Attac

with
G.M. Julian Hodgson

• Hodgson Enterprises.

y
***
LONDON
First plbIished 1 996

Copyright © 1 996 Julian Hodgson

ISBN 0 9529373 0 1

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 CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 5

Chapter One - All OUT FOR THE KING

1 J Hodgson-D Paunovic London-Belgrade 1976 9
2 MAdams-A Dreev Wijk aan lee 1996 11
3 J Gallagher-V Vehi Bach Biel 1995 14
4 A Shirov-D King Gausdal 1990 18
5 G Kasparov-V Anand WCC, PCA 1995 21
6 A Karpov-V Topalov Linares 1994 24
7 V Ivanchuk-A Shirov Wijk aan lee 1996 28
8 V Ivanchuk-A Yusupov Brussels 1991 31

Chapter Two - THE KING HUNT

9 N Short -L Ljubojevic Euwe Memorial 1988 35
10 N De Firmian-J Granda Zuniga Donner Memorial 1996 37
11 M Sadler-L Brunner Bern 1996 40
12 R Cifuentes-V Zvjaginsev Wijk aan lee 1995 43

Chapter Three - THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT

13 A Sokolov-J Speelman Madrid Rapidplay 1988 46
14 J Gallagher-S Jackson British Championships 1988 49
15 J Hodgson-J Granda Zuniga Donner Memorial 1996 51
16 M lIIescas-A Miles Linares lonal 1995 54
17 S Atalik -A Miles Heraklion 1993 57
18 G Kasparov -V Anand Tal Memorial 1995 60

Chapter Four - USING THE INITIATIVE

19 M Tal-I Rogers San Francisco 1991 63
20 N Short-I Sokolov London PCA-Intel GP 1995 65
21 G Kasparov- N Short WCC, PCA 1993 67
22 A Shirov-J Polgar Buenos Aires 1994 71
23 J Speelman- N Short WCC quarter-final 1988 73
24 J Polgar- L Van Wely Donner Memorial 1996 76

3
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

Chapter Five - THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE

25 L 011 - J Hodgson Groningen PCA 1993 79
26 Z Almasi - I Sokolov Wijk aan Zee 1995 83
27 B Damljanovic - G Kamsky Belgrade 1991 86
28 B Gelfand -A Dreev Tilburg 1993 88

Chapter Six - RAKING BISHOPS

29 J Hodgson - B Gulko Groningen 1994 92
30 J Granda Zuniga - G Kamsky Donner Memorial 1996 95
31 L McShane -A Baburin Cambridge 1995 98
32 J Hodgson - KArkell Isle of Man 1996 101

Chapter Seven - WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX

33 G Flear - J Hodgson British Championships 1989 104
34 G Kasparov -A Shirov Horgen CS 1994 107
35 N Short - J Timman Tilburg 1991 109
36 A Beliavsky - J Nunn Wijk aan Zee 1985 112

Chapter Eight - THE PAWN ROLLER

37 M Sadler - J Hodgson Lloyd's Bank Masters 1989 115
38 MAdams - S Tiviakov WCC quarter-final PCA 1994 118
39 A Morozevich - M Petursson Lloyd's Bank Masters 1994 120
40 P Yee - J Hodgson New York Open 1995 123

4
 INTRODUCTION

I intend this book to be the first one in a series on attacking chess.

There are literally thousands of games that have been played over the
years, most of which are pretty dull and tu rgid. I have only selected the
creme de la creme - the ones that have really caught my imagination.
My hope is that they will capture yours too.

On my rou nds to all the different tournaments I decided to find out ex­
actly what people wanted in a book on chess. I was often asked why I
hadn't written a book on similar lines to my "Combat Chess" Videos,
so I thought why not write a series of books sim ilar to them.

I was warned against the perils of making the books too expensive or
cluttering them up with too many variations so that they were no longer
reader friendly. Here then are some of my aims for the series on at­
tacking chess:

I wanted it to be both entertaining and educational at the same time.

To this end each book will contain 40 great attacking games (some of
which are my own, he says modestly! ) and annotate them in a light­
hearted yet (hopefully! ) instructive way.

I have tried to make it possible for the reader to be able to follow the
games anywhere, so with this in mind there are plenty of diagrams and
amusing anecdotes to make it flow more easily. Thus it can be read
while travelling on the train to work, lying in bed at home or even relax­
ing in a hot bath without necessarily having to get out a chess set.

I have written the book as if I were actually a friend talking you through
these games, whether it be in you r home or in the pub over a few
drinks. I hope after reading this book you feel that you still want me as
a friend!

