6 ! 25 Qxa6 Qxf3+ 2o Kd2 Rfd8+ 27 Kc2 Qe4+ 28 Kb2 Rab8+ 29 Ka3 uxej+ �u Rb3 Qxc5+ 31 Kb2 Rd2+ 32 Kb 1 Rxb3+ 0 - 1 Emms - Kosten, British Cham­pionship 1 985. The impression is however given that Black is using a string of tactics to hold a fundamentally dubious posi­t ion together. If White can avoid such tricks then presum­ably he is better.

1 4 . . . Kh8 1 5 Bg4

Better tim ing ! White d id not have this move order option in Emms - Kosten which went 12 . . . 0-0 13 Bg4 and only now a pawn exchange on e5.

1 5 . . . Be7

It is now time to take stock of the pos it ion . Wh ite 's pawn cente r re m a i n s u n b roke n , which must of course p lease him . There a re however va rious tactical blows he must watch o u t fo r, most ly b a s e d on . . . N dxe5 and j u sti fi e d by White's weaknesses o n the g 1 -a7 d iagonal and the f-file. T h e b2 pawn a l s o n eeds watch ing . Black is therefore not without counterplay, and therefore his decision to open up the king side cannot be dis­missed too badly, except for that woeful pawn on g5 , the m isbegotten chi ld of B lack's king side lust. It is now White's turn to open up the kingside.

1 6 h41 gxh4 1 7 N h31

The point. Black is to be en­couraged to open up the h-fi le against h imself.

1 7 . . . hxg3+?!

But this seems unnecessari ly cooperative. Pyda gives the variation 1 7 . . . Qxb2+ 1 8 Rc2 Qa3 1 9 Qe2 hxg3+ 20 Kxg3 wi th a dvanta g e to Wh i te . Again though there i s no obvi-

57

ous need for Black to cooper­ate· exercise 1 1 - can Black im-'

prove by play ing 1 9 . . . Rg8 here?

1 8 Kxg3 Ndxe5

1 9 Nhg51

Black's l ittle freeing combina­tion does 'lot work. The king­side, Wh1te's favoured zone of operations, is ful ly open, whe­reas Black has succeeded in only partially open ing the cen­ter, and his queenside p ieces are stil l locked away. Such a position casts doubt on the wisdom of hurling pawns forward on the kingside, your weaker wing, just before cas-

..

tl ing there. If now 1 9 . . . Nxf3 20 Rxh7+ Kg8 and White llmust" be win­ning; this is so obvious that Pyda does not even g ive a variation! Not everything is so

sim ple though; 21 Rh8+ is met by 2 1 . . . Kg7 ! , whi le there are poss ib i l i ti es of an irritati ng B lack counterattdck with . . . Bd6+ or . . . Qc7+. S o h ow d o e s Whi te wi n? There is a clear method, but it i s not easy to find; readers exercise number 1 2 !

1 9 . . . Rxf3+ 20 Bxf3 Bxg5 21 B xgS Ng6 22 Bf6+ Kg8

The first wave of the attack has been beaten back, and indeed it wou ld appear that Black d oe s not sta n d too bad ly. Given the time for . . . Qc7+ fol­l owed perh a p s by . . . Qf7 , . . . Bd7 and . . . Rf8, he might eve n stand rather wel l . But now comes the second wave of the White attack, which re­moves al l hope.

23 Rxh71 Kxh7 24 Be411 Qc7+ 25 Kg2

58

The more obvious point to White's bishtlp sacrifice is to clear the way for Qh5+; the less obvious point is that the knight on g6 is pinned, so that Black has no real counterat­tack, . . . Nf4+ being i l l.s�z.:. -;-�.: rest is straightforward, as if 25 . . . Qf7 26 Qh5+ KgB 27 Bxg6 Qxf6 28 Rf1 Qg7 29 Rf7.

25 . . . Kg8 26 Qg4 Qf7 2 7 Qxg6+

Liqu idating into an easily won endgame.

27 . . . Qxg6 28 Bxg6 Kf8 29 R'l1 Ne7 30 Rh8+ Ng8 31 Be5 Bd7 32 Rh7 Be8 33 Bd6+ Ne7 34 Bxe7+ Kg8 35 Bb� ReS 3 6 BgS Rc� 37 Be3 e5 3 8 dxe5 d4 39 Bd2 d3 40 Re7 Bc6+ 41 Kf2 Rh4 42 Bxd3 Black resigns.

It is sti l l an open questio n whether White can mainta in a meaningful space advantage with t h e f4 syste m in th e Tarrasch. What he is doing is to sacrifice time to gain space, and th i s loss of time g ives Black the opportunity to a r­range _counterplay. Unfortunately, Black's search

for counterplay can itself im­pede the proper development of h is pieces . To attack the pawn on d4 Black must .play his queen to b6; to develop his queenside he must play . . . Nb6 and . . . Bd7. Alas, double occu­pation of b6 is not allowed, and so it becomes difficult for Black to develop his queenside. White will probably not have enough time to keep his pawn wedge intact. but he is quite l ike ly to be able to attack on the kingside with. p ieces. Play is sharp. There is another way for White to handle the . . . Nf6 Tarrasch; h e can say " Sq u a res n ot pawns" and can concentrate o n d eve lopin g h is p iece s , rather than roll ing his pawns forward . It stil l remains impor­tant for Black to break up the White pawn center, and so . . . f6 wil l tend to be played. Af­ter the exchange of pawns on f6 however, White can play for co ntro l of th e e5 s q u are . A common opening sequence is 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 c3 c5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 Ne2 cxd4 8 cxd4 f6 9 exf6 Nxf6, leading to the diagram position .

59

White's knights may look at first strangely p laced. but Nf3 soon comes. The pawn structure is interest­ing; both sides have their prob­lems and their o pportunities. White'·s d-pawn is dearly weak and wil l need to be defended by pieces. At the same time the pawn is very useful as it controls an important central square (e5), and also restrains two Black pawns (dS, e6). The pawn on e6 is a nuisance for Black in that it prevents the free development of the l ight squared bishop; on the other hand the absence of the � I

pawn gives Black chances of real counterplay down the f­fi le. U n t i l fa irl y recently, Whi te aimed to keep pieces on the board in this variation. to keep things complicated , but Black seems to have perfectly satis-

factory pl ay. Th is approach has more or less been aban­doned ; White now prefers to play an early Bf4 , exchanging b i shops and attempt ing to k e e p p re s s u re o n the e5 square {"squares not pawns") . We consider a game with each approach.

Game 9 SIDagln • Valser

Bornaul 1984

1 e4 e6 2 d4 dS 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 eS Nfd7 5 Bd3 cS 6 c3 Bc6 7 Ne2 cxd4 8 cxd4 f6 9 exf6 Nxf6 1 0 Nf3 Bd6 1 1 0-0

1 1 Bf4 is now preferred.

1 1 . . . Qc7 1 2 Nc3 a6 1 3 BgS 0-0 1 4 Bh4 Nh51

Korchnoi's move, which takes away much of the fun from White . f4 is a pleasant square

60

for Black to aim for with his knight, wh i le the open f-fi le adds a l ittle bit of pressure. Black also has in mind the maneuver . . . g6 and . . . Qg7, pil­ing more pressure 011 _ the d­pawn. It is i nteresting to note that most of Black's play is c;>n the dark squares, indicating that perhaps White has not been very successfu l in carrying through his pawn chain strat­egy (pawns then squares) , since the theoretically weak squares, notably e5, are well covered. One cannot go much further than to say "perhaps", since there are sti i l some un­solved problem with the Black position , notably the role of the queen's bishop; any sudden simplificatio n of the po.sition wi l l generally favour White.

1 5 Bg3?1

The very move that Black had supposedly prevented ! The exchange of bishop for bishop would have made good posi­ti onal sense for Whi te , as Black starts to lose control of the vital e5 square. Exchang­ing his b ishop for the Black knight makes less sense how-

ever; the knight on h5 is a use­ful attacking pieces, but not a l inchpin of the Black position ; the White bishop however is unquest ionably strategica l l y important. I n any position where strong and weak squares are impor­tant (and this is particu larly l ikely where there are decayed p awn ch a i n s) , g re at ca re must be taken to distinguish between pieces which are strategically important and those which are merely ac­tive . I f o ne c a n remove a strategically important piece of the opponent's in return for a merely active piece of one's own, that is real posi­tional gain. How can one tel l if a piece is strategically impor­tant? There is n o un iversal ru le, but if a piece is actively engaged , or l ikely in future to be actively engaged , i n the struggle for a key square, then its strategical role must be re­spected . What then is the correct pro­cedure from the d iagram po­s ition? 1 5 Re1 is sensible, met by 1 5 . . . g6. B lack's posit ion looks perfectly playable, as the fol lowing examples show: a) 1 6 Rc1 Qg7 1 7 Bf1 Bd7 1 8

6 1

Bg5 h6 1 9 Be3, and now 1 9 . . . Rf7 20 g3 Raf8 21 Bg2 was roughly equal in Karpov - Mestel , London 1 984 , 1 9 . . . Nf4! 20 g3 g5 is better for

Black though; he has made l ight of his weakness on e5 and is starting to gain gro­und on the kingside.

b) 1 6 Bf1 h6 1 7 Bg3 ( 1 7 Qd3 Nf41) 1 7 . . . Nxg3 1 8 hxg3 g5 1 9 Na4 Bd7 20 Rc1 Rf6 21 Nc5 Raf8 22 a3 Bxc5 23 Rxc5 Be8 24 Be2 Qg7 25 Rf1 h5 and again · Black is looking good, Ye Jiangchuang -Belyavsky, Lucerne 1 985. Even the uad bishop is starting to see the l ight!

c) 1 6 Bg5 led to a snappy draw in Kruppa - Dreyev, USSR 1 985: 1 6 . . . Nxd4 !

1 7 Nxd4 Bxh2+ 1 8 Kh1 Rxf2 1 9 Nf3 Ng3+ 20 Kxh2 Ne4+ 21 Kh1 Qg3 22 Bf1 Rxg2 23 Bxg2 Nf2+ �4 Kg1 Nh3+ with a perpetual. Always B lack has active piece play to compensate for h is we-

akened pawn structure.

1 5 . . . Nxg3 1 6 hxg3 g6 1 7 Rc1

Qg7 1 8 Bb1 g 5 1 9 Re1 Bd7

Successful ly completing his deve lopment, a nd avoid ing the impulsive 1 9 . . . g4? 20 Ne5 Bxe5 2 1 dxe5 Nxe5? 22 NxdS ! It is dear that Black is already better. I n Kudrin - Korchnoi , Beersh eva 1 984, Black won very q uickly by pil ing down the f-fi le after 20 Qd3 Rf7 2 1 Red 1 Raf8 22 Rd2 Kh8 23 Nd1 Bc7 24 Qe3?? (fall ing into a stan­dard combination , but game was a l ready h ighly unpleas­ant) 24 . . . Rxf3 25 gxf3 Bf4 White resigned . The move that Wh ite p lays is no improve­ment. Maybe 20 Ne5 has to be tried.

20 Qd2?1

20 . . . Rxf31

Thoroughly thematic.

62

21 gxf3 Nxd4

Black has a big advantage. He has destroyed the remains of the White pawn center, and he has seriously weakened the White kingside. Furthermore, now that Black has the center, his minor pieces become po­tential ly very active. The fine position of knight is clear to see, but may be in a few mo­ves time the knight will want to trot away, leaving room for the d- p awn to a d v ance a square, thereby giving a won­derfu l d iagonal to the l ight squared bishop, no longer a bad bishop, more a saint. For al l this, Black. has sacrificed no more than the exchange for a pawn ; such l i9.ht sacrifices (piece for two pawns is a l�o com.mon) are important d e­vices in the French for Black to gain central control .

22 Kg2

22 Re3 fails to 22 . . . Bf41 (re­member the Kudrin - Korchnoi game?) . Vaiser gives 23 gxf4 gxf4+ 24 Kh1 1 Qh6+ 25 Kg2 Qg5+ 2.6 Kh 1 (26 Kf1 e5 ! ) 26 . . . Qh4+ 27 Kg2 fxe3 28 fxe3 Qh2+1 l iquidating into a win-

ning endgame.

22 . . . Rf8

2 2 . . . B f4? g ives White a breather after 23 Bxh7+ ! Kxh7 24 Qd3+.

23 Rh1 h6 24 Qd1

Looks passive, but White has a tactical defence in mind . As Vaiser points out, 24 Qd3 is well met by 24 . . . Rxf3 25 C�e Qxg6 26 Bxg6 Kg7 wh en Black has a second pawn for the exchange, and his bishop pair and pawn center augur wel l for the endgame. 24 Rxt)6 i s tr i cky, bu t aga i n B l ac k comes o ut on top after 24 . . . Nxf3 25 Bh7+ Kh81 26 Be4+ (26 Qd3 Qxh6 27 Rh1 Kg7!) 26 . . . Qxh6.

24 . . . Nxf3 25 Nxd5

63

Fu l ly prepared to meet 2 5 . . . Bc6? with 26 Rxc6 I How­ever . . .

25 . . . Nh4+1 1

C��n l ines! Open l ines ! If now 26 Kg1 Black gains an important tempo with 26 . . . Qf7, e.g. 27 Qc2 Nf3+ 28 Kg2 exd5 29 Rxh6 Nh4+. The text is embarrassing to White though.

26 gxh4 gxh4+ 27 Kf1 Bb5+

Any French Defence p layer would enjoy this move l lf now 28 Bd3' Qg3 wins.

28 Ke1 Bb4+

As if 29 Nxb4 Qe5+ wins. But 28 . . . Qg2! would have forced immediate resignation .

29 Rc3 exd5 30 Qxd5+ Kh8 31 Kd1 Bxc3 32 bxc3 Bc6 White resigns.

Qu ite natural ly, i l l ustrat ive games tend to exaggerate the strength and weaknesses of particular types of p lay; if they did not, there would be no i l­lustration. White's kingside is

n ot o b l iged to cru mble if he avoids exchanges in the Bd3 Ta rrasch , but it ia d ifficult for h im to keep a ny real grip on the position . Maybe if the dark squ a red bishops a re removed , t h e g a m e i s b r i g h te r fo r W h ite . . .

