Provoking the Weakness
Mikhail Yudovich - Grigory Levenfish
Leningrad, 1935
The pawn structure is giving White space advantage on the King’s flank. This kind of blocked center (White d4-e5, Black d5-e6) is designated for White’s attack on Kingside, while Black is seeking for counterplay on Queenside.
Let’s evaluate how pieces are placed. All of the White’s pieces are either well positioned or they have nice perspective. Nf3, Bd2 and Qd1 (after N move) are ready for operations against Black King. Black is late with “the usual counterplay” over the c-file and against d4 pawn. His only well placed piece is Be7, preventing the crushing Bxh7 sacrifice and participating in Kingside defence. Bb7 and Nb6 are far from the main scene (Kingside), and they also don’t have perspective of joining the battle soon. Black should spend more then couple of moves (tempis) to improve the potential of these two pieces, so we can say they are bad in long term. Natural square for Black Knight is c6, where he is pressing the base of White’s pawn chain - d4 pawn.
How should White continue? Before starting with activities on the Kingside, White should improve his only inactive piece Bf1, and place it on the diagonal for direct attack against Black King.
This is good moment to share the advice I received from FIDE trainer IM Mihajlo Stojanovic. He said: “When you don’t know what to play and you can’t come up with satisfying plan - start with moving your pieces to better positions, the worst placed piece goes first”. This very useful advice is not really designed for the given position, because White has clear plan of attacking the opponent’s King, but it is good to have it in mind for general usage. Bd3 might fall in this category, White is improving his worst placed piece.
22. Bd3 Rfc8
