Hello Chess Lovers
I want to continue the theme built up with g-force: chasing bishops in opening theory. Bishops can be chased
from active positions by both sides and my aim is to demonstrate how this is done with gains of space and time or complex positions. Rather than go through entire games in part one, I will present excerpts from different openings. Lets get into the meat of the matter:
Egger vs Papaioannou
1.e4d5 2.ed5Qd5 3.Nc3Qa5 4.d4c6 5.Nf3Nf6 6.Bc4Bf5 7.Bd2e6
8.Nd5Qd8 9.Nf6gf6 10.Qe2 - A standard position. White is aiming at the e6 point.
Its always nice to develop bishops to active squares like f5, however they come under attack quite quickly.
10....Nd7 (Black had 10...Bc2!?) 11.0-0-0Qc7?! 12.Nh4 here white does not use a g-pawn.
This type of knight move is common in the Slav as well.
12....Bg6 13.Be6!fe6 14.Qe6Kd8 (14...Be7? 15.Rhe10-0-0 16.Qe7Qh2 17.Rh1) 15.Ng6hg6 16.Rhe1Bd6
17.d5c5 18.Bh6 with the idea of Bg7. 18...Bf4? Understandably black is concerned about Bg7.
19.Bf4Qf4 20.Kb1Kc8 21.d6Rd8 22.Qf7Qg4 23.f3Qa4 24.Re8Qa5 white went on to win here.
However he played 25.Rd8? instead of 25.f4 which would have definitely posed black serious issues in terms of surviving in a passive position. The point of this article however, is to highlight the dangers involved in posting bishops where they can be attacked and that players need to take account of this in preparation. This means that over the board the surprise factor is diminished.
The next example is concerned with the Semi Slav systems where very commital pawn moves are made chasing bishops by both sides:
Atalik vs Dreev Sarajevo 2001
1.d4d5 2.c4c6 3.Nf3Nf6 4.Nc3e6 5.Bg5h6 Black puts the question to the bishop. 6.Bh4dc4 7.e4g5Once black chooses this course the game enters a highly commital phase where the pawn structure changes radically. 8.Bg3 b59.Be2Bb7 10.h4b4 11.hg5bc3! Notice that black goes for the equal or stronger threat.12.gf6cb2 13.Rb1Qa5 14.Nd2c3 15.0-0Ba6 16.Nb3Qa2 17.Nc5Bb5 18.Qc2Qa3 19.Rfd1Rg8!
An amazing unbalanced position arises.Dreev admitted to feeling uneasy about keeping his king in the centre.
However a d4-d5 thrust is really tactically wrong now because of the knight on c5.
20.Bb5cb5 21.Qe2..the point of Qe2.Qb4 22.Ne6Qc4!! 23.Nc7Kd8 24.Qh5 the only active move.
24....Rg5 25.Qh3Rg3 26.Qg3Qc7 and black went on to win. A truly thrill-a-minute game. One important guide is to calculate and assess the consequences of making commital moves like ..g5 and ...b5.The emphasis here was on finding active moves like...Rg8, ....Qa5,....Ba6,Qc4!!
The next example is quite famous.
Shirov v Nisipeanu 1999
1.e4c6 2.d4d5 3.e5Bf5 4.Nc3e6 5.g4Bg6 6.Nge2 in this line of the Caro-Kann Advance the idea is to gain both time and space with attacks on the g6 bishop.Shirov takes it to extremes:
6...c5 7.h4 (7.Be3Nc6 was featured in Grischuk v Shirov) 7....h6 8.f4!Be7 9.Bg2!clearing f1 for the King.
9...Bh4 10.Kf1 Shirov has made a very big commitment. What this means is that his concept has to work with very sharp lines coming up. 10..Be711.f5! no turning back now....Bh7 (11...ef5? 12.Nf4Nc6 13.Ng6fg6 14.gf5) 12.Nf4Qd7 13.Nh5!?Bf8 14.dc5Nc6 15.Nb5Bc5 (15...Ne5 16.Qe2) 16.c4!!
A brave choice in view of the fact that he had Ng7. Shirov is preparing for the moment black castles Queenside but he also shows how he values momentum over material.John Watson is quite effusive
in his praise of Shirov because it is clear he has gone way beyond calculation and into the realm of
intuition.He grasps that opening the position is of great importance here and open lines are needed.
16...Ne5! Active defence which hits at the c4 the pawn that supports the knight on b5. 17.Qe2Nc4 18.Bd5!Qb5 19.Bc4Qb6 20.fe6?! after this move black fought hard and went on to win with
20...0-0-0 21.ef7Ne7 - Had Shirov played 20.Ng7Kf8 21.Nh5 with the idea of Qe5 -d5 and Nf5 the game
would be totally different. However its one of the most marvellous examples of fantasy at the highest levels.
Finally I will present an example from one of my games:
Tobisch v O'Gorman
Christmas Congress 06
1.d4d5 2.Nf3Nf6 3.g3Bg4 4.Bg2e6 5.0-0Be7 6.c4c6 7.b3Nbd7 8.Bb20-0
9.Nbd2h6 10.Ne5Ne5 11.de5Nfd7 12.Kh1 This a slow version of the Catalan.
12...Nb6 13.f3Bh5 14.Rc1dc4 15.Nc4Nc4 16.Rc4Qd1 17.Rd1Rfd8 18.Rcd4Kf8
19.Ba3!! This possibility occurs because of the back rank weakness.
19...Rd4 20.Be7+ the check makes it work. 20...Ke7 21.Rd4Rd8 22.Rd8Kd8
23.Kg2Kc7 24.Kf2c5 25.e4Kb6 26.Ke3Kc5 27.g4 here I found that I could entomb the
bishop. 27...Bg6 28.a3b5 29.Bf1Kb6 30.f4a5 31.f5Bh7 and the bishop was entombed.
White won in 20 moves.
So, from all of these examples we can see how chasing bishops with pieces or pawns
by either black or white creates space and gains time. However there are very commital aspects
to such moves. The side which moves a lot of pawns to do this loses time. The side which retreats the bishops
has to understand how to exploit the long term weaknesses inherent in such pawn moves. I hope the examples given were enjoyable.
Cheers, John
No comments:
Post a Comment