Game 1 0 E rost • Cro ueb

Loodoo 1 99 1

1 e 4 e 6 2 d4 d S 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 eS Nfd7 5 Bd3 cS 6 c3 Nc6 7

Ne2 cxd4 8 cxd4 f6 9 exf6 N xf6 1 0 0-0 Bd6 1 1 Nf3 0-0

1 2 Bf4

B lack cou ld h ave prevented th is with 1 1 . . . Qc7 , but if \f\!hite is i nsisten t he ca n play 1 2 g 3 0-0 1 3 Bf4 . Since dark sq uare control is so importa nt for White , g3 may be regarded as being a strength­e ning move as much as weak­e n ing move . A si mpler move o rder to reach the ga me position is 1 0 Nf3 Bd6 1 1 Bf4 Bxf4 1 2 Nxf4 0-0 1 3 0-0

1 2 . . . Bxf4 13 Nxf4 (d iag ram)

1 3 . . . Ng4

64

In such positions B lack must a lways a im fo r co u n te rp lay, nthP.rwi!";P. his weak e5 square , ba ckwa rd e-pawn a nd bad bishop will continue to bu rden him for a long time to come. Yet if he plays overactively, try­ing to dru m up a n attack which isn't objectively there , he faces a rout. To strike the ha ppy me­

d i u m is the task. not a lways easy. 1 3 . . . Qb6 - is a depend­able enough move, althoug h one mig ht feel that the q ueen ought to be doing more to in­fluence eve nts on the k ing­side . 1 3 . . . Ne4 is a sharper p la n , with an excha nge sacrifice in mind . After 1 3 . . . N e4 , 1 4 g 3 is a safe enough reply. since the n a tu ra l 1 4 . . . Qf6 ? 1 5 h 4 ! leaves Black without a good reply. Attentio n h a s con cen­trated however on 1 4 Ne2 ! ? Rxf3 (again the sta ndard sac-

rifice) 1 5 gxf3 Ng5 . Black has compensation, but probably not enough for e�uality, for ex­ample 1 6 Kh 1 e5 1 7 dxe5 Nxf3 1 8 Bxh7+ Kh8 1 9 Ng1 Ncd4 20 Nxf3 Bg4 21 Nxd4 Bxd 1 22 Rad1 Kxh7 23 Rd3! Qb6 24 b3 Rca 25 f4 with some advan­tage to White, Timoshenko -G leizerov, Chelyabinsk 89/90.

An interesting position. Black, i n order to avoid a nagging po­s i tiona l d i sad va ntage, has �sed h is temporary superior p iece mobil ity in order to pro­voke compl ications . These complications seemingly tran­sform the position completely, yet when everything has sub­sided White stil l has the mak­ings of typical French (or Sicil­ian) type positional advantage. N ote for example t_he roles of the spearhead pawn on e5 , the strong blockading knight on d4 and the open l ines for

� - Pawn Chains 65

the rooks on the king s ide. The Black queen had to perform acrobatics {25 . . . Qg6! 26 Re3 Qb6 27 Rd 1 Qh6 ! 28 Rf3 Qg6 ! 29 Re1 Qb6 30 Rd3 Q b4 3 1 Rdd 1 Qc3) for Black to �tay in the game. Please excuse the author for choosing a rather less interest­ing game (and one of his own, as we l l ) as the i l l us trat ive game, but this is the last chap­ter on the French , and I wan­ted to show a typical positional struggle revolving around the bad bishop.

1 4 Qd2

1 4 g3 g5 1 5 Ng2 Qf6 1 6 Be2 N h6 1 7 Qd2 Nf5 1 8 Rad 1 g4 1 9 Ne5 Ncxd4 20 Nxg4 Qg7 .with chances for both sides, Renet · - Hertneck, Altensteig 1 987 . A strategy we h ave al­ready seen in the l ine without the bishop swap ; B lack ex­pands on the king side to cover over his weakness on e5.

1 4 . . . Qf6 1 5 Nh5 QhS

No choice really, but White is happy to be moving closer to an endgame. Sti l l , p rovided Black is determined not to wait

passively and let White show his technical ski l ls , his position should hold together.

1 6 Qxh6 Nxh6 1 7 Na3?1 -

Overmaneuvering a bit , 1 7

Rfe 1 a6 1 8 Rac1 is s l ightly better for White, one point that . . . Nf7 can in many cases be met by Nf4.

1 7 . . • aSI

A necessary defensive move . If 1 7 . . . Bd7? 1 8 Bb5! followed by Bxc6 and White is gainir.g ground , having exchanged a

p iece that is merely active (the bishop on d3) for one that is strateg ica l ly i m portant (the knight on c6) . In the positions which result, the Black bishop is a dreadful piece which can attack nothing and which can do noth ing to cover the weak dark squares. Its only Lon-

6B

structive ro le is to defend the pawn on e6, and this is a laug­hably small role. Almost any textbook on the endgame will give an example of how the bad bishop can be made to look very s i l ly by a n active knight. Anyone who plays the French Defence wil l almost inevitably be occasionally cal led upon to defend a bad b isho p end­game. The defens i ve tech­nique to remember is to keep your knights, and to keep them active. In the diagram position Black's plan is to develop his q u eens ide , ce ntra l ize h i s knight on h6 ( . . . Nf7-d6) , and then to start counterplay on the queenside. In an o therwise sl ightly depressing position , one small detail e ncourages B l ack ; Wh i te ' s d - p awn i s weaker than Black's . This fea­ture harks back to the earl ier struggle against the base of the pawn chain ( . . . cS ; . . . cxd4) .

1 8 Rad1 Bd7 1 9 Rfe 1 Nf7 20 Ne2 NdS 21 Nc3 Rae8 22 Ne5

White can hard l y h o pe to make progress without th is move.

22 . . . Nxe5 23 Rxe5

There is a case for 23 dxe5, which would be rather strong if White could get a kn ight to d4. True, Black has a passed pawn , but it is extremely wel l blockaded, and has little im­

mediate impact on the game. How does Black avoid gettir:'g into a dismal endgame? The first step is to put the e5 pawn under pressure, thus 23 . . . Nf7;

note that this inhibits White's Ne2 plan. The obvious rep ly is 24 f4 , but Black can attack White's kingside pawn chain with 24 . . . g5! 25 fxgS Nxg 5 26 Ne2 Re7 27 Nd4 Rg7; some fairly standard pawn chain strategy. White can try antici­pating Black's . . . g5 with 24 h4, but this g ives Black time to change track with 24 . . . NdB

and . . . Nc6. Finally if White tries 24 Bb1 Black plays for pres­sure along the c-file with 24 . . . ReB . With care , B lack should be OK.

23 . . . g6 (diagram)

Black's modest pawn move is actually a bid for the in itiative! In the next few moves Black

67

wil l set the pace of the game.

The tactical point is that Black no longer has to worrv about Bxh7 , so that . . . Rf4 is going to be a genuine threat to the d­pawn (24 h4? Rf4 ! ) . In addi­tion, a · route to the center is given to the Black king ( . . . Kg7-f6) . If one adds that the White knight is tied to c3 because of the danger of Bb5, it should be clear that White has no real edge.

24 g3

Playing for f4 .

24 . . . b5

Playing for Nc4.

25 b3 Rf31

An unexpected weakness ap­pears i n the Whi te posit ion

(RR - 26 Ne2? Nf7 27 Re3 Rxe3 28 fxe3 e5 is well fo r Black) .

26 Kg2 RefS 27 Rd2

27 . . . Nc41

After which White is the one who has to defend . Not how­ever 27 . . . b4?1 28 Nd1 Bb5 (28 . . . N bS 29 BxbS) 29 Bb1 t and Black has overplayed his at­tack a bit.

28 bxc4 dxc4

Allows a counter-tactic, but 28 . . . bxc4 29 Re3! leaves White in control .

29 Bxc41 bxc4 30 Re3 Bc6

Black has no more bad bishop problems, and indeed has the more bad active p ieces, plus a passed c-pawn.

68

However th is passed pawn is itself weak, and it is th is factor which prevents Black pressing for a win . The equ i l i b rium is soon reached .

31 Kg1 Rxe3 32 fxe3 Rf3 33 Re2 Kg7 34 Re1 h5 35 Nd1 !

Suddenly White's defensive plan becomes clea r. The ex­change of rooks with Rf1 is threatened . and i f th is ex­change is a l lowed the kn ight versus b ish o p e n d g a m e is very good for White . I n such a position as would be reached, the bishop would be inferior to the kn ight, not because it has noth ing to attack. Rather than endure th is, Black tries to swing his rook to the queens ide . . .

35 . . . Rf5

White parries . . .

36 Nc3

Black returns . . .

36 � . . Rf3

and the draw is agreed . . .

37 Nd1 Rf5 i2 : % .

5. The Unbroken Chain

As we have seen, the setting up of the pawn chain is an im­portant part of White's strategy 1n the French defence, while the demol itio n of the pawn chain is an equally important component of B lack's strategy. Indeed , French middlegame �trategy (as opposed to open­Ing strategy) i s primarily con­cerned with the implications of decayed pawn chains; some of the pawns which originally formed the chain remain in place, whereas other will have d isappeared. l eaving vacant squares for White to use (d4 and/or e5) , and open lines for B lack to u se (c-fqe , f-fi le , sometimes the h2-b8 d iago­nal) . By contrast, p awn chains can have a very long l ife in the K ing 's I nd i a n , especia l ly if Black follows the standard by­passing strategy with . . .f4. This strategy is usually justified only by the uncomfortable situation of the cast le d Wh ite ki ng , stuck in front of an advancing pawn rol ler; otherwise, as in the French , it is best for Black

69

to ma i nta in the tension . We have al ready seen an example (Korchnoi - Kasparov) of Ka­sparov successful ly ramming his kingside attack home after an early . . . f4; as a refresher I

here is another sample of the Kaspa rov maneuver.

Gan1e I I P i ket • Kusparo''

Tllburg 1989

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 B g7 4 Nc3 0-0 5 e4 d6 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Ne1 Nd7 1 0 8e3 fS 1 1 f3 f4 1 2 Bf2 gS 1 3 b4

In our Korchnoi ·_ Kasparov g a m e , Wh ite t ri ed 1 3 a 4 . Korchnoi has a lso tried the strange-looking 13 NbS a6 14 Na7, the idea being that i f the light squared bishop on c8 is exchanged , Black loses con­trol of the g4 square and thus cannot roll h is king side pawns forward , while White sti l l has everything open on the queen­side. The tactical justification is that White can survive 1 3 . . . a6 1 4 Na7 Rxa7 1 5 Bxa7 b6: thus 1 6 b4 Bb7 1 7 c5 dxc5 1 8 Rc1 ! NcB 1 9 bxc5 BaS (19 . . . Nxc5

20 Rxc5 ! ) 20 c6 Nf6 2 1 Bxb6 Nxb6 22 Bxa6 and White has made ma�sive gains on the q ueenside before Black has started his kingside counterat­tack, Korchnoi - Hulak, Zagreb 1 987. I n that game, Black now completely mistimed his play, and after 22 . . . g4? ! 23 Nd3 g3 24 h3! his resistance soon fol­ded . A wonderfully imaginative l ine. Sadly, it soon had to be aban­doned when it became clear that after 1 3 . . . b6 ! 1 4 b4 a6 it i s not rea l ly worth the two tempoes to provoke the weak­ening of the queen side. Black just bui lds· up on the kingside, as usual .

1 3 . . . Nf6 1 4 c5 Ng6 1 5 cxd6 cxd6 1 6 Rc1 Rf71

A useful defensive move. White has made progress on the queenside, and has

70

opened up the c-file , which exposes various Black weak­nesses on the dark squares. These weaknesses must be covered , at least temporari ly, since Black is not quite ready yet to play . . . g4. In particular, Black needs to prevent an in­vas ion on c7 after White 's NbS, while he must also bear in mind that the passive 1 6 . . . a6? would leave a d isabl ing weakness on b6 (17 Na4 etc. ) . Any exchange of knight for l i ght squared bishop would tend to favour White, who has his . . . g4 anxieties significantly reduced. The point about . . . Rf7 is that it covers the weak square on c7 efficiently. The next stage in Black's defensive maneuver is to p lay . . . Bf8, covering the d6 ·pawn , and then after . . . h5 , . . . g4, etc. , the rook i s free to move to the g- or h-files, while still covering c7. Thus Black is not defending purely pas­sively; he has eyes on attack as well as defence. White has also deployed his pieces carefully. We have al­ready seen a broadly similar formation in the game Larsen - Torre, given in chapter 1 in the notes to Korchnoi - Ka-

sparov. There however White decl ined to play his rook to the c-fi le , preferring instead to ad­vance his pawn . The result was that when White finally played Nb5 it was harmless; there was no bite on c 7, and Black could nonchalantly rol l his pawn on the kingside.

1 7 a4

Analytical exercise 1 3: what do you think of 1 7 Nb5?

1 7 . . . Bf81 1

Truly a World Champion mo­ve ! Most of us would have got on with our king side attack with 1 7 . . . h5, etc. Kasparov shows that . . . hS is not even neces-sary; note that the h-pawn re­mains on h7 for the rest of the game, and that Black saves an important tempo by leaving it there. Kasparov reasons that in or­der to make progress on the queenside, White wi l l inevita­bly have to play Nb5 at some

,

stage. This however weakens the e-pawn, and a llows Black to play . . . g4 without hindrance; if White plays fxg4, Black is planning on e4, not g4!

71

1 8 aS Bd71 1 9 Nb5?

Stra ight i nto the posi ti onal trap . Kasparov g ives 1 9 Kh1 as better, and 1 9 . .. . Qe8 (g iv­ing extra cover to b5) as .. un­clear" ; Black is sti l l preparing to rol l however.

1 9 . . . g4! . •

Observe th i s d iagram , and think carefully on the note to 1 7 . . . Bf8 ! ! I n so doing , you should be able to leam some­th ing about the art of purpose­ful maneuvering .

20 Nc7?!

White is a tempo short for al l this ! He also gets throttled on the kingside after 20 Nxa 7 g3 2 1 Bb6 Qe7 22 NbS (22 h3 Bxh3 !) 22 . . . Nh5 23 Kh1 (to meet 23 . . . Qh4 with 24 Bg1 ) 2 3 . . . gxh2 2 4 Bf2 Bxb5 2 5

Bxb5 N g3 + 26 Bxg 3 fxg 3 (Kasparov) . There is no imme­d iate mating attack, but the hole on f4 and the monster protected passed pawn on h2 combine to make l ife hard for White . So maybe 20 fxg4 is neces­sary, but after 20 . . . Nxe4 2 1 N c7 Ba4 22 Qxa4 Rxc7 the long term chances are clearly with Black, who has much the better pawn structure.

20 . . . g3!

