Chasing bishops in the opening Part Three: The Slav

Hello Chess lovers,
We will look at the theme of chasing bishops in the Slav defence where the consequences are more long term.
In the following game Dreev demonstrates truly original opening play and uses his pawns to generate a king side attack which then lead to an ending where he won by a small margin. This leads to a brief exploration of what
Jonathan Rowson likes to call practical subjectivity.During a game of chess at any level, various emotions are experienced. Stress levels can fluctuate. Often dealing with the pressure of an attack and then bailing out of the attack can really be a stressful experience. I had to endure that in a recent tournament. I managed to bail out and then I found that the calculation of the ending was another mental barrier to be broken. One has to prepare physically for this especially when playing black.

Now unto Dreev v Huebner Essen 2000

1.d4d5 2.c4c6 3.Nf3Nf6 4.e3Bf5 5.Nc3e6 6.Nh4 That move again.Bg4 7.Qb3Qb6 8.h3Bh5 9.g4Bg6
10.c5!?Qc7 11.g5Ng8 12.Ng6hg6 White has got a space advantage and the two bishops. Lets see how Dreev builds on this. 13.e4Rh4 (13...Be7 14.Bf4!Qf4 15.Qb7;13...b6!?) 14.ed5ed5 15.Ne2! With the idea of Qg3.
15...Na6 16.Qg3Rh8 17.Bf4Qa5 18.Bd2Qc7 19.h4Ne7 20.Bh3Nf5 21.Bf5gf5 22.Bf4Qa5+? 23.Kf1
Dreev does not really explain why his position is better but there are a few indicators.The white pieces are very harmonious,the e-file is ready for a rook and the f4 square can also be used for a knight.Black has difficulties with his king. If for example 23...0-0-0 24.g6!.
23...Be7 24.g6Qd8 25.h5Qd7 26.gf7 The g-pawn has reached the end of its journey.Kf7 27.Qg6+Kg8 28.h6 The h-pawn goes as far as it can.Rh7 29.Be5Qe8 29...Bf8?30.Qh7
30.Qf5Qf7 31.Qf7Kf7 32.Bg7Bf6 33.Bf6Kf6 34.Re1Rah8 35.Rh3?!Rh6 36.Rf3+Kg5 37.Ng3Rf6
38.Re5Kg6 39.Rb3Rh2 40.Re2Rf7
White has an extra pawn but black has active defensive possibilities. As the ending goes beyond the scope of the article I will make some general comments from this point onwards.
41.Kg1Rh4 42.Re6Kh7 43.Ne2Rg7 44.Rg3Rf7 45.Ree3b6 46.cb6abc6 47.Re6Rh6 48.Rh6Kh6 49.Kg2c5 50.Rb3Rf6 51.Nc3Nb4? The one serious misstep by black. 52.Na4Rg6 53.Kf3Na2 54.dc5bc5
55.Nc5Rc6 56.Nd3Nc1 57.Nc1Rc1 58.Ke3 and here black missed the active ...Rc2 and played instead
58...Rc4? 59.Rb5Re4 60.Kd3Rf4 61.Rd5Rf2 62.b4Kg6 63.Re5Kf6 64.Re1 1-0

It would be interesting to divide the game into 3 phases:
The opening phase involved waiting for 5...e6 to pounce with 6.Nh4. White then chased the bishop till he got it on g6.The next phase involved manoevring the queen to g3 after after 15.Ne2. Once the queen got to g3, Dreev set in motion the pawns on g5 and h4 and then targeted g7.Its interesting to note he un doubled the pawns on the g-file in order to get another advantage.The final phase occurred after getting the extra pawn.
I may be speculating on Dr Huebner's condition here but he faltered in the ending after a long period of defense.Its very important to bear this in mind when playing and also when selecting a defense to play.
Hopefully this was instructive and of value.
Cheers, John