Back to Basics / Reader annotations
Bxe5 15. Nxe5 Qxe5, maintaining a tenuous hold on c3).
14. … e4 I’d prefer 27. ... Rb8 28. Qd1 f5 29. f4 exf3 e.p. 30. Bxf3
43. Qxb5 would allow 43. … Bxg2+.
15. Nh2 Na4 16. Qd2 Nb2 17. Nc5 Nc4 18. Qd1 a5
30. ... Qd6 I needed to move … Bc6 (to support b5 and
d5) but if done first, White had Ne6, forking the queen and rook. The line 30. ... Bc6!? 31. Ne6 Qe7 32. Nxf8 Qxe3+ favors Black and deserves attention.
31. Qf1 31. Nb7 would have kept Black from … Bc6.
31. ... Bc6 32. Rf2 Bh6 Threatening e3.
33. Qd3 Rae8 34. Re2 Re7 35. Rae1 Rfe8
Trying to open up the a-file. Good idea—but what did the knight’s wan derings do to improve the position?
19. a4 Nb2 20. Qb1 Nc4 21. axb5 cxb5 22. Nf1 a4
Finally achieving an advantage: a passed pawn—
and it’s supported! But I can’t push it for a while since White has more power on the queenside, so I thought what is called for at this point is some kingside activity.
23. Re2 Bg7 24. Bd1 h5 25. Nd2
36. Kf1 (?!—L.A.) Black must have had a winning plan now, perhaps
even a couple of them. For instance, 36. ... Qh2, 37. ... Re4 and then either (g6)-g5-g4 or the bishop’s trek to g3.
36. ... Kf8 37. Kg1 Kf7 38. Kh1 I was pleasantly surprised to see the white king
get farther from the action and thus provide less support for his rooks.
38. … a3 I thought I would try to entice one of White’s
25. ... Nxd2 Here I’d seriously consider 25. ... Nd6—after all,
White is cramped. 26. Rxd2 h4 Trying to keep his kingside pawns bottled up
until I can marshal my forces to the kingside. 27. Be2 Bd7
rooks to the a-file to deal with my passed pawn, so I could break through on the e- and f-files. An often-useful technique.
39. Nb3 Qg3 40. Nc1 f4
(see diagram top of next column) Time for fireworks! I thought I would come
out of these exchanges with an advantage, in case of either 41. exf4 or 41. e4.
41. e4 dxe4 42. Bxe4 Bxe4 43. Qxg3
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43. … fxg3 The rest is simple.
44. Kg1 Bxc1 45. Rxc1 Bd5 46. Rxe7+ Rxe7 47. Kf1 Bc4+ 48. Kg1 Re2 49. Rf1+ Rf2 50. Ra1 Rf1+ 51. Rxf1 Bxf1, White resigned.
Black, driven by a wrong analogy (Sicilian Najdorf,
in double-queen-pawn opening) played 5. ... a6 and then 7. ... b5; White refused to punish this with 9. or even 8. a2-a4, using the black b5-pawn as a hook to destroy or at least weaken Black’s queenside pawn formation. On move 10 White, for no good reason, gave away (for a knight) his excellent dark-square bishop, a worthy opponent of Black’s fianchettoed bishop, missing a chance to expand in the center with e3-e4. Black, however, did expand in the center (on moves
13 and 14). Later Black was presented with an oppor - tunity to create a protected passed pawn on a4, on move 22—and grabbed it! Thus, the rest of the game was played under conditions favorable for Black. After an interesting, sharp struggle Sergio defeated his higher-ranked opponent.
Send in your games!
If you are unrated or rated 1799 or be low, then GM Lev Alburt invites you to send your most instructive game with notes to:
Back to Basics, c/o Chess Life PO Box 3967 Crossville, TN 38557-3967
Or e-mail your material to
backtobasics@uschess.org
GM Alburt will select the “most in struc - tive” game and Chess Life will award an autographed copy of Lev’s newest book, Platonov’s Chess Academy (by Lev Alburt and Sam Palatnik) to the person submitting the most in structive game and annotations.
Make sure your game (or part of it) and your notes will be of interest to other readers. Writing skills are a plus, but instructiveness is a must! Do not send games with only a few notes, as they are of little instructive value and can’t be used.
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