The standard pawn sacrifice; White is condemned if he ac­cepts , condemned if he re­fuses. If he accepts, Black loses two pawns while White loses one. For each pawn that Black lo­ses, he gains an open file and an entry square for a m inor piece; White however loses an i mportant defensive un it.

72

If he decl ines . . . wel l . just imag­ine how good a B lack queen on h4 wiJ I look!

21 Nxa8?!

A stray horseman ransacks an abandoned castle i n a distant land, whi le at home the gates to the king's pala ce wi l l no longer hold, and \l\1h ite's spiri­tual advisers can g ive no help. Such is the transitory nature of the gains made in so many fo­reign campaigns! 21 hxg3 had more relevance to the domestic front. Nikitin, presumably working with Ka­sparov, gives deta i led analy­s is , summarized nere. Best play for Black is 2 1 . . . fxg3 (21 . . . Nh5? ! 22 g41 ) 22 Bxg3 Bh61 23 .. Nxa8 Nh5 1 (not countir:-tg materia l ! ) 24 . . . Bf2 Ngf4 (24 . . . Bxc1 ! ? 25 Qxc1 Ngf4 is a perfectly palatable alternative for those who do n ot l ike sac­rificing heavi ly - CSC ) 25 Nd3 ! (25 Rc7 Ba4! 26 Qxa4 Nxe2+ 27 Kh2 Bf4+ 28 Kh3 N hg3 ! 29 Rxf7 Kxf7 g ives B lack a win­ning attack; dark squared con­trol plus exposed king !) and the rest we give as an analyti­cal exercise (number 1 4) : can B lack w in wi th 2 5 . . . Nxg2

here? and if not, how should he play? In such positions the strategy is re latively straightforwa rd , but the tact ics are com p l i­cated . Black must get at the White K.iny, oLr u= rwise ile � �

worse. To get at the king he must sacrifice, maybe only a pawn to start with, but perhaps more l ater in order to break down the last lines of defence. Whenever sacrifices occur, the question oi sounciness ari­ses, and so does the need to calculate precise variations . There may be three different ways to sacrifice, or to fol low up a sacrifice in a given posi­tion ; one may be tempting but unsour.d, one may be unclear, and one may be good. H ow can a player tell? Often CH:tly throug h calcu lation , and the calculations involved may be really d ifficult. So tactical s ki l l counts for a lot.

21 . . . Nh51

Another reason for Kasparov to be pleased that he avoided . . . hS . Control of the g3 square is crucial to Black's attack; so l o n g as g3 is occup ied b y pawn or knight the White king

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has nowhere to go. There is no escape through 22 Bxa 7 Qh4 23 h3 Bxh3 (another the­matic sacrifice) 24 gxh3 Qxh3 25 Rf2 gxf2+ 26 Kx.f2 ; the White king is obviously far too exposed to survive . The alert reader wil l not easily be se­duced by such words as "ob­·viously". To such a reader we ask the question of" how, if at all , Black wins (exercise 1 5) . Nikitin gives 26 . . . N h4 27 Bf1 Qh2+ 28 Ng2 Rg7 winning, but 27 Nd3! improves. Remember the bishop on a 7 may stil l help the defence; maybe White's 21 Nxa8 had some relevance to the kingside after al l !

22 Kh1 gxf2 23 Rxf2 Ng3+1

Banged into the same square I 24 hxg3? hxg3 is hopelessly lost.

24 Kg1 QxaS!

Cool and calm, Black collects the knight. White has no time to reciprocate.

25 Bc4 (diagram)

25 . . . aS!

A delicate l ittle touch. Now that the mighty White bishop has been exchanged , the B lack Queen takes control of the al­agonal immediately behind the White p awn cha in . Yet the more orthodox route remains available if needed: 26 hxg3 fxg3 27 Rb2 Qd8 28 Kf1 Bh6 .29 Ke2 Qg5 30 Rc3 Nf4+, etc.

26 Qd3?1

M iss ing h i s l as t defens ive chance 26 Nd3 Qa7 27 Nc5!?, hoping for 27 . . . dxc5? 28 d6 with complications . Black can s idestep this with 27 . . . Bb5! 28 BxbS axb5 29 hxg3 fxg3 fol­lowed by a capture on c5 and . . . Nf4.

26 . . . Qa7 27 b5 axb5 28 Bxb5 (diagram)

28 . . . Nh1 1 White resigns.

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A classic King's Indian game from one of Kasparov's most successful tournaments (first oy � Y2 points ! ) White's plan in th is game was particularly uncompromising, and therefore the play became unusually sharp. Having a bi­shop on f2 is fine for helping the queenside attack along , but it does nothing to h inder Black's . . -. g4 break. What can White do to slow Black down

·· on the kingside? One radical plan , which we shal l look at in more detai l in the next chap­ter, is for White to play g4 him­self; the king may look ex­posed, but he is less l ikely to be choked by a Black pawn on g3. There is another plan how­ever. When White has played f3, the f2 square is open to a minor piece. If White p lays a knight there, rather tha n a bishop, it becomes more d if-

ficult for B la ck to play . . . g4 . This suggests a maneuver Nf3-e 1 -d3-f2.

�ame I Z £ebalo • Cvltaa Yugoslav

�•••plonsblp 1 986

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2

I t is a lso possible to prepare to build the pawn chain more directly with 5 f3, the Sa misch System. Such an idea is al lur­ing , but, White's inability to use the f3 sq u a re for his knig ht makes kingside development rather more difficu lt; often he has to try awkward maneuvers such as Ne2-c1 . The modern preference is to develop the kingside first, before sett ing up the fu l l pawn cha i n : th is g ives the minor pieces more flexibi l ity.

5 . . . 0-0 6 Nf3 eS 7 0-0 Nc6 8 dS Ne7 9 Ne1 Nd7 1 0 Nd3 f5 1 1 Bd2 (diag ra m)

White's minor pieces are now in place. At some stage he will play if req u ired f3 , and then Nf2 in response to Black's . . .f4 .

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An immediate 1 1 . . .f4 is pre­matu re however since White has 1 2 Bg4 ! preparing to ex­ch ange h is bad bisho p , fo r example 1 2 . . . h5 1 3 Be6+ Kh8 1 4 f3 g5 1 5 b4 Ng6 1 6 c5 Nf6 1 7 Bxc8 Rxc8 1 8 h3 Rg 8 1 9 b5 Bf8 20 c6 Roge rs - D. Pau­novic, Belg rade 1 988.

Th is is almost an ideal position for White ; without the B lack bisho p on ca. B lack's king side attack lacks sting , while White can qu ite happily l ive without h is pu rely defensive bishop o n

e2 . Looking forward a few mo­ves , Black's futur e . . . g4 wi l l al­most certainly entail a pawn sacri "d ce (oncP. Wh i te h a s played Nf2) . But how is B lack going to justify this sacrifice if he has no bishop to keep pres­sure on the pawn on g4? To see how important Black's l ight squared bishop can be in such situations, consider again the Korchnoi - Kasparov game in the i ntroductory chapter. Back to the game, and a l ittle bit of cat-of mouse before the ful l chain is final ly set up.

1 1 . . . Kh8 1 2 Rc1 f4 1 3 f3

Since now 1 3 Bg4? ! would be met by 1 3 . . . h5 1 4 Be6 (no longer check) 1 4 . . .f3 !

1 3 . . . Ng8 1 4 b4 Ndf6 1 5 c 5 g 5 1 6 cxd6 cxd6 1 7 NbS

As in our previous game, Whi­te attacks along the open c­file . The absence of the bishop from the g 1 -a7 diagonal slows down the White initiative how­ever.

1 7 . . . NeB

Even so, Black must keep c7

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covered. Exercise 16: assess 1 7 . . . Rf7.

1 8 a4 h5 19 Nf2 Nh6

Extra support for . . . g4.

20 h3 Rg8 21 Rc31

'Nh ite prepares to triple on the c-file, obviously, but he also prepares a third rar.!< traverse for the (ook in the event of Black playing a later . � . g4.

21 . . . 8f8

N atural enough, but Black co­u ld also consider dislodging the White knight fi rst with 2 1 . . . a6. Cebalo then gives the thematic variation 22 Na3 Bf8 23 aS Nf6 (now that the c7 square no longer has to be watched) 24 Nc4 g4 25 fxg4 hxg4 26 hxg4 Bxg4 27 Nb6 Rb8 -28 Nxg4 Nfxg4 29 Bxg4

Rxg4 30 Qe2 fol lowed by Rfc1 with , according to Cebalo, a s l ight plus to White . But play on a move, 30 . . . Qh4 , an d B lack is preparing for a stan­d a rd King's I nd ian garotti ng with . . . Rg3 and . . . Ng4. Exer­cise 1 7: analyze th is position .

22 Qc2 Bd7

Too late for 22 . . . a6 because of 23 Nc7 . The immediate 22 . . . g4 was worth considering though. Af­ter the inevitable multiple ex­changes on g4, Black certainly cannot cla im any sort of win­n ing kings ide attack, but at least he has some counterplay along the g-file to offset part of White's queenside initiative. Cebalo g ives 22 . . . g4 23 fxg4 hxg4 24 hxg4 Bxg4 (not 24 . . . Nxg4? 25 Nxa7! - a standard tactic that is worth remember­ing) 25 Nxg4 Nxg4 26 Rh3+ N h6 27 Rc1 with perhaps a s l ight edge to White . (d iagram) Would the reader wish to d is­pute this assessment? That is fair enough ; Black has many chances of creating play, per­haps starting with 27 . . . a6. I am not going to set th is posi-

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tion as an analytical exercise , although I would certainly not wish to discc:.Jrage the reader from trying to work out what is happening.

There is a general point that needs to be made . I n the King's Indian, and particularly in position with extendecl pawn chains, the basic strategy in terms of pawn structure is straightforward; the detailed i nte ra ct io n s am o n g t h e pieces are however very in­tricate and complicated. The full pawn chain structure is one of the most distinctive pawn structures there i s , yet the fixed natu re of the ce ntra l pawns mean that the empha­sis is very much on piece play rather than on pawn play, par­ticularly when both sides have already made their thematic pawn breaks (c5xd6; . . . g4) . Yes, the pawn center is as the

center of everything , but it is an inert nucleus . The action goes on a round the center, mostly in an anticlockwise di­rection.

23 Rc1 Rg7?1

A slip or a deliberate waiting move? In either case, the im­mediate 23 . . . g4 probably de­served preference .

24 a S g4 25 fxg4 hxg4 26 hxg4 Nxg4 27 Nxg4 Bxg4 28 Bxg4 Rxg4

A typical position fol lowing a l iqu idation on g4, although it has to be added that Black has been at fault in &loverpreparing" .. his pawn break. Certainly the­re was no need to al low White to double rooks on the c-fi le before playing . . . g4 ; see note to 2 1 . . . BfB .

White is momentar i ly safe on

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the kingside, but in order to claim a secure and stable po­sitional advantage he m u st completely block off any h int of Black initiative on this s ide of the board. His next two cen­tral izing moves do this .

29 Be1 1 Qg5 30 Qe2!

White is now ready to p lay ReB, surrounding Black. B lack now tries to set up some tricks .

30 . . . Bh61 31 ReS Kh71

There is nothing in 31 . . . f3? 32 Qxf3 Qe3+ 33 Qxe3 Bxe3+ 34 Bf2 Bxc1 35 Rxa8.

32 Qf31

Locking the kingside; White now has a clear positional win. 32 Rxa8? is careless; B lack has a second kingside b reak with 32 . . . f3 ! which saves the

game . Thus 33 Qxf3 Qxc1 34 Qxg4 Qxe 1 + 35 Kh2 Bf4+ 36 g3 Qf2+ 37 Kh3 Qf1 + 38 Kh4 Nf6 ! ! 39 Qf5+ Kg7 4 9 gxf4 Qf2+ 4 1 Kh3 Qf3+ 42 Kh4 Qf2+ with a perpetual .

Cebalo's techn ique is good enough to avoid the cheap.

32 . . . RxcS 33 Rxc8 a6 3 4 RxeS axbS 3 5 RbS Qg7 3 6 Rxb7 Rxg2+ 37 Qxg2 Qxb7 �8 Qg4

A typical winning King's Ind ian endgame for White :

( I ) White has an outside passed pawn on the queenside which is very dangerous, whereas B lack's passed pawn on the kingside is well cove­red , a nd has little real chance of queen ing .

( I I ) Black's .. bad bishop" is

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seriously hemmed in by his own pawns and has little mobil ity (a sim ilar problem often arises with the l ight square� bishop in the French), whereas White 's bishop is fu lly mobile on both sides of the board .

( 1 1. 1 ) Black i s extremely weak on the l ight squares covered by the White pawn chain. It is no surprise that the game is soon over.

38 ... . Qc7 39 Bf21 Qc3 40 Kg21

White co nso l idate s o n the kingsiae and a l lows the a ­pawn to win the game for him on the queer.side.

40 . . . Qb4 41 QfS+ Kg7 42 a6 Qa4 43 a7 b4

Now B lack no longer has the poss ib i l ity of . . . Qxe4 + , but wh at e l se co u ld he h a ve done? He was in zugzwang !

44 Qc8 Black resigns.

A h igh ly thematic White v ic­tory. Chess is long , and books are

short, so sadly there is l ittle scope here for a ful l discussion of the various ways in which the kin gs ide struggle i n the Ki ng's I n d ian m ay deve lop . One popular and interesting possib i l ity needs to be d i s­cussed though ; the paradoxi­cal g4 , throwi n g forward a pawn on the flank on wh ich Black is attacking .

6. The Paradoxical Push

.. Never push pawns of the bo­ard where you are weak; you j ust create further weakne­sses. " This is one of the main precepts of cla ss ica l chess strategy, and it is on the whole val id. I ndeed , a standard at­tacking techn ique aga inst a poorly defended sector is to use piece pressure to attempt to force a pawn advance , and then to u se the newly a d­vanced pawn as a lever for the attack; .�ither one can prepare a pawn advance to force open some l ines (e .g . g4-g5 if B lack has been forced to play . . . h6) or one can , especially if the pawn has advanced in front of the defending king , prepare a sacrifice (e . g . Bxh6) .

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Yet sometimes an apparently bizarre pawn advance may be used to pre-empt an attack, to stop it before it has started . The defender makes a bold push in a beleaguered sector, and the opponent finds h e is unable to bui ld up his attack at le is u re . Systems where White plays g4 have become quite popular in the King's I n­dian ; it is , after al l , the su rest poss ib le way of preve nt ing Black from playing . . . g4. H ere is a s imple exam pl e ; even a quick draw may some­times be a usefu l i l lustrative game.

