Understanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenUnderstanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenFirst edition 2019 by Thinkers Publishing Copyright © 2019 Herman Grooten All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re- trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. All sales or enquiries should be directed to Thinkers Publishing, 9850 Landegem, Belgium. Email: info@thinkerspublishing.com Website: www.thinkerspublishing.com Managing Editor: Herman Grooten Assistant Editor: Zyon Kollen Proofreading: Daniel Fernandez Software: Hub van de Laar Graphic Artist: Philippe Tonnard Cover Design: Mieke Mertens Photo Cover: Ab Scheel + Photos: Jos Sutmuller and Frans Peeters Production: BESTinGraphics ISBN: 9789492510426 D/2018/13730/23Understanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenThinkers Publishing 2019 Tehran www.thinkerspublishing.comExplanation of symbols: ! good move + White has a clear advantage ? weak move + — Black has a clear advantage | excellent move +~ White is winning 2? blunder —+ Black is winning !2 interesting move > with an attack 21 dubious move + initiative a onlymove 4 lead in development = balanced position 5S counterplay ee unclear position 4 with the idea & with compensation for the © betteris sacrificed material N novelty £ White is slightly better # checkmate = Black is slightly better + check Next to most diagrams you'll see a small square on the right. If it’s white, it means it’s White’s move; if it’s black, it means it’s Black’s move. Bibliography Fundamental Chess Openings — Paul van der Sterren Queen’s Gambit Declined — Matthew Sadler Queens’s Gambit Exchange Variation — Kevin Wicker Die Kunst der Baurenfiihrung = Hans Kmoch Pawn Structure Chess — Andrew Soltis My Great Predecessors — Garry Kasparov Mega Database —ChessbaseVisual aids In this book, we'll regularly use different kinds of visual aids. As a chess coach, I’ve found that the very act of making strategic or tactical ideas accessible in visual form can be pedagogically useful. When, for instance, | use a projector in my classes, | use highlighting and colourful arrows to show people weak squares, piece paths and other features. Since this book isn’t published in color ~ unlike the first part in Dutch — our software devel- oper Hub van de Laar has put together the pal- ette of annotation features needed to never- theless enable the reader to focus on the position’s essence ata single glance. In the ad- jacent diagram, we can immediately see what white is threatening and ‘what other arrow he may have left in his quiver’. This position is taken from the splendid attacking game Dreev-Kishney, Chalkidiki 2002, in which white sacrifices his queen in exchange for two minor pieces, more activity and a large number of threats. To indicate moves in this book we won't use the letters of the piece in question, but instead the so-called figurines. These are: Piece __| Letter | Figurine King Queen Rook Bishop Knight _ Pawn = z\a|alo|x 1 |S} eo} be a ceContents Explanation of symbols and bibliography Visual aids -~ Contents Preface - Chapter 1 Studying of Openings-— Chapter 2 Background of Openings Chapter 3 Pawn Structures and Practical Examples Chapter 4 Discussing Variations Chapter5 — Model Game: Chapter6 Exercises Chapter 7 Solutions Appendix instructive Game: Preface Things that start out very small can sometimes turn out to be big. It’s kinda the same with this new series of chess books. From material that started as a simple series of two-page articles (appearing six times per year in the Dutch chess journal Schaakmagazine) it has ultimately been possible to formulate a thorough and ro- bust structure which club players can use to improve their game. It all started when | met up over coffee with Minze bij de Weg, chief editor of Schaakmagazine, to discuss setting up a new instructional column in the journal. He noted that the average Elo-rating of the club players who formed our readership was in fact between 1500-1600. This is a lot lower, | think, than most coaches or titled players would guess if given the question ‘cold’. Furthermore, he thought there was a paucity of instructional material available for club players — in general, but also specifically within the publication. Minze asked me how | thought we could aid this group in improving their play. Since | already had developed and given some courses to club players, | was well placed to identify the broad needs of the group. For instance, | had looked at numerous games handed in by students, and found that often they struggled with the late opening and the transition to the middle-game. The rote learning of early moves didn’t necessarily result in sound treatment of the ensuing middlegames, it seemed; rather the contrary. This series of books deals with the central question: how does one identify the es- sence of opening positions? Furthermore, without resorting to complex trees of var- iations, how could | best explain the plans and underlying concepts of positions arising after a few initial moves? These were questions | had to work through while writing my series of articles, and | believe | have found good answers. In my opinion, the average club player can derive great benefit from an opening book in which a profusion of ideas is offered. One which does not merely teach the correct answers to specific questions (of which opening move-orders are a particu- larly bad example) but also processes by which genuine insight can be reached. One which explores ideas thoroughly, but retains enough structure and order that the student gains an understanding of the patterns rather than just being over- whelmed. My articles were written with significant attention paid to these balanc- ing acts and to my readers’ needs. Now, in collaboration with my Belgian chess pal Daniel Vanheirzeele, the owner of Thinkers Publishing, | present you with an even more detailed work on the backgrounds and underlying ideas of openings, which has expanded from a column into a series of books! We will take the reader on a journey from everyday openings and into the subtle, nuanced world of grandmaster chess. When we get there, I'll try to explain in eve- ryday words the many plans, ideas, and concepts that often remain hidden below the surface. These explorations should give the club player something to hold onto, as his opponents inevitably deviate from theory and force him to seek his practical success in an unmapped battlefield. Many thanks are due to Zyon Kollen who painstakingly translated this book from the original Dutch and Daniel Fernandez for the proofreading. | also want to thank Jos Sutmuller and Frans Peeters who allowed me to use their photography therein. We wish you a lot of joy and support in working through the second book of this new series. IM Herman Grooten, November 2018.Studying of Chess Openings Introduction It is clear that opening books are very popular among chess players. Furthermore, since the advent of modern chess engines, most serious players have been spend- ing increasing amounts of time working on openings with those too. Almost every tournament player nowadays goes to a tournament armed with a laptop, and thereby has at their disposal an updated database and at least a few strong engines to use for preparation The tendency of club players to invest energy thus in opening study has not devel- oped for no reason, of course. In the blink of an eye it’s possible to look up oppo- nents’ games and therefore it’s natural to look up which opening variations the op- ponent likes to play. Since so much material is available, it’s possible to prepare oneself in a very concrete manner. Many club players have begun just flicking through their opponent's games on the screen, noting the opinions of their silicon friends and leaving the old-fashioned boards and books lying on the table. By spending hours in this way, it is assumed, improvement is virtually guaranteed. Tournament players have developed religious zeal regarding this matter, thinking that their hard work will result in a higher rating before long. Unfortunately this frequently just turns out to be an illusion...10 Queen's Gambit Structures During my many years’ work as a chess coach | have worked with many talented youth players, but also with ambitious adults who wanted to “ramp up” their level Typically, | would ask about the breakdown of the hours they spent on chess study at home. Increasingly with the passing of time, | would receive the answer that they spent considerable numbers of hours on openings, but that returns on that study were becoming limited. | wondered to myself-What gives? When playing my pupils’ games, | noticed they — in spite of having good basic knowledge — had a lot of difficulty as soon as the opponent deviated from theory. Suddenly they were left to their own devices! And then it appeared that in many cases they weren’t so good at improvising. They were also making lots of errors, both “forced” and “unforced”, in the resulting complicated middlegames. Of course, players of all levels sometimes find themselves out of their depth in unfa- miliar situations. Nevertheless, there are some courses of action which make it less likely a player will end up ‘lost’ and which increase the efficiency of opening study. In particular, we should pay attention to the late opening, when play is moving into a middlegame and players must be aware of the possibility that their opponent will deviate from, or not be familiar with, the opening books. The correct, sound meth- ods by which recreational players could stufy openings and improve their results became clear to me over several years When | was first developing these ideas, | started testing them on pupils whom I tu- tored. | also shared my thoughts with inter- ested club players in several courses | gave. The cornerstone: understanding! | got busy categorising different positions (regardless of the original opening) by their pawn structure, and thus keeping to the Wilhelm Steinitz spirit of a dictum of the first world cham- pion, Wilhelm Steinitz: “the pawn structure is the position’s skeleton”. On this skel- eton everything else must hang; it determines where the pieces can or can’t go to. Steinitz showed that a given position’s possible plans can almost always be deduced from pawn structure.Chapter 1 - Studying of Chess Openings " Concretely, then, can we determine the best way to develop pieces in a given struc- ture? This question is not easy to answer, but rather than reinvent the wheel or philosophise too much, it’s better to look at the games of (strong) grandmasters, i.e. people who have developed a nearly infallible instinct of where the pieces should go. There are numerous ideas behind a grandmaster’s moves, but by the same token, each time the ideas must all be distilled down to one move, which necessarily means that most of the detail remains hidden under the surface. This all raises several questions © Where do we want to place our pawns in the opening? © Which plans carry over when the structure is the same but the piece de- ployments are totally different? © How does a top-class player identify the positions salient features and use them to generate a plan? What pieces should be exchanged, and which ones not? ¢ How could we start an attack? How to thwart the opponent's play? In the end, we make opening study more efficient by means of improving strategic insight. Therefore, in some sense, this book aims to kill two birds with one stone. We'll start studying an opening by looking at model games to try to understand why certain moves are played. Hence the name of this series: “Understanding before Moving”. It must be said that sharp opening variations don’t go well together with this stra- tegic approach. There the main focus lies on becoming well acquainted with all the tactics in the different variations. An unusually great premium is placed on accuracy and timing within the move sequences. Here concrete knowledge is indispensable, but nevertheless, even here a profound understanding of structure forms the basis for success. While formulating my approach I had a number of informative conversations with the Ukrainian grandmaster and famous chess trainer Adrain Mikhalchishin. One of his basic suggestions was that for the development of real progress and insight it is indispensable to play through classic games from great masters, accompanied by illustrative variations and text notes. He noted that this was compulsory in the East- ern bloc, and went on to describe the ‘model game’, i.e. the type of game which is most useful to play through. Quite what this means will be elaborated upon more concretely at the end of the chapter.12 Queen's Gambit Structures Briefly, according to Adrian (who now lives in Slovenia), players should pay atten- tion to those annotated games in which the latent plans of the position are carried to fruition by the winner. If a stronger player beats a player of a lower Elo and the basic ideas are displayed in a clear manner, this could mark the spectator’s begin- ning to understand the game better. He often used the slogan “Follow the leader”. By this he meant that if you want to study an opening, it would be sensible to track an expert in this variation. A strong player, who has familiarized himself with this type of position, could learn you a lot about (for example) where to put your pieces. He gave as an example that games of former world champion Mikhail Tal are excel- lent subject material in order to learn to understand the Benoni. Preparing during a tournament Earlier we discussed the role of computers. They play an especially large part in the preparation of top-class players, although of course their own creativity is not to be underestimated. Ultimately, by combining the two, top professionals manage to make optimal use of the computer, synthesizing the best of both carbon and silicon to accomplish that which either alone might not manage. The question, though, is how us mere mortals should tackle it... From