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makes the game so fascinating. By the way, Portisch later produced a
positional masterpiece to defeat Saidy in the same event, helped at one point by the move Bxb6, exchanging his bishop for Saidy’s knight. On the other hand the American also enjoyed success against a legendary player by utilizing the same concept: in 1993 he defeated Korchnoi after exchanging his bishop for an enemy knight in the early stages of the game.
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Analysis after 20. Ra1
20. ... Nxe3 21. fxe3 Ne7 22. Nfd2 Bd5! Karpov does not want to take on g2, as
White’s remaining knights would be strong enough to counter his bishop. Instead he allows the exchange, but only on his own terms, when the recapture ... exd5 would cost White his treasured out- post on c4.
23. Ne4?! White wants to simplify, but he goes
about it in an unfortunate way. More prom- ising was: 23. Nb3 Qc6 (23. ... Bxc4 24. Nxc5 Bxa6 25. Nxa6 Bxb2 26. Rb1 Bc3 27. Rb3 White soon regains the pawn with equal chances.) 24. Qxc6 Nxc6 25. Ra1 Bxc4 26. Bxc6 Bxb3 27. cxb3 Bxb2 28. Ra8 White is a pawn down, but he should be able to draw the opposite-colored bishop ending. It was also reasonable to play 23. Ra1 intending to exchange queens on a5.
23. ... Bxe4 24. Bxe4 h5 25. Qa1?! Saidy brings back his queen to defend,
but he could have played more actively with: 25. Ra1! White can generate enough play with his rook. 25. ... Qg5 26. Qb7 h4 (or 26. ... Nd5 27. Ra8 Nxe3 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Qxb4+ and White is not worse) 27. Ra8 Nd5 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Qc8+ Ke7 30. Bxd5 exd5 31. Qxc7+ And White holds.
25. ... g6 26. Qd1 (see diagram top of next column
26. ... h4! Karpov softens his opponent up on the dark squares.
27. Qe2 Qg5 28. Qf3 Kg7! 40 Chess Life — January 2012
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After 26. Qd1 This is typical of Karpov; the king move has
no special purpose, other than providing a small but definite improving of his position.
29. Qf4 Qc5
Black needs his queen to develop an attack on the dark squares. 30. Ra1 Nd5 31. Qf2 c6! 32. Ra5 Qe7
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After 32. ... Qe7
33. g4?! This leads to a further weakening of the
dark squares. Though it was not much fun, White should have continued to defend this pawn on the g3-square and only advance it as a last resort.
33. ... Qc7 34. Ra1 Bg5 35. Kh1 White can do nothing but wait passively.
35. ... Kh6 36. Rg1 Nf6 37. Bf3 Rd8!? It is hard to evaluate this move, apart
from calling it sly. As Saidy points out, “it has NO value unless I overlook the posi- tional threat—which I did.”
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After 37. ... Rd8 38. Ra1?
For reasons that will become obvious, White should have preferred 38. Qe2. 38. ... b3! Karpov seizes the opportunity to open
the position and fracture his opponent’s pawn chain. In the resulting position his bishop will work superbly, while Saidy’s bishop is restricted by the enemy pawns and has no target to attack.
39. Ra6 bxc2 40. Qxc2 Nd5 41. Qd2? Maybe White was short of time and did
not realize he had passed the 40 move mark. When I asked Saidy about the game he said: “Yes, I was always in zeit- not in those days.” His last move is directed against ... Nb4, but the queen is stepping into a different type of hazard. Instead White should have preferred 41. Qe2 Nb4 42. Ra3.
41. ... c5?! Perhaps Karpov was also playing too
fast, as he missed a direct refutation of White’s last move: 41. ... Nxe3! 42. Nxe3 Qf4 43. Bxc6 Qxe3 44. Qxe3 Bxe3 45. Be4 Rb8 And Black is winning.
42. Qe2 Nb4 43. Ra3 Another line runs as follows: 43. Rb6
Rd7 (43. ... Qa7!?) 44. Kg1 (44. d4 Nd5; 44. Rb7 Qd8 45. Rxd7 Qxd7 46. Ne5 Qc7 47. Nc4 Qd8 Black wins the d3-pawn) 44. ... Kg7 (44. ... Qd8 45. d4) 45. Rb7 (45. Kf1 Nxd3) 45. ... Qd8 46. Rxd7 Qxd7 and White drops the d3-pawn.
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Analysis after 46. ... Qxd7
43. ... Kg7 44. Bg2 Bf6 Karpov follows a cunning plan: he
wants to exchange knights. Once this has been achieved, there will be nothing to stop his bishop from becoming over- whelmingly powerful.
45. Bf1 Nc6 46. Qf2? White does nothing to prevent the
knight exchange. It is a common mis- take—the defender allows exchanges, hoping that the simplification will bring him closer to a draw when in fact the opposite is true. The temptation is espe-
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