Game I!J Kl1allfman • Gelfa11d

Regg�o Emilia 199 1192

1 c4 g6 2 Nf3 Bg7 3 e4 d6 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nc3 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Ne 1 Nd7 1 0 Nd3 f5 11 Bd2 Nf6 1 2 f3 Kh8 1 3 a4 a5

Black does not want White to gain space wi�h a5.

14 g4

The paradoxical push !

White has no immediate plans to m a ke any fu rther pawn moves o n the kings ide; he merely waits to see what Black does. B lack has three basic choices :

( I) He can leave the pawns as they are, but this would be a s ign of success for

White : he has halted Black's kingside initiative.

( I I ) He can exchange pawn on g4 or e4. It was poin­ted out in the introductory chapter that with the Whi­te pawn sti l l on g2 this wou ld be a very bad · ex­change for Black; he wo­uld have released all the central tension , and he would no points of entry along the open f-fi le, while White would continue to have a free hand on the

6 - Pa"' - :- "'ams 81

queenside. With the pawn on g4, this argument app­l ies with slightly less force

(White's king is a bit open) , but sti l l the play i s in White's favour.

( I l l ) He can block the king­side with . . .f4, and Whi­te's kingside remains under pressure, but much less so than if Black is

al lowed to play . . . g4. A difficult choice for Black, out here made easier by the fact that Black has done his own pre-emptive blocking on the queenside

(13 . . . aS) .

14 . . . c5!

Closing the queenside. Now all that Black has to do for com­plete equality is to close the kingside as wel l .

1 5 Kg2

Tak_ing en passant is not to be considered; after 1 5 dxc6? bxc6 B lack is vastly b etter, White hav ing conspi cuo u s weaknesses along the b-fi le, the g1 -a7 diagonal, and on the kings ide.

1 5 . . . f4 1 6 h4 h5 1 7 g5 Ne8 1 8 Rh1 Draw agreed.

N ot much chance to play for a win here! Both pl�yers have succeeded in locking the pawn s t ructu re o n th e i r weaker flanks. There are chances for livel!er play though, as we shall short­ly �ee.

Game 14 Lobron • aenet Novl Sad 1990

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 d4 0-0 5 e4 d6 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Ne1 Nd7

Not of course the only varia­tion of the King's Indian, but even so a variation which ex­presses classical themes ex­tremely well .

1 0 Nd3 f5 1 1 Bd2 Nf6 1 2 f3 f4

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1 3 g4!?

The theme of th.e chapter, a l­th o u g h i n most v a r i a ti v n s White plays g4 befo re Black has played . . . f4 . lhis poses the question of whether Black can profitably play 1 3 . . . fxg3 1 4 hxg 3 . White 's k i n gs ide pawn structure i s ug ly,. and the king 's pos ition i s exposed , which reduces his options so­mewhat. On the p l us s ide , White has the rather pleasant c1 -h6 diagonal for his bishop, and the h-file may well become useful . In M. Pavlovic - Vokac, Trnava 1 988, Black's position became highly unpleasant af­ter 1 4 . . . c6 1 5 a4 ! aS 1 6 Ge3 Kh8 1 7 Qd2 cxd5? ! (closing the queen side with 1 7 . . . cS was preferable, but White sti l l has k ings ide pre s s u re ) 1 8 cxd5 Bd7 1 9 Kg2 Rf7 20 Rh 1 ReS 21 Nf2.

Without that wonderful pawn on f4, Black's kingside sud­denly seems u ncoordinated a n d v u l n era b l e , wh i l e h is queenside problems sti ll· have not been solved (in the game cited, White r.z.� �:-.c i-.-.a i-acu­v e r R a3-b3 i n h a nd) . I t i s hard ly surpris ing that Black usually prefers to keep his f­pawn. In such a case, the fact that White has safely played g4 may be regarded as a .-.-. i .-.o.­strategical victory, although the h4 square will need care­ful watching.

1 3 . . . g5 1 4 Rc1 h5

Black must open the h-file.

1 5 h3 Rf7 1 6 Be1

White must cover h4.

1 6 .. . Bf8 1 7 cS N g6 1 8 cxd6 cxd6 1 9 Qb3 Rh7 20 Kg2 (diagram)

The White fortifications are al­most complete. Rh1 and Bf2 are to fol low. N ote that Black's attack makes no progress after 20 . . . hxg4 2 1 hxg4 Nh4+ 22 Bxh4 Rxh4 23

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Nf2.

·20 . . . as 21 a4 Bd7 22 Bf2 ReS 23 Rh1 Qe8?

Letting White have the impor­tant b6 square without a strug­gle. Lobron suggests instead 23 . . . Rg7, and if 24 Qb6 N h4+. Maybe Whita i s sti l l s l ightly better after 25 Kf1 .

24 Qb61 Rg7

Si nce 24 . . . Bxa4 2 5 Nxa4 Rxc1 26 Rxc1 Qxa4 27 Nc5 ! is h ighly favorable to White.

25 b3

Not just a s imple defensive move; White also has ideas of Nb1 -d2-c4. Slow? Well , what can Black do on the kingside in the meantime? The whole pace of the game is slower than when the kingside is more

open and Black is aiming for the . . . g4 break himself.

25 . . . Nh4+ 26 Bxh4 gxh4 27 Nf2

The second wave of defence to forestall the second wave of attack. White must cover all potential sacrifices on g4.

27 . . . Nh7 28 Nb1

See note to White's 25th .

2 8 . . . Ng5 2 9 Nd2 hxg4 30 hxg4

·

Black is ahead on the kingside, but he has no barnstorming at­tack. Meanwh i le he has his u sua l queenside problems , and his bishops are both ex­tremely ineffective; one bishop is b locked by friendly pawns, while the other is enchained by enemy pawns . White's knights

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are , g iven passive p lay by Black, headed towards h3 (to exchange off the only effective Black minor piece) and c4 (to take control of the queen s ide) . To �ave such a position with normal defensive play would be quite an achievement for Black. Rightly or wrongly (and Lebron suggests that B lack shou ld have p refe rred 3 0 . . . Rh 7) Black lashes out.

30 . . . h3?1 31 Nxh3 Nxh3 32 Kxh3 Qh5+ 33 Kg2 Bxg4 34 fxg4

Not 34 Rxh5?? Bxh 5 + fo l­lowed by 35 . . . Rxc1 .

34 . . . Rxg4+ 35 Bxg4 Qxg4+ 36 Kf2

Black's attack is a l l i l lus ion , thoug h only because the Whi­te queen is so wel l p laced on b6.

White's extra rook wil l soon decide the issue.

36 . . . Rxc1 37 Rxc1 Be7 38 Rg1

38 Nf3 ! would have been sim­pler.

3 8 . . . Bh4+ 3 9 Kf1 Bg3 40 Rxg3

40 Qf2 ! Qd1 + 41 Kg2 would have been an artistic finishing touch, but White would have wanted to reach the time con­trol as simply a nd safely as possible.

40 .. .fxg3 41 Qe3 Qh3+ 42 Ke2 Qh2+ 43 Kd3 g2 44 Nf3 Qg3 45 Ng1 Qg4 46 Kd2 Kg7 47 Ke1 Kg6 48 Kf2 Kh5 49 a5 ·Black resigns .

Castl ing kingside , and then im­mediately launching the g­pawn , is a paradoxical but of­ten effective stratagem. White can also consider playing g4 before he castles , in which case the nature of the play be­comes rather more vio lent, wi th Wh ite oft e n cast l i n g queenside, and using the g­pawn to support a White pawn

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storm on the kingside . Black in return must attack on the queenside , a reversal of the normal roles. Our example comes one step removed from the King's In­dian.

Game 15 Itllreovle • Todoreevle

Yugeslav Championship 1991

1 d4 as 2 e4 Ba7 3 c4 d6 4 - -

Nc3 Nd7

Black is cagy about his inten­tions. If White is not careful , he will find himself in an inte­rior King's Indian where B lack can safely play . . . f5 without having to worry about getting the king's knight out of the way.

5 g4?1

White prepares the big clamp

on the kingside.

5 . . . e5

It is tempti ng to adopt a Dra­gan/Benon i formation with 5 . . . c5, but the knight on d7 is misplaced for this plan; Black needs to p ressurize d4. White can qu ite h appi ly keep the central tension with 6 Be3 fol­lowed by Qd2 , f3 , etc.

6 d5 Ngf6

Black opts for a pseudo-King's Indian, but White can prepare a pawn storm. The sharpest way to play is to play for an early . . . f5, notwith­standing White's attempt to e l iminate th is move. After a double exchange of pawns on f5 , White will have complete control of several key l ight squares, particularly along the b 1 -h7 d iagonal , and he wi l l also have possibi lities of attack along the g-fi le. I t should not be forgotten though that White wi l l be weak along the f-fi le, a n d tha t B l a ck h a s d a rk square control , with . . . Nd4 or the pawn sacrifice . . . e4 being interesting possibil ities. So for exercise 1 8 we ask what is

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happening after 6 . . . Ne 7 7 Ne2 f5.

7 h4

Most certainly not 7 g5? Nh5, possibly fol lowed by . . . Nf4 and/or the opening of the f-file with . . . f6. White's pawn struc­ture wou l d have lost a l l its natural elasticity. With the next move Wh ite threatens to extend his grip on the light squares by playing h5. This is a good move, whether Black allows the h-file to be opened, or whether he tries to keep the h-fi le closed. If for E)X­ample Black tries 7 . . . h6, then 8 �5 !? g5 9 f3 gives White a very favorable pawn structure.

In such a position the kingside is completely blocked with only White having chances of play (Nf5) , whi le White sti l l has h is tradit ional advantage on the

queenside. Only White can win , a nd Black's defensive task is burdensome. Black decides he must prevent h5.

7 . . . h5 8 g5 Nh7 9 Be3 0-0 1 0 Nge2 Qe7 1 1 Ng3

Advertising the possibil ity that a sacrifice on h5 might later be avai lable. It helps that Black is press�d for space on the king­side. Furthermore any attempt to break free with . . . f5 or . . . f6 can be met by exf6, after which the Black pawn on g6 will be very weak . Note that the bishop on e3 effectively protects the oth­erwise weak White pawn on f2 . There is also a m ore immedi­ate tactical problem; if now 1 1 . . . f6? 1 2 N xh5 ! gxh5 1 3 g6 is strong . So Black is uncomfort­able.

1 1 . . . Rd8 1 2 Be2

Now 13 BxhS followed by Nf5 is a threat.

1 2 . . . NdfB 1 3 Qd2 c5

The "block and break" theme,

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discussed further in the next chapter. With White standing bette r on th e k ings ide . a l­though obviously preparing to castle queenside , . Black m ust prepare counterplay on the queenside, on h is . . unnatu ral" wing. To do this, he must firstly block with . . . c5, then break with . . . b5.

1 4 0-0-0 aS 15 Rdg 1 b5 1 6 Qd1

Black's sacrifice should be ig­nored as a matter of principle. After 16 cxb5? axb5 1 7 Bxb5 White gains a pawn, b�t so what? Black's two open fi les on the queens ide p rovid e ample compensation, and 1 7 . . . Bg4 followed by . . . Rdb8 wi ll bring to a halt White's attack, and h a n d the i n i t i a t i ve to Black.

16 . . . bxc4 (diagram)

1 7 Bxh5 !

Thematic and very strong . White i s aiming a few pawns at Black's congested kings ide. Without this sacrifice , White would have noth ing o n the kingside . and would have to

content h imself with closing down the q ueenside , some­thing clearly not possible when B lack has already played . . . bxc4.

Seen in this l ight, it is clear that White must a lready have de­cided that th is sacrifice was promising when he castled on move 1 4, otherwise he would have tucked his king away on the kingside, maybe on f2, and prepared to meet . . . bS with b3 and a l ikely draw.

1 7 . . . gxh5 1 8 Qxh5 Rb8 1 9 Nf5

And this is why the sacrifice is strong . Every pawn removed from the board means that at least one square is weakened ; here the weakening of Black's fS is highly s ignificant. White's newly found control of h5 is not so important of itself; the real

88

point is that the road is clear for the h-pawn.

1 9 . . . Qb7 20 Qe2 Ng6

21 hS?!

Sometimes it is the mistakes that are instructive. The move played gives Black a fleeting opportun ity for counterp !ay (can you see it?) . The correct

.. move is 21 Nxg7 ! A . p layer would be naturally reluctant to exchange off h is exce l lent knight so soon afte r it had reached its strongest square, but the bishop on g7 is crucial to Black's kingside defence; White has no need to fee l guilty here about exch�nging good knight for llbad" bishop. After 2 1 Nxg7 ! Kxg7 22 h5 Black is unable to move the knight away from g6 because White's g6 move would be ter­rifical ly strong . Black wou ld

have noth ing better than 22 . . . N hf8 23 hxg6 Nxg6 24 Rh6, but White would then have lev­e l led materia l and kept h is king side initiative. Some examples of what hap­pens if Black tries to keep his extra piece (based on analy­sis by Mirkovic) :

(a) 22 . . . Nf4 23 Bxf4 exf4 24 g6 fxg6 (otherwise 25 h6+ is too strong) 25 hxg6 Nf6 (25 . . . Nf8 26 f3! Nxg6 27 Rxg6+ ! ) 26 e5! dxe5 27 Rh7+ ! Nxh7 28 gxh7+ Kh6 29 Rh1 + and a queen check decides. How easily the king's cover is stripped bare once the bishop has gone!

(b) 22 . . . Ne7 (22 . . . Ngf8 merely leaves an extra target after a later g7) 23 g6 fxg6 24 hxg6 Nf6 (24

•

. . . Nxg6 25 Rxh7+) 25 Bh6+ Kg8 26 Bg5 Kg7 (26

. . . Rf8 27 Bxf6 Rxf6 28 g7) 27 Bxf6+ Kxf6 28 Rh7 with a winn 1ng attack.

21 . . . Bxf5 22 exf5 (diagram)

22 . . . Nf4?

89

B l ack m isses a s p l e n d i d chance to break fre e . Any King's Ind ian aficionado wi l l have a fond understanding of the power of the Indian bishop once the long diagonal has been swept open, and so it proves here. 22 . . . e4 ! is the move , th rP.aten ing . . . Bxc3 ; Black is not scared of 2 3 hxg6 Bxc3 24 gxh7+ Kh8. White can of course throw a cloak over the bishop with 23 f6, but then the knight takes over the open e5 square : 23 . . . N e 5 ! Mirkovic g ives 24 fxg7 N d3+ 25 Kd 1 as ��unclear'' ; it is also an i nteresting position to ana­lyse (exercise 1 9) . The first question to ask is w hether Black stands better.