experience | know that during a tournament, one of the favourite uses of a computer is to prepare some special ‘trick’ variation, where the opponent is utterly busted if they happen to play into the preparation. At times this might even work! Nevertheless, the liberal use of the right-arrow key (at least, not the spacebar...) is a bad habit when doing these prepara- tions. Especially when the player is a youth player, one often sees the games of 2700+ grandmasters flash by on the screen- with extremely little attention paid to them. The preparing player might then make some remark, prompted by the engine somewhere on the screen: for instance, “I don’t like this at all for White.” To tell the truth, at such moments | find it hard not to burst out laughing. In the 20 seconds he spent playing through the game, | wonder what he was able to understand about it. Two strong players had spent about 5 or 6 hours thinking about their moves, and we are flicking through them in 20 seconds, hoping to come to a verdict about a line. Surely, | say, this is madness. But the player is already merrily flicking through theChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings B next game. Then, of course, that which unfolds in the tournament hall later is com- pletely and utterly unrelated to this ‘preparation’. A second aspect shouldn't be neglected as well. Games of others are usually down- loaded from the Internet and examined with the aid of a strong chess engine. We all know of course the famous Fritz, but nowadays Houdini, Komodo and Stockfish call the shots. On the basis of the evaluation the computer gives within a few sec- onds, the position’s evaluation is determined. If the computer indicates +0.66, the player thinks White should have won this game. If it was his own, he may even shout “I was winning!” he'll shout, forgetting to add the requisite pinch of salt to the computer's opinion. These evaluations often depend heavily on specific parameter choices made by the programmer, which can be subjective. Furthermore, depending on the type of po- sition, +0.66 may reflect a totally unwinnable position — or at least one which re- quires superhuman effort. However, equally confounding is the area in which com- puters have undisputed supremacy:making accurate calculations in a complex tactical position. Every modern player has experienced the frustration of a com- puter revealing to them some missed combination, which cost them points. At such points it is important to not let one’s confidence take a hit, because if it does, then the tournament won’t go according to plan anymore. One brief anecdote about the quirks of computers. There once was a Dutch ma- jor league player who in games against chess computers always opened 1. d3. After 1... d5 2. e4 the engine inevitably replied 2.. dxe4 3, dxed fxdi+ 4. xd1. The engine had been pro- grammed to favour Black, because cas- tling was still possible. However, now that the queens have been exchanged, the practical chances for a human had actually increased considerably!14 Queen's Gambit Structures Asked about this approach, the player gave the laconic but revealing response: “1 wouldn’t take on a cash register at arithmetic.”- and there is an element of wisdom in this. Summarizing, we may say that to im- prove, it is necessary to make some de- cisions about the use, strengths and weaknesses of computers. The best ad- Position after: 4. 2x1 vice is: use common sense! Tabiya In some books we encounter sometimes the term tabiya. I'll try to explain below what this term means and what one is basically trying to say with it. ie DEFINITION OF “TABIYA” A tabiya is @ position that has arisen after 10-20 moves, in which the pawn structure is showing a number of typical features. On the basis of this pawn formation we can derive plans and concepts that are typical for this structure. The term tabiya occurs frequently in study books or training lessons that nowadays can be found on the Internet in the form of videos. | encountered it myself when reading the book the Queen’s Indian Defence, The Kasparov System of 1991 by GM Mikhail Gurevich. | purchased that book because | played the variation myself and was especially interested by Kasparov's play in the eighties. Also around that time, | was a member of the club team De Variant in Breda, which played in (and won) the top division of the Dutch league under various sponsor names for several years. Mikhail Gurevich, who lived in Brussels at that time, wasChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings 15 one of my teammates. Oftentimes the whole team would eat dinner together after a game and so, naturally, one time | got talking to him and was able to ask just what he meant by the word “tabiya”. What | dimly recollect from his answer was that the pawn structure plays a decisive role in determing a plan. In his book on the Queen's Indian this also comes to the fore very clearly. There are variations that for example give a Benoni structure — such an opening in which specific plans play a role for both players. Gurevich also pointed out that it is beneficial to study these structures not only in the abstract, but also with reference to real middlegames that could occur featuring them. By listing the plans and concepts you'll understand better how you should develop your pieces in the opening. By studying grandmaster games, you'll find out what plans could be formulated with the pawn structure in question. Gurevich showed that one can work backwards from the middlegame to the opening: first under- standing a particular structure and then seeing how to get there from move 1. Like Mikhalchishin Gurevich bets on developing understanding and insight. Let us have a look at a couple of examples to see how these could be implemented in practice. a majority on the queenside that could be of huge importance in the endgame. A typical way of playing here is with some sort of breakthrough: 1. d4-d5 Af- ter 1... e6xd5 White has two possibi ties: © Taking back the pawn with 2, exdS and in this way creating a passed pawn that in the middlegame could This typical pawn structure is in litera- stir up trouble in Black’s territory. ture also called the ‘small center’. White has a pawn majority on the kingside, © Choosing to sacrifice the pawn with Black on the queenside. This means 2. e4-e5 and going for an attack on White is basically able to create a Black's king. This is shown in the fol- passed pawn in the short term. He also lowing schematic diagram: has more space, meaning his pieces have more space to manoeuvre behind the pawns. Black on the other hand hasQueen's Gambit Structures Because of the pawn sacrifice, White has gained an important pawn on e5 and he can manoeuvre his pieces be- hind this pawn in such a way they could be mobilized for an attack. These ma- neuvers go as follows: We'll list a couple of these manoeuvres: id The knight on f3 could be played to £5 via da. '\ This frees up the queen to go to g4 or hS, eyeing the black king. In addition to this, White also has the option to play rook lifts along the third rank, starting with Be3. & Sacrifices on h7 are lurking if Black’s oo defenders can’t immediately defend against the mates. & The push e6 is common, unleashing the £2 on the game. In short: white has numerous attacking ideas which can be tested in practice. The young Kasparov liked playing posi- tions with a ‘small center’, so he coordi- nated his opening choice around this. There follow two nice examples from the eighties: & Kasparov A Najdorf @® Bugojno 1982 Position after: 16... Wd6 17.5! This thematic break underlies much of White's play in this type of position. 17... exd5 18. e5 HWe6 19. Ada 19. Kadi would probably have been better, e.g. 19... cd 20. Act He7 21.Chapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings ‘2d4 and White indeed gets a danger- ous initiative after 21... Wc8 22. Af. Position after: 22. Df5 19... Wxes 20. DS 2f61 So far Black has defended himself in ex- emplary fashion. Note 20... g6? fails to 21, &da! Wxe2 22. AhéH. And on 20... 2cS? White wins after 21. Wh5! Hfes 22. De7+1+. Also, after 20... Ac4t? White had planned 21. Wf1 with the idea of 2.d4. The engine however sug- gests the reply 21... &d6! with a huge advantage for Black. Therefore, on the previous move White should prefer 21. Whs!? g6 22. Ada Wxda 23. gxhd 24. Exe7 and White has enough compen- sation for his pawn. He could also choose to win the pawn back through 21, 2xb6, but now the queens are ex- changed: 21... Wxe2 22. Hxe2 Qfo 23. 2.04 with an equal game 21. Wega Bces? Also not great would have been: 21... Hes?! 22. Ad2 Wxal 23. Bxa1 Bxal 24. h4!s but with 21... Wc3! Black could have held firm: 22, De7+! Bxe7 23. Garri Kasparov in the eithties (photo Jos Sutmuller) Sud4 Gxd4 24. Yxaa 2f6 25. Wea xa1 26. Exa1t and Black has sur- vived. 22. 2d2! Position after: 22. 2d2!Queen's Gambit Structures 22... Wxal? This loses immediately, but Najdorf would also have gone down after 22... We7 23. Bn6+ Cs 24. Exes Hxes 25, WFs! Hea 26. Axed dxe4 27. Het Bch 28. Bg5+ winning. Relatively better is 22... f’b2, but White will also now have a clear advantage after 23. ®h6+ Vhs 24. Whs, after which 24... Hoes is forced. Then 25. &xe4 dxe4 26. &.b4 is no picnic, although Black is still in the game after 26... e3!? 23. Hxal 2xa1 Position after: 23... &xa1 24, Axg7! 2xg7 24... AcB 25. Des+ Lhs 26. thes and mate follows. 25. 2h6 1-0 A Kasparov, Garri & Murey, Jacob @ Moscow 1982 Position after: 12. cxd4 12... a6?! It was about time to complete develop- ing and bring the king to safety. This could be done by 12... 2d6! as Black will answer 13. d5 with 13... exdS 14, exdS We7+ 15. Re2 Aas 16, Wade &d8! and now White’s king will also face trouble in trying to leave the cen- ter. ...e8 is threatened and therefore 17. GfLis forced. 13. Wa2t The queen gets out of the rook’s line of fire and at the same time supports the advance d4-d5. 13... DadChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings Position after: 13... 2a5 Now 13... 2d6 would be punished by 14. d5 exdS 15. Wxd5! and both Yxa6 and S.xg7 are threatning. After 15... 2f8 follows the strong 16. WhS! and Black’s king can’t get out of the center. 14. d5! Of course White stops waiting. 14... exdS 14... Ac415. Axcd Hxca 16. Wd3 Bes 17. d6+— 15. exd5 2.d6 Hoping to prevent the advance d5-d6, but the king can’t escape the center af- ter White’s next move. In order to elim- inate the option &xg7 Black could play 15... £6, but his chances of survival are still nil after 16. d6! Hc 17. d7+. 16. 2xg7 We7+ 17. 2e2 Bg8is. Whe Position after: 18. Yh6 18... 5?! Too rigorous, but what else could he have done? One attempt would be to run away with the king: 18... @d7 19. 0- 0! Gc7 [Black won't escape after 19... Wrxe2 20. Efet Wbs 21. DeS+ wc7 22. Dxf7 either] but now on 20. Xfe1 bs (20... Was 21. Aes wins directely because of the threat @xf7] , 21. 2xa6 means Black's king won't find peace on the queenside either. 19, 266 Ws 20. Yxh7 We7 21. Hxts, White is already up material and Black's king has no safe shelter. 21... Hg6 22. Wea+ hfs 23. Ags! Kasparov continues at full blast. 23... Kxgs 24. Lxgs Bes 25. Ahe+ gs 26. Year 1020 Queen's Gambit Structures Model Games The importance of studying grandmaster games deeply is stressed by almost all good chess trainers. Apart from the fact that a strong grandmaster not only has deep ‘book’ knowledge of the game, his experience will also help him to find his way in unknown territory. (This is often a major advantage over a weaker player: ability to evaluate a position and choose a sound plan.) Only the very best games should be used in order to get the hang of an opening. Every club player who wants to make progress can access them using today’s modern technological tools. This being said, of course, there is still ‘junk’, the elimination of which is a science in itself. There follow some guidelines on this process: & First determine which ‘tabiya’ you are interested in. Which are the pawn struc- tures of which you want to know the characteristic plans? ‘\ Model games are often not close fights but rather ‘masterclasses’. That is, played between a top GM and a relatively weak player (maybe 100-150 points lower). ‘\ The strategic concept should be emphasized clearly. '&, The game has to be commentated, preferably in the chess student's native lan- guage, with as much text and explanation as possible. Variations should support the story and can’t be dominant. Preferably as few symbols (like +, and the like) as possible since they don’t indicate the position’s essence '\ Analyse the game first alone and then put into words how much you learned from it. Verbalizing a plan/concept will help with understanding the position later, including when you have it in front of you in competition! Pitfalls Some pitfalls and further recommendations: © As indicated above, it would be wise to avoid game analyses from Chessbase or for example Chess Informant that only contain codes. We won't learn from codes like +, % or $. The concept is explained by verbal explanation. © Be critical of annotated games. Oftentimes, they were made using engines or “annotated by result”. If they use evaluation symbols, these might not change often enough to reflect reality. Superficiality and inaccuracy are rampant!Chapter 1 - Studying of Chess Openings a1 © Some books are unsuitable. Lack of verbal explanations is a red flag. Choose opening books (and annotated game collections) which are text-heavy in order to maximize comprehension. @ A lot of analyses were written in international languages like English, German or Russian; and reaching a wide audience may have been prioritized over, well, intelligibility. So, sometimes, confusion reigns. Especially in such cases, you would learn a lot by annotating the game in your own words (and language.) @ In this modern age many chess videos can be consulted on the Internet. A lot of material is available on chessbase.com, chess.com, chess24.com and YouTube. @ With many modern chess programs visual aids (as used