5
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

The Attack Statistics Box

I am a great believer in the theory that if you have more pieces attack­
ing than your opponent has defending, then the chances of your attack
succeeding are quite high. One important point to remember, how­
ever, and one that is often forgotten is that the king counts as a de­
fender (and also on less frequent occasions (e.g. endings) even as an
attacker}.

When looking at these games with my wife (estimated strength 1 500) I

noticed that she did not always count all the correct pieces (especially
the indirect) that were attacking and defending . This is a key part of
playing chess well. I therefore thought that it might be useful to show
as a simplified diag ram of what a grandmaster counts when deciding
whether an attack is viable. You may want to use these to test if you
are counting correctly too.

Direct Indirect
4

F
Direct Indirect

6
Let me briefly explain each section .

Box
A. These are the direct attackers. Each piece in this box is valued at
one pOint. I should just add that in exceptional cases pawns can
count as well.

B. These are the direct defenders. Each piece in this box is valued at
one point.

c. These are the indirect attackers. Each piece in this box is valued
as a half point. Indirect attackers are those pieces that can join
the attack within a couple of moves.

D. These are the indirect defenders. Each piece in this box is valued
as a half point. Indirect defenders are those pieces that can join
the defence within a couple of moves .

E. Sum total of direct and indirect attackers.

F. Sum total of direct and indirect defenders.

If we now subtract box F from box E, then as a general ru le the greater

the positive value the greater the chance of the attack succeeding.

This of course is only a rough guide so it needs to be used with care. I

could modify this system considerably but then it would lose m uch of
its point as then it would no longer act as a quick and easy guide to
see at a glance.

7
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson

NOTATION

+ Check
1 Good Move
!! Excellent move
? Bad Move
?? Blunder
I? Interesting Move
?I Dubious Move
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8
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
1 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
The fundamental idea of chess
is to checkmate the enemy
king. You can be three queens
u p but if you r king is in check
and has nowhere to run then
you lose the game - it is as
s imple as that.
The pOint I ' m trying to make is
that when the king is at stake
everything else is of secondary
i m po rtance.
CH ECKMAT E I S F I NAL
In the eight games in this
chapter the successful side do­
nates varying amounts of wood
(or plastic) to achieve this ob­
jective . They are all games I
have e njoyed playing through
many times over - I hope you do
too .
GAM E 1
The fol lowing game took place
when I was only th i rteen . London
were playing Belgrade in a tele­
phone match. The match
seemed to take forever as the
com m u n ication between the two
cou ntries was interm inably
9
slow. I n about eight hours my
game (the j u n ior match) was
the only one to finish. Since that
time I have never been too keen
on telephone matches!
White : J u lian Hodgson
B l a c k : Dragan Paunovic
London - Belgrade 1976
1 e4
Yes , it might seem hard to be­
lieve now but I didn't always
play the Trompovsky.
1 ... c5 2 tDf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4
4 tiJxd4 tiJf6 5 tiJc3 g6
I n my youth I used to love play­
ing against the D ragon - I can't
say the same now!
6 1.e3 1.g7 7 f3 0-0 8 'fId2
tiJc6 9 1.c4 1.d7 1 0 0-0-0
A standard D ragon position has
been reached - what was not so
standard was the fact that it had
already taken three hours to get
there !
I did, however, q u ite enjoy play­
ing the Yugoslav Attack against
someone f rom Belgrade!
10 ... 'fIb8
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
M m m . . . For a brief spell this
m ove was fashionable. The
idea is to start s hoving up
Black's queenside pawns but in
this case it is rather optim istic.
As a general rule in the Dragon ,
Black's queen is well placed on
dB as it aids the defence of the
king and also protects the
rather vul nerable e7 pawn - a
constant problem for Black.
1 1 h4
I n my youth I always felt that
this pawn th rust would lead to
m ate along the h-file - now I am
a little older (and wiser) I know
this is not necessarily the case.
1 1 . . . J:tc8 1 2 � b3
The hasty 1 2 h5? would lose a
piece to 1 2 . . . lbxd4 1 3 "xd4
lbg4! 1 4 "d3 lbxe3 1 5 "xe3
l:txc4.
1 2 . . . as 1 3 h 5 ! tl)xd4 1 4
�xd4 a4 1 5 �d5 e6
At fi rst sight it m i g ht seem as if
W h ite is i n desperate trouble as
the bishop on d5 is trapped but
looks can be deceptive!
10
If we take a look at the stats we
find that it is actually Black that
is i n trouble . The problem is that
Black's queen on bB and rook
on aB cannot even up the num­
bers as they are too far away
from the scene of action .
W hite's pieces on the other
hand are all ready to join the
fray at a moments notice.
1 6 hxg6 ! hxg6
1 6 . . . exd5 1 7 lbxd5 is equally
hopeless for Black.
1 7 "g5 !
This is the key move that
b reaks throug h Black's defence
- there is no good way for Black
to deal with the th reat to the
knight on f6.
1 7 ... e5
Out of the fryi ng pan into the
fire; now the bishop on d5
comes to life. One variation I
had been hoping for was 1 7 . . .
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
exd5 1 8 "xf6! i.xf6 1 9 i.xf6
h8 is unavoid-
I was extremely proud of this
move but I have to confess this
idea was not completely new to
me. A few years before the
g reat M i khail Tal had used a
s im ilar rook sacrifice to defeat
me in a si mu ltaneous display - I
was also on the black side of
the D rago n . The move itself
forced resig nation as 1 8 . . .
i.xh8 would lose to 1 9 'iVxg6+
i.g7 20 "it'xf7+ 'iii> h 8 21 l::t h 1 +
lLlh7 22 "g6 fol lowed by mate
on h7. Against 1 8 . . . �xh8 I had
i ntended the si mple 1 9 i.xf7
exd4 20 l:th1 + lLlh7 21 'ii'x g6
with mate on h7.
At the time this game was vir­
tually considered the refutation
of 1 0 . . . "it'b8 - I don't think that
too muc h has changed in the
last twenty years .
11
GAM E 2
Eve ry so often we all come
across our chess playing bog­
eyman; that playe r against
whom we j ust seem to perform
m uch worse than expected . I
am s u re Alexei D reev (an ex­
ceptionally strong player in his
own right) m ust feel that way
about M icky Adams. Alexei
botches u p good positions,
loses drawn ones or j ust s i mply
gets wel l and truly hammered in
bad ones.
On the other side of the coin,
M icky is always really eager to
take Dreev on. He felt playing
h i m in t h e fin al of th e PGA rapid
was the d ream pairi n g .
So here t h e n is yet anothe r sad
defeat in a long line of disasters
for Alexei Dreev.
Wh ite : M ichael Adams
B l a c k : Alexei Dreev
W ij k aan Zee 1 996
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 liJd2
M icky always plays the Tar­
rasch Variation against the
French Defence - it is not nec­
essarily the most exciting option
i n this position but it is ve ry safe
and reliable.
3 ... c5 4 exd5 'iVxd5 5
liJgf3 cxd4 6 .i.c4 'iVd6 7 0-
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

