Hello Chess Lovers
In Part Two of the Series on Paul Keres the focus will be on a game with his nemesis, Botvinnik. Stories abound of the Soviet authorities being against Keres as a World Champion. Rather than get into speculation I want to look on their game played in the Alekhine Memorial 1956. In this game the battleground is the Sicillian Richter Rauser Variation. My aim is to look on the aspects of chess thinking one can bring to the critical positions reached in this game.
Keres v Botvinnik
1.e4c5 2.Nf3Nc6 3.d4cd4 4.Nd4Nf6 5.Nc3d6 6.Bg5e6 7.Qd2 -The trend is clear. White's development of his queen side pieces indicates that he will go for queen side castling and pressure on the d6 square which paid off.
7...h6 8.Bf6gf6 - A commital move. Botvinnik had a penchant for doubled pawns and the open files that
came with them. Black is hoping to create a central fortress which gives him scope for play on the g and c-files. Keres continues in a forthright manner.It is usually at this point that modern players will look for a variety of plans.
9.0-0-0a6 10.f4 gaining a space advantage and allowing for a rook to come to f3. 10...h5!?
Botvinnik stops any expansion with g4 and also is ready to play ...Bh6. Keres, using some prophylactic thinking improves his king. In this position white must look for a target to hit while securing his king.
11.Kb1- no more attacks on h6-c1. 11....Bd7 12.Be2Qb6 13.Nb30-0-0 14.Rhf1Na5 15.Rf3Nb3 16.ab3Kb8 - Both sides have castled and now the time has come for a deep evaluation.
Black's pawn structure has left targets for white.The h5 pawn is one. The dark squares a5,b6,d6 also will get attention. The two black bishops did not get any joy in this game. The black bishops never got going in this game.
17.Na4!?Qa7 18.f5 -Keres spots a tactical possibility.Generally the question facing white is whether to play e4-e5 or f4-f5, conceding squares but also attacking vulnerable points.
18...Be7?! -A perfectly natural developing move. However the bishop is overloaded.
19.fe6fe6 20.Rf6! -The rook is taboo because of Qd6 and Nb6.
20....Rh7 21.Rg6b5 22.Nc3Qc5 and here Keres comes up with a long term plan in which he must have looked at the big picture.His knight will go to f4 via a2-b4-d3 and he will target the e6 pawn. The way he does this against Botvinnik is impressive.In this position it was important to analyse counter play.The problem for black is that having castled on the same side as white, he has no way of mounting pressure on the c-file.
His central pawn structure is fine as long as it is static.
23.Na2Ka7 24.Nb4Rf8 25.Bf3-closing the f-file. 25....h4 26.h3 fixing the target. 26...Bc8 Botvinnik has really few useful moves to choose from so he will eventually place the bishop on b7. When an opponent regroups the important task is to see where it leads. Asking yourself what the most potent and active plan for the opponent is will help a lot.
27.Nd3 Keres gets the knight to f4 with a tempo. 27...Qc7 28.Nf4Rf6 29.Bg4Rg6 30.Ng6Bb7 31.Be6Bd8
Botvinnik is reduced to defensive regrouping. 32.Bd5 removing black's best piece. 32....Bd5 33.Qd5Rf7 34.e5! and Keres will bag another pawn.In this game there were no long forced variations. The early changes in the pawn structure hurt black and Botvinnik never got active piece play. The way in which Keres exploited the black king position and the overloading of the black bishop is exemplary.
Feedback is appreciated.
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