The long and winding road to mastery-4 |
| Written by Administrator | ||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, 07 August 2010 | ||||||||||||||||
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In this episode we will talk about round 4-6 of the IM-norm tournament that I have recently played in. By that time I had to try to recover from a bad start and start playing my game. This didnt happen, but a lot of instructive positions occurred. Just like before, please take your time to think on the positions first, and only then compare your opinion with the commentary. White played a novelty (12.h4) in the popular 7.Bc4 Gruenfeld line. Not having obtained any advantage in the opening, my opponent made an anti-positional move 16.e5?! (see the diagram), switching both of this bishops out of the game. How should Black react? I played 16e6 =/+. This is a good move, but even better is 16f5! With a clear advantage. Now White either has to live with his dumb bishops, or try to open up the position: 17.ef ef 18.Qd2 f5 19.Ng3 Nc6-/+ - the position is still closed, and Black is clearly ahead.
White has been offering the h5-pawn for a long time. Black didnt take it up to this point. Should he do it now? What is the best continuation? I finally talked myself into playing 22gh considering Whites threats to be not that great, while I have h4-h4, etc. I should have shown more respect for the FMs plan and opted for 22Bf8 23.hg hg 24.Nf1 Bf5 25.Bf5 ef 26.Ne3 Nd5 27.Nd5 Rd5 with a symbolic advantage for Black due to the possibility of playing on the queenside (b4, etc.), while Whites attack has come to an end.
Playing not carefully enough, I ended up in the position pictured above. What should Black do here? My initial intention was to play the correct move 30Rg8 which poses some challenges in front of White. Probably, the best reaction is to simplify the position: 31.Qe7 b4 32.Bh6 Qe7 33.fe Bd7 34.d5 f6 35.Kf2 Rc8 46.Ke3 Kg8 37.Kd4 Kf7 with good practical chances to save the game for Black due to opposite-colored bishops. Alas, in the game I started my counter-attack by 30Qc6?, and after the straightforward 31.Qe7 had to admit my mistake, lose a tempo and move to d7 again.
White has a standard attacking plan: e5, Kh5, Bh7 and so on with mate. How should Black prevent it? I played 20e5. This move has an obvious idea behind it, but preferable was the flexible 20Ne8 21.e5 b4 22.cb Rd4 23.Ne2 Rd5 24.Bb3 Qe5 25.Bc4= The shortcoming of e5 is that after 21.d5! the black bishop on b7 is passive, and Black has to watch after the d-pawn. However, my opponent delighted me by choosing 21.de? Of course, the a-pawn will fall, but Blacks pieces are more active and the rook is controlling the d-file. How should Black fight for an advantage? I made a s-so move 24Re8?! which leads only to equality. A better try was Rab8 25.Nd4 Bd7 26.Ba4 (26.f3 offers Black many nice alternatives Rb6, Rb2, Rb3, Nd5 etc. ) Qe4 27.Qg5 Rb6 28.Bd7 Rd7 29.Rfe1 Qb7 and White has some compensation for the pawn, but it needs to be proved. The key moment of the game. Black felt that the advantage has evaporated, but didnt find the correct way of handling this position. After a weird move 27Qc5? and the natural 28.Ba4 Rb8 29.Bb5 ab 30.Ra5 White is clearly ahead. What was the right way to play? Counter-attacking on the kingside was required: 27Nh5 28.Ba4 Nf4 29.Bb5 Nd3 30.Qe3 ab. Black now has a great knight and Qg3 threatening Nf4. The position is equal, but White will be at risk since any imprecise move can lead to serious trouble. Masters often play mediocre moves in the opening against less renowned players thinking that the former will blunder something anyway. That is exactly how this game went. Lets take a look at some of the critical moments: How should White punish his opponent for playing the extravagant 6b6? Without giving it much thought I made a normal developing move: 7.Be3+/=. A way to put pressure on my opponent was 7.N2c3! Bb7 8.Qg4 g6 9.Qg3 Nf7 (pawn-grabbing isnt what the doctor recommends: 9Be4 10.Ne4 Qd4 11.Nc3 Nf6 12.Qc7 +/-) 10.Nf6 Bf6 11.Nb5 Na6 12.Bh6+/- and White will castle queenside tithe nice position, while Black has difficulties with the a7-pawn) . The second critical moment. The knight is hanging, what should White do about it? After my choice - 9.f3= - White doesnt have any advantage. A much better option was 9.Bb5 Nc6 10.Nf6 Bf6 11.Qf3 Qd7 12.0-0-0 0-0-0 13.Ne4 a6 14.Nf6 gf 15.Bf1+/= - White has two bishops and less pawn islands. What is the evaluation of the position? How should White proceed? At this point I was quite optimistic and looking forward to playing f4-f5 and slaughtering the Black king. By playing 14.Bh6?! I have clearly shown my intentions and lack of understanding of the position. The attack is bound to fail, while Black has a formidable center and active pieces. I should have played more carefully and tried to weaken Blacks center: 14.dc bc (14Bc5 15.Qd2 followed by exchanging bishops and equalizing) 15.Qd2 Nc6 16.Rab1 preparing b4. White equalizes only by playing very accurately. On the contrary, in the game I made a few pseudo-active moves, avoided a worse endgame and, as it happens, ended up losing material and the game.
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