Chess Strategy

This is the game I played last weekend in a team event. Similar to “5th Deadly Chess Sin”, I will reproduce my thoughts that occurred during the clash. Note that I didn’t run the moves through the chess program, if you find any tactical flaws, please mention it in the comments.

Goran Urosevic - Boban Stojanovic

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3
In the first round, I played the Catalan and lost the game (will post that soon). This time I wanted to try something else.

4… Be7 5. Bg5 h6
I don’t know if this move order (more common is 5… 0-0 and h6 later) has any significance in the sense of allowing/avoiding certain lines. While 6. Bh4 would have been normal transposition, I was happy to get off the hot lines of the Orthodox Queens Gambit, and quickly snapped on f6.

6. Bxf6 Bxf6

I grinned while taking on f6 and I think my opponent saw that. The thing is that in the last year’s league I lost only one game, and it was because I started a combination to win the bishop’s pair, while blundering simple intermediate move (zwischenzug). That was one of the most embarrassing defeats ever, in only 17 moves. I remember how one of the team-mates criticized me for “recklessly running after the pair of bishops”. I was happy to show him this time how “universal” player I am by giving the bishop for knight on 6th move.

This continuation is, of course, well known in the modern opening theory. White will quickly finish the development while black will be a bit passive for awhile, because his bishops can’t easily reach any of the good diagonals. By removing Nf6, black is losing some of the control over e4 and d5, and we will see how could white exploit this advantage.

7. e3
7. e4 dxe4 8. Nxe4 Be7 would come too soon. The structure is similar to the Rubinshtein French, but white has already moved c4, and this allows black to gain good play with Bb4+ and quick c5.

7… O-O 8. Qb3
I really liked the effect of Qb3. Nf6 is gone and I wanted to press on d5 as soon as possible. Now 8… dxc4 9. Bxc4 is so premature because black cannot play c5 on the next move and white can quickly march e4-e5. The only choice is c6, and this limits light-squared bishop for at least couple of moves. Meanwhile, I will be able to do something useful. Later at home, I saw in database that Qb3 is main line.

8… c6 9. Be2
A bit tame but I wanted to quickly castle and put rooks on the central files. I was thinking whether to put bishop on e2 or d3. By not knowing theory, and if black has some convincing counterplay by opening ‘c’ or ‘d’ file, I wanted to avoid hanging bishop on d3. Database says that 9. Rd1 is most played and I didn’t understand why. Another team-mate told me few days later that Rd1 is meant to slow down/prevent the usual counterplay with dxc4 and e5 or c5 (with Knight on d7).

9… Nd7 10. O-O b6
Naturally, Black wants to develop light-squared bishop to b7 and later open its diagonal by pushing c5.

11. Rac1
This appears to be novelty, 11.Rfd1 was common. I like to play for the initiative, and for few minutes I was attracted to 11. cxd5 exd5 12. e4 dxe4 13. Nxe4, but after 13… Re8 (13… Be7 14. d5!?), it was obvious that my bishop could be hanging on e2 as well, and black can consolidate quickly with Be7 and Nf6. After giving up on cxd5, I realised that the only active possibility for white is to push e4. Immediate 11. e4 dxe4 12. Nxe4 Be7 would be harmless because black can probably push c5 next without any problems. I decided to go with the original plan of keeping opponent’s bishops restricted. Rc1 is meant to support my later c5.

11… Bb7 12. Rfd1 Qb8

White to move

Finally, black is ready for dxc4 and c5 or e5, after queen steps away from the collision over d-file. I wasn’t allowed to wait with e4 anymore.

13. e4 dxe4 14. Nxe4 Be7 15. c5
This motif of limiting Bb7 with white’s c5 is quite common in many Queens Indian and Catalan setups, very often involving even a pawn sacrifice just to keep that light-bishop locked. Frankly, I hate this kind of structure and I was reluctant to throwing a pawn for uncertain attack. That is why 11. Rac1 was played.

15… Rd8
This is curious position as both of us were quite limited with playable options. My pieces have to defend c5 limiting his pieces. His knight is tied defending b6 pawn and I shouldn’t move the queen from b3 because it eyes b6 and e6. 15…Rd8 seems logical because it cleans f8 square for black pieces and prepares for future pressure against weakened d4 pawn.

16. Bc4
I think this is good move, it imposes some tasks that black has to solve. Immediately after moving the rook away from f7, I decided to threaten sacrifice on e6. While I couldn’t calculate the entire line, I felt very confident about the white’s prospects there. Black king would be taken out to f8 and all sorts of Nd6, Re1 or Nh4
would be in the air.

16… Qf4!

White to move

Excellent move even if the only one. Queen is moving to a very active square, having in mind Qf7 cover after the sacrifice on e6 and also challenging my wonderful Ne4. Furthermore, Rc1 might be hanging in some lines (after I’m forced to recapture something with Rd1) and the queen is simply annoying there.