in this book!) can be added, which highlight what’s going in a position. Many players already make good use of these! Last points of general advice In order to obtain as great a yield as possible from the (limited) hours a player can spend on chess, it seems sensible to prioritise the understanding of positions, ra- ther than rote knowledge. Try to understand an opening’s background better through studying the plans and concepts of stronger players. Don’t get disap- pointed if you try a new system and lose a couple of times with it. Look up the theory after the game, detect your mistakes and incorporate the improvements in your own opening repertoire. | would wish you luck, but | believe that more often than not, you make your own luck through work,Background of Openings In the journal of the Royal Dutch Chess Federation, Schaakmagazine, a new column was launched in 2007. The journal's then editor, Minze bij de Weg, had approached me to write a technical column, mainly intended for club players. Since | was spend- ing lots of time teaching ambitious chess players at many different levels, | was a good fit for the post. I remember vividly a conversation we had in those early days. Init | told him of my habit of asking for the games of club players in order to discuss these during training sessions. From these | had noticed obvious and common de- ficiencies in many people’s approaches to the opening, at least from my viewpoint. Not that they played bad moves - quite the contrary: they were playing moves they had seen in opening books. Yet | started realizing more and more that the deeper backgrounds of the opening, the how and why of the moves, were wasted on many club players. Minze, a rather strong club player himself (his Elo rating is around 2000), found himself agreeing with the statement... That’s why during training sessions | used to take all the pieces off the board, leav- ing only the pawn structure, and then ask the students: “what information does the pawn structure give to us”? My intention was to give the ambitious amateur a ‘han- dle’ to use to treat openings with more insight and understanding. When | re- counted this method to Minze he understood the shape my column would probably take, and he went away and came up with a ‘working title’ which - in spite of other suggestions that we later brought up in a brainstorm session - ultimately became24 Queen's Gambit Structures the column's title: Understanding before Moving. Our conclusion was that this name perfectly covered the contents. | started working with Chessbase, an advanced database, and various opening books. From the starting position | entered the moves of common openings and from each of those positions typed as much as | felt able to, given my own knowledge. This got sometimes out of hand, because in quite a few variations, the clarifications became bulky and were weighed down by game references. Then | had to reduce the documents to about 1500 words each, i.e. roughly the number that could fit in two pages of Schaakmagazine. Of course | could spread the con- tents of some openings over several issues, but in the end | found | had to cut away lots of material in order to fit my columns to the space. Since | didn’t feel able to say everything | wanted in the column, Minze provided me with a bright idea: “Why don’t you start giving lectures about it?’ he asked. | did as recommended, enlarging the repository of treated openings by making the required analysis files. With some effort these were assembled into ‘class notes’ files, which contained between 40-60 pages each and also included various exer- cises, so that the students could try to apply that which they had learned. In the lecture | could present from these notes, and they allowed me to cover more ma- terial in better detail than in the column: a triumph of Minze’s idea. My first presen- tation was in Eindhoven — my city of residence — and took place during 2.5 hours one evening (with a short break.) My stated mission was to give an introduction to the Sicilian Defence; as it turned out, there was great interest in hearing me speak about this subject! Unexpectedly for me, nearly 50 people signed up, necessitating the booking of a larger hall for the presentation... | gave another such lecture in Eindhoven, and after this ! was contacted by Roer- mond, Arnhem and Leiden about giving talks there too, so that | could also famil- iarise those towns’ club players with my approach to openings. | gave those talks too, and every participant worked through and took home a booklet of notes of around 50 pages The feedback some people gave me was that the evenings were passing too quickly! What better criticism could a speaker wish for? One of the participants even wondered if it weren’t possible to spend a whole weekend day on these work- shops, so that there would be more time available for explanation, and also to make time for processing the new information by means of playing. So| acted on this idea too. The Masterclass was born, and on a Saturday in 2012 the first Masterclass wasChapter 2 - Background of Openings 25 organized, on the subject of creating a ‘hypersharp’ opening repertoire, and with the philosophy of Under- standing before Moving. That Satur- day, all participants recieved no less than 5 hours of training, a lunch and a thick workbook they could take home afterwards. The response was so good that | con- tacted my former pupil, IM Benjamin Bok (now GM), to lenda helping hand with administering the exercises and also later with giving feedback on the mini-games participants played at the end. Benjamin Bok (photo Frans Peeters) This they appreciated very much! In the second Masterclass, which took place a year later, | spoke on the related subject of how strategic skill can be trained. Here,too, participation exceeded my expectations, and again | invited a strong player, once more a former pupil — GM Robin Swinkels ~ to help the participants forward. This second Masterclass also became a success, as did the third in Utrecht. Note: by now almost the original Schaakmagazine articles can be found online on schaaksite.nl, the popular site set up and managed by Kees Schrijvers, of which lam one of the editors. Most model games which | mention in my column in Schaakmag- azine, can also be downloaded here. An overview (in Dutch) is found at: http://www. schaaksite.nl/2013/05/03/overzicht-begrijp-wat-u-doet/. In the meantime | had been busy developing a set of video lessons based on the series Understanding before Moving, in collaboration with chessbase.com. The whole series can be viewed on Chessbase’s video channel. On the portal http://vid- eos.chessbase.com one should scroll down to ‘TV CHESSBASE NETHERLANDS’. By this time it had become clear to me that it would be wise to turn this wealth of instructional material into a series of books. Therefore | and the wider Thinkers Publishing community are working hard on making this a reality. In this second in- stalment of the new book series, we'll be discussing the positions that can arise after the Queen’s Gambit.26 Queen’s Gambit Structures The most important reason we chose these structures is that many players of club level opt for 1. d4 d5. Another fac- tor is that the Queen’s Gambit occurs quite frequently at the top level and nearly all world champions have—or had in the past — various variations of this opening in their repertoire. The reason of this is not as obvious as it seems. But when listing their games it appears many types of positions come forth that are essential to have a deeper insight in chess. For example from vari- ous variations — from both White’s and Black’s perspective — there can arise po- sitions on the board with a central isolated pawn. Treating this type of position, playing with the isolani as well as against it, are crucial to becoming a better player. The same goes for positions with the so-called hanging pawns. The treatment of both the ‘for’ and ‘against’ sides can be extremely difficult. Robin Swinkels (photo Frans Peeters) io io aa aad aa aaa & & A& BAS && && & Many thick books have been written about this type of position with the isolated pawn (or the isolani as Aron Nimzowitsch used to call it and often written as IQP). In trying to improve one’s chess, it’s nearly indispensable to play close attention to how to treat such structures, both playing with and playing against the isolani. The same is true about positions featuring hanging pawns. The considerations that de- termine decisions about whether to play with or against these pawns are very hard to make in practiceChapter 2 - Background of Openings 27 Profound insight is required to play such positions, in which very subtle alterations could swing the evaluation dramatically. Conclusion Studying the plans that pertain to specific pawn structures are essential to devel- ‘oping one’s insight. Discovering different assessments and the subtleties that play apart in them are often particularly interesting and instructive! And this is what the strongest players in the world always want: expanding the frontiers of their under- standing and exposure, alongside the playing of practical games in which the name of the game is, less nobly, simply tripping the opponent up. This is what chess is all about. We need to find our way in all sorts of positions, and balance truth with creativity. The more exposure we have, the better we can improvise. Then concrete opening knowledge is no longer of vital importance. Sometimes, we might even find ourselves playing a completely unfamiliar opening position, but nevertheless be ina position to make “borrowings” from other openings with a similar structure, giving us insight about the position on our boards and helping us make good deci- sions under pressure.I. Pawn Structures A lot of books on chess strategy highlight the importance of pawn structures. The unofficial world champion Frangois-André Philidor considered pawns to be “the soul of chess” and his successor, Wilhelm Steinitz, once said — as we had already noticed elsewhere — the pawn structure is like the position’s ‘skeleton’ on which everything is hung. The Queen’s Gambit — and especially the so-called Carlsbad structure, which arises from the Exchange Variation — lends itself remarkably well for mapping out the dif- ferent kind of ideas in a schematic manner. After White at a certain point plays c4xd5 and Black answers this with ...e6xd5, a static (and very common) pawn for- mation arises which will remain unchanged for a long time. The static nature of the position is perfect for creating long, schematic plans for both sides, in which the pieces are placed on pre-defined squares. Obviously, neither side develops their plans in a vacuum. After we have formulated one player’s plan, we'll have to elaborate on how the other player should defend themselves. The defending concepts can sometimes vary quite a lot, therefore the ‘attacker’ will also have to give an explanation for the surprises the defender has waiting for him. The interaction between the player aiming to execute his plan and his opponent trying to prevent this idea will just make the battle more interesting!30 Queen's Gambit Structures It can sometimes be useful to mentally whisk off all the pieces from a middlegame position and just examine the pawn structure. However, while looking at the fol- lowing diagrams, try not to forget we'll be applying the ideas later in a middlegame with (almost) all the pieces still on the board, Carlsbad structure After the exchange on dS takes place, the starting position of the Exchange Variation arises, as above. This is usually called the Carlsbad structure. We can distinguish between three basic plans: Plan A. Minority attack Plan B. Central play Plan C. Opposite-side castling In the first part of this chapter we shall elaborate on these three plans in isola- tion, and in the second we will apply our knowledge to some practical examples. Plan A: Minority attack The standard plan The most usual plan in the Carlsbad structure is the so-called ‘minority at- tack’. Since White is controlling the half- open c-file, it seems logical to transfer a rook thence, but immediately this might not have much effect because of the barricade on c6. Therefore a natural plan is to try and weaken the pawn more. This is called the minority attack be- cause White is starting action on the queenside, despite having fewer pawns there. The aim is to weaken the strong point of c6 by means of b2-b4-b5xc6. Af- ter this plan has succeeded, the c6- pawn will be weaker and easier to be- siege.Chapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 31 An additional effect of this action is that White's pieces can be instantly placed on good squares. Black will have to re- act to this plan Roughly speaking, there are two main counters: > Taking measures on the queenside > Starting counterplay on the king- side A mix of both ideas is also possible, but because of the complexity involved we'll leave that out of consideration. Below we'll have a close look at the two ideas in isolation. Measures on the queenside 3.2 Prevention: b7-b5 Black can firmly halt White's advance b4-b5. He will do this by playing ...b7-bS. This idea has two disadvantages: the first is that he has voluntarily weakened his c6-pawn again, and the second that he has definitively lost control of the c5- square. On the other hand he has se- cured the c4-square, perhaps for the fu- ture use of a knight If a knight could indeed be stationed here, it would become extremely hard for White to start an attack on c6. So b5 changes the play’s character imme- diately. In many cases White after ...b7- bS immediately answers a2-a4, continu- ing (after Black’s automatic response a7-a6) with a4-a5, the better to prevent Black’s idea of getting a knight to c4, at least via the b6 route. This also has drawbacks, though, as White’s b4-pawn can sometimes become weak, and rela- tively easily targeted by a bishop-queen battery on the f8-a3 diagonal.32 Queen's Gambit Structures An observant reader will also notice that Black can also manoeuvre his knight to c4 via d6. This idea takes lon- ger, giving White more time to pursue other plans. 