23 Bxf4 exf4 24 f6

Back to normal afte r some missed opportunities . White's

ki ngs ide pre s s u re i s formi­dable; Black's queenside at­tack i s merely i rritating .

24 . . . B h8 25 Qc2 ReS

Mirkovic shows that the co­u nter-sacrifice o n f6 avai ls nothing : 25 . . . Bxf6 26 gxf6+ Kh8 27 Rg6! fxg6 28 hxg6 Rd7 29 Ne4 Qxd5 30 f7 and the Black king is defenseless.

26 g6?!

This could have waited a bit; 26 Rh4! was strong.

26 . . . Nxf6 27 g7

Painful ! Of course 27 . . . Bxg7 28 h6 loses quickly, but Black must rrepare the counter-sac­rifice somehow.

27 . . . Nh7 28 Rh4

90

28 . . .f5?

The tension reaches a peak as White prepares Rhg4 fol lowed by a capture on h8 and a n at­tack down the g-fi le. In addi­tion, Black was getting short of time. He makes the mistake, common in such situations , of seeking a premature release of tension , when everything subsides , White has a clear positional edge. Exercise 20; can you suggest a better defensive p lan for Black? Examine this position carefully and you will see how knife-edged these pos!tions with �ttacks on opposite wings can be.

29 h6 Re7 30 Rxf4 �xg7

The release of tens ion .

31 Rxg7+ Rxg7 32 hxg7 Qxg7 33 Qxf5 (diagram)

I l lustrating the theme of ata-..

vism in chess. Looking at the diagram, one of the most ob­vious points is that White is tak i n g co n trol of the l i g ht squares.

This becomes even clearer in few moves tim e , when the VVhite knight wil l have reached e4 and the rook g4, while the advanced d5 pawn will con­tinue to highlight the weakness of the e6 square . A lot of wood has crossed a lot of squares, but the position is one which is highly characteristic of pawn chain strategy. I n particular, the s pearhead pawn on d5 stays in placs, and while the e4 pawn has long since dis­a p p e are d fro m th e boa rd White stil l has control of the e4 square. So does this mean that White has been consistently follow­i n g a classical pawn chain strategy, and is finally reaping the benefits? Even if one ig­nores the various mistakes in the earlier play, · such an inter­pretation does not hold . After al l . one can also deduce from

9 1

the diagram position, perfectly correctly, that there has re­

cently been a sharp battle with both sides trying hard to open up l ines and create attacks against kings castled on oppo­site flanks. This is, if you like , the ��father'' of the position. The immediate paternity of the po­sition is currently not so impor­tant; White may have the oc­casional threat down the g-file, . but it is not going to be this that

decides the game. The strate­

gic features which are most im­portant now, are throwbacks to

an earlier "generation", atavis­

tic features . The basic tone of the position has been set by the sequence 5 g4 e5 6 d5; White has aimed for ambitious control of the l ight squares, while Black has tried to hold steady on the dark squares. White has been more s uc­cessful than Black, but that is because he has played better

than Black. It would be a mistake to think that White's l ight squared con­

trol has been an enduring fea­ture of the position , and an even bigger mistake to con­

sider it merely accidentaL It is atavistic, a genetic trait (this re­

lating to the genesis of the po-

sition) wh ich has not visibly man ifested itself for a few "generations" (phases of play) , but which suddenly appears at a much later date. If you the reader are not convinced by th is l i n e of reason ing , and would wish to argue that White was always better on the l ight squares, I would refer you to the position set in exercise 1 9 , where Black had just estab­l ished h is knight on d3, and had pawns on c4 and e4 - not real ly signs of White dom ina­tion ! So what is the particular s i g n i f ica nce of atav i sm i n chess? Perhaps the most i rr. ·

portant point is that it is worth accumu lating positional ad­vantages even i n situ�tions where it can be for seen that the game will soon be domi­nated by tactics and by com­pl icated sequences of attack and counterattack. However messy the complications ap­pear to be at the time, they will eventually subside, and there is a f�ir chance that ancient strategic features of the posi­tion wi l l assume new promi­nence. Believing in chess ata­vism , one can says as a mat­ter of faith , " I l ike my position , and I want to preserve my ad-

vantages. If he wants to com­plicate, let him! Though every­thing see ms confused ; I be­l ieve that I go into complica­tions with a good position , I wil l emerge with a good position." A long ph i losophical d igres­sion. How does atavism work in practice?

33 . . . KhB

33 . . . Qg 1 + is wel l met by 34 Nd1 .

34 Rg4 Qh6+ 35 Qf4

White is happy with an end­game, _and indeed is prepared to meet 35 . . . Qh1 + 36 Kc2 Qa1 with 37 Qc1 ! White's d­and f-p awns a re stro n g ,

.. Black's d-pawn and front c­pawn are weak.

92

35 . .. Qh1 + 36 Kc2 RfB 37 Qe3 Qh2 38 Ne4! (diagram)

The throwback to class ica l pawn chain strategy is com­plete. Black's ineffective attack down the f-f i le and modest control of dark squares do not compensate for White's mas­sive grip on the central l ight squares.

The threat of Qc3+ now forces an endgame in which the Black pawns are genetically predisposed to drop off. (Curi­ously, I have never seen ripe apples fall like pawns.)

38 ... Qe5 39 Qc3 Qd4 40 f41

Rf7 41 Nxd6 Rd7 42 Qxd4+

cxd4 43 Nxc4 Rxd5 44 Kd3

There is no real difficulty her�.; White is a pawn up and has the better pawn structure and the more active pieces; the endgame win is simply a mat-· ter of time.

44 ... Nf6 45 Rg5 Rd8 46 Ne5 Kh7 47 Ng4 NeB

If Black allows any exchanges, the win is even easier.

48 b3 Ng7 49 Nf6+ Kh8 50 ReS Rf8 51 Nd5 Nf5 52 Ke4

93

Nd6+ 53 Kxd4 NbS+ 54 Kd3

Rd8 55 a4 Nd6 56 Kd4 aS 57 KcS Nf7 58 Re7 Kg8 59 Ra7 Black resioned .

.....

Not the most accurate game in this book, but of theoretical and thematic interest. The .. paradoxical push" can also occur in the French De­fence, for example 1 e4 e6 2

d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Qb6 6 a3 Bd7 7 b4 with ad­vantage to White. Black can prevent this with 6 ... as or the bypassing move 6 . . . c4.

A more important case is that of the Nimzo-lndian. There are many variations in this open­ing where White forms the pawn chain f3-e4-d5, while having doubled pawns on c3 and c4. The shape of White's pawn chain suggest queen­side activity, but the doubled pawns rule this possibility out. White's most promising plan, unlikely and paradoxical tho­ugh it might seem at first sight, is to keep his king in the cen­ter and use his f3 pawn as a pivot for a general kingside pawn advance. Maybe in a fu­ture volume we shall consider the doubled pawn complex in more detail; in the meantime

here is an example of White gaining an edge with this plan.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 f31 ? c5 5 d5 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 d6 7 e4 e5 8 Bd3 Nbd7 9 h4

The kingside advance starts; White proposes h5 and h6, while if Black prevents this with 9 . . . h5, the g5 square is weak­ened , and White can aim for Bg5, Ne2-g3-f5.

9 . . . Nf8

C a stl i n g k ings i d e , in to the pawn storm, is too dangerous.

1 0 h5 h6 1 1 Rb1 Qc7 1 2 Qb3 Kd8

The fi rst sign of p lanlessness, but · what improvements are there? If 1 2 . . . b6 1 3 a4 White p re p a re s to attack on the queen side.

1 3 Ne2 Ng8 1 4 Ng3 Ne7 1 5 Be3 (diagram)

A very p leasant position to play for White, Gutman - Am. Rodriguez, New York 1 988. Black has been unable to take the initiative on the queen side,

94

so the doubled c-pawns are not weak.

·v·v'i 1 i i� i lC:t::; piay along the b-fi le, and his kingside pawns clamp Black very effectively. Note that whereas in the King's In­dian the key push is g4 (to re­strain . . . f5) , in the Nimzo-,n­dian the leading pawn is gen­eral ly the h-pawn (White must provoke weaknesses).

7. Bloek aad 8reak

In a book th is size, it would be impossible to give ful l cover­age to all major pawn chain themes. The best that can be hoped for is that the examples and discussion in this book wi l l h ave improved the reader's positional fluency when d eal­ing with what is undoubtedly a rathe r compl icated typ e of pawn structure. There is one theme that definitely should

not remain undiscussed and I

that is the "block and break" theme. Our last chapter showed ex­amples where White pushed h i s kn i g h t's pawn on h i s "opponent's" flank, either re­straining . . . f5 (or . . . c5) or ac­tually attacking the opponent's f- (or c-) pawn. Black can also p l ay p a wn moves on the 'wrongn s ide of the board; . . . c5 in the King's Indian or . . .f5 in the French . The primary mo­tive is clear; Black wants to p revent White ga in ing too much s pace on his stronger flank. With this blocking move, Black can prevent White's c5 in the King's Indian, or his f5 in the F rench ; on the other h a nd i t is made easier for White to open up l ines (b4 and bxc5 in the King's Indian ; g4 and gxf5 in the French) . Yet Black ca n also open up the po­sition, with . . . a6 and . . . b5 in the King's I ndian (as we have al­ready seen in Mircovic - Todor­cevic) , o r by . . . h6 and . . . g5 in the French. It is probably in the block-and­break type of position that s imi larities between the King's I nd ian a nd French become most n oticeable. H ere for ex-

95

ample is a game that Petrosian won shortly before becoming World Champion; the game starts as a French, but the su­per-subtle strategist so com­pletely wrong-foots a world class opponent that Olafsson finds himself playing a grossly inferior King's I ndian , M irror Variation.

G•me 16 Olafsson • Petroslan Bled

1961

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4

The Winawer Defence, strate­gically the most complicated of all the F 1 ench variations. Black's pressure on e4 forces an immediate decision from White. Normally he plays 4 e5 here, even· though this invol­ves no gain of tempo. The main l ine 4 . . . c5 5 a 3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 Ne7. {diagram)

A pawn chain position, but with a diff9rence; White has doub­led c-pawns ! The pawn struc­ture is h ighly unstable; thi s is shown in extreme form in l ines such as 7 Qg4 !? Qc7 8 Qxg7 Rg8 9 Qxh7 cxd4 with great complications.

In th is l ine Black has destroyed the White pawn center, but has had to sacrifice his king­side to do this ! B lack's k ingside is undoubt­edly weaker i n the Winawer than in the Classical (3 . . . Nf6) , and the absence of h is dark squared bishop might well be­come a problem (a4 followed by 8a3 is a standard pian for White) . On the other hand, White's center is considerably .. more vu lnerable than in the Classical , h is c3 square being particularly weak (square, and not just pawn; a sudden open­i n g of the c-f i l e can leave White weak on c3 and c4 be­cause of the absence of the b-pawn). Who do these d ifferences fa­vour? There is no simple an­swer; perhaps best to say for the time being that both sides have something to play for.

96

4 e5 Qd7!?

Avoiding the main l ines. The purpose of this move is s imply to facil itate queens ide castling . 4 . . . b6 5 Qg4 8f8 !? is another possioii ity. 1 ne retreat of the bishop looks strange at fi rst, but Black has provoked e5 in a situation where the pawn on d4 is poorly protected . and in such circumstances the White queen is indifferently placed on g4. indeed a game Blatny ­Psakh is , Amsterdam 1 99 1 , saw a quick return to: 6 h4!? h5 7 Qd1 ! (the queen i s a tar­get after 7 Qg3 Nh6) 7 . . . c5 8 Bg5 Qd7 9 Bb5 Nc6 1 0 Nge2 a6 1 1 Bxc6 Qxc6 1 2 Nf4 cxd4 1 3 Nce2 Qc7 1 4 Nd3 with an unclear. position. It is perhaps more logical for White to play 5 a3 Bf8 6 Nf3 Ne7 7 h4 h5 8 Bg5, and now Portisch g ives after 8 . . . Qd7 9 Bb5 c6 1 0 Ba4, with the idea of Ne2 a nd c3, and the White pawn cha in is well secured.

5 Qg4 f5!

Th� kingside block.

6 Qg3 b6

7 h4

A reasonable move, or the first step down a slippery path? It all depends on how seriously White needs to take the pos­sibil ity of . . . g5. 7 N�3 is definitely worth con­sidering, when 7 . . . Ba6 led to White's advantage in H_iartar­son - Adams, Reykjavik 1 990: 8 Bxa6 Nxa6 9 0-0 c6 1 0 Nf4 (pressure on the backward pawn) 1 0 . . . Nc7 1 1 Nce2 ! Qf7 1 2 b3 followed by c4. Yet the King's Indian player might well l eg itimately ask why it is so necessary to exchange the bad b ishop , when Black is so l id enough after a " real" fianchetto. 7 . . . Nc6! looks emi­nently p layable; . . . Bb7 and . . . 0-0-0 are to fol low. The trouble with playing a knight to h3 so early is that White is ne­glecting his important d-pawn.

7 - Pawn Chains 97

7 . . . Bb7 8 Bd3?1

This routine developing move is questionable; the bishop is misplaced on d3 as White im­plicitly admits four moves later. Clarke, in Petrosian's Best

Games of Chess, suggests 8 Bd2 Nc6 9 Nf3 0-0-0 1 0 0-0-0 followed by Ne2 and Nf4. 8 a3 also looks reasona ble. There is a d istinction to be drawn between development and merely getting pieces off the back rank for the sake of moving them.

8 . . . Nc6 9 Nge2

M aybe 9 Nf3; who knows? White's game is sl ipping , and appears to be s l ippin g with every ruove . When this hap­pens, every move looks l ike a mistake at fi rst, when in fact there may only be one or two real mistakes. Perhaps in the next few moves it is White's position that is bad , not h is moves.

9 . . . 0-0-0 1 0 Bd2 Nh6

As 1 1 Bxh6 wil l give B lack the g-fi le.

1 1 a3 Be71

The bishop retreats to its best square, regardless of the pos­sible loss of a pawn. White is set a chal lenge: snatch the pawn, or forever play a slightly inferior position. Exercise 21 : the critical l ine is 1 2 Qxg7 Ng4 1 3 Bg5; has Black got any­thing concrete here?

1 2 Bb5

Admitting that h is 8 Bd3 was i l l advised.

1 2 . . . Rdg8 1 3 Qd3

The drifting continues . This move looks ugly, but how else d o e s Wh ite secure h i s d ­pawn? Black's piece move­ments are much more harmo­nious.