o liJf6 8 liJb3 liJc6 9 liJbxd4 14 ••• 0-0

liJxd4 1 0 liJxd4 This was always considered to
be i m possible on account of
M ic ky's reply! !
1 S liJxg71 J:d8 !?
T h i s was t h e star move that
b reathed new life i nto this varia­
tion. The obvious 1 5 . . . 'it>xg7
was not considered any good
on account of 1 6 'iVd4!
(th reaten in g 1 7 .i.h6+) 1 6 ... e5
1 7 'iVh4! when W h ite will win the
piece back with a good positio n .
This is a completely standard
position . W h ite has a small but 16 'ii'f 3
significant lead i n development; In their previous encou nte r
Black on the other hand has the M icky played the inferior 1 6
better long term p rospects due "e2 and got a dubious position
to his s u perior pawn structure. befo re fighting back to reach a
The extra centre pawn is nor­ winning end ing which eventually
mally wo rth more than W h ite's ended , as you would expect, in
q u eenside majo rity. a d raw!
10 a6 1 1 :e1 'ii'c 7 1 2
••• 16 ••• �xg7
�b3 �d6 1 3 liJfS !
M icky ignores the th reat to the
h2 pawn and i nstead goes on
the offens ive by attacking g7.
13 •.. �xh2+ 1 4 � h 1
I n the olden days (about five
years ago ! ) Black would play
the rather ugly looking 1 4 . . .
'iti>f8 which was considered the
main line. Then i n 1 992 d u ring
the European Team Champion- 17 �h6+!
ships in Debrecen Alexei Dreev
u n leashed a real bombshell of a This is the point of Micky's last
novelty (ru m o u r has it that it move. The bishop is taboo as
was Gary Kasparov's b ig idea ! ) 1 7 . . . 'it>xh6 loses t o 1 8 'iVxf6+
on the very same, the one and 'it>h5 1 9 1:[e3! when the black
only, M ichael Adams . H e re it is: king is not long for this world.
12
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
17 ... Cili>g6 1 8 c3 lbd5
This obvious move is also the
losing move. Alexei should have
played 1 8 . . . iDh5! when after
1 9 .i.e3 f5 W h ite has compen­
sation for the piece as Black's
army is so u ncoord inated and
his king so exposed on g6 but I
can see no obvious way for
M icky to continue his attack. I
suspect that the position is still
far from clear - maybe we will
have to wait for a part I I I of this
epic.
1 9 l:tad1 ! !
This i s the brilliant move that
has total ly changed the as­
sessment of this line. M icky
simply brings his last piece into
play - so easy to see when you
know the move!
1 9 . . . f5
Of cou rse, Alexei would have
liked to have whipped off that
bishop on h6 but then nasty
things would have happened to
his king: 1 9 . . . 'iti>xh6? 20 J:[xd5!
Le point! 20 . . . l:txd5 21 "f6+
'ith5 22 :e3! when 23 l:lh3+ is a
13
mega threat.
20 i.c1 1
I l ike this l ittle manoeuvre, as
M icky has cleverly manipulated
his pieces to their optim u m
squares; b y firstly developing
the rook stuck on a1 to d1 and
only then tucking the bishop
safely out of the way on c 1 .
20 ... i.d6
The bishop sheepish ly retreats
after g rabbing its booty.
21 i.xd5
Basically, M icky at the moment
is a whole piece down, but
B lack's queenside is u ndevel­
oped and his king is very ex­
posed on g6. He therefore, calm­
l y removes Black's best de­
fender, the knight on d5, and at
the same time opens the central
files for his rooks to penetrate
i nto the heart of Alexei's posi­
tion .
21 . . . exd5 22 .l:.xd5
Look back and see how both of
W h ite's rooks are steaming down
the board .
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
22 . . . i.d7 23 "'h3 1 i.f8
Alexei had to do something
about the th reat on h6 but this
move opens u p new avenues of
attack for Micky. However, good
alte rnatives were not readily
forthco m i n g . ego 23 . . . f4 24
'ii' h 5+ 'ili>g7 25 :g5+ ..th8 26
'ii'f 7 when mate follows shortly.
24 :e3 !
W e ' re going i n !
24 . . . �g7
W e l l , I'm leavi n g then!
25 :g3+ �h8 26 'iVh4!
W atch THAT a 1 - h8 diagonal.
26 ... i.e6 27 i.f4
To get to the vital long diagonal,
M icky skilfully exploits the fact
that Alexei lost control of b8-h2
d iagonal when protecting h6 on
move twenty-th ree.
27 ... i.e7 28 i.xc7
And that was the end of that as
28 . . . iLxh4 is rather well met by
29 iLe5+.
14
GAM E 3
At the end of April 1 994, my
good friend Joe Gal lag her and I
played in a rather strange tou r­
nament in Metz, France. I called
it strange because the ven u e
where w e played was rig ht next
