Chess Insight from GM Pavel Maletin

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 03 October 2012

Grandmaster Pavel Maletin
Highest FIDE rating: 2636, current - 2587

Editor’s note: GM Pavel Maletin kindly agreed to publish the analyses of his games at Pogonina.com. This way he is following Mikhail Botvinnik’s advice to masters – comment on your games in public and accept critique in order to improve. The author hopes that his notes will be interesting to you. Any chess feedback is welcome!

The following game fragment is from a game against Inarkiev. Ernesto is a rather strong chess player in general (about 2700 FIDE - Pogonina.com) who performs very well against me. Before this game the score was 3.5-0.5 in his favor, and I had White in all the games. However, this game didn't change much: I had White again and drew.

After an interesting strategic struggle the following position occurred. Black has just played g5-g4, but it is not really a sign of an upcoming attack, as it often is in the King's Indian - without the light-squared bishop there is no checkmate. Nonetheless, Black is up a pawn, and the pawn on c7 is well-guarded. However, Black's plans are not so clear. Like I've said already, Black won't checkmate White, and the extra pawn can only be used defensively. Summarizing, this position is untypical for the KID: Black is not really checkmating, and White doesn't have a commanding advantage on the queenside.

I was considering 28. Nf2!?, trying to decrease Black's pressure on the kingside. I didn't like the line 28...gf 29. Bf3 N8h7. I didn't want to allow Black to play Ng5, and after h3-h4 the square g4 will be weakened. Black will have three more useful moves available - Bf8, Rg7 and Ng4. Even after all this White doesn't seem to be at risk, but I didn't like such a twist of events anyway. I decided to dramatically change the course of the game.

28.Ne5!? de 29.d6

Looks very formidable - Black can't escape the pin, and c7 is hanging. I didn't have much time left and quickly convinced myself that Black's pieces are misplaced, so a sacrifice on e5 is the correct refutation of hi strategy. An alluring concept, isn't it.

29...Ra5

When playing Ne5 I calculated a few lines, after all. Objectively speaking, I have to take on a5, Black will play c6. I will regain the exchange on f7 and end up in a worse position with two results possible (draw or win for Black):

Of course, this is much worse than what White's position looked like on the first diagram. This line doesn't look like a refutation via a powerful strike in the center. Unluckily for me, I have found an alternative:

30. Rc7?

I was so inspired by all these ideas that I forgot that I have already given up a rook and a knight, so Black has many defensive options connected with giving some of the material back to defend from a mate in two. For example, an unpleasant surprise for me was that Black can play 30...Qe6 (which he did play) and after 31.Bc4 Rd5! - White can capture a rook, but Black will still have an extra piece. Fortunately, White has an unexpected defensive resource, but we'll deal with it later. In the position on the diagram above Black has a very easy way to refute White's generous play - 30...Qc7! 31. dc Rc5! and White can only win an exchange for the c-pawn. White will have a queen vs. rook and two pieces, which means low survival chances. Chess engines evaluate such positions rather modestly:

Just about -0.6, but a human can hardly hold it. Interestingly enough, I have foreseen the move 31...Rc5, but didn't find the counter argument 32.Ba5 and if 32...Rc1 - 33.Bf1 The elementary move 33...Ne8 (which we discovered during the post-mortem) evaded my eyesight...

So, Ernesto played 30...Qe6. I was lucky: this move seems to be winning, but White has a fantastic defense.

31. Qe6! Ne6 32. Ba5! This position is the reason why I decided to show you this game fragment.

White is not worse anymore. Capturing the rook is no good, and Bc4 is a threat. Black is still maintaining a material advantage, but can't really press for the win - the pieces are too clumsy. After all, I was right about the pieces being misplaced, although in a somewhat different fashion

This is more or less forced:

32...Nf8 33.Bc4 N6d7 34.hg hg 35.fg Bf6

Black has just enough time to untangle the pieces. Houdini gives White an edge of about 0.5 pawns, but gradually agrees that it is a draw.

The following moves have been made: 36.Bc3 Kg7 37. g3 fg 38.g5 Bd8 39. Bf7 Kf7 40. Be5 Bg5 Draw.

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