1 3 . . . Nf7 1 4 0-0-0 (diagram)

1 4 . . . Kb81 1

Petrosian was renowned for the subtlety, and occasional ly the oversubtlety, of his posi­tional maneuvering. Here h is play is subtle yet comprehen­sible, altogether charming.

98

The point about th is position is that the natural side for de­veloping the Black i nitiative is the queenside, not the king­side. Furthermore this initiative is potentially a powerful one in that Black has the right p iece development to start a King's Indian style pawn rol ler on the queens ide. Sc Petrosian turns it into a King's Indian ! Stage I - clear the c8 square.

1 5 Nf4 Qc8!1

Stage I I - major piece to the c­fi le .

1 6 Nce2 Ncd81

-Stage I l l ; knight out of the way so that the pawn m a y ad­vance. (diagram) Black's last few moves may look mysterious, when taken one by one, but it is the posi-

tion at the end of the maneu­vering that counts. Black's po­sition is 1 00% solid - there is not a ghost of a weakness that White can attack - and the ac-+i , , ,.. " "' ' . .... ,.. ...... , - . • ;s J·ust about .., , • .._. � ""' -..,. I I .,..., I t"''--J I

to start.

Black's . . . c5 '.Nill express both French and King's Indian the­mes. In French style, Black is th reatening to destroy the White pawn center by a sus­tained attack on d4, which would undermine the spear­head pawn on e 5 . Shou ld White decide to complete the pawn chain with 1 7 c3 , then Black attacks in King's Indian style, e.g. 1 7 . . . c5 1 8 Kb1 c4 1 9 Qe3 (Qc2? loses a piece to 1 9 . . . a6 2 0 Ba4 b5) 1 9 . . . Bc6 ! ? 20 Bxc6 Qxc6 and Black's maneuvering need no longer be so subtle; . . . Nb 7 -a5-b3, . . . Ka8, . . . Rb8, . . . a5, . . . b5-b4, etc. , is annihi lating.

99

Petrosian was never a King's I ndian advocate, but this posi­tion is perhaps most easi ly grasped in King's . lndian terms . To com pensate for Black's queenside play White ought to be developing a h uge advan­tage on the kingside, the flank of his spearhead pawn, but he has nothing : Black's . . .f5 and N h6-f7 have very effectively blocked off White's play on h is stronger flank, wh i le h i s . . . RdgB announces the possibil­ity that Black can break (with . . . g5) as well as block. Black is so strong on the queenside however that th is possibil ity remains merely hypothetical .

1 7 Qb3?

After this White is clearly lost. 1 7 Nh�_! the only chance, pre­paring to buttress the e-pawn with f4 . An important mini-tac­tical point is that 1 7 . . . c5 may safely be met by 1 8 dxc5 be­cause 1 8 . . . Nxe5? is answered by 1 9 Bf4. To gain the maxi­mum from the position , Black has to prepare to recapture on c5 with a kn ight. Thus 1 7 . . . c6 1 8 Ba4 Ba6 1 9 Qe3 N b7 ! leaves B lack i n the driv ing seat; for example 20 Kb 1 c5

2 1 c3 Na5! is strong.

17 . . . c61

Forcing the bishop to deprive the knight of the d3 square.

1 8 Bd3 c5 1 9 dxc5 Bxc5 20 Nh3 Nxe5

This pawn may safely be sna­tched as the pin is not as dan­gerous as it looks, for example 21 Bf4 Nf7 22 Ng5 Bd6 ! 23 Nxf7 Nxf7 and Black has con­solidated his extra pawn.

21 Bf4 Ndf7 22 Bb5

Having lost the strategic battle in the center, Wh�te aims for a l ightning attack against the Black king . It fai ls, but it had to be tried.

22 . . . Ka8 23 Nd4 Ng6 24 Qa4 Bxd4

Before White can fl ick in Nc6 .

25 Bd7 (diagram)

25 . . . Qf8

White has done wel l in ran­domiz ing the posit ion , an d

100

Black still has to think careful ly, despite being piece and pawn up. Petrosian plays according to the principle .. protect every­thing", but there is a suspicion that this move is over-subtle.

Exercise 22 is two parts. firstly, is 25 . . . Qf8 a clear win? Clarke gives as the main l ine 26 Bxe6 Be5 27 Bxd5 Bxd5 28 Rxd5 QbB! and Black keeps his ex­tra piece; you might want to look fo r · improvements fo r White . Secondly, has Black got any simpler alternative to 25 . . . Qf8?

26 Rxd4?

Now it is easy for Black.

26 . . . e5

To meet 27 Rxd5 with Nxf4 and 27 Bc6 with Qc8.

27 Rb4 exf4 28 Rxb6 Nfe5 29 Rxb7 Kxb7 30 h5 Qd6 3 1 h x g 6 Qxd7 3 2 Qxf4 Nxg6 White resigns. A memorable game.

Here reluctantly, it is time to bring the book to a close, oth­erwise a short book wi ll be­come a long one. There are several recent games that I would have l iked to include, given more space (notable ex­amples being Shirov - Bare­yev, Hastings 1 99 1 /92 and lvanchuk - Kasparov, Linares 1 992), and it would have been interesting to include a few games from other openings, such as the Ruy Lopez and the Advance Variation of the Caro­Ka.ln . I hope however that I have done enough to acquaint the reader with some of the ba­sics of pawn chain strategy in the two classic pawn cha in openings, the French and the King's Indian. I hope that the reader will enjoy exploring the issues further, both in playing through printed games , and in h i s o r her over-the-board chess. There is sti l l one p iece of unfinished business in this book; all those analytical ex-

1 0 1

ercises ! Here are the positions again , with my own attempted sclutions .

A nalytical Exer�lses

There is only so much that one c�n learn from the pas­s ive study of texts; a l l top trainers are agreed that indepen­dent analys is is the real key to improvement. Such analys is does not mean simple calculation of combinations; what is requ i red is that one should take an interesting position (or even a boring position) and study it in depth , to find out what i s rea l ly going on . Only so is it possib le for the reader to gain a more subt le appreciation of the re lative importance of par­t icu lar types of strategic feature in game-l i ke settings. Deep analysis improves both tactical and strategical judgment! The exercises that fol low have arisen from the discussions in the text. Each exercise represents a point in the notes where the sources I have used (mostly lnformator ) fai l to clarify a critical posit ion. S ince in my own notes I have wanted to concentrate on strategical themes rather than analytical d is­cussion, I have not written in deta i l on these positions in the main text, but have left them as analytical exercises for the interested reader. In th is chapter, I present a l l the positions again , and give my own tentative solut ions to the questions I have raised . . If you the reader d isagree with my answers, then excel lent! Analyse more deeply !

1 02

1 . Korchnoi - Kasparov (note to White's 1 7th)

White to move

A typically razor-sharp Classical King's Indian What is happening here? Who is better?

2. Korchnoi - Kasparov (note to White's 2 1 st)

White to move

"Unclear" accordi ng to Kasparov.- Comments?

103

3. Introduction to Chapter 2

White to move

Black has just castled. Is the standard sacrifice 1 3 Bxh7+ good, bad or indifferent? In the French Defence it often takes very fine judgment to be able to decide whether to al low this sacrifice or not.

4. Larsen - Bareyev lnote to White's 1 5th)

White to move

Black has just broken with 1 5 . . . f6 (an opportunity that Bareyev neglected) . What is happening?

104

5. N imzowitsch - Salwe (note to White's 1 Oth)

White to move

Can White establ ish an advantage after Black's 1 0 . . . aS?

6. N imzowitsch - Salwe (note to White's 1 5th)

White to move

Another Bxh7+ combination to calculate. Is it strong?

1 05

7. Korchnoi - Gel ler (note to White's 20th)

White to move

Does 2 1 Bxd4 g ive White a stable positional edge?

8. Korchnoi - Geller (note to White's 36th)

Black to move

Black lost on time here, yet 36 . . . Kg7 1 sti l l gives White tech­nical problems. Can White win this _endgame? I s Gufeld's suggesti'on on 37 Re6 Rf6 38 Rc6 correct?

1 06

9. Ljubojevic - M . Gurevich (note to White's 1 2th)

Black to move

Who stands better?

1 0: Pyd o - Likavsky (note to Black's 1 1 th}

White to move

This variation was once recommended as good for Black, but h as been avoided in master chess. Why?

1 07

1 1 . Pyda - Likavsky (note to Black's 1 7th)

Black to move

I s this position defensible after 1 9 . . . Rg8?

1 2. Pyda - Likavsky (note to White's 1 9th)

White to move

A trad itional "find the combination" exercise. Whit• and win . Not as easy as it looks.

1 08

1 3. Piket - Kasparov (note to White's 1 7th)

White to play

White played 1 7 a4. Assess 1 7 NbS. I s 1 7 . . . h5, as suggested in Encyclopedia of Chess Openings the correct reply?

1 4. P iket - Kasparov (note to White=s 21 st)

Black to play

Does 25 . . . ·Nxg2 win? If not, how should play continue?

1 09

15. Piket - Kasparov (note to Black's 21st)

Black to move

If the win is "obvious", you will surely find it.

16. Cebalo- Cvitan (note to Black's 17th)·

Black to move

Black played 17 ... NeB; assess 17 . . . Rf7.

110

17. Cebalo- Cvitan (note to Black's 21st)

Black to play

Slight advantage to White, according to Cebalo. But \Vhat is happening after 30 .. . Qh4?

18. Mirkovic- Todorcevic (note to Black's 6th)

White to play

What is happening?

111

1 9. Mirkovic - Todorcevic (note to Black·s 22nd)

Black to play

" Unclear, according to Mirkovic. Clarify.

20. Mirkovic - Todorcevic (note to Black•$ 28th)

Black to play

How should he defend?

1 12

2 1 . Olafsson - Petrosian (note to Black,s 1 1 th)

Black to move

Can White be punished for snatching the pawn?

22. Olafsson - Petrosian (note to B lack,s 25th)

..

B lack to move

How should White have met 25 . . . Qf8? Can B lack i mprove?

e - Pawn Chams 1 1 3

Exercise I

May be a draw is a fair result, with 21 c7 being the crit ica l move. After 21 . . . Qd7 22 Rxa7 (22 Nxa7 leads to s imi lar varia­t ions , but without the preparatory exchange of rooks) 22 . . . Rxa7 23 Nxa7 gxh3 24 Ne1 Rg7 25 Bxh6 hxg2 26 Nxg2 N h4 27 Rf2 Nxg2 (27 . . . Qh3? 1 2B Bf1 1 ) 2B Rxg2 �"�2 -r 2� Kxg2 Qh3+ 30 Kg1 Qg3+ 31 Kh1 is perpetual check.

2 1 hxg4 hxg4 22 fxg4 Nxe4 23 Bf3 would be interesting , with White battl ing for control of e4 and hoping to use h is passed pawn, except that Black has 23 . . . Ng3 with a crushing king side attack.

Exercise 2

White has just g iven back his extra pawn to save a tempo, but what can he useful ly do with his extra move? Certain ly someth ing qu iet l ike 23 a5? g4 'Nould be total ly wrong. A White attac!� on the queens ide wi l l not be able to outspace a B lack kingside attack. What is necessary is to undertake prophylactic measures on the kingside._ In the actua l game White defended against Black's sacrifice on g4 by Re1 , Bf3 and attempting to run .his· .king to e2: however he had not prepared this sufficiently early, and lost as a result .

Therefore an immediate 23 Re1 !? Rh7 24 Kf1 is worth con­s idering, and if 24 . . . g4 25 hxg4 hxg4 26 fxg4 Bg5 27 Bf3 . After 27 . . . Bh4 2B Ra2 Bg3 Black sti l l has good prospects though, and there also alternative methods.

Another idea for White is 23 Nc6 QfB 24 Na7 , hoping for a draw by repetition after say 24 . . . Bd7 2S NabS ReB 26 Na7 Rb8 27 NabS ReB. Black can sacrifice the exchange how­ever: 24 . . . Rxa7 25 Bxa7 c5, when after 26 Bb6? ! N h4 White has too l itt le covering the kingside. So 26 NbS ( idea Bb8) 26

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. . . g4 27 hxg4 hxg4 28 fxg4 Nh4 (But not 28 . . . Nxe4? 29 Bd3) and B lack has very good play for the exchange, for example 29 Bf3 Rg7 30 Bb8 Nxf3+ 31 gxf3 Nxg4 or 29 Bb8 f3 ! Maybe 29 Ra3 Nxe4 30 Rh3 Bg5 is best, but B lack sti l l ha� excel lent play for the exchange. Black is looking good.

Ex-ercise 3

This is most spectacular of the analytical exercises ! The sacrifice is strong . 1 3 Bxh7+ 1 Kxh7 1 4 Ng5+ Kg8 ( 1 4 . . . Kh6 would lose quickly to 1 5 Qg3) 1 5 Qh4.

Now B lack must make a f l ight square for the king. If he counter -aiial,;k� with 1 5 . . . Nd3+, then simply 1 6 Kf1 Qf2+ 1 7 Qxf2 Nxf2 1 8 Kxf2 f6 1 9 exf6 Rxf6 20 g3 leaves White a pawn up. If B lack tries instead 1 5 . . . Rd8, then �n important fl ight square is blocked after 1 6 Qh7+ Kf8 1 7 Qh8+ Ke7 1 8 Qxg7.

After 1 5 . . . Re8 ! White must be careful ; the impulsive 1 6 Qh7+ Kf8 1 7 Qh8+? Ke7 1 8 Qxg7 Nd3+ 1 9 cxd3 Qe3+ 20 Ne2 Nd4 2 1 Qxf7+ Kd8 22 Qh5 Ra7 hands over the attack to Black.

White does better to spend a move getting his king into safeiy. 1 6 0-0-0 ! ! Now Rxd5 is a possibi l ity, for example 1 6 . . . Ne7 1 7 Qh7+ Kf8 1 8 Qh8+ Ng8 1 9 Rxd5 ! b4 20 Nh7+ Ke7 2 1 Qxg7 with a mating attack. So Black tries to dislodge the kn ight immediately. 1 6 . . . b4 ( 1 6 . . . Na4 !?) 1 7 Qh7+ Kf8 1 8 Qh5 ! Now if 1 8 . . . Ra7 1 9 Nh 7 + Ke 7 20 Rxd5, winning; 1 8 . . . Nd8 receives the same punishment and 1 8 . . . Qa7 or 1 8 . . . Qb7 are not much better, too. 1 8 . . . Qc7 ! ( Black foresees a later . . . Qxf4+ in a critica l l ine) 1 9 Nh7+ Kg8 20 Nf6+ ! gxf6 21 Qg4+ Kf8 22 exf6. Now Black has a choice of losing variations, the second one being par­t icularly attractive.

