Chess Strategy

by Bogdan Girmacea

The first one to give great contribution about this subject was Aron Nimzovitch in his famous book “My System”. He says that the group mobility of pawns, and not the mobility of one pawn, can become a great fighting instrument, which usually leads to decisive advantage. Why is a mobile group of pawns so important? Because a mobile group of pawns can:

a) control a lot of important squares on the board
b) limit activity of opponent’s pieces
c) give attacking chances to the side that has them
d) give space advantage

But let’s see a concrete example to understand better. I will show you the game Spassky - Petrosian, from the 1966 World Championship.

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Article by GM Alex Finkel

Hey guys. Some time ago Goran talked me into writing some stuff for his blog and frankly speaking I’m quite thankful to him that he did! Some of you might know me from WCN, others might know me from Chessbase, most of you probably never heard about me In any case this column isn’t about me, it’s about improving your understanding of chess and providing you some tools to do that!

I keep saying all the time that in order to become a decent player all you have to do is to learn basic strategic rules and to follow them (not a very easy task by itself!), however if you want to become a really good player it’s not enough just to follow the rules - it’s even more important to know how to break them at the right moment!

This statement is especially true at the era of “computer chess”, when most top players have adapted a very concrete approach to the game, based mostly on a very deep calculation rather than on a pure positional play. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not calling to neglect learning of basic chess strategy, it’s an absolutely vital part of chess education, but you have to remain open-minded and remember that none of strategic rules stands above the Game…

One of the cornerstones of chess strategy is a fast development of the pieces and a quick castle - in most cases it’s highly recommended (I’d even say necessary) to accomplish development of the pieces and put a king in the safe place before starting any active operations. There are countless examples of severe punishment in case one of the sides had left his king in the center for the middlegame. However, under right circumstances, delaying castle and starting an active piece play could be very rewarding. The next game perfectly illustrates what I mean…Enjoy it!

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Last time I seriously studied chess, back in 1997-1998, I was amazed how Vladimir Kramnik treated certain line of Sicilian defence. Black didn’t have to fear of direct attack on his King and position was dynamic and full of strategical possibilities for both players, so I wanted to play it myself. Eventually, I had only one shot in the junior league, but I still remember many of Black’s fantastic resources. One of them is presented bellow.

Vassily Ivanchuk - Vladimir Kramnik
Dos Hermanas, 1996

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O h6
This is the line in question. Very popular in the late 90’s, nowadays out of fashion. Still worth of studying, take a look at couple of games, you’ll like it. More popular today is YY variation with 8…Bd7.

Black is forcing White do decide what to do with the Bishop. 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 is plain equal because White gets no benefits for pair of Bishops thrown away. 9.Bh4 Nxe4 is poisonous pawn sacrifice, but Black can hold with precise move order. 9.Bf4 Bd7 was favorite of Anatoly Karpov and not dynamic as the main 9.Be3.

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Mio’s Hidden Ideas by IM Miodrag Perunovic

Dragon variation was a real nightmare for e4 players some 15 years ago! Particularly when players like Kiril Georgiev, Boris Alterman, Chris Ward and Thomas Ernst introduced it to their repertoire. Even Kasparov used it in his match for the World Championship against Anand in a few deciding games with big success! Nowadays, GM’s like Sergey Tivjakov, Fedorov, Golubev and a few others play it with solid results, although none of the top 20 plays it anymore. This might be the reason for the “Dragoners” to feel a bit insecure, losing their confidence. If devoted Dragoners like Georgiev and Alterman don’t play it anymore - it is time to introduce new fresh ideas and bring the Dragon back to life!

Download PGN file for your game viewer. If you don’t have any, use ChessBase Light (free).

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6
We will start with some of the rare sidelines. Future articles will go over moves like 6. Be2; 6. Bc4; 6.g3 What can be the motif of playing sidelines with White pieces in an early stage of the game? The answer is simple and logical - 1) White wants to surprise Black, one of the very common strategies nowadays; 2) White wants to avoid the complications in the main Dragon lines, and by playing these rare moves, he simply reduces time necessary for preparation. So, White has a few interesting possibilities here but none of them is dangerous for Black! Sidelines are: 6.Nd5?! - rare and not the best attempt to surprise an opponent; 6. h4!? - pretty savage move; 6. h3!? with the idea of playing g4!?; 6. Bg5!? Bg7 7. Bb5!? - just an awkward variation, possibly good as surprise, nothing special; 6. Bc4 - maybe the best attempt to take an advantage with White pieces in B70 ECO code; 6. Be2 - calm move, and without real danger for Black; 6. g3!? - many good GMs like fianchetto variations, we have covered one of the subvariations in our previous article.

6.h4!?
By playing this kind of move in the early stage of the game, White clearly announces that he is going for the kill. It could be a very interesting idea against calm and slow-paced players, but the point is: Who would play Dragon with black if he is calm player I think that first to try 6.h4 was Drasko Velimirovic in his game against Watson, but the outcome was depressing for him.

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Rubinstein - Miezis

Black’s last move was 14… Qe7. He has clear plan of attacking against e4 pawn while White pieces are still undeveloped. The problem is that Black underestimates importance of “time” as factor. Rubinstein will not only complete the development while Black is busy taking that pawn, but he will also gain other positional advantages.

15. Nc3 Nh5

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It’s not a *real* exchange sacrifice as Black could have taken it back anytime, but the Rook maneuver was really amazing yet efficient.

Bruno Parma - Tigran Petrosian
Moskow, 1971

The Rc5 is under attack and it can’t go back on c-file because White has crushing e5. But Petrosian was planning way in advance.

21… Rh5!

Suicidal move at the first glance. Rook is running among opponent’s pieces and pawns, setting itself on *volley* g4. Note that 22. Qe3 Rxh2 with Ng4 is losing for White.

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I asked my friend and supporter Nosherwan Minwalla what he would like to read about. He mentioned the control and usage of dark (light) squares. One of the good examples can be Kasparov-Shirov game from previous post. After removing Shirov’s light-squared bishop, Kasparov used unprotected f5 square to break into the black’s position.

Yoseliani-Gurieli
Frunze, 1978

White is trying to exploit open f-file and pressure on f7 pawn. She was hoping to win the exchange after..

29. Nxc6 bxc6 30. Bc5

…but completely underestimated transformation after unbalanced trade.

30… Nxc5! 31. Rxd8 Raxd8

If 31. Qxc5 Qe8 and black is comfortable. In the current position black has rook, bishop and pawn for white queen material wise. But looking deeper, we can notice that black light pieces are very well coordinated and he is controlling the entire complex of dark squares in and around the center.

32. Ne2

Natural aim to cover at least some of the dark squares. The transformation after the trades must have had negative psychological impact on Yoseliani. She was expecting to “crush” her opponent after winning the exchange (in case black didn’t play 31.. Nxc5), but instead she is forced to defend the position with badly coordinated pieces. Still, there was some tactical potential left. White could have tried 32. Nd5 with the idea of covering d-file after 32… cxd5 33. Qxc5. Possible line is 32. Nd5 Nxe4 33. Ne7 Kh8 34. Ng6! Kg8 (best) 35. Ne7 with repetition.

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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.

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