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Ready for the Challenge
A tactical blow may be decisive, or it may require creative and accurate followup play.
By GM LEV ALBURT
THE WINNER OF THIS MONTH’S AWARD, Brian Benson, was playing confidently and ambitiously, against a higher-rated oppo- nent. His further brilliant moves well justified his confidence, and his ambitions. Writes Brian (my future comments are in italics): FM Jim Dean reviewed this game with
me (he plays the similar f4!? move; depend- ing on move orders that move can be played on moves 10-13). Note that one does not randomly choose to play f4 in these moments but does it knowing theme, positional ideas and how to attack the king. Certain ground rules of White hav- ing the bishop pair makes this line a likely key lesson for both sides of the board. A miniature can arise when you follow prac- tical chess principles which may lead to forcing moves when executed properly. On with the game.
Nimzo-Indian Defense, Saemisch Variation (E26) Brian Benson (1787) Bradford Drake (2069)
Athenaeum Afternoon of Chess, Indianapolis, IN 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3
This is the Saemisch Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense. 4. ... Bxc3+
I like the sharp continuation of 4. a3 as
it makes Black part with his bishop pair. I remember a position from GM Roman Dzindzichashvili’s video where 4. e3 and 8. a3 are played in reverse order. There lies the trap, mostly unknown to those play- ing Nimzo with black.
5. bxc3 c5 6. e3 Qa5* I put an asterisk by this move because
I couldn’t tell if “?!” was appropriate. I saw this move in several Nimzo Indian Saemisch or Leningrad variations, usually around move eight, I believe. But here I felt my opponent was attempting to trans- pose to a pet line or variation he could outwit me in. I did a natural thing: stuck to my positional formation (I was set for the idea of Bd3, Nge2). Well, 6. ... Qa5 is a dubious move. In
particular, the inclusion of moves 6. ... Qa5 and 7. Bd2 makes any capture on d4 in the future less attractive for Black, as White would recapture with cxd4, attacking the black queen. As we’ll see, Black will soon remove his queen, indicating a loss of valu- able opening time.
7. Bd2 To witness my opponent move his queen
again without developing his bishop gave me a certain amount of confidence to look for the practical move. Ironically, it’s not even clear where this
queen is better placed—on its new home, c7, or on its square of origin, d8. For instance, the black queen being on d8 would make the soon to occur—on the 15th move—Exchange sacrifice completely impractical).
12. d5 Ne7 In a similar position Black often plays ...
Na5, then ... b6 and ... Ba6, aiming at the weak c4-pawn. Here, however—after the above-mentioned loss of time for useless queen moves—this plan would be very risky for Black.
13. f4!? Now for the thematic f4!? 7. ... 0-0 8. Bd3 Nc6
All natural moves from known theory of Nimzo play.
42 August 2012 | Chess Life
13. ... exf4 (see diagram top of next column)
9. Ne2 d6 10. 0-0 e5 Now I feel we are out of the opening: both
sides are castled and I am ready to plant my final minor piece for middlegame deployment and activity.
11. Ng3 Qc7
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