1 1 5

(a 22 . . . Rd8 23 Qg7+ Ke8 24 Qg8+ Kd7 25 Qxf?+ Ne7 (25 . . . Kd6 26 Rxd5+1 ) 26 fxe7 ReB 27 Nxd5 exd5 28 Rxd5+ Kc6 29 Qxe8+ Kxd5 30 QdB+ winning.

(b 22 . . . Re7 23 Nxd5! exd5 24 Qg7+ Ke8 25 Qg8+ Kd7 26 Rxd5+ Ke6 27 Qg5 t ! and Black, a lthough three p ieces ahead, is helpless. If this game hasn't a lready been played , then no doubt one day it wi l l be l

Exercise 4

The position is screaming out for 1 5 . . . f6 , a thoroughly thematic move to break White a grip on the center. After 1 6 exf6 B lack might also be tempted by the wi ld 1 6 . . . e5? ! which works out wel l in the sharp l ines (e.g . 1 7 Rg3 Nxd4 1 8 _Rxg7 + Kh8 1 9 Qxe5 Nf5 ! ), but fai ls to the mundane 1 7 Nxc6 ! Qxc6 1 8 fxg7 Rxf4 1 9 Qxe5 Rf7 20 Bb5. Black's position seems perfectly adequate after 1 6 . . . Rxf6, which amongst other things puts pressure on the pawn on f4. If 1 7 Rf3 Na5! with real queenside play, since unl ike the game 1 8 Nb3 loses � pawn. An object lesson in the importance of . . J6 in the French.

Exercise 5

This is basical ly a question of strategy rather than one of tactics . White plays 1 1 b5 ! , not worrying about the surrender of c5 square, and then prepares Nbd2 and c4, open ing up the center rather than queen side. White's advantage in space and development should then prevai l . And White does not even have to spend a move playing a consol idatory a4; after 1 1 . . . Na7 1 2 Nbd2 ! Bxb5 1 3 Rb1 Black must lose m ateria l . Whi le on 12 . . . Bc5 preparing to meet 1 3 c4 with 1 3 . . . Ne7, then 1 3 a4! , played as a semi-waiting move, is strong . Black, s b ishop on c5 is bad ly placed, and if 1 3 . . . Ne7 1 4 Nb3 gaining

1 1 6

the bishop pair i n a position wh ich wi l l soon be opened up (c4, maybe exf6, etc. ) .

White stands better. Th_e general opening strategy is i nter­esting. F i rst of a l l Wh ite closes the position to gain space . . Then when shortage of space has constricted the movement of the B lack pieces, White opens up the position aga in to exploit his lead i n development!

Exercl�e 6

1 7 Bxh7+

(a 1 7 . . . Kxh7 1 8 N g5+ Kg6 ! 1 9 Qxg4 Rf4 ! ( 1 9 . . . Bxh2+? ! 20 Kh1 , and 20 . . . e5 21 Ne6+ Kf7 22 Nxc7 Bxg4 23 Kxh2 ! or 20 . . . Rf4 2 1 Q h3 Kxg5 22 Qxh2 Rh4 23 Be3+ Kh5 24 g4+ Kxg4 25 Rg1 + winning) 20 Qh3 Kxg5 2 1 Qg3+(21 Be3 Kg6 leaves B lack better) 21 . . . Rg4! (21 . . . Kf5 !? 22 Qd3+ Kg5 2.3 Qg3+, etc. ) 22 Be3+ (22 f4+ Bxf4) 22 . . . Bxf4 . Good enough reason already for rejecting 1 7 Bxh7 +.

(b 1 7 . . . Kh8 also seems amply playable for Black, e . g . 1 8 Ng5 Bxh2+ 1 9 Kh1 e5 20 BcS Qc6 2 1 Bxf8 Rxf8 22 f3? Ne3 23 Qxe3 Bf4 with a big advantage to B lack. Alterna­tively 1 8 Bc2 e5 and B lack has taken over the center.

Therefore 1 7 Bxh7 + is not strong , and so B lack stands wel l in d iagram posit ion N imzowitsch of course d id not reach the d iagram posit ion, which resulted from a hasty l ine which left insufficient contro l of the center.

As a matter of general principle, it is usual ly best to p lay the positional ly l

_ogical move (e. g . overprotection of one's own

strong points , restraint of the opponent's position) rather than to p lay "attacking" moves and rely on random tactics to back up the attack . Often as here random tactics do not work.

1 1 7

E:xerelse 7

Not an easy position to assess, or to analyze . 20 Bxd4 is certain ly the natura l move for White, g iving B lack the choice between stabi l izing the pawn structure with 20 . . . exd4 or un­blocking the queenside with 20 . . . cxd4.

After 20 . . . exd4, B lack's e6 square is exposed, and he must be very careful not to exchange his l ight squared bishop too l ight-heartedly. After 21 f4 Bf6 (to prevent Ng5) 22 Re1 Be7 23 g3 White stands better and can play to increase the pres­sure with Qd2 , a5 and Ng5. Black's only real chance of play is if VJhite rushes things too quickly, for example 23 . . . Bd7 24 h4? ! (24 t:aG) 24 . . . Bxh4. · Sight advantage to White then. if 20 . . . cxd4, White's main responsibi l ity is to keep his strong point on e4, and indeed to overprotect it. With B lack having no real p lay in the center or kingside, White can turn h is attention to the queenside. After 21 Qe2 White can consider Rfc1 or even doubl ing rooks on the a-fi le to push the pawn forward to induce . . . Ba6 leaving some weak l ight squares on the kingside. If B lack wants to force opposite colored b ish­ops with 2 1 . . . Bf5, then let him I The bad bishop on g7 can do l ittle to guard the queenside, a··perennial problem in the King's Indian.

I hope you did not try calculating too many variations in this exercise ! Analys is can be as much about strategy as about tactics.

E:xerelse 8

The first point to consider is that Gufeld's suggestion of 36 . . . Kg7 37 Re6 Rf6 38 Rc6 Rxc6 39 dxc6 is unnatura l ; White is voluntari ly weakening his pawn structure ! After 39 . . . Kf6 B lack should a lmost certainly be able to draw by picking off the c-pawn with h is king if the White king should move to the

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queenside, and by keeping guard on g5 if White tries Kg2-g3-g4.

A more logical approach is to force the exchange of rooks without compromising his pawn structure, by p laying 37 Re7+ Rf7 38 ReB. Now 38 . . . Rxf4 is hopeless: 39 Ra8 Rf6 40 Ra7 Kh6 41 Kg2 1 (cutting out the last g l immer of counterplay) and B lack can resign. Black must therefore fal l in with White's plan by playing 38 . . . Rf8 39 Rxf8 Kxf8. Although White is an outside passed pawn up , the win is very d ifficu lt s ince the bishop is tied to the defence of the c­pawn, and since the kingside pawn majority is compromised by the doubled f-pawns. The natural plan is 40 f5? 1 gxf5 41 f4; we must see why this does not work. After 4 1 . . . Ke 7 42 Kf2 White's king is in range of the Black pawn on c5, mean­i ng that 43 Bxf5 is a threat. Thus if 42 . . . Kd6 43 Bxf51 Bxc4 44 Bxh7 1 and Whitels three widely scattered passed pawns count for more than Black's tightly bunched pawns. Neither though is defendi ng passively an opinion for B iack: 42 . . . Kf6? 43 Ke 1 Kg6 44 Be2 fol lowed by playing the king to d3, covering the vulnerable c-pawn, . and then playing the bishop to b5. ·

So how does Black defend? He must get h i s h-pawn to a dark square, beyond the reach of the White bishop: 42 . . . h6 1 I I have been unable to find a White win here. A typical l ine is 43 Bxf5 (before Black can play . . . Kd6) 43 . . . Bxc4 44 Bc8 Kd6 45 a6 Bxa6 46 Bxa6 Kxd5. B lack's queenside pawn phalanx is sufficient to _hold the game, as wi l l readi ly be seen by play­ing out a few variations. A critical technical poi nt needs to be noted here; Black draws the game if he can win the f-pawn, even if he loses a l l his queenside pawns, as the b ishop is the wrong color square for the rook's pawn. In the other words, preserving the h-pawn is of no help in White's bid for a win .

1 1 9

The u ltimate useles�ness of the White's h-pawn is not so easy to see in advance, especia l ly on move 40, but it does help bring · to m ind � possible a lternative p lan. White must attack Black's kings ide pawns with h4-h5, throwing away the expendable h-pawn , rather than with f4-f5. Therefore 40 h4 ! ! is the move . If B lack now tries 40 . . . h5, the s implest is 41 to gxf5 42 f4 fol lowed by bringing the king to b3 or d3 , protect­ing the c-pawn, and then winning either the f-pawn or the h­pawn. It fol lows that Black cannot prevent h5 .

If 40 . . . Kf7 41 . h5 gxh5, White has a fairly straightforward win by marching the king up the h-fi le, gobbl ing pawns and even­tua l ly squeezing through the king up the h-fi le. Black must try to preserve a pawn on g6. So: 41 . . . Kg7 ( it is also desirable not to a l low White to play h6) 42 Kg2 Kh6 43 Be2 Kg7 44 Kg3 Kh6 45 Kh4 Bc8 (45 . . . Kg7 46 Kg5! ) 46 hxg6 hxg6 47 Bd3 Ba6 48 Kg4 BcB+ (48 . . . Kg7 49 Kg5; the Black king is misplaced) 49 f5 ! ! gxf5+ (49 . . Bxf5+ 50 Bxf5 gxf5+ 51 Kf3; 49 . . . Kg7 50 Kf4 ! gxfS 51 KeS) 50 Kf4 Kg6 51 Ke5 Kg5 52 d6! cxd6+ 53 Kxd6 and White soon mops up.

There was a lot of fight left in the position when B lack lost on time.

··

Exerebie 9

White stands better! He has maintained h is pawn chain, s ince sacrifices on e5 are unsound, and he is ready to sort out h is kings ide development and take the i n it iative. Main variations:

(a 1 3 . . . Ndxe5? 1 4 fxe5 Nxe5 1 5 Nxe5 Bd6 1 6 Qe1 !? Qd4 1 7 Bf4 Rxf4! 1 8 Nxf4 Bxe5 is unclear, �espite B lack's heavy sacrificing: There is however an unusual twist: after 1 4 Nxe5 ! Nxe5 1 5 fxe5, the fact that White has a pawn rather than a kn ight on e5 means that . . . Bd6 is unplayable . White

1 20

i s simply a piece ahead.

(b 1 3 . . . Nc5 concedes that the pawn cha in cannot be broken; B l ack decides instead to acti·'late his own pieces. White's most appropriate response is to get his king into safety, avoid ing random tactics. Thus 1 4 Kh2 is indicated , and if 1 4 . . . Ne4 1 5 Nfg5 knocks out B lack's e4 strong-point . B lack must avoid 1 5 . . . Nf2? 1 6 Qc2, but the alternatives seem good for White. If 1 5 . . . Nxg5 1 6 hxg5, White develops with Bd3, etc.

Ex�rt-lse 10

I do not know in how much detai l th is position has previ­ously been analyzed, but the critica l l ine would seem to be 1 3 Nb3 fxe5 1 4 Qxg4 1 Now:

(a 1 4 . . . Nf6 1 5 Qg7 Rf8 1 6 dxe5 Ne4+ ( 1 6 . . . d4 1 7 exf6 is good fer White) 1 7 Kf3 d4 1 8 Kxe4 ( 1 8 Qxh7?? Ng5+) 1 8 . . . dxe3 1 9 Be2 and B lack's king on e8 is more exposed than White's king on e4 1 P l ay is of course extremely sharp, but probably in White's favour after for example 1 9 . . . Ne7 20 Bh5+ Kd7 {Hop_ing for 2 1 Qxf8? Qc6+ when B lack is at least equal ) 2 1 Rc1 I {B lack stands wel l after 21 .Rd1 + Kc7 22 Rd6 Bxd6 23 exd6+ Qxd6 24 Qxf8 Qd5+ 25 Kxe3 Nf5+ 26 Kf2 Qxh1 27 Nf3 b6 1 ) 2 1 . . . Rg8 22 Qf7 Qb5 23 Nf3 ! , and White wins the race to complete his development ( ! ) and g ive a ki l l ing check.

(b 1 4 . . . exd4 1 5 Qxe6+ Kd8 1 6 Bxd4 Nxd4 1 7 Qxb6+ Nxb6 1 8 Nxd4 Bc5 1 9 Ngf3 Bg4 20 Rd1 g ives White a sol id extra passed pawn. B lack's b ishop pair and superior develop­ment offer only transitory compensation .

(c 1 4 . . . Nxd4?? 1 5 fxe5 is s imply ·a blunder.

1 2 1

Some tactical sequences here which are typical of the French Defence, and of the f4 Tarrasch in particu lar, in that B lack is desperately trying to create tactiLa l mayhem before White can consol idate and make use of his considerable space ad­vantage. One should not be dogmatic, but on the whole such position ought to favour White.

Exercise I I

Yes ! Black stands wel l , thanks to a few thematic defensive combinations:

(a 20 Bxe6 Ndxe5! 21 Bxg8 Ng4+ 22 Kg1 Nxe3 23 Bxh7 Bg4' (not 23 . . . Nxc2 24 Bxc2 Bg4 25 Qd2 ! ) 24 Qd2 Bxf3 25 Rc3 Bb4 ! etc . . White has alternatives of course, but B lack al­ways comes out ahead.

(b 20 Nhg5 Bxg5! 21 Nxg5 (21 Bxg5 Nxd4! ) 2 1 . . . Rxg5 22 Bxg5 Nxd4 and White's position col lapse�.

( c 20 Nxh4 avoids immediate d isasters, but White has l ittle to show for the pawn he h�s sacrificed .

Does th ts mean that White's whole idea is wrong? Not so; White's play is fine, but it is his note that is wrong. F rom the d iagram position, retract White, s last move, 1 9 Qd 1 -e2, and p lay instead the more aggressive 1 9 Nhg5 ! An extra tempo for the attack matters more than the bishop on e3 ! 8 lack gets mated if he tries 1 9 . . . hxg3+ 20 Kxg3 Qxe3 21 Rxh 7 + Kg8 22 Bxe6+, so the defence of the bishop is whol ly unnecessary, yet if B lack tries something else, White opens up the h-fi le anyway.