3.3 The reaction: 2 to dé We note, however, that once Black does succeed in playing his knight to d6, White’s b5-break becomes harder to ex- ecute and White’s minority attack may stall. For this to be a good use of time for Black, though, it is important that the light-square bishops have been ex- changed already, making the knight’s newfound control over bS and c4 more meaningful. Exchanging light-square bishops is in general a sound plan which Black should keep in mind. A frequent reaction is that of answering the advance b4-b5 with ...c6-c5. After d4xc5 we presume Black is capturing back with a piece. The arising position should be re-evaluated. Black has hereby voluntarily accepted playing with an isolated pawn on d5, which could be a potential weakness. On the other hand he does have some advantages: his control of the squares c4 and e4 will help Black to expand the necessary activity for his pieces. In con- siderations of dynamic factors, it is cer- tainly no help for White that he hasChapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 33 spent at least 2 tempi on b4-b5, in the process weakening several squares on the c-file- which can sometimes be ex- ploited. Everything depends, as always, on the details of the piece play. If White reaches one of these IP positions and then gains control over both c-and d- files, then he will probably have an edge 3.5 Mitigation: ...cxb5 and ...a6-a5 There is one rather obscure plan Black can sometimes use even at a late stage of White’s standard minority attack. After White has acheived b4-bS, it might in some cases be possible for Black to answer with ...c6xb5, a4xb5, a6-a5. If Black can then safely follow up with ...b7-b6, he will have obtained a protected passed pawn. Everything depends for Black whether White can use the c-file, which he is opening with ...c6xbS. Also the very next tempo can be of vital importance, be- cause if White can play b5-b6 (thus iso- lating the a5-pawn and cementing a grip ‘on c7) then Black’s plan has been ill-ad- vised. Sometimes, even if Black is able to ce- ment his passed pawn with ...b7-b6, he ends up with a worse position due to the fresh hole on c6. Last but not least, the pawn on dS — now deprived of its natural protection — could be a prob- lem All in all this is a double-edged plan which may go badly wrong sometimes. However, of course, there are also prac- tical examples in which White had abso- lutely no answer to it and Black’s idea worked gloriously.34 Queen's Gambit Structures 3.6 Counterplay with a black pawn on e4 As the pawn structure in the beginning already has shown, square e4 can be a good outpost for a black knight. How- ever, White can often trade this piece off, which typically results in Black re- capturing with the d-pawn and driving away any White pieces from f3 or d3. ‘As those were useful defensive squares for White, Black could take this as a sig- nal to attack. In the development of his attack, he might deploy a rook lift to the sixth rank, perhaps also supported by the light-square bishop and possibly even the queen and the remaining knight. This adds up to adequate mate- rial for an attack on White’s king. Prac- tice shows Black oftentimes succeeding in amassing such attacking forces, but also indicates that White’s king’s posi- tion is very solid and possesses numer- ous defensive resources. A good fight is guaranteed! > Counterplay on the kingside 3.7 Counterattack against White’s king After having seen the above-mentioned example, the most obvious question would be whether Black can perform the same ideas without the pawn recap- ture or even, perhaps, the immediate rook lift. This idea doesn’t sound that stupid, since the black pieces have a fair amount of scope to roam on the king- side. When looking at games, this sce- nario regularly occurs and if Black suc- ceeds in mobilising his reserves, White could face a tough struggle. One of these reserves is in fact not a queenside piece but rather the h-pawn! It can be pushed forward to help in the attack. A pattern that can sometimes ‘occur is for example when Black has a rook on g6 facing White’s king on gl. The pawn then already is on h4. With -»&.8-h3 he'll force White to answer Re2-fl.Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures And now suddenly ....&h3xg2 is possible due to &f1xg2 ...h4-h3. Such attacking ideas are important to note, to provide detail and shape for a practical player’s attacking ideas 3.8 Minority attack for Black At the beginning of this chapter we dis- cussed that White has the half-open c- file at his disposal and can start a minor- ity attack by advancing his b-pawn, Of course Black could do this as well on the other side of the board: the half-open e- file offers a minority attack by means of .f7-f5-f4xe3 as a possibility. Yet the nu- ances are slightly different from those 35 of White’s minority attack on the queenside. What if White for instance, after ...f7-£5, answers g2-g3? Black will have to respond ...g7-g5 if he still wants to push ...f5-f4 through. Black has al- most always castled kingside, so this supporting move also weakens his king’s position. He should therefore think very carefully about the piece pro- tection of his king. But if he indeed has taken the necessary precautions and succeeds in playing ...f5-f4, White's king safety won't be guaranteed either, as it has been compromised by g2-g3. To put it briefly: a fairly fascinating fight could take place during and after Black’s mi- nority attack. With this we conclude the section about the minority attack.36 Plan B: Central Play An important plan of playing is to focus all attention on the center. White has the possibility of constructing a strong pawn center, which can come into being if he manages to follow up e3-e4 after 2-43. 9 Pushing both and e: Usually, this plan is only carried out in a proper manner if White has his king’s knight to e2 and not to f3. This is differ- ent from what we've implied so far, but can occur in the Queen’s Gambit, to say nothing of certain lines within the Nimzo-Indian. Init, White forms ‘front’ with adjacent pawns on dd and ed side by side, which then need to not be vulnerable to im- mediate attack && AB A& For White it’s also important to think about exactly if and how he will be able to move these pawns further- after ei- ther d4-d5 or ed-e5 a crucial central square would fall into his opponent's hands Yet there are countless examples in which White manages e4-e5 in particu- lar. Schematically, the push could look like this: 1.e4-e5 Z\f6-d5 2. 2\c3-e4Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures 37 4a aa’ && A& Position after: 2. “c3-e4 The black knight (which is mostly play- inga defensive role) is chased away, and if White after ....Af6-d5 avoids the ex- change by playing “\c3-e4, there will be a strong chance of violent kingside ac- tion developing at the drop of a hat. Two former world champions, Mikhail Botvinnik and his pupil Garry Kasparov, saw the benefits of White’s setup; hence good examples of it, where they succeeded in executing White's plan in a successful manner, can be found in their play. Nevertheless we should not forget that these features of White’s plan can be double-edged. If Black gains control of important central squares and manages to set up a solid blockade, it may prove possible to not only nip White's initia- tive in the bud, but also even play to win, thanks to Black’s static advantages. Plan C: Opposi le castling The moment a player decides to castle on the wing where his opponent has not sheltered his king, we can almost be cer- tain a thrilling and intensive fight will take place. 3.10 Pawn-storms on both sides As Black will almost always castle short in the Queen’s Gambit, there are play- ers who like castling the other way with White. This means both king’s positions can be like a red rag to a bull, because from that moment on the struggle re- volves solely around rushing the en- emy’s king position. As long as both king’s positions have not yet been weakened by pawn moves, it won’t be an easy job for the other player to open up lines for the attack, even though these are of course essential. However, in practical examples, Black may have played ...h7-h6 (or even ...g7-g6), so there are some ready-made levers in the position. The faster a line can be38 Queen's Gambit Structures opened, the more danger the defender faces. On the other hand, White will usually have to lose another tempo af- ter 0-0-0 (with Kc1-b1) because this is the safest square for his king. Black has two attacking ideas: 1) The advance ...c6-c5 in order to open the c-file and get his pieces into play. 2) The advance ...a7-a5-a4 followed by ..b7-b5-b4, perhaps also followed by .-b4-b3 in order to open up lines on the queenside. If White responds quite adequately to these plans, he can keep the lines closed, but Black also has the idea of a4-a3 (after which White will have to respond b2-b3) in order to weaken the c3-square. A second idea for Black is to nevertheless play ...b4-b3, and after a2- a3 be prepared to sacrifice a piece on a3. To compare the two attacking plans, White's is relatively primitive, but that doesn’t mean it’s less effective. With g2-g4-g5 and h2-h4-h5 he'll mainly try to push g5-g6 through, hoping to open up a file towards Black’s king. Both at- tacking ideas can be roughly visualized as follows: The positions which result from oppo- site-side castling are interesting from the very start. Whether both players will get their attack off the ground de- pends on their creativity and ingenuity. At the same time they have to be capa- ble of taking care of the opponent's pos- sible offensive. Itshould be clear that such ideas barely ever result in slow manoeuvring games, rather, the players must play right from the start with their ‘daggers at the ready’.Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures 39 II. Instructive examples We now proceed to show some examples which correspond exactly to the ‘skele- ton’ diagrams from the last part Plan I: Minority attack 3.1 The standard plan A Petrosian, Tigran A Krogius, Nikolai ® Tbilisi 1959 1.d4 Dfe 2. Dts g6 3. c4 2g7 4. Ac3 d55. 225 Ded 6. cxd5 Axgs 7. Axg5 e6 8. AF3 exd5 9. €3 0-0 10. 2d3 Aco 11. 0-0 2\e7 12. b4 257! This looks like a small success for Black, but in practice this bishop will soon be very much missed. Better is 12... 2g4. 13, QxfS Dxf5 14. bS Wade 15. Wb3 De7 16. Hict Shs Probably 16... Efc8 should have been preferred. 17. Be2h6 18. Bact c6 Position after: 18... c6 Black will have to do this sooner or later as the pawns on c7 and d5 are both po- tential targets. But now White’s minor- ity attack is almost complete. 19. Aaa! Petrosian is not in a hurry to take on c6. He rather brings a knight to cS first. At this moment 19, bxc6 doesn’t do any harm, but after 19... bxc6 20. “a4 Black does have the option of playing 20... Efb8 immediately, which gives him some chances of counterplay. 19... Rab8 20. g3 @h7 21. Acs Has40 Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 21... Rfd& Position after: 24... Za8 22. bxc6 25... He8 26. Dad g5 Now the former world champion does not see any more improving moves to play before the trade. 22... bxe6 23. Waa Weert This gives White a shortcut. 24, gar! White continues to play steadily, but 24. BDe5! would already have presented Black with insurmountable problems. 24... Bas (see diagram next column) 25. Db7! White focuses his attention on the weak pawn on c6. Doubling rooks on the b-file with 25. Hb? was also fine, though less convincing. Black desperately tries to get some counterplay going 27.h3 There was nothing wrong with the im- mediate 27. “)xc6 either. 27... WES 28. 2xc6 Position after: 28. @xc6 The pawn has been rounded up in 4 short moves!Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures 28... Wea 29. Hes #530. We2 Axcé 31. Eixcé f4 Black tries to create some mess. How- ever, as is common in bad positions, he succeeds only in weakening his own king. 32. exfal gxfa Position after: 32... gxfa 33. gal White keeps closed all the lines leading to his king. In the final conversion phase, he proceeds to take advantage of the Black king’s vulnerable position. 33... 2xd4 34, Wd2 29735. Hei Waa 36, Wxd5, Behold the difference between both king’s positions. It’s clear Black’s king is not long for this world. 4 Position after: 36. Wxds 36... Hxe1 37. Dxe1 Hts 38. At3 Shs 39. Kc7 a6 40. Wb7 Hee 41. Dha Black resigned in view of 41. Dh4 Wada 42. Dge+ Bh7 43. Ae? Abs? 44. Wc6! when the threat of Afs is deadly. 1042 Measures on the queenside 3.2 Prevention: b7-b5 A Lobron, E. A Beim,V. @ = Frankfurt 1997 1, AFB d5 2. da c6 3. Qg5 he 4. Qha 245 5, 3 Dd7 6. 2d3 Lxd3 7, Wxd3 Dgt6 8. 0-0 e6 9. c4 Le7 10. 43 0-0 11. exdS exd5 12. Hab1 a5 13. a3 Hes 14, Bxf6 Lxf6 15. We2 Db6 16. Dad Position after: 16. “a4 Queen's Gambit Structures Perhaps White should have preferred 16.b3 or 16.\d2, but then he would be hard pressed to find a meaningful plan. 16... Ded Black has succeeded in stationing a knight on 4. The question is whether it can stay there. 17. Dc5 b6 18. Dds Position after: 18. Ad3 18... a4! With this move and the next Black sta- bilizes his knight’s position, which means he must have an advantage. 19, Dd2 bs So, the knight on c4 will stay there. White will be unable to put pressure on the c6-pawn 20. XbetChapter 3 — Pawn Structures Since the minority attack will come to nothing, White tries another tack: he aims to push €3-e4 through. 20... WaS 21. Ab1 Le7 22. De3 Position after: 22. c3 22... ba! Black refuses to rest on his laurels. 23. axb4 2.xb4 With the tactical threat ...xb2. 24. Hei Axc3 25. Wxe3 White doesn’t want to play 25. bxc3 be- cause then Black would have gotten a very dangerous passed pawn, but this continuation would still, comparatively speaking, have been better. 25... Hebs 43 Eric Lobron (photo: Jos Sutmuller) The b2-pawn has become even more vulnerable. 