to a railway platform of the
town's central station. Mind you ,
i t d i d not seem to effect me too
much as I went on to win the
tou rnament q u ite convi nci ngly.
But I d i g ress .
Joe and I spent most of the
tou rnament d iscussing which
football teams would get rele­
gated from the P remier Division
{We are as it happens both fa­
natical Chelsea supporters - but
then nobody's perfect! } . O n the
odd occasion when we we re not
discussing these i m po rtant is­
sues, we looked at a l ittle bit of
chess . Joe s howed me a huge
novelty he had prepared for
W h ite agai nst the Sicilian De­
fence. I was most i m p ressed .
Unfortunately, Joe did not get a
chance to use it in that particu­
lar tou rnament.
It was only more than a year
late r at the Chess Festival in
Biel, that he got the opport unity
that he had been waiting for. All
I can say is that he certainly
made the most of it!
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
White : Joe Gallagher
Black: Victor Vehi Bach
Biel 1 995
1 e4 cS 2 �f3 e6 3 d4 cxd4
4 �xd4 �f6 S �c3 d6 6 g4
The Keres Attack has such a
fearsome reputation that ve ry
few players are prepared to
take it o n . This partly explains
why Joe had to wait so long to
u nleash his secret weapon .
6 . . . �c6 7 gS �d7 8 h4
i.. e 7 9 i.. e 3 0-0 10 'ii' h S a6
1 1 0-0-0 �xd4 1 2 i.. x d4 bS
This is the position that Joe had
showed me over a year ago. He
15
replaces the automatic 1 3 f4
(the normal move) with some­
thing a lot more test i n g !
1 3 eS ! !
This move exploits the latent
pin that the rook on d1 exerts
over the queen on d8. Now
Black has a difficult decis ion: to
open or close the position?
1 3 . dS? !
. .
Black elects t o close the posi­
tion which is the wrong decision
because now Joe has a free
hand on the kingside to launch
a devastating attack. Black's
queenside cou nte rplay is far too
slow. Howeve r, keeping the
position open was not m uch of
an improvement either, on ac­
count of Joe's lead in develop­
ment. Here are some sample
variations:
A) 1 3 . . . dxe5! ? 1 4 .llx e5 "a5 is
Black's most active conti nuation
but there is a large hole i n it
which is 1 5 i..x g7! ! opening up
Black's king . 1 5 ... 'it>xg7 1 6
'ii' h 6+ 'it>g8 1 7 l:txd7! i.. x d7 1 8
i..d 3 when Black will suffer
heavy material losses to avoid
mate on h7.
B) 1 3 . . . dxe5 1 4 .llx e5 'ii'e 8 is
much more pass ive but at least
Black's king has more protec·
tion 1 5 i.. g 2 l:ta7 1 6 .lld 4 nc7
1 7 l:the1 with a pleasant advan­
tage for W h ite.
C) 1 3 . . . dxe5 1 4 i..x e5 lDxe5 ! ?
This was m y suggestion when
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
Joe f i rst showed me the posi­
tion. Black g ives up his queen
for a rook and a bishop. This
should not normally be enough
compensation but Black's posi­
tion would then be very solid
and hard for W h ite to break­
down . O n top of that Black's two
bishops (especially the e7 one)
could come i nto their own as
the position is relatively open.
1 4 .i.d3!
This move forces Black to
weaken his kingside pawn for­
mation which will have the ef­
fect of speeding up Joe's at­
tack.
14 ... g6 1 5 .g4 �c5
I 1 8 f4 .e7 19 hxg6 fxg6
Exchanging his good bishop is
not a decision that Black would
have taken l i g htly but the alter­
native 1 S . . . .!Dcs is m uch worse
as then Joe wou l d p roceed with
1 6 .i.xcS! .i.xcs 1 7 hS .i.xf2 1 8
hxg6 fxg6 1 9 l:txh7! This is a
standard move i n such a posi­
tion - the roo k is taboo because
20 'iVhS+ wou ld then force mate
in only two m o re m oves . 1 9 . . .
16
.i.e3+ 2 0 � b 1 'iVxgS 2 1 'iVh3!
with more than enough play for
a mere pawn.
1 6 h5!
J o e wastes no time. He is p re­
pared to sacrifice a pawn i n or­
der to open l ines agai nst the
black monarch. At no stage
does Joe al low his opponent a
chance to bring his queenside
pieces into the game. Time is of
the essence!
16 �xd4 17 .xd4
.xg5+
Black g rabs a pawn but at some
cost - a second file is opened
u p down which J oe's pieces can
i nvade.
The more positional recapture
with the rook's pawn (towards
the centre) would have the seri­
ous tactical d rawback of allow­
ing mate down the h file. J oe
would sim ply play 20 "g 1 ! and
then 2 1 "ii' h 2 when nasty things
would happen to the black king.
20 f5 ! !
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING

