Chess Strategy

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

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Vsevolod Rauzer - Nikolay Riumin
Leningrad, 1936

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 d6 7.c3 b5 8.Bb3 Na5 9.Bc2 c5 10.d4 Qc7 11.Nbd2 Nc6 12.a4 Rb8 13.axb5 axb5 14.dxc5 dxc5 15.Nf1 Be6 16.Ne3 O-O 17.Ng5 Rfd8 18.Qf3 Rd6

Black has to cover potential outposts d5 and f5. White controls open a-file and Black controls d-file, but this is not of the major importance because all entry squares are well protected. White’s biggest problem are his passive Bishops and with his next move he’s trying to give them some air. 19. Ne6 is not the best because after fe6 Black is covering d5 and f5 and his single weakness e6 will be easily defended. 19. Ne6 Re6?! 20. Nd5! favors White.

19. Nf5 Bxf5

Russian author Mikhail Yudovich suggested 19…Rdd8 as better, but it seems that after 20. Ne6 fe6 21. Ne7 and Be3, White can create strong pressure on Black queenside pawns. Alexander Koblenz, coach of Mikhail Tal, also mentioned this game in his book but didn’t comment on Bf5.

20. exf5 h6

White’s doubled pawn has gained space allowing good chances for future advance of Kingside pawns. Before the advance, White has to improve his pieces and prevent opponent’s counterplay. The most important feature of exf5 is that White gets e4 square for transfer of his pieces. Instead of h6, better was 20…Rdd8, in order to meet Ne4 with Nd5.

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Tigran Petrosian - Florian Gheorghiu
Moskow, 1967

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bb4 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O Re8 7. d3 h6 8. Nd5 Bf8 9. Nxf6+ Qxf6 10. Nd2 d6 11. Ne4 Qd8 12. Nc3 Bd7 13. b4 Qc8

With his last move Black is intending to trade light-squared bishops on h3. Petrosian could have played 14. Re1 to avoid the trade but he has something else on his mind. The main point is that Black will lose couple of tempos Qc8-Bh3-Bg2 to complete the trade and White can use that time to fulfill his own plans.

14. Rb1 Bh3 15. e4

Closing the long diagonal but it doesn’t really matter anymore. Black has already lost too many moves and he can’t afford the luxury of not trading Bg2. If bishop retreats to e6 or d7, White can play f4 gaining big advantage.

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Mikhail Botvinnik - Vassily Smyslov
Moskow, 1957

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.d4 d6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.h3 Bxf3 8.Bxf3 Nc6 9.Bg2 Nd7 10.e3 e5

This position is our first marking point. It is important to emphasize two factors - white has pair of bishops and black is bit ahead with development, white still has to castle and bring his Bc1 out.

Most of the chess players were taught an axiom: when you have pair of bishops, open up the position. Let’s do a small exercise and see how the axiom applies here. Try to follow this line in your mind (without moving the pieces on your board!) and evaluate the position after 14th move: 11. 0-0 exd4 12. exd4 Nxd4 13. Bxb7 Rb8 14. Bg2 Ne5.

Don’t rush, take your time. This is good way of improving your “foresight”, contrary to looking at the entire article at once to only help your “hindsight” which is pretty much useless in practical play. GM Jonathan Rowson introduced concept of foresight/hindsight in his book “Chess For Zebras”. Only when you have your opinion formed, click on “read the rest of this entry”.

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Anatoly Karpov - Vladimir Savon
USSR ch Moskow, 1973

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 b6 3. g3 Bb7 4. Bg2 c5 5. O-O g6 6. d3 Bg7 7. e4 O-O 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. Rb1 Ne8 10. Be3 Nd4 11. Ne2 e5 12. b4 d6 13. bxc5 dxc5 14. Nexd4 cxd4 15. Bd2 Nc7 16. Ne1 Ne6 17. Bb4 Re8 18. f4 exf4 19. gxf4 Qc7 20. Qg4 Nc5 21. Bxc5 bxc5 22. Rb2 Rab8 23. Rbf2 Bc8 24. Qg3 Rb1 25. h4 h5 26. Nf3 Rxf1+ 27. Bxf1 Bh6 28. Nd2 Kh7 29. Kh2 Bg4

Black has pair of bishops and white has flexible pawn structure. How to continue?

30. e5

White is “cleaning” e4 square for his knight, opens long a8-h1 diagonal and creates supported outposts d6 and f6. 30. Nf3 was tricky, because if 30… Bf4, white has discovered check 31. Ng5+!

But black plays simple 30. Nf3 Bxf3 trading one of the white’s valuable attackers.

If now 30. e5 Bg7 31. Ne4, knight is storming forward with huge energy. White can then proceed, for example, with Ne4-Bg2-Ng5-Bd5 creating strong pressure on black’s king-side.

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Paul Vaitonis - Efim Geller
Saltsjobaden, 1952

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c5 6.d5 d6 7.e4 Na6 8.Nf3 Nc7 9.O-O a6 10.a4 Rb8 11.a5 b5 12.axb6 Rxb6 13.Re1 Rb4 14.e5 Ng4 15.exd6 exd6 16.Ra4 Rxa4 17.Nxa4 Bd7 18.b3 Bxa4 19.bxa4 Ne5 20.Nxe5 Bxe5 21.Bd2 Qf6 22.Qb3 Re8 23.Ba5 Bd4 24.Rxe8+ Nxe8 25.Qf3 Qg5 26.Qf4 Qxf4 27.gxf4

Let’s evaluate diagram. White has pair of bishops but all of his his king-side pawns are weak (isolated, double). Also, position has semi-closed character and that is bad news for white bishops.

27…f5!

Excellent move. Black is blocking weak f4 pawn and closing c8-h3 diagonal. It is usually good idea to block opponent’s weaknesses to prevent any advance that could possibly change the situation. But don’t forget, every rule has its exceptions - always have in mind given situation. The problem with f4 pawn is constant danger of double attack by bishop and knight. If that happens, for example Bc1 and Nd3 (Nh5), white won’t be able to defend it. On the other hand, black has no reason to be afraid of weakening e6 square and placing k-side pawns on light squares, because white bishop can’t attack them in decent period.

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