17. Ng3
I was also faced with the time-consuming choice between multiple good moves, one of the potentially deadly features in chess. 17. Re1 or 17. Ng3? How to pick the better move if there are no calculated lines to support the choice. Honestly, what to calculate here? I liked the good looks of knight on e4, but I decided not to play Re1 because I wanted to keep the rook overprotecting d4 pawn, just in case. Also Ng3 can be used for attacking Nh5 or queen-chasing Ne2. Pawn c5 is indirectly defended because Bb7 would be hanging after bxc5.

17… Bf8
Neutral and good move. Now I can forget about the sacrifice on e6, as black won’t be forced to Kf8 anymore. Bishop is assigned with new position, start building on the b1-h7 diagonal.

18. Bd3 Rab8!

White to move

I saw nothing else but 18… Qc7, protecting Bb7 and threatening bxc5, but then 19. Ne4 and Bb1 looks quite dangerous. My opponent found a fantastic move, keeping the queen on active square.

19. cxb6!
Why exclamation mark for this concession. There were some other moves, Rc4 or Ne2 perhaps, but due to this queen-rook correlation on b-file, I decided to change the structure. Also Rb8 has sense only if there is possibility of opening the file. After black recaptured with the pawn, Rb8 does nothing but taking away square from the queen (as we will see later).

In his wonderful book “Understanding the Grunfeld”, GM Jonathan Rowson said - It is well known chess principle that tension tends to benefit the side which can release it because it provides the advantage of always having an extra choice which your opponent doesn’t have. Here I am releasing the tension on c5 to free my hands for other operations.

My initial idea was 19. Ne4 but that would be losing after bxc5 20. dxc5 Ba6! 21. Qc2 Bxd3

19… axb6 20. Ne2
Time to kick the annoying intruder. I would love to have that knight on e4, but this isn’t that bad either. The knight could later take the place on that queen on f4. I do have the isolated d4 pawn, still it’s not a weakness while black pieces are passive.

20… Qc7
Black main aim is to play c6-c5 and unleash the power of the bishops pair. Completing it is not easy at all, because now I have this favorable rook-queen correlation on the c-file and black won’t be able to capture on d4. Had the rook been on a8, black could play Qb8 and threaten c5 immediately. Small things do mather 20… Qg4 21. h3 Qh5 22. Nf4 Qa5 23. Nxe6 would be devastating.

21. Bb1 g6?

White to move

This is probably decisive mistake as it gives me clear target to attack on. Black wanted to press against isolated d4, yet there is no time for it. I think better was regrouping with 21… Nf6 22. Ne5 Qe7 where my knight is wonderful on e5 and black is slightly cramped, but c5 would be finally possible and I feel that black would achieve equality withing the next few moves.

22. h4!
Time to challenge on the kingside. This move also has a certain psychological effect as the trend is changing. It appears that I can shift my pieces towards black king faster than he is able to drag defensive units. For all this, I think my opponent started seeing ghosts and played weaker moves when he was still in position to give considerable resistance. I have already explained in earlier articles how you should be very careful when moving pawns in front of your own king. After g6, I can initiate pawn contact within two moves only, h4-h5. With pawn still on g7, it would be required to spend more time for g4-h4-g5 for the first contact, plus my king would be extremely weakened.

Not to mention all kinds of sacrifices on g6 or e6. I almost instinctively took 22. Bxg6, but I saw black’s escape when my hand was already in the air. 22. Bxg6 fxg6 23. Qxe6+ Kg7 24. Nh4 Qd6! Always calculate carefully and until the very end - “one move beyond”.

22… Bg7 23. Qe3
Queen is getting closer to the king side, preparing Nf4 while still eying on e6 for possible sacrifice. 23. h5 would be too soon 23… g5 and even if by some miracle I break over the long diagonal, black can simply defend with Kf8. Remember the paragraph about the tension, here I’m holding h5 like a sword above his head, waiting for the best possible moment.

23… Nf6 24. Ne5!
Immediately capturing this important outpost and adding even more pressure on f7, g6 and c6.

24… Nd5 25. Qg3 Bxe5?
Another mistake and game is over. My opponent cracked under pressure on his kingside. f4 and h5 (still not sure in which move order) were coming, also maybe Rd3-f3. I think 25…Rbc8 with Qe7 was better.

26. dxe5 h5 27. Nd4!
I liked the visual aesthetics of this move. Knight is adding on the e6 (knight fork on Rd8 and Kg7 after sac on g6 and queens exchange on g7) and also threatening Nb5-d6. 27. Bxg6 fxg6 28. Qxg6+ Qg7 29. Qxe6+ Qf7 is probably also enough for the win but I didn’t want to gamble. The great tactician Alexander Alekhine advised that player should complicate things only when he is worse or unable to see clear way to exploiting the advantage.

27… Ne7 28. Qg5
First I wanted to reroute the knight to e4 and f6, and then I opted for the scary-looking threat of Nf3, Qh6 and Ng5.

28… Nf5 29. Nxf5 exf5
29… Qxe5 30. Nh6+ check

30. e6!
Black position is collapsing, here my opponent burned last 4 minutes and forfeited on time 1-0

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