26, Wxas Exa5 27. hc2 Eb3 28. Bd1 Position after: 28, di44 Queen's Gambit Structures So far Beim has played an excellent game. 28... HabS Black just continues maneuvering and with his last move he'll seize a pawn. The funny thing is Black could have cap- italised even faster. He would be able to make direct use of his passed pawn af- ter the unexpected though thematic 28... Dxb2! This works as follows: 29. @Dxb2 (29. Exb2 Hxb2 30. Axb2 a3 31, Dd3 a2 32. Rai and now Hibs will decide.] 29... a3 30. @d3 a2. White has to give up a rook, after which the matter is settled. 29, &f1 Dxb2 30. Dxb2 Hxb2 31. Eixb2 Bxb2 Position after: 31... Rxb2 Now Black still has some technical work to do to win the rook endgame. 32. Rai Bba 33. @e2 h5 34. ha S2h7 35. Haz ge 36. a3 Sts Position after: 36... S2f5 37. 23 White can’t prevent Black’s king enter- ing somewhere. 37. f3 Hb3+ 38. d2 a3 would also have been hopeless for White. 37... Heas 38. S2d3 gd 39. g3 Position after: 39. g3 39... f5! An accurate move, eliminating the op- tion of e3-e4. 40. 2e2 Epa a1. BaaChapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures White’s in zugzwang, 41... Bb2+ 42. of Sf Strong endgame technique! 43. e4+ 2b3 White resigned. 0-1 45 3.3 The reaction: 2) to d6 & Schmidt, B. A Sveshnikov, E. (@® Moscow ETC 1977 1.d4.d5 2. c4.e6 3. cxd5 exd5 4. “c3 c6 5. DEB D6 6. 2g5 QS 7. e3 Dbd7 8. £.d3 Bxd3 9. Yxd3 2d6 10. 0-0 0-0 11. Habi a5 12, De2 We7 13. 214 De4 14. 2xd6 Dxd6 Position after: 14... Dxd6 The knight has reached the nice square d6. From here it controls the important squares e4 and c4.46 Position after: 15. @d2 15... #5! The right continuation. Black’s pieces are lined up well enough to justify this move, which is nonetheless committal. When Black plays ...f5 he should bear in mind that the eS-square becomes wea- ker. 16. Kbet White intends with £2-f3 to play e3-e4, but Black keeps this aspect of the game under tight control. 16... 1617. Ac3 g5 18. He2 Heb 19. Efe1 Hes 20. £3 Ate (see diagram next column) Black has set up his attack so solidly that White has no chance of becoming ac- tive. 21. 2h1 hs 22. gi Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 20... 16 It’s clear White doesn’t know which way to turn, 22... WE7 23. 2\b3 Perhaps 23. “a4 could be tried, but even so after 23... g4 24. Wc5 H6e7 Black has a splendid position. 23... b6 24. Dd2 After some preparations Black conti- nues trying to force weaknesses in White’s camp. Position after: 25... WhsChapter 3 - Pawn Structures 24... 4125. @h1 Whs (see diagram previous page) 26. e4? Panic, although White’s position was al- ready decidedly non-trivial to play. 26... gxf3 27. gxf3 fxed 28. fxed dxed 29. Wes The position is nearly hopeless for White. 29... D5 30. We7 e3 31. Df W3+ 32. Bg2 Heer White resigned. 32... Dg4 was even stronger, but Black is winning regardless. 0-1 47 & — Akopian, Vladimir & Kasparov, Garry ® ICCINT 1998 1, d4 Af6 2. c4 06 3. AFB d5 4. Ac3 Dbd7 5. exd5 exd5 6. 2g5 Le7 7. 3 0-08. Wc2 He8 9, S203 c6 10. h3 “8 11. 0-0 g6 12. Habi Aeé 13. 2xf6 2xf6 14. b4 a6 15, a4 Wade 16. Ber 2d7 Position after: 16... &d7 17.b548 Queen's Gambit Structures White decides to play his minority at- tack at once. But are his pieces ideally placed yet for this? 17... axbS 18. axbS c5! Kasparov reacts in principled fashion. 19. dxc5 Axc5 Black’s pieces have suddenly become very active. And as it happens there’s also a tactical threat that White over- looked. 20. Rai? Position after: 20. Rd? This loses the exchange. The only move was 20. e4, although Black also here could obtain an advantage after 20.. Dxd3 21. Wxd3 Axc3 22. Yxc3 dred when he’s a pawn up. 20... S.xc3! 21. Yxc3 Dxd3 22. Exd3 2523. Bbdi 2xd3 24. Weds This position is technically won and the Position after: 24. Yxd3 former world champion managed to prove this, although the technique left something to be desired. 24... Bec8 25.h4 a3 Position after: 25... Ha3 26. Waa After 26. Wxd5 Black intended 26... Wrxd5 27. Axds Kai+ 28. @h2 Ba2 and Ecc2. 26... Hac3 27. g3 Het 28. Hxet Exci+ 29. &g2 b6 30. hS Hea 31. ‘Was Wee 32. heChapter 3 — Pawn Structures 49 Position after: 32. h6 32... Wear Not the most practical. It would have been better to admit having made a mistake and play 32... Wd6. 33. Was Ecs 34. Wai? With 34. 8¥a6! Akopian could have given Black pause for thought: 34... Hes 35. Wxbe. 34... d4! Well found. 35. exd4 Was 36. We1 g5 37. g4 cefa! 38. Wb4+ Ses 39, g3 f6 40. Wb1 Ec7 41. Wai cee7 42. Wb1 Lee Black has observed he needs to let his king take part in the game, but of course this entails risks. Kasparov makes his king walk across half the board until it finally finds a safe shelter. Position after: 42... 2e6 43. Ye1+ ed7 44, Yb1 dacs 45, Wer Wa6+ 46. g2 He7 47. Wet Sbs Position after: 47... Bb8 The king is now safe and the game is over. 48. We2 Was 49. We3 Wxbs 49... Hed! would have ended things at once. 50. Wa3 Wa7 51. Wha Wxgar And now White acknowledged defeat. 0-150 Queen's Gambit Structures 3.5 Mitigation: ...cxb5 and ...a6-a5 A. Gelfand, B. 4 Ivanchuk, V. @ Linares 1993 1. d4 DfG 2. c4 e6 3. D3 dS 4, De3 @bd7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. 2g5 Le7 7, e3 0-08. 2d3 Hes. tWe2 “fs 10. 0-0 6 11. h3 g6 12. Labi Ae6 13, Zhe Ag7 14, b4 a6 15.a4 Position after: 15. a4 15... 25 This bishop trade represents a first small success for Black. 16. Des Hes 17. Axg7 Lxd3 18. Dxd3 &xg7 19. Bb3 26 Position after: 19... &d6 20. b5?! White’s impulsive push is poorly timed. Black responds in the correct manner. 20... cxb5! 21. axb5 a5 Position after: 21... a5Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures 51 Boris Gelfand in the late eighties (photo Jos Sutmuller) In this way he will create a protected passed pawn on the a-file. White’s pieces aren’t stationed well enough to take advantage of the c-file. As a matter of fact: it’s Black who lays hands on this file. 22. Wb2 It’s possible he had planned 22. b6? in order to prevent Black from having a protected passed pawn and found out now that this plan falls into pieces. Black would namely respond with the strong 22... Dea 23. Wh2 Dxc3 24. Hxc3 Exc3 25. Yxc3 Wxb6 winning a pawn. 22... b6 Black gets his way: he has a protected passed pawn and it remains unclear how White can make a stand on the c- file while a white knight. At the same time a knight can’t even jump to c6. 23. Aaa Hea 24. Ba ea Position after: 24... @e452 Queen's Gambit Structures Black makes optimal use of the outposts protected by the d5-pawn. 25. f3 An undesirable weakening of White's ‘own pawn structure. 25... Ag3 26. Ae5 LxeS Of course Black doesn’t allow the knight to get to c6. 27. dxe5 Wc7 28. S2h2 Af5 29. #4 He2 Position after: 29... Hc2 It’s clear Black has a big advantage. Gel- fand tries to turn the tide in a tactical manner, but this will only backfire. 30. Hes Wxe3 31. Yxc3 Hxc3 32. Dxc3 Dxe3 33. Dad Ivanchuk continues playing with relent- less competence and skill, making use of his very strong passed pawn. Position after: 33. “a4 33...d4134, Had 34, Dxb6 Bbs 35. Ad7 AxbS is also completely lost for White. 34... Dc4 35. Hd3 Has 36. seg3 Bas Position after: 37. @f2 37... 85! The inclusion of Black’s king seals the deal. 38. g3 Sg6 0-4Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures > Counterplay on the kingside 3.6 Counterplay with a black pawn on e4 A Song, Julien A Grachev, Boris @ Béthune 2009 1. d4 d5 2. Af3 e6 3. c4 AfE 4. Ves Dbd7 5. e3 Le7 6. Dc3 0-07. Hei a6 8. exd5 exd5 9. S.d3 c6 10. YWc2 Hes 11. 0-0 AFB 12. h3 Position after: 12. h3 12... Dea 53 Black tries to free his game with this thematic idea. 13, 2xe7 Hxe7 The knight on e4 dominates much of the position and therefore White usually does best to trade it. 14, &xea dred Position after: 14... dxe4 15. Dd2 The normal reaction. 15. 4e5 is also plausible. Behind this move lies a subtle idea: if Black wants to chase away the knight by playing 15... f6, he'll block the sixth rank, which he wanted to use, for instance with a rook lift to g6 via e6. Now, however, the pawn on f6 would be in the way. A fur- ther advance with...f6-f5 is possible, but makes Black's bishop worse and runs the risk of a triumphal return to e5 by a white knight.54 Queen's Gambit Structures 15... 25 Black prefers to do without 15... f5 for the above-mentioned reasons. 16. 4 Black’s last move had, however, a tacti- cal drawback: this pawn can’t be taken en passant due to the diagonal pin. 16... Had8 17. De2 Probably somewhat better is 17. @c4. 17... Dg6 18. Wes Position after: 18. Wc5 18... We Of course Black avoids trading queens. Black could also have prepared a piece sacrifice with 18... Wes. 19. Wb6 White now could have played 19. g4 £c8 20. Whs after which his defences appear to hold firm. 19... &c8 20. Ec5 h6 21. “04 Ae7 22. De3 Wee Position after: 2: It seems Black is on the back foot, but in fact, with his last move he has just com- pleted a regrouping that is highly ag- gressive in nature. 23. Bh2 23. Des HWg3 would be good for Black. 23... 16 Not only to eliminate “eS as an option, but also to protect the g5-square one more time so that Black can start the ad- vance of the h-pawn. 24. Kdi hsChapter 3 — Pawn Structures 55 Position after: 24... hS This was Black’s intention. 25. d57 White sees the storm coming and makes a bid for activity. Passive de- fence, however, was better: 25. Hei h4 26. He2 Wg3+ 27. Gh1 and even though this looks risky, Black has noth- ing decisive. 25... 2S The knight is joining the battle. 26. De2 In order to protect the g3-square, but now Black gains the upper hand. 26... 2e6?! Trying to make use of the pin on the d- file. Grachev, however, had at his disposal: 26... ha! and after 27. Hg1 Position after: 27. Hg1 there would appear the nice combina- tion: 27... Df3+!! 28. exf3 WS 29. Ke3 h4 30. Hg4 exf3 31. Ada Wd3! when the defences of White's king are melting away. 27.d6 Hd7 Black leaves nothing to chance. He keeps b7 protected so that the queenside counterplay doesn’t pro- gress too far. 28, Yb4 Beds 29. WYe3 b5?! Position after: 29... bS?! This doesn’t quite suit the situation. 29... S2h7 would have been a good con-56 Queen's Gambit Structures tinuation after which Black is clearly 3.7 Counterattack against better. White’s king 30. \b6? Luckily for Grachev, White misses his chance. White could have defended himself adequately with the exchange sacrifice 30, Exf5!? There follows 30... Wexfs 31. Ada Was 32. Abo Yxd6 33. ®\xd7 Exd7 with a tough struggle. 30... Bxd6 31, Hxd6 Hxd6 32. Exc6 A Karpov, A. & Beliavsky, A. @ Tilburg 1986 1. d4 d5 2. 4 e6 3. Dc3 Afe 4. cxdS exdS 5. 2g5 2e7 6. e3 c6 7. 2d3 Dbd?7 8. Df3 0-0 9. 0-0 Hes 10. We2 48 11. h3 Be6 12. Qf4 Qd6 13. Lxd6 Wrxdé 14. a3 We7 15. ba Hacs Position after: 32. Exc6 16. Bfc1 Aed7 17. Ae2 Ags 18. Ags @df8 19. @d2 After White’s natural moves there ap- pears the twist: 32... Dxe3! 33. Ags 33. Wxe3 Exc6 would be curtains too. 33...h4 White resigned. 0-1 Position after: 19. Ad2Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures S7 Since White's minority attack has been on the back burner for some time, Black transfers some pieces towards White’s king’s position. There White has already played the weakening move h2-h3; this pawn can become a target. 19... Ah4 20, Ab3 Wes 21. Gh2 Position after: 21. @h2 21... Be! This is instructive. Black wants to pre- serve his bishop for the attack and for this reason he creates a retreat square on c8. 22. cS Maybe 22.b5 makes more sense here, because the reply to the text is so self- evident. 22... 28 23. Hea A different way of bracing himself against the coming storm was 23. ¥d1. This threatens to disturb the black plan by means of Wh5, and after 23... g6 24 W1 the defences look quite solid. 23... g6 24. act h5 Position after: 24... hS 25. b5? Karpov underestimates the danger. But even after the superior 25. ed his coun- terplay would have arrived a bit late, since the ‘little combination’ from the game still works. 25... Dxg2! Black’s initiative is very strong. This cute little tactic opens lines within and through White's kingside structure. 26. Gxg2 h4 27. bxc6 27. e4? doesn’t work on account of 27... b6 28. @b3 “e6! 27... hxg3 28. fxg358 Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 28. fxg3 28... Hxe3! Black doesn’t take back on cé6 ‘automat- ically’, but instead continues to further weaken the white king’s position. After 28... Hxc6?! 29. &b5 White would have the upper hand. 29. Exe3 Wxe3 30. cxb7 Sxb7 A difficult moment for White: his king is unsafe and the remaining central pawn is hanging. 31. Wes? Position after: 31. 8c3?! After 31. Yb2 there would follow 31... Be6! and Black stands better. But this move allows Black a significant tactical chance to do even more damage 31... Hxcs! Well found by the Ukranian. 32. Wxcs 32. dxc52? da+. 32... Wxd3 Black has two pieces for the rook, which gives him a winning position. 33, Wc3 We2+ 34. Yg1 Des Position after: 34... @e6 The pieces need to be brought into the attack. 35. Hei Axd4! 36. @h1 Abs By now Karpov had seen enough. 0-1Chapter 3 Pawn Structures 59 3.8 Minority attack by Black & Bobotsov, M. & Petrosian, T. ® Lugano 1968 1. d4 f6 2. 4 e6 3. Df3 dS 4. cxdS exd5 5. \c3 6 6. 2g5 Le7 7. We2 g6 8. e3 2f5 9, 2d3 Qxd3 10. Yxd3 Dbd7 11. Bh6 Dga 12. 24 0-0 13. 0- 0 Beg 14. h3 Agf6 15. Aes “Abs 16. Qgs5 Dea 17. 2xe7 Wxe7 18. We2 Dd6 19. Dad Abed 20. Axcd Axcd 21. Dc5 Dd6 22. Bact Position after: 22. Haci It can sometimes be hard to come up with a sound plan. In this case Black opts for a mixture of the standard plans, trusting his experience to stick them to- gether at a later date. 22... Wgsir Black tries to prepare an attack on the kingside by moving forward pawns on that side of the board. White struggles to develop any counterplay, because his minority attack doesn’t get off the ground. 23. Wd1 h5 24. @2h1 He7 Position after: 24... Re7 Auseful move. The rook is protecting b7 so that the knight can be freed up; at the same time though, the rook might be useful on other 7" rank squares. 25, Zd3 Ded 26. Ac5 Dd6 27. Dd3 Wes Black’s queen makes way for the strate- gically desirable ...g5-g4 push.60 Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 27... Wf5 28. 