A blow of i m mense proportions because he is h u nting m uch

- the black king wi ll not be able
to hide for much longer. It is al­
ways nice to make a m ove that
you r opponent thinks they have
got covered! 20 tDxd5?! was
also tempting but after 20 . ..
'ii'f 7! Black can sti l l struggle on .
20 gxfS
...
bigger game - the enemy king!
22 ... �h8 23 e6+
One ve ry important pOint that is
ofte n ove rlooked is the fact that
not only pieces cou nt as attack­
ing u n its but so do pawns such
as the e6 one here.
12Jf6

23 •..

K Agai nst 23 ... 'ii'f 6 Joe had plan­

ned the beautiful 24 ii.xf5 ! !
'ii'x d4 25 l:.xh7 mate .
24 .1i.xfS

We can see from the Stats ta­

Now Black's position is ripe for ble that Joe is ready for the final
the picki ng. All of Joe's pieces onslaught. Note that in this po­
are ideally placed to join in the s ition I have cou nted the e6
attack so it is no su rprise that pawn as an attacking u n it for it
Black's rqsistance does not last is virtually worth a piece.
much longer.
21 12JxdS !
Here comes the caval ry!
21 ... exdS
Declining this generous offering
with 21 . . 'ii'f 7 is met by 22
.

..txf5! when total carnage wil l

ensue.
22 1:[dg 1 + !
Of cours � Joe could l!
ave 24 •.• 1:[a7
played 22 .xd5+ <it?h8 23 .xa8
but after 23 . . tDxe5 Black is
.
This loses but then so does
stil l fightin g . Joe realises that eve rything else! Those W h ite
now is not the time to cash in rooks are just too powerf u l as
17
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson
they bear down relentlessly on
Black's king - one little pawn on
h7 is certainly not e n ou g h to
contain them. Let's look at
some of Black's other moves to
demonstrate how hopeless his
task is:
A) 24 . . . iLxe6 this move looks
the most natu ral as it develops
a piece and removes that nasty
e6 pawn but then this happens
2S iLxh7! 'ir'xh7 26 .l:!.xh7+ �xh7
27 'ii' h 4+
B) 24 . . . :g8 2S 'ir'xf6+! win­
n ing .
25 Jtxh7!
Joe removes the last line of
defence and with it any hope
that B lack was harbouring of
savi ng the game.
25 ... 'ii'x h7 26 'ii'x a7!
And that was that - it is forced
mate i n seve n !
GAM E 4
. and then Black tries to reroute
Every January, there IS a chess
18
festival in a lovely vil lage, Gaus­
dal , in the north of Norway. Until
this year it was ru n and organ­
ised by the late and m uch la­
mented Arnold Eikrem . I only
played there once but I enjoyed
the tou rnament im mensely as
there was a ve ry friendly at­
mosphere and eve ry one
seemed to be having a good
time.
I was even l ucky enough to win
the tou rnament but only after
sufferi ng one crushing defeat -
a fate that also befell Danny
King and Harry Schussler. We
blamed our defeats on our over
enthusiastic morning skiing
trips, but I think there was more
to it than that. It might j ust have
been that we had all been play­
ing Alexei Shirov, who was
about to take the chess wo rld
by sto rm .
White : Alexei Shirov
B l a c k : Danny King
Gausdal Troll Masters 1 990
1 d4 e6 2 c4 Jtb4+ 3 ttJc3
c5 4 d5 ttJf6 5 f3 exd5 6
cxd5 d6
Black has reached a very good
version of the Snake Benon i .
You are probably thinking
"W hat on earth is that? " Well. it
goes l ike this: 1 d4 tLlf6 2 c4 e6
3 tLlc3 cS 4 dS exdS S cxdS iLd6
his bishop to as. Not s u rp ris-
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
ingly this opening has not stood
the test of time, but it was f u n
wh ile i t lasted !
7 e4 0-0 8 ltJge2 a6 9 ltJg3
b5 1 0 a4!
After this good move, Black's
queenside majority loses much
of its potency.
10 . . . bxa4
Unfortu nately fo rced .
11 'iix a4 ltJbd7 1 2 .i.e2
ltJb6 1 3 'iic 2 a5 1 4 0-0 c4
15 ltJd1 !
A very i m portant move in Shi­
rov's strategy. His plan is to
manoeuvre his pieces towards
the kingside. There are two
reasons i n particu lar why an