1 22

Exercise 12

2 1 Bxf3 Bxg5 22 Be4! (Since 22 Bxg5 Qxd4 ! or 22 Bxd5 Rf5 is fine for B lack; RR - 22 Qh1 ! is also strong) 22 . . . dxe4 and now White can choose between 23 Rh8+ !? Kxh8 (23 . . . Kg7 !?) 24 Qh5+ Kg7 25 Qxg5+ Kf7 26 Rf1 + Ke8 27 Qg6+ Kd7 28 Rxf8 Qxb2 when White sti l l has to prove the win , or 23 Qh5 ! Rf3+ 24 Kg2 Qxb2+ 25 Kh1 with a winning attack, e .g . 25 . . . Bxe3 26 RhB+ Kg7 27 Qh7+ Kf6 28 RfB+ Kg5 29 Qg7 + Kh5 30 Rh8+ and mate·next move.

Exercise 13

1 7 Nb5? is a weak move, s ince in abandoning contro l of the e4 square White a l lows an immediate 1 7 . . . g4 ! in repy. 1 8 Nxa7 is of course met by 1 8 . . . g3, and 1 '8 Bxa7 is met by 1 8 . . . Rxa 7 , so the threat to the a-pawn is shal low.

ECO (E99/4) , note 22, gives the strange sequence 1 7 N b5(?) h5(?) 1 8 Nxa7 Bd7 1 9 a4 g4 20 a5 g3 21 Bb6 gxh2+ 22 Kh1 Qe8 23 Nd3 h4 24 Nf2 Nh5 25 Kxh2 Ng3 26 Rg1 h3 unclear (B lack has compensation for the sacrificed materia l ) , P iket -V.Spasov, Groningen 1 989.

A checking of sources shows however that the position after 1 7 . . . h5 was reached by transposition, and that neither p layer in fact made an obvious positional blunder. The sequence of moves was 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 0-0 5 Nf3 d6 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Ne1 Nd7 1 0 Be3 f5 1 1 f3, and now not 1 1 . . . f4 1 2 Bf2 g5 1 3 b4 Nf6 1 4 c5 Ng6 1 5 cxd6 cxd6 1 6 Rc1 Rf7 1 7 Nb5(?) Rf7(?) as suggested in ECO, but rather 1 1 . . . h5 1 2 b4 f4 1 3 Bf2 Nf6 1 4 c5 g5 1 5 Rc1 Ng6 1 6 cxd6 cxd6 1 7 Nb5 ! ? Rf7. Such an incident shows the need for care when consu lting reference works on the opening. On the subject of transpositions, it is perhaps only fair to point

1 23

out that in the Korchnoi - Kasparov game in chapter 1 , the move order to reach the position after move 8 was not the standard King's Indian move order, but rather 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 d4 0-0, etc.

r;xerclse 14

25 . . . Nxg2 is of course the thematic move, thoroughly ex­posing the White king, but B lack is so far behind in material that the best he can t,ope for is a draw. Thus 26 Kxg2 Rg7+ 27 Kh2 Ng3! (a lways sacrifices . . . ) 28 Bxg3 Qg5 29 Rg1 Qh5+ 30 Kg2 Be3 3 1 Rh1 Rxg3+ 32 Kxg3 Qg5+ with a draw. I have to admit t�::t ! ::t th is exercise not bel ieving that B lack had "only" a draw after 25 . . . Nxg2; I wanted a further opportunity to examine the positron. It is important to note that in the above l ine 28 . . . Rxg3 is not a win ; 29 Kxg3 Qg5+ 30 Kf2 Qh4+ (with White being two rooks and a piece ahead, the king cannot be al lowed to escape to e1 ) 3 1 Kg1 and now the rational way is 31 . . . Qg3+ with a draw, since 3 1 . . . Be3+ is met by 32 Rf2 .

So if B lack is aiming for a win he should try 25 . . . Rg7. Para­doxical ly this looks even bolder than the piece sacrifice since B lack, a whole rook down, g ives White a tempo to close down the kingside. Sti l l , B lack has his opportunities to reduce the material imbalance ( . . . QxaB, maybe later . . . Bxc1 ), and the White kings ide is sti l l leaky. Kasparov gives in New in Chess the l ine 26 Nxf4 Bxf4 27 g4 (27 Rc7? Ng3 ! - the fami l iar py­thon grip - 28 Rxd7 Qh4 29 Rxg7+ Kxg7 30 Bxa7 Nxe2+ 3 1 Qxe2 Bh2+ 32 Kh1 Bg3+ and mate next move) 27 . . . Bxc1 28 Qxc1 Nf4 29 Qe3 h5 and the materia l deficit is under control with B lack sti l l having a kingside attack. Kasparov suggests that White can sti l l defend with 30 Rc1 hxg4 31 fxg4 Nxe2+ 32 Qxe2 Bxg4 33 Qe3, but here is the on ly point where I can

1 24

d isagree with his analysis. Why should Black exchange his dominating knight for White's weak bishop? 31 . . . Qxa8 lev­els the piece count and continues to ma intain the tension on the kingside.

There is however a third alternative at move 25, mentioned by neither Kasparov nor N ikit in: 25 . . . Bh3 !? It g ives noth ing clear though after 26 Nxf4 Nxf4 27 g4: and if 27 . . . Qa8 28 Rc3!

25 . . . Rg 7 is best.

One of the few analytical exercises where even after pro­longed thought I have been able to add nothing of rea l sub­stance to the publ ished analysis; but should th is be surpris­ing when the analysis has been done by a world Champion?

Exerelse IS

Quite a ta.1tal izer! Black is only a piece down and appears to have the White king at his mercy, but it is i ncredib ly d iffi­cult to find the way o� landing the ki l l ing blow when there are so many tempting alternatives. The problem is that since Black is working on a very narrow front his pieces are l i ab le to get in each other's way, for example 26 . . . Be 7 27 Bf1 ! Bh4+ 28 Kg 1 and suddenly Black is wishing he had h4 for the knight or queen.

An important practical point: B lack is not worse. If unable to find a win he can always settle for a draw with 26 . . . Qg3+ 27 Kf1 Qh3+ 28 Kf2 (28 Kg1 ? Nh4 and . . . Rg7+) 28 . . . Qg3+. 26 . . . Ng3 is tempting , but the White king escapes after 27 Nd3 ! Qh4 28 Ke1 !

26 . . . Qh4+ 27 Kg1 is also unconvincing, since with h4 un­avai lable for a B lack kn ight White can stick a m inor piece on g2 , for example 27 . . . Ng3 28 Ng2.

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26 . . . N h4 ! , as suggested by Kasparov and Nikitin , is in fact the winn ing move, and if 27 Nd3 Qg3+ 2B Kf1 Ng2 ! ! The escape route via e1 has been b:ocked off, and B lack has t ime to bring more pieces in to fin ish everything off, for ex­ample 29 Qd2 (29 Bf2 Qh2 ! ) 29 . . . Qh2 30 Bg1 Ng3+ 31 Kf2 Nxe4+ 32 fxe4 Qg3+ 33 Ke1 Ne3+ 34 Bxe3 fxe3+ and wins.

Exerelse 16

Given that Black is p laying for . . . g4, there is an obvious presumption that 1 7 . . . Ne8, playing the knight away from f6 , i s a gross waste of time. And yet . . . If White were to play exactly as in the game, then clearly 1 7 . . . Rf7 would appear as a great improvement on 1 7 . . . NeB. The reason why B lack preferred 1 7 . . . NeB was anxiety about another plan, the "paradoxical push". On 1 7 . . . NeB 1 8 g4 fxg3 1 9 hxg3 Bd7 B lack's pieces are reasonably wel l coordi­nated, but after 1 7 . . . Rf7 1 8 g4! White is better, much as in the i l lustrative game Lebron - Renet. B lack is going to spend a tempo defending d6 before he can remove the knight.

A puzzl ing decision can thu.s be explained by the fact that the opponent has flexib i l ity of plans; what is good against plan A is not necessari ly 990d against plan B.

Exercise 17

White is in fact very comfortable, dangerous though B lack's attacks may appear. After 30 . . . Qh4 31 Rff3 ! Rg3 32 Rxg3 fxg3 33 Qf3! White's king wi l l escape without trouble via e2 . The main l ine i·s 33 . . . Bg7 34 Rc8+ RxcB 35 Nxc8 Ng4 36 Ne7 ! (36 Nxd6? Nf2 37 Kf1 Qh1 + 38 Ke2 Qd1 + 39 Ke3 Bh6+) 36 . . . Qxe7 37 Qxg4 and White wins the endgame.

So Whi te did the right th ing, in Cebalo's note, by gett ing on with h is queenside play, watching the center, and meeting

126

Black's kingside break when it came.

Exerelse 18

A lot of pawn exchanges fol low, with White trying to get a grip on the empty e4 square. 9 gxf5 gxf5 1 0 exf5 ( fO Rg1 0-0 i s a lso worth considering, but the attempt at exposing the king with 1 1 Bh6 Rf7 1 2 Bxg7 Rxg7 1 3 Rxg7+ Kxg7 simpl ifies the position too much) 1 0 . . . Nxf5_ 1 1 Ng3 ( 1 1 Nf4 Nf6 ! is u n­clear) 1 1 . . . Nf6 1 2 Rg 1 !

Often White has to be very careful in preparing the doub le exchange on f5, especia l ly when he has spent a tempo pre­paring g4 with h3, s ince B lack has plenty of targets along the f-fi le. Here though the tempo count is very much in White's favour, and he wi l l soon gain a massive grip on the e4 square, the b 1 -h7 diagonal and the g-fi le, fo.r example 1 2 . . . 0-0 1 3 Bd3 Nd4 1 4 Nh5.

Exe:-clse 19

It looks at first as though Black is making a lot of ground i n the center and o n the queenside, but appearances are i l l u­sory. B lack's big problem is that he cannot bring his knight on h 7 into the game; none of White's pieces is similarly restricted .

25 . . . Nxb2+ is met not by Mirkovic's 26 Kc2?! , when 26 . . . Na4 ! i s dangerous (27 Nxa4 Qb4), but rather by 26 Ke1 ! After some minor tactical chaos, White stays in control , for example 26 . . . Qb4 27 Qc2 ! Kxg7 (27 . . . Na4 28 Bd2 Nxc3 29 Bxc3 Qb1 + 30 Kd2 is hopeless for B lack; g6 is coming) 28 g6 fxg6 (28 . . . Nf6 29 Bg5! Na4 30 h6+ Kxg6 31 Bh4+ Kh7 32 Bxf6 wins) 29 Bh6+ ! and Black has no satisfactory reply (29 . . . Kxh6 30 Rxg6 mate).

Which leaves 25 . . . Qxb2 26 Qxb2 Rxb2, assessed by Mirkovic

127

as "unclear. . . The simple 27 Nxe4 is probably winning for Wh ite though ; i n one move he has taken a pawn, protected a key square (f2 ) and advanced his own attack (g6 is now dan­gerous for B lack) . S ince 27 . . . ReB and 27 . . . Kxg7 both lose quickly to 28 g6, i t is wise for B lack to play the decoying move L t . . . c�. li 1�1 � lu i­lows 28 Nxc3 Rxf2 (28 . . . Nxf2+ 29 Bxf2 Rxf2 30 g6 Nf6 3 1 gxf7+ Kxf7 32 h6 must ultimately be a win for White) 29 g6 ! (29 Bxf2 is unclear) 29 Nf6 (There is nothing to be gained by an immediate check on b2; B lack holds back) 30 h6! (An important zwischenzug, threatening 31 h7+ Kxg7 32 h8=Q+ Rxh8 33 gxf7+) 30 . . . fxg6 31 Rf1 Nb2+ 32 Kc1 Nn3+ 33 Kb1 Rb8+ 34 Ka1 Rxf1 + 35 Rxf1 . White with his two mighty passed pawns would seem to be winning; if 35 . . . Nb4 36 a3 Nc2+ 37 Ka2 Nxe3 38 Rxf6 with total control .

Exercise 20

If i n doubt , central ize, and remember which color squares you are strong on ! Therefore 28 . . . ReS ! fol lowed by . . . Qe 7 i s the appropriate plan. There i.� a lot of fight left i n the position , and a lthough B lack's kingside is a l itt le wobbly, it should not col lapse. For example 29 gxh8=Q+ Kxh8 30 h6 Ng5 (to pre­vent Rg7)n31 Rxf4 Qe7 32 Rf5 (32 Rxc4 Rb4 ! ) and B lack i s comfortably barricaded on the dark squares, whi le White i s beginn ing to look i nsecure.

Exercise 2 1

The intrusive White queen cannot quite be won, but there is no easy escape either. With ac�urate play B lack is very much in control of the game.

B lack plays 1 3 . . . h6 1 4 Bxe7 Nxe7 1 5 Nf4 (On 1 5 Qf7 Rdf8 1 6 Qh5 c5 ! is very strong) 1 5 . . . Rdf8 (to prevent the queen

1 28

attacking the e-pawn) 1 6 Ng6 Nxg6 1 7 Qxg6 Rhg8 1 8 Qh5 Qg7 and White is in mass ive trouble. 1 9 . . . Nxf4 is a d i rect threat, whi le White must a lso be carefu l not to al low the ma­neuver . . . Bc6-e8.

Exercise 22

I n the l ine 25 . . . Qf8 26 Bxe6 Be5, White can improve on the suggested 27 Bxd5? 1 by playing 27 Be3 1 with the threats of Bxb6 and a capture on d5, and possibly a ls�Qd7. B lack's pieces are so badly tied up _on the kingside that White is better, despite being a piece down . Un less you the reader can suggest something else . . .

B lack also has defensive problems after 25 . . . Qf8 26 Bxe6 Nxf4 27 Nxf4 Be5 28 Nxd5, g iving strength to the impression that 25 . . . Qf8 is too passive . If you want to defend by curl ing up l i ke a hedgehog, i t is better to do s o in front of the king , and not on the opposite side of the board !

The outgoing 25 . . . Qc5! is better, the main l ine being 26 Bxe6 Nxf4 27 Nxf4 Bxf2 28 Bxf7 Bc6 29 Qb3 (29 Bxd5 Qxd5 ! ) 29 . . . Rf8 and B lack regains the extra piece; or 29 Qb4 Qxb4 30 axb4 Be3+ 31 Kb1 Bxf4 32 Bxg8 Rxg8 where White reaches an endgame but a prospect less one.

Even in h is best games, Petrosian was occasional ly l i ab le to p lay over-defens ively.

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