2e5 £6 29. Af3 He7 Somewhat too early would be 29... g5, because of 30. We2 - when Black doesn’t want to trade queens, but may have to because the check on g6 is an- noying. 30. Anz Hes 31. gi Dea 32. Wes Wee 33. Htd1 Position after: 33. Hifd1 33... g5! A crucial moment. Black decides to set in motion a pawn storm in front of his own king. The move implies a pawn sac- rifice deserving accurate calculation. 34. Wxhs £5 Position after: 34... £5 This will make the advance ...g5-g4 pos- sible again. The minority attack is in full swing. 35. Het If the queen retreats with 35. We2 there would follow 35... g4 36. hxg4 fxg4 and the open files against White’s king will ensure Black a strong initiative. 35... ga! But now the White queen is in grave danger. 36. hxg4 fxg4 37. £3? After this mistake things will end swiftly. 37. Wha Wd6! would, however, also give Black a winning advantage. For in- stance: 38. Axg4 [Or 38. Afi Wee! andChapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 61 the threat ... Zh7 can only be met by 39. @Dh2 but now 39... Hfs 40. Hc2 Bre followed by ...2&h6 wins.] 38... Bh7 winning a piece 37... gxf3 38. xf3 Position after: 41... Hts Her Majesty is trapped! White resigned. o-1 Position after: 38. Axf3 White’s queen is now in serious trouble, and Black ends the game in a sophisti- cated fashion. After the alternative 38. Wyf3 Black would have played 38... fs 39. We2 2g3 40. Wa3 Whe and gone for a mate motif instead. There is no answer to the battery being set up along the h-file. 38... Bh7 39. Wes Wes! 40. Wa Hts 41. Wes Ets62 Queen's Gambit Structures Plan B: Central play 3 3.9 Pushing both f2-f3 and e3-e4 4 Botvinnik, M. & Keres, P. @® Moscow 1952 1. d4 Df6 2. c4 e6 3. Dc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. 2g5 2e7 6. e3 0-0 7. 2d3 Dod7 8. We2 Hes Position after: 8... Hes 9. Dge2 The knight doesn’t go to its natural square f3. White aims to prepare the e4 thrust by means of first this, and then £2-f3. 9... Df8 10. 0-0 06 11. Babi It is questionable whether this fits with the above-mentioned plan. More con- sistent would be 11.ae1. 11... 2612. Bhi Age 13. £3 2e7 Worse is 13... h6 14. S.xf6 Yxf6 15. e4 and Black has almost already been over- run. 14, Hbel Dd7 15. Axe7 Hxe7 16. Dea Ate 17. Yez Position after: 17, Wf2 17... e6?! This careless move could already have gotten Black into big trouble. Perhaps he had to play 17... @h8 to anticipate White’s possible advances, keepingChapter 3 - Pawn Structures options open against pushes of either the e- or f-pawn. 18, DFS Probably much stronger here would have been 18. f4!. A possible continua- tion then is: 18... 2\f8 19. f5 &.d7 20. e4 dxe4 21. Acxe4 and things could have ended disastrously for him. 18... Lxf5 19. Bxfs We Position after: 19... Yb6 After having prepared it carefully, Bot- vinnik now launches the central attack. 20. e4 dxe4 21. fxed Hd8 22. e5 In principle, the pawns stand better next to one other. With this move, White gives away squares in the center which the black knights can use. Botvin- nik, however, had seen that this move secures him an outpost on d6, which will be useful for a knight in future. 22... Dds 63 22... De8 is very passive but at least it defends against the above-mentioned positional threat. 23. Dea Drs 24. Dd6 We7 25. Lea Deé It seems Black has everything under control, but this will turn out to not be strictly true. With his next move White forces concessions. The best chance of salvation was 25... Exd6 26. exds Wxd6 but White would still have a large advantage after 27. LxdS exd5 28. Hxe7 Wxe7 29. Ws. 26. Wha Position after: 26. Wh4 26... 86 This is a huge weakening of the king’s position, but what else could Black do? A) After 26... 28 first the positionally desirable 27. &xd5 cxd5 is played (as in the game), and only then the direct64 Queen's Gambit Structures attack comes: 28. @fS He 29. Wes go 30. h4 with annoying pressure. B) 26... h6 is no fun either after 27. As. 27, S.xd5 cxd5 28. Bet The knight on d6 is doing an excellent job. It not only prevents counterplay along the c-file, but it’s also attacking ‘pressure points’ in Black’s camp. 28... Yd7 29. Kes And so the rook is transferred to the h- file along the 34 rank, much as we all learned as beginners... 29... Efe Position after: 29... B18 30. Afs! Of course this jump had been in the pipeline for a while. 30... Efes Mate follows after 30... gxf5? 31. Hg3+ Shs 32. Wor. 31, Dh+! Better than collecting the exchange, White presses ahead with the attack. 31... 28 32. We Ag7 Position after: 32... Ag7 33, Hcf3?! Here the former world champion misses a chance — though his strategic ad- vantage ensures that the win is in no danger anyway. The beautiful 33. Z\f5! would have seen White crash through immediately: 33... gexfd 34. 2g3 Heo 35. Wxg7+ We7 36. We5+ Crs 37. Yxts f6 38. Wes. 33... Bc8 34, Zxf7! White finds a way to cash in. 34... Le6Chapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 65 34... Ext7 35. Wxt7+ Wxt7 36. Bxt7+ Gg8 37. Bxb7 is no better. 35. Wes Dts 36. Ane Wg7 37. g4 Good enough, and convincing enough for Keres to have to acknowledge de- feat. Arguably simpler would have been 37. Dxf5 gxf5 38, Wxf5+ Ye7 39, £g3 Whe 40. W7+ Sas 41. Yxes winning. 1-0 Plan C: Opposite-side castling 3.10 Pawn-storms on both sides & Timman,J. A Karpov, A. @® Bugojno 1978 1. cA 06 2. “Ac3 d5 3. d4 2e7 4. cxd5 exd5 5. 2f4 D6 6. €3 0-0 7. We2 c6 8. Rd3 Bes 9. Df3 Dbd7 10. 0-0-0 Ars 10... b5?? was suggested by Karpov af- ter the game in order to develop the66 Queen's Gambit Structures Jan Timman: beating the World Champion (photo Jos Sutmuller) queen’s bishop to b7. This, however, would be met by the basic tactic 11. BDxb5! 11. h3 206 12. &b1 es Position after: 12... Hes In a position with opposite castling it’s of great importance to get one’s attack off the ground as soon as possible. It helps greatly if there is already some weakness in the enemy's king position, and if it isn’t there — well, the first prio- rity is to force its creation. 13. Ags For 13. g4 see the game Petrosian — \livitsky, Moscow 1965. 13... b5?Chapter 3 — Pawn Structures 67 Position after: 13... bS? In this case it was best to retreat to d7. 14, Le5! Thus Timman forces Black to weaken himself. 14... h6 15. Axe6 Axe6 16. g4 Ad7 Position after: 16... @\d7 Karpov wasn't satisfied with this move, but the alternatives aren’t better. 16... Wa5 17. BFS b4 18. De2 c5 19. &xe6 fxe6 20. dxc5 Hxc5 21. We6 was possible, when according to Timman, White has an excellent position. 17. ha! After either 17. 2g3 Qh4 or 17. He2 &h4 the white pawns on the kingside would be blocked. At the cost of a pawn, if need be, White has to play for open lines and thus for an attack. 17... b4 After 17... &xh4 there follows 18. f4 &e7 19. &h7+ (19. g5? at once is bad on account of 19... “AxeS 20. dxeS when Black can sacrifice a piece for three pawns: 20... 2xg5 21. fxeS Wxe5] 19... Sf8 20. &F5 and Black is in huge trou- ble. 18. De2 Sxh4 Position after: 18... Sxh4 19. 41520. 2a6 2e7 Or 20... Hc6 21. 2b7 (21. 2b5 Hes] 21... Bb6 22. &xd5.68 Queen's Gambit Structures 21. Lxcs Wxes Position after: 21... Wxe8 White has won the exchange, but at the cost of the immediate attack, The chal- lenges are now more technical-no longer can White think about mate, but he must think about preserving the bishop on e5, if he is to convert the ex- tra exchange... 22. Dg3t f6 Position after: 22... f6 23, Exne! A crushing rook sacrifice. Anatoly Karpov (photo Jos Sutmuller) Also very strong would have been 23. g5: 23... fxe5 24, gxh6 e4 and now with 25. f5 Dgs 26. Wh2 White breaks through Black's defensive lines. 23... Defs 23... gxh6 24. Wgo+ Bes 25. AF5 and mate is forced. 25... Axe5 26. dxe5 2.08 27. Axho We7 28. Wgs+ Se7 29. Were. 24, Eh3 caChapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 69 24... fxe5 25. dxeS and White wins the d-pawn, after which the rest would re- ally be a matter of technique. 25. AFS fxeS 26. fxe5 White now takes back with the f-pawn to breathe new life into his attack. Black could resist better after 26. dxeS “Ab6 [26... Acs 27. HxdS Dd3 28. Bxd3 cxd3 29. x8; 26... Hic6 27. Kahi] 27. Edhi St7 28. Bh7 Dxh7 29. Aho+ St 30. Wxh7 gxh6 31, Yxh6+ St7 32. Wh7+ dfs 33. Wee. 26... He Position after: 26... Wc6 27, Baht Dge 28. 2d6?! A) 28. Dxg7! Sxg7 29. Hh7+ &gs 30. Est! B) 28. Hh7! is winning as well. 28... BAB 29. Dd6 28... Ddf8! 29. Anes Wrxes 30. Bhs! Position after: 30. ELh5! The best plan. White once again pauses the attack and aims to trade queens and reach an endgame that should be win- ning due to the superiority of his rooks over Black’s tangle of minor pieces. A) Here 30. WWf5 boils down to the same thing as in the game. B) Interesting is 30. e417 which prom- ises White an interesting game as well 30... We6 Position after: 30... We670 Queen's Gambit Structures 31. Wt a5 31... He6 32. ed! dxed 33. Hxed b3 34. d5 Was 35. a3 c3 36. d6 c2+ 37. Bei and White wins. 32. 06! Wxe6 33. Wxd5! Position after: 33. Yxd5! Letting your opponent trade is almost always better than trading yourself! 33... a4 34, Hei c3 35. bxe3 bxc3 36. Eixc3 Wxds 37. Exds Deb 38, Sez chr7 39. Has Ags 40. Kc6 Ded 41. Exaa 41. Exg6 would have yielded even more material: 41... xg6 42. Bes. 41... Dfe 42. Hay Dds 43. Exge bxgé 44. e4 Abas 45. Wb3 FB 46. Eb7 10 Tigran Petrosian A Petrosian, T. A livitsky, G. (® Moscow 1964 1. 4 e6 2. 2c3 d5 3. dd Se7 4. cxdS exd5 5. £4.06 6, e3 Df 7. 2d3 0-08. 3 Dbd7 9. We2 Hes 10. ¢4 Ate 11. h3 2e6 12. 0-0-0 Hcg 13. 2b1 Position after: 13. @b1Chapter 3 - Pawn Structures 13... 5 Black tries to develop counterplay, but he will just end up having positional weaknesses. 14. Lbs 2.d715. 2xd7 Wxd7 16. dxe5 Exes Position after: 16... KxeS Now we've reached the isolated-pawn structure from the previous subchapter. White has total control over d4. 17. Yd3 Eds 18. Ada Bec8 19. AES Aba Position after: 19... &b4 n 20. Re5! A strong move. Not only is the bishop defending the knight on c3, but it’s also assisting on the kingside. 20... Lxe3 21. Lxc3 Wes Position after: 21... Wee 22. xg?! This had been coming for a while now. White makes inroads on the king’s posi- tion and will win quickly. 22... @xg7 22... Hxc3 23. Axe6 Hxd3 24. @xd8 and Black has lost the house. 23. g5 Dsd7 24, Wxds Black had seen enough. 1072 Queen’s Gambit Structures Yakovich, Yuri Zvjaginsev, Vadim Moscow 2005 Be > 1.d4 26 2. 4 e6 3, DEB d5 4, Zc3 6 5. 2g5 2e7 6. e3h6 7. Qxf6 2xf6 8. Wa2 0-0 9. 0-0-0 Dd7 10. exdS exdS 11, 2a3 Position after: 11. 2.d3 11... b5 Black quickly starts his own play with a thrust on the queenside. 12. g4 Since the weakening pawn move ...h7- hG has been played, White happily takes advantage of this and starts an attack. 12... g6! Black can’t stop the pawn-storm, but he can brace himself for it, a critical part of which will be setting up with a bishop on g7. 13.h4 2g7 Position after: 13... Re7 The bishop retreats in the intended manner. Black can now answer g4-g5 with ...h6-h5 and h4-h5 with ...g6-g5, so for the foreseeable future the lines to his own king will remain closed. 14. Hhgt 14. g5 h5 15. e4 doesn’t work because of the counterstrike 15... b4 14... e815. 2b1 a5 Position after: 15... a5Chapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures B Itis critical that Black first brings a pawn to a4 before he continues with ...b5-b4. This is because ...b5-b4 would other- wise be met with 2\c3-a4, stopping the pawn-storm in its tracks. 16. Bc1 Ab6 17. hs White wants to do something on the light squares, but the plan lacks bite. 17... g5 18. 2c2ad Again not 18... b4?! because of 19. Da4 and Black can’t make progress. 19. Was b4 Now there’s no more reason to wait 20. Wh7+ &f8 21. De2 Position after: 21. Ae2 21... Dd77! This is a bit ‘respectful’. Perhaps Black could already have opted for 21... b3!? At least one file will be opened towards White's king. After 22. 2.f5 &xf5+ 23. gxf5 Black should then opt for the the- matic 23... a3!. The shield around White's king will be destroyed and then the black pieces can flood in. 24, axb3 axb2 25. Bxc6é @d7 Position after: 25... @d7 Black is ready for ...8%a5 with a mating attack. 22. Des Too slow. Black takes over now. Possibly more scary was 22. @xg5 and White indeed should have played this. Upon the careless 22... hxgS [Perhaps Black intended 22... YW/xg5 23. f4 when one use of the knight move becomes clear: 23... Af6! 24. fxgs Axh7 25. Qxh7 hxgs and Black is clearly better since the queens have been traded.] 23. he 26 24. f4 e7 25. 2g6 White has managed to obtain a complete mess in which Black also needs to worry about losing. 22... Dt6 23. Wd3 Axes74 Black simply removes this pawn from the board and White can do very little about that. 24, Bg2 Wte Position after: 24... We 25.e4 Something must be done, but in such a terrible position, it is doomed to fail. 25... Lab Well played by Zvjaginsev. He also had another move at hand: 25. 5! prising open the long diagonal. The dark-square bishop cuts through Whi- te’s pawns like a knife through butter, for example 26. e5 @xe5!, analogously to the game. 26.5 This is the answer White had in mind. 26... Dxe5! 27. dxeS Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 27. dxeS 27... Bxes! A strong and principled answer to White’s last attempt in the center. 28. Axes 28. Wd1 is met by (for example) 28... Kea! and Black delivers mate on the dark squares. 