attack o n the black king has a
good c hance of success. Firstly
W h ite has a five to four pawn
majority and therefore can
launch a pawn storm . Secondly,
the black bishop on b4 might
look very pretty there, but it
does not make much of a con­
tribution when it comes to aiding
the defence of the king.
19
1 5 . . . ltJfd7 1 6 ltJe3 .i.a6 1 7
ltJef5 g6
Not a move that Dan ny really
wants to play but he cannot al­
low the knight to remain on f5.
1 8 ltJh6+ <itt h 8 1 9 .i.e3 a4
20 f4
The pawns start rolli ng .
20 . . . f6 21 lIad 1
Look how Alexei cal m ly acti­
vates his pieces before com­
mencing the final charge.
21 ... 'iic 7 22 <itt h 1 !
An im portant precaution as
W h ite takes a time-out to pre­
vent Black from exchanging the
dark squared bishops with a
later �c5.
22 ... <ittg 7 23 f5 ltJe5 24
fxg6 hxg6 25 ltJg4!
An excellent decis ion. Black
has one good minor piece de­
fending his king (the knight on
e5) so Alexei i m mediately de­
cides to remove it.
25 ... ltJxg4 26 .i.xg4 c3 27
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
:f31
The rook gets ready to swi n g
over to either t h e g or h files, to
increase the pressure .
27 . . . lbc4 28 �e6 lbxe3 29
:xe3 :th8 30 :f3 'iVc4 31
bxc3 �c5
32 e5!
This is the key move that opens
lines to the black king. Now all
W h ite's pieces join in the at­
tack. It's wo rth pOi nting out that
if Danny could reach an ending
his a4 pawn would offer g reat
cou nter chances but alas this is
j ust a pipe d ream .
32 ... dxe5 33 lbf5+ ! !
20
I had al ready finished my game
so I was able to watch the end
of this one. I was s i m ply
amazed by the speed that AI­
exei reeled out the moves. It
was clear to me that eve n at
this early stage he had already
worked out the game to its
conclusion.
33 ... gxf5
Danny m ust captu re this piece
as the alternative 33 . . . 'it>f8
would lose to 34 lbd4! when
both f6 and g6 can not be p ro­
tected.
34 :g3+ c;t>f8 35 'ifxf5 'iff4
36 'iVg6 :a7
W h ite to play and win.
37 !:th3 ! !
Alexei played this without a
second's hesitation.
37 ... :xh3 38 'ii'g 8+ c;t>e7
I stil l was n 't completely sure
what was happening because if
there is no checkmate then
Wh ite will be struggling to sur­
vive. But my u ncertainty did not
last for very long as the next
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
m ove term inated p roceedi ngs
forthwith .
39 d6+ ! !
Danny now resig ned as it's
mate i n fou r as follows: 39 . . .
.txd6 4 0 'iff7 + 'it>d8 4 1 lIxd6+
l:td7 42 'ifxd7 mate.
A tremendous game by Alexei
Shirov - a star was wel l and
truly born . I think it's the only
time I have ever come ahead of
him i n a tou rnament!
GAM E S
The 1 995 PCA World Champi­
onship Match has to be consid­
ered someth ing of a disap­
pointment. Not much happened
for the fi rst eight games, then it
b riefly exploded into l ife. Vishy
won game 9 after which Gary
final woke up. The match was
effectively over in the next two
games. Firstly, Gary hit Vishy
with the body pu nch which was
the refutation of his main de­
fence to 1 e4 (the Open Span-
21
ish) then he finished the job off
by winning with the D ragon (his
s u rprise weapon) i n the next
game. Here then is the game
that all but decided the 1 995
World Championsh i p Matc h .
White : Gary Kasparov
B l a c k : Viswanathan Anand
Game 1 0 , WCC ( PCA) 1 995
1 e4
Having been M icky Adams's
second for his sem i-final match
against Vishy in 1 994, I was in­
trigued to see if there would be
any changes in Vis hy's opening
repertoire against 1 e4 for his
match with Kasparov. As far as
I can tel l , he kept faith with the
Open R uy without it seems
having a decent fal l back if that
went wrong.
1 .•. eS 2 lLJf3 lLJc6 3 .i.bS
a6 4 .i.a4 lLJf6 S 0-0 lLJxe4 6
d4 bS 7 .i.b3 dS 8 dxeS
.i.e6 9 lLJbd2 lLJcs 1 0 c3 d4
