Chess Strategy

Exchange sacrifice is, along with pawn sacrifice, one of the most common positional sacrifices. There are many classical examples, Petrosian and Simagin were using this motif quite often, but I want to start this topic with the game that had huge impact on my thinking process.

Garry Kasparov - Alexey Shirov
Horgen, 1994

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bf4 e5 8.Bg5 a6 9.Na3 b5 10.Nd5 Be7 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.c3 Bb7 13.Nc2 Nb8 14.a4 bxa4 15.Rxa4 Nd7 16.Rb4 Nc5

17. Rxb7!

I remember I thought this was print error in the newspaper. Exchange sacrifice will cause serious transformation. Two of the black’s most active pieces, Bb7 and Nc5, will be neutralized. Dark-squared bishop is staying out of game and white knights are dominating the board. White will have long-term positional advantage.

17… Nxb7 18.b4!

Pawn b4 will play important role in limiting black pieces. Nb7 has no squares and black will have to spend many moves (tempos) to activate the Knight. White will use that time to increase the pressure. On later a5, white is not moving his b4 pawn. He will allow opening of a-file (which will prove to be harmless) just to keep the Knight out of play.

18… Bg5 19.Na3 O-O 20.Nc4 a5 21.Bd3 axb4 22.cxb4 Qb8 23.h4 Bh6

White has improved his pieces while black was trying to untie his queen-side. Bh6 is bounced on the edge of the board. Note that white king, even thought not castled yet, is perfectly safe in the center because black is not able to coordinate activity.

24.Ncb6 Ra2 25.O-O Rd2 26.Qf3 Qa7 27.Nd7 Nd8

Black has to return the exchange because white knights and queen were threatening black’s king. Shirov was hoping for relief after taking one of the active white’s knights down. But position is having another transformation. Since there is material equality on the board, there is no need to hold pawn on b4 anymore. White will coordinate b-pawn advance with active operations on the king-side to finally clinch the game.

28.Nxf8 Kxf8 29.b5 Qa3 30.Qf5 Ke8

Taking Bd3 was not possible because white had Qd7!

31.Bc4 Rc2 32.Qxh7 Rxc4 33.Qg8+ Kd7 34.Nb6+ Ke7 35.Nxc4 Qc5 36.Ra1 Qd4 37.Ra3 Bc1 38.Ne3 1-0

This strategical idea had many followers, including myself. One of the most famous examples is Karjakin-Radjabov. I will post the game with brief comments.

Sergey Karjakin - Teimour Radjabov
6th European Individual Championship in Warszaw, 2005

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 Bg5 12. Nc2 Ne7 13. h4 Bh6 14. a4 bxa4 15. Ncb4 Bd7

16. Rxa4! Nxd5 17. Nxd5 Bxa4

Black is not “that forced” to take as in previous game. But if he doesn’t, white can choose between b4 with Qa1 pressuring on weak a6 pawn or something like Rc4-Rc7, in both cases with excellent position.

18. Qxa4+ Kf8 19. b4 a5 20. b5

Note that instead of keeping pawn on b4, as Kasparov did, Karjakin is pushing forward with b5. Main difference is that there is no Nb7 to make limitations on. Other factor is queen on a4 that would be under attack if allowing axb4. Bh6 (again) and Rh8 are out of play. In next couple of moves, until black finishes artificial castle, white will play with two extra pieces on queen-side plus passed b-pawn. We can say that black is already lost. Rest of the game without comments, enjoy in Karjakin’s technique.

20… Rb8 21. g3 g6 22. Bh3 Kg7 23. O-O Rf8 24. Ra1 Kh8 25. Qxa5 Qe8 26. c4 f5 27. Qc7 Qf7 28. exf5 Qxc7 29. Nxc7 gxf5 30. Ra6 Rf7 31. Nd5 Bf8 32. Rc6 f4 33. Be6 Rg7 34. g4 Re8 35. Bf5 Be7 36. h5 Bg5 37. b6 e4 38. Rc8 Rxc8 39. Bxc8 e3 40. fxe3 fxe3 41. b7 1-0