28... Wxes Mate on b2 is threatened and White's queen is hanging. The game is over. O-1Discussing the Variations To unravel an opening variation is, in general, not an easy job. This is predominantly because most variations have such extensive theory as to make the reader feel dizzy. When one has just commenced variation A) and begins reading parts Al and A2, how should one discover the subtle differences between A1.1 and A1.3 — not to mention the further subdivisions? Impermeable thickets of variations frequently occur in opening variations that are tactical by nature, since concrete calculations are required, and who wouldn’t want to get ahead by memorising a little more? Beyond even this, many people use engines to uncover further nuances and sur- prising defences... Luckily in the Queen's Gambit, things are a little bit different. Many variations were named after a well-known chess player or place-name. The strategic nature of the opening has been understood since the late 19" century by elite players, up to and including the World Champions — almost all of whom regularly played both sides of the opening. The clear strategic approach of the strongest players on earth will show us the way through the variations. By studying their games we'll become familiar with patterns in the typical pawn structures, providing both specific and general guidance on what moves to play. Of course, from time to time we can’t evade tactical skirmishes where every move counts. But it’s also the case that76 Queen's Gambit Structures looking at thematic manoeuvres, tactics and sacrifices can be of great help in get- ting us through a swamp of variations. Without further ado, then, let me present the variations, one by one, each accompanied by a diagram and picture. §4a Tartakower Variation §4b Lasker Variation 1.d4d5 2. c4e6 3. DAc3 Afe 4. A2g5 1. d4d5 2.4 e6 3, Dc3 Die 4, Ags Re7 5. €3 0-06. AFB h6 7. 2.4 b6 2e7 5. 30-06. Af3h6 7. 2h4 Dea Position after: 7... b6 Position after: 7... DeaChapter 4 ~ Discussing the Variations 7 84c Tarrasch Variation 84d Noteboom Variation 1.d4d5 2. c4 e6 3. “\c3 c54.cxdSexdS 1.4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Dc3 6 4. DF3 dxcd 5. Df3 Acé 6. g3 D6 7. Lg2 Le78. 5. e3 bS 6. a4 Qb4 7. Ld2 aS 8. axbS 0-00-0 2xc3 9. 2x3 cxb5 10. b3 2b7 11. bxc4 b4 12. S2b2 Position after: 8... 0-0 Position after: 12, &b218 Queen's Gambit Structures §4e Ragozin Variation 84f Cambridge Springs Variation iw, RY m4 Location of Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania 1. d4 d5 2. cf e6 3. “Ac3 “6 4. Ags Dbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Af3 Was 7. We2 Rb4 8, Ad2 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Ac3 Ate 4. Ves 2.ba 5. cxd5 exd5 6. e3 h6 7. ha Position after: 7. S&h4 Position after: 8. 2d2Chapter 4 — Discussing the Variations 79 §4g Carlsbad Variation §4h Rubinstein Variation (Source: Google Maps) 1, d4 dS 2. c4 e6 3, Dc3 Dfe 4. cxdS 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Dc3 Ate 4. Res exd5 5. 2&.g5 2e7 6.e3 67. 2d30-0 2e75.e3 0-06. Af3 Abd7 8. We2 he 9. 2ha Zz 2W £¢ AAhafZ aba 4a 4 a & A BA aa A&B BAB woo x x Position after: 6... @\bd7 Position after: 9. ha80 Queen's Gambit Structures §4i Vienna Variation 1. d4-d5 2. c4 e6 3. Zc3 Df 4, As xed Position after: 4... dxc4 §4a Tartakower Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Ac3 Afe 4. Ags Se7 5. e3 0-0 Castling short is usually played first, but it is reasonable to ask about the poten- tial inclusion of ...h6. This move-order subtlety has deep significance that we will discuss later on. 6. DF3 h6 Again the question arises of whether Black should kick away the bishop on g5. The pawn on h6 could become a future target in a possible attack against Black’s king’s position. Those who opt for the Tartakower usually force the bishop on g5 to make a decision with h6. The idea is to avoid tactical acci- dents on h7, as well as providing luft for the king in preparation for potential back-rank mate motifs. 7. BinaChapter 4 ~ Discussing the Variations 81 Position after: 7. &ha White usually doesn’t renounce the bishop pair just yet. However, as we will see later, he may soon take voluntarily on f6, hence some people have tried to save a tempo with the immediate 7. Bxf6. Kasparov, before ascending to the high- est accolade in the chess world, once played this move in the “Students’ Olympiad” ~ an under-27 team champi- onship ~ against Austrian master Arne Dir. He won spectacularly following 7... Axfé 8. Wd2 c6 9. h4!? Position after: 9. hal? Kasparov's idea was to castle long him- self so he could use his kingside pawns to storm Black's king’s position. What triggered this decision is Black having created (with ...h7-h6) an important ‘hook’ or ‘lever’ for the pawn-storm to latch onto. When such a feature is pre- sent, the pawn storm has a much better chance of succeeding. After the text move, Black’s facing an important decision. He needs to solve the problem of his queen’s bishop. 7... b6 This small move is characteristic of the time-honored Tartakower Defense, played by almost all (modern) world- class players. It works both ways: the system is solid but there can arise many complicated positions (often with hang- ing pawns) with play for both sides. This is useful for stronger players if they have to play to win against opponents who are weaker on paper. Van der Ster- ren indicates in his book Fundamental Chess Openings in a clear manner what the problems in this position are. Ac- cording to him, White has three differ- ent options at his disposal: A) He leaves Black to his devices after 8. 2.d3. The tension in the center will be kept and will only be resolved after it has mounted further. B) White can decide to clarify matters a bit by fixing the center formation through 8. cxd5, which was popular82 around 1970. Gradually, people found that chances were balanced. C) The third option is a refinement of the second and is nowadays the fash- ionable way to play for an edge. White plays a sort of waiting move (8. 2.d3, 8. 2,8. Hct or 8. {b3) and waits until Black has developed his bishop to b7. Af- ter that, he gives up the bishop pair and then trades in the center: c4xd5, e6xd5. This will make it much harder for Black to play ...c7-cS (at least in a way that avoids making concessions) — which would, if successful, cramp White’s po- sition significantly. The move might also increase the scope of the Black dark- squared bishop, which is likely to be un- opposed. Two famous games which feature the above themes: Fischer - Spassky (world championship match), Reykjavik 1972 and Karpov — Georgiev, Tilburg 1994. 8. cxd5 This move is statistically the ‘main’ one in databases. As discussed earlier, White has more options, of which we'll discuss the two most important ones. A)8. £d3 B) 8. Hct A) 8. 2d3 This option occurs frequently. Its draw- back can be White loses a tempo after Queen's Gambit Structures ..dxe4, if Black wants to play this. On the other hand, White does get more in- fluence in the center. After trading on c4 first through 8... dxc4 9, £xc4 and now playing 9... &b7 there has arisen a position in which Black’s queen’s bishop has managed to position itself on a nice open diagonal. Unsurprising, then, that many players as Black opt for this variation. A nice exam- ple of a good endgame grind after this was Gelfand — Ponomariov 2003. 8... &b7 Black continues solidly and now it’s White’s turn to try and find an idea that might give an edge. A1) Obviously, 9. 0-0 is an important al- ternative. A possible continuation then is 9... Abd? 10. We2. This move devel- ops his queen so White can prepare the rooks to put the hanging pawns, which will come soon into being, under pres- sure. ‘A2) Also 9. cxd5 deserves consideration and is, of course, completely sound. Af- ter 9... Axd5 10, S&xe7 Wrxe7 11. Axds Qxd5 12. 0-0 4d7 a ‘tabiya’ has arisen. Black has kept the diagonal open for his bishop, but on the other hand, White has significant play in the center with his pawns. Yet, since ...c7-c5 can’t be pre- vented, Black has counterplay in the centre as well.Chapter 4 - Discussing the Variations ‘A3) A remarkable possibility, and even more so because it may be best, is 9. Axf6. White first went back with his bishop to h4 and suddenly now he de- cides to trade on f6. What has caused this change of heart? Well, the fact that Black has placed a bishop on b7, where itis not well placed. “A big pawn”, as So- viet players used to say. This forms a major difference with, for instance, the above-mentioned game Fischer — Spassky. There, the trade hap- pened earlier, which gave Black the op- tion of putting the bishop on e6. That option is now gone. A plausible way to continue now is 9... Sxf6 10. cxd5 exdS after which White has two interesting alternatives Position after: 10... exd5 a) Now 11. b4 seems appealing in order to take the bite out of ... c6-c5. Unfortu- nately for White, this is still Black’s best option. ['Holding’ with 11... c6 is also possible, but then White gets the struc- ture he wants to have. In Pfleger — McCambridge, 1981 White won easily] We will discuss the ideas of the resulting 83 position in another variation with the same features. Position after: 11... c6 b) The neutral 11. 0-0 completes White's development and briefly pauses the forcing action, which Black can use in various ways. Position after: 11. 0-0 We have reached one of the basic posi- tions in the Tartakower. Black will carry out ...(c6-)c5 sooner or later, after which White will have the choice of if and when to capture with dxcS. Both players will then determine where to put their rooks. The upcoming fight will be about whether White can make the hanging pawns weak or whether Black can launch an attack using breakthroughs by the hanging pawns.84 Queen's Gambit Structures ‘A thematic White victory was seen in the game Georgiev — Jussupow, 1998; meanwhile, a convincing Black triumph was Gavrilov — Azarov, 2011. B) The waiting move that has recently gained popularity is: 8. He1 2b7 As above, when the bishop goes to b7, White should consider that the trade of his dark-square bishop for the knight has become more auspicious for him. 9. Lxf6 Qxf6 White’s intention is clearly to continue: 10. exd5 exdS where he is aiming for a structure in which not only do his knights dominate the black bishop pair, but in time also outposts may appear. An example of this is the game Anand — Ljubojevic, 1998. Here the Indian crowns his supe- rior strategy with a beautiful combina- tion; this game is seen in the next sub- chapter. 11. b4 At this moment Black has to make an important decision. The question is whether he should try and ‘break free’ with ...c7-c5 or just accept having a tem- porary space disadvantage with ...c6, hoping to compensate with the bishop- pair. B1) We should obviously examine 11... 5. The critical continuation has to be: 12. bxeS bxc5 13. dxc5 @d7. Black wants to complete his development and recapture the pawn. [Worse is 13... Was 14. Wd2 Ec8 on account of 15. Dps! Wxd2+ 16. Gxd2 and for now White’s a pawn up, but more im- portantly he has total contro! over d4.] 14. Abs Hes. This interesting position has appeared a number of times on the board, It looks like Black is able to stand his ground af- ter winning back his pawn, in spite of the ‘IQP’ on d5. B2) 11... 6 Position after: 11... c6 This is exactly what White has in mind. At the moment Black doesn’t have an active plan and White can spend a few moves manoeuvring at will. We now re- turn to the main lines. 8... Dxd5Chapter 4 — Discussing the Variations Many strong players aim for a draw as Black and the usual way to do this is trading some pieces. However, there are two sides to the coin. After all, won't the hanging pawns be even more vul- nerable if fewer pieces remain? Black could also keep pieces on the board by taking back on d5 with the pawn: 8... exdS. After 9. 2d3 2b7 10. 0-0 Abd7 Position after: 10... bd7 the battle with the hanging pawns can start as soon as Black decides to push ..c7-€5 through. Then, as a rule, the player with the hanging pawns should aim at keeping as many minor pieces on the board as possible. 9. 2.xe7 Wxe7 10. Axd5 exd5 11. Hct In this position, White — as indicated above — seems to have made progress since he’s managed to trade two pairs of minor pieces. If Black doesn’t agree to play with the hanging pawns that re- sult from ...c7-c5, daxc5 b6xc5, he will come under some pressure; there are problems with completing his develop ment otherwise. Still, there are some remedies, For instance, it is possible to 85 Position after: 11. Bet develop the bishop to e6 instead of b7, despite having played ...b6. Furthermo- re, Black now wants to trade minor pieces if he’s playing ...c5, because then the passed d-pawn could give an ad- vantage in a major piece endgame. As you can see, the exchanging decisions are not simple for either side! We have summarized the exchange decisions for both sides in the textbox on the right. We now return to our main variation. &e6 12. Yaa c5 13. Wad The common method of keeping c5 un- der pressure. 13... 28 This position occurred in the famous sixth game of the world championship match between Fischer and Spassky, played in Reykjavik in 1972 (among ot- her high-level encounters.) In that ga- me, the American took some remarka- ble decisions and won the game in ma-86 Queen's Gambit Structures # Sa 8 Position after: 13... Rc8 jestic style (see the chapter 5 Model Games). On the other hand, Garry Kas- parov showed how the position should be treated from Black’s perspective. Wi- nants — Kasparov, 1987 is a nice exam- ple of this. PROBLEMS OF THE yes HANGING PAWNS In principle, the player who plays with the hanging pawns wants to keep as many (mi- nor) pieces on the board as possible in order to be able to play for an attack. On the other hand, he should also be content if all minor pieces could be traded. Then in an endgame with major pieces he can aim for creating a (dangerous) passed pawn. The player who has to take on the hanging pawns in- tends to trade (one or two pairs of) light pieces, after which he hopes to lure one of these pawns forward in order to create a strong squave for one of his own pieces.Chapter 4 - Discussing the Variations 87 §4b Lasker Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Dc3 Dfe 4. Ags 2e7 5. 30-0 A) The jump 5... Ded is connected with former World Champion Emman- uel Lasker. After 6, &xe7 Wxe7 Position after: 6... Wxe7 a position appears where Black hopes to equalize quickly. In this specific posi- tion, only one game of Lasker is actually known: Marshall — Lasker, World Cham- pionship 1907. B) It is possible to play the same idea after 5... h6 6, Qh4: although Lasker has never played it, various other play- ers have espoused 6... Ae4 7. 