1 1 lLJgS
.i. ;====;�";""=
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
I f i rst saw this move way back
in 1 978 when it was played by
Anatoly Karpov against Victor
Kortchnoi in the World Champi­
onship Match in Baguio. As luck
would have it, one of Victor's
seconds happened to be Mi­
chael Stean, who at the time
was coaching chess at my
school. I was therefo re able to
ask h i m who he thought discov­
ered this incredible move. He
im med iately replied that only
person who could have found
1 1 lL'lg5, it would have had to
have been the g reatest chess
genius of them all, M i khail Tal.
But I have rece ntly discove red
after speaking with Gary that
the move's origi nato r was ac­
tually Igor Zaitsev.
11 dxc3 1 2 tDxe6 fxe6 1 3
..•
bxc3 'iVd3
Up to here, the moves had been
rattled out, as both players were
still fol lowing game 6. But now
Gary deviated from 1 4 lL'lf3 and
produced a real co rke r.
1 4 .i.c2 ! !
22
1 4 . . . 'iVxc3 15 tDb3 !
This is the real point. Gary is
p repared to give up a whole
rook to get at Vishy's king.
15 •.• tDxb3
Vishy played this move after a
forty-five minute think. By now
he m ust have real ised that he
had been cau ght in some of
Gary's lethal home analysis. 1 5
. . . l:td8 has been suggested as
a possible i m p rovement but af­
ter 1 6 .i.d2 'ii'x e5 1 7 l:te1 'ii' d 5
1 8 'ii' g 4! W h ite has an ove r­
whelming attack.
1 6 i.. x b3 tDd4
The big question is: what would
have happened if Black had
captu red on a1 i m mediately?
Well, the answe r as you m i g ht
expect is rather compl icated but
it seems that W h ite is doing well
in al l variations.
I shall g ive one sample variation
for those of you who wish to sa­
vou r the position : 1 6 ... 'iba 1 1 7
'ii' h 5+ This check is important
as it creates further weak­
nesses in the black position. 1 7
... g6 1 8 'ii'f 3 lL'ld8 1 9 l:td 1 ! An­
other key move that activates
W h ite's remaining piece. 1 9 . ..
'ii'x e5 20 .i.f4 'ii'f 6 2 1 'ii'x a8 .i.c5
(2 1 ... .i.e7 22 .i.xc7 is also
good for W h ite.) 22 l:txd8+ �e7
23 'ii'c 6 .i.xf2+ 24 �f 1 l:txd8 25
.i.g5! 'ii'x g5 26 'ii'x e6+ �f8 27
'ii'f7 mate .
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
1 7 'iVg4!
Gary thum ped this move out -
by now I think he was really
enjoyi ng h imself, as he sensed
his first victory i n the match.
17 ... 'iVxa1
So Vishy reluctantly g rabs the
rook. I am s u re he would have
preferred to have taken the
bishop on b3 with 1 7 . . . li)xb3
but that would be bad on ac­
count of 1 8 'ifxe6+ i.e7 1 9 i.g5
wi n n i n g .
1 8 .i.xe6
The pressure keeps mounting
for Vis hy. Not only was Gary
making g reat moves, he was
stil l playi ng extremely qu ickly
and was already ove r an hou r
u p o n t h e clock.
18 •.. l:td8 1 9 .i.h6 ! !
There i s absolutely n o respite ,
but Vishy keeps on fighting.
19 •.. 'iVc3 !
The o n ly defence as 1 9
'ifxf 1 + loses to 20 'it>xf 1 gxh6 2 1
'ifh5+ 'it>e7 2 2 'iff7 mate.
23
20 .i.xg7 'iVd3
Or 20 . . . J.xg7 21 'ifh5+! fol­
lowed by mate next move.
W h ite's pawn on e5 is also
playing a full part i n the attack.
21 .i.xh8 'iVg6
Vishy heads for an ending but
2 1 . . . li)e2+ is even worse on
accou nt of 22 <Ji>h 1 li)g3+ 23
hxg3 "ii'xf 1 + 24 <Ji>h2 "ii'd 3 25
J.f5! 'ifc4 26 f4 "ii'x a2 27 .i.xh7
winning.
22 .i.f6 .i.e7 23 �xe7 'iVxg4
24 .i.xg4 rJiixe7
The dust has settled somewhat.
Gary has reached an ending a
pawn u p but he still has to play
with care to chalk up the point.
In many ways converting a
technically winning ending i nto a
victory afte r an extremely com­
pl icated and tense m iddle game
is one of the hardest things to
do in chess . Gary q u ite rightly
spends some of his extra time
to com pose hi mself for the fi nal
stage of the game.
25 l:c1 !
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