2xe7 Wxe7, 6. 3 h6 Once again, even without inserting ..h7-h6, a 'Laskerian' simplifying idea is possible: 6... ed 7. &xe7 Wxe7 Sev- eral grandmasters, among them C. Han- sen, R. Vaganian and U. Andersson (alt- hough not Lasker!) believed Black could equalise with relative ease here, and played the line often as Black. 7. Bh4 Position after: 7. &h4 At this moment White doesn't want to exchange the dark-square bishop. After this move, an important decision arises for Black. He has to solve the problem of developing his queen's bishop. Unsur- prisingly, we shall be looking at the sim- plifying attempt: Ton Ded which is known as the Lasker variation. The purpose is to exchange some minor pieces very quickly. On first sight it seems that this approach is not inQueen's Gambit Structures Black's favour. After exchanging two pieces he remains with two passive ones, still undeveloped. But after this exchange of those two pieces, it tran- spires that White won’t be able to stop Black’s remaining two minor pieces, which will come out slowly and surely. And generally, once this development is complete, White has no chance of being better, and can even easily become worse. A fantastic example of this was a game in the World Championship Match Topalov — Anand, Sofia 2010, which Black won in a brilliant way. 8. 2xe7 Wxe7 9. Het c6 Position after: 9... c6 Everything seems a little strange on first sight. Black has exchanged the dark- squared bishops and proceeds to start putting pawns on the same coloured squares as his other bishop. Normally, then, we would call the c8-bishop ‘bad’ But this assessment is all wrong. Black will develop his queenside with ...Abd7 followed by ...dxc4 and free his game with the advance ...e6-e5. This advance serves two intentions. Firstly, he opens the line of his bishop on c8 towards the kingside. The bishop can be brought into play via the squares e6, f5 and sometimes g4. Secondly, Black is at- tacking White's pawn center; in some cases White even ends up with a iso- lated pawn. And because two or more pairs of minor pieces have been ex- changed by this point, White wouldn’t have the opportunity to create an at- tack to compensate. An alternative is 9... &xc3 10. Exc3 and only then 10... 6. This is also quite popular with the ‘big guys’ like Carlsen, Kramnik and es- pecially Jakovenko, who played this var- iation quite often. 10, 2d3 One can assume that this move prom- ises White's best chance of a (slight) ad- vantage. Meanwhile, lots of games con- tinue 10. Wc2 %xc3 11. Yxc3 “d7 12. &e2 dxc4 13. Wxc4. This answer is bet- ter then the alternative. [On first glance 13, 2xc4 seems more logical because Black is not able to play ...e6-e5. But this leaves Black another option in 13... b6, leading after 14. 0-0 &b7 15, Bfdi c5 toa almost equal position.) 13... eS 14. 0-0 exd4 15. Axd4 At this point Black has three different knight moves at his disposal, all three having their own pros and cons.Chapter 4~ Discussing the Variations 89 Position after: 15. xd A) Also 15... Abs 16. Wes Wxcs 17. Exc5 Hd lead to a competely even position in lvanchuk — So, 2017. B) The pseudo-active 15... De5 was only tried once, in Nanu—Nikolov, 2010 But the knight on e5 can be kicked away quite easily with f2-f4 so strong players tend not to choose this. C) 15... Af6 | think this might be most accurate, and the elite American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura achie- ved two nice wins with this move in his blitz games against lvanchuk and Fressi- net, both in 2016. 10... Dxc3 11. Bxc3 dxcd 12. Lxcd The majority choice. Meanwhile Aroni- an's choice was 12. Exc4 in his game against Nakamura from 2013. The Ar- menian succeeded in overpowering his opponent in a original way at the end of the middlegame. 12... Dd7 Position after: 12... Ad7 Now Black is ready to free his game with 26-85. Two older games, in which ex- world champion Anatoly Karpov beat Artur Jussupow (in 1989 and 1997), give insights into White’s potential mid- dlegame ideas. In the first game, where Black played ...e6-e5, Karpov decided on a interesting rook switch, with which he succeeded in weakening Black's king's position. In the other game Black tried to liberate his play with ...c6-c5, but later in the game Black's pawn structure on the queen's wing got weak- ened. In a nice way Karpov took ad- vantage of circumstances to take the game into a knight ending, where the black pawns proved to be too weak. We now continue with the main line, where we follow the elite game Topalov — Anand, 2010 where the second player proved that his positional weaknesses can be fully compensated for by the ac- tive counterplay of his pieces. 13, 0-0 b6 14. 2.d3 515. e4 Hbs 16. ‘We2 26 17. dxc5 Axed 18. Wxea bxcS90 Queen's Gambit Structures Position after: 18... bxcS This is the critical position. On first sight it seems that the weak pawn can be doomed and even a7 can be a weakness in the future too, But Anand has as- sessed that in this open position his bishop is much stronger than the ugly knight. In addition to to, the open b- and d-files can come under his total control, if White isn’t careful. In the game Anand proves that the dynamic factors are very much in his favour, especially after Topalov played ambitiously in the few next moves. In a ‘modern classic’ of a game, Anand smoked out the white king and finished the struggle with a surpris- ing queen move. §4c Tarrasch Variation 1.d4.d5 2. c4e6 3. Ac3 If Black wants to strike back in the cen- ter at once, the only logical choice is: 3.4.5 This is the Tarrasch Defense. Its inven- tor, Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934) was not only a strong player, but also a ma- jor theoretician of the day. Generally, what happens next is that Black gets to develop his pieces to the most aggres- sive squares, but all this comes at the cost of accepting an isolated queen’s pawn. Initially, it seemed Tarrasch’s ideas would not stand the test of time. Since then, views on the ‘IQP’ have be- come more balanced. The choice to play with or against such a pawn is largely down to taste. Those who prefer active games (like Kasparov, who found lots of new ideas in the Tarrasch) choose to play with such pawns. More experi- enced players often choose to play against them, but this does not neces- sarily confer an objective advantage. A major test, for instance, came in theChapter 4— Discussing the Variations 1 Candidates Match between Kasparov and Smyslov, where the young future champion overcame the ex-champion.. 4.cxd5 The most principled move: the silhou- ette of an IQP is created. 4. Af3 usually transposes. exdS An obscure system, though certainly not completely devoid of venom even now, is the Hennig-Schara Gambit: 4... cxd4 Black sacrifices his center pawn for even faster development. 5. Waa+ Ba7 6. Bxda exds 7. Wxds Deb 8. Df3 Dfe 9. Wat Position after: 9. Wd1 is a usual continuation then. In the Netherlands, there’s a player, IM Henk Vedder of the club HSG, who has used this gambit many times. A nice example with various tactical examples is his Henk Vedder (photo Frans Peeters) game against IM Manuel Bosboom. IM Rini Kuijf also used the system several times. He almost managed to scalp GM Jeroen Piket with it. He only ‘forgot! in zeitnot to carry out a thematic and deci- sive combination (see the game J. Piket —R. Kuijf later in these pages.) Play usu- ally continues 9... S&c5 10. e3 We7 11. fe2 0-0-0 (or 11... 0-0 12. 0-0 Baas) 12. 0-0 g5!? Position after: 12... g592 Queen's Gambit Structures With this thrust, Black initiates an early attack against White’s king’s position White would do well to strike back on the other side of the board by means of 13, bal? with an extremely sharp strug- gle in prospect. We now return to the Tarrasch De- fense’s main lines. 5. APB Acé 6. g3 The best way of playing against the isolani in this position. White moves his bishop to the long diagonal where it will exert pressure on d5. Of course, people also play 6. e3, but this promises fewer chances of gaining an edge. 6... AEE If Black doesn’t feel like playing with an isolated pawn, there is also 6... 04 which is the so-called Swedish Varia- tion. Black resolves the tension in the center and in the long turn intends to do business with his pawn majority on the queenside. Yet this is of course not the full story, as White can make inroads on Black's structure through b2-b3 or also Bg2 followed by a well-timed e2-e4. Sometimes White can also add “f3-e5, 7. £g2 We're now at crossroads: A) Less played is 7... Zf6. Black’s prob- lem is that the knight on f6 can be pinned by £g5, the result being that he'll be stuck with doubled pawns on f6 and f7. A possible sequence then would be 8, 0-0 £e79, 2950-010. Des Position after: 10. Aes This is a characteristic move White will be working with. Of course, Black can’t trade on e5 (he’d lose a pawn) and White intends to give his opponent dou- bled pawns on c6 and c4 by playing )xc6. At first sight, this seems to work to Black’s advantage, since a pawn on c6 would support his center pawn on d5. This is true, but White has b2-b3 in mind, exploiting the doubled pawns by... exchanging one of them! The re- maining one will find itself exposed ona half-open file. For instance: 10... 2e6 11, Axc6 bxc6 12. b3 cxb3 13. axb3 and the resulting structure is very favorable to White. Such developments occurred in, inter alia, Nielsen — Rogers, 2006. B) 7... 2b4 This bishop move is very popular. It prevents White from pushing b2-b3 to attack Black’s pawn structure, at least for now, and introduces the ideaChapter 4 — Discussing the Variations 93 of permanently preventing this option through the exchange ....&b4xc3 (which will also make e3-e4 harder to execute.) Position after: 7... &b4 8. 0-0 Dge7 and now: B1) With 9. De5 White can open the di- agonal for his bishop on g2 and thus he'll try to maim Black’s pawn structure. At the same time, he’s preparing the thematic push e2-e4. However, this is all somewhat too slow because Black has no problems after 9... 0-0 10. e4 Le6. B2) 9. e4, White should no longer wait. He'll have the best chance of gaining an edge if he immediately puts pressure on the center. A nice example is the game Beliavsky — Xu, 1992, where Black re- plied 9... 0-0 with complications. 7. g2 2e7 8. 0-0 0-0. This is the basic position in the Tarrasch Defense, in which many ways of playing have been suggested and tried by White players. For now, | will confine myself to an outline of those methods which have associated games in the section on practical exam- ples. 9. 295 This is considered to be White’s most principled continuation. The pressure on Black’s center has now reached the point where he must com- Position after: 8... 0-0 mit. White has another important op- tion though: a very interesting approach is to play 9. dxc5 at once. After 9... &xcS 10. &g5 [10. “a4 was once played by Giri in his game against Jianu, 2012.) 10... d4 11. &xf6 YWxfé the consensus for a while was that White had only gained a minimal edge. Until, that is, the Dutch GM Jan Timman introduced a new concept, namely 12. Ad5!? [A very drawish variation is 12. ed Ye? 13. @Dxc5 Wxcs. Black has enough counter-94 Queen's Gambit Structures Jan Timman: “The @\d5-system against the Tarrasch is perhaps one of my most important contributions to modern opening theory.” (picture Jos Sutmuller) play to compensate for the weakness on 4.) 12... Was 13. Ad2 Position after: 13. @\d2 We've reached a position where the ex- tent of White’s advantage was unveiled in the seventies and eighties by strategists like Karpov, Timman, and An- dersson. Timman considered this find- ing as one of his most important contri- butions to opening theory. His game against Ivkov of 1977 (see chapter 8, the appendix with games) illustrates beauti- fully what plans White can aim for. White has many strategic ideas in this position. He can maneuver his knight from d5 to the nice square d3, where it will block the isolated pawn on d4 very well (though this should be delayed un- til Black expends tempi on chasing it away from its annoying post.)Chapter 4 ~ Discussing the Variations Furthermore White can pressure Black’s position by maneuvering on the queen- side, for instance: Hct, @d2-c4 or {\d2-b3. We can see that in exchange for the bishop-pair White has obtained extremely good prospects for quite a few pieces. The general idea is to use the light squares to put Black’s position under pressure. The bishop on g2 is ex- tremely powerful, so Black should try to trade it. But even if he manages this, he'll be left with a bad bishop due to the pawn on d4. This pawn tends to be a weakness, in spite of the occasional tac- tical tricks it can generate. White can use the c-file for carrying out a few dif- ferent plans. It was the strategic focus of some great games, such as Anders- son - Nunn, 1980 in the chapter on model games. A brief note on Black’s counterplay: it can, in spite of all I’ve said, become significant; one example was Hauser ~ Perunovié, 2012. Before getting back to the main move 9. 2g5, let us also mention that White has tried 9, 8e3,9. BF4 and 9. b3. 9... exd4 Black usually feels forced to trade, at which point the long-inevitable IQP fi- nally takes definitive form. 10. Dxd4 h6 Black tries to reduce the pressure by forcing the important white bishop to make a choice. 95 11, Re3 Here the bishop will stand best. We'll soon see why this is the case. 11. 2f4 is also played sometimes. 11... Hes A.useful waiting move. As usual for dou- ble-edged positions, | will give one ref- erence for White and one for Black, both seen later in this book White triumphed in the game Kasparov — Illescas, 1994, where there soon ap- peared ‘hanging pawns’ (on c6 and d5), which he managed to block. Then he won a pawn and flawlessly brought the remaining endgame to an end. The other side of the coin was seen in Zhao Xue — Petrosian, where in ex- change for his weak pawn structure, Black got an attack against White’s king, finishing with an unusual combination. 12. Hei 218.13. Axcé bxc6 14. “ad Position after: 14. Aaa