Su perbly played! Gary halts the - manoeuvres his opponents

advance of his opponent's
pawns before starting his own .
25 . . . c6 26 f4 as 27 �f2 !
I n the ending the king is usually
a strong piece - so use it!
27 ... a4 28 �e3 b4 29 .ltd 1 !
Another precise move. Now
Gary has nothing to fear from
Black's queenside pawns and
so can safely advance his own .
29 . . . a3 30 94
The pawns start rol l i n g - there is
nothi n g i n their way to stop
the m .
30 . . . lidS 31 lIc4 c S 32
�e4 lId8 33 l:txc5 tbe6 34
lIdS lIc8 35 f5 lIc4+ 36
�e3 tbc5 37 95 ':c1 38
lId6
Here Vishy resi g ned befo re the
pawns could go any fu rther.
Rarely can Kasparov have won
a game that felt so good and
which had such a devastating
effect on his opponent.
rather than sim ply flatten i n g
t h e m a la Kasparov. T h e reason
Karpov has acq uired this repu­
tation is sim ple - his main prior­
ity is to wi n. If he happens to
play a beautifu l game i n the
p rocess then that is a bon us.
He therefo re plays t he percent­
ages - why play for an attack
which has perhaps a 90%
chance of success when the
s low squ eeze will work 99 times
out of 1 00. It is a very reason­
able argu ment.
As late in his career as 1 994 ,
Karpov had one of his best re­
sults in Linares, Spain , when he
scored 1 1 /1 3 against all of the
world's best playe rs - even the
m i ghty Kasparov was left trail­
ing in his slipstream 2% points
behind. In that tou rnament he
played g reat chess which was
fu l l of l ife and energy. The fol­
lowi ng game agai nst Bulgaria's
number 1 playe r, Vesel i n To­
palov, was pe rhaps his best win
of the tournament - Anatoly was
on fire!

GAM E S Wh ite : Anatoly Karpov

Bla c k : Veselin Topalov
Anatoly Karpov has been at the Linares 1 994
very s u m m it of world chess for
more than 25 years . In that time 1 d4 tbf6 2 c4 cS
he has played many brilliant at­
tacking masterpieces . He is, Veselin hopes for a Benko
however, more associated with Gambit or Modern Benoni .
long, slow (even d u lll) strategic 3 tbf3
games i n which he g radually out
24
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
No such luck!
3 ... cxd4 4 liJxd4 e6 5 g3
liJc6 6 Jlg2 Jlc5 7 liJb3
fLe7 S liJc3 0-0 9 0-0 d6 1 0
Jlf4 !
Typical Karpov! W ith his last
move he probes the one vulner­
able point i n Black's position ,
the d6 pawn .
1 0 . . . liJh5 1 1 e3 !
I really l i ke this move for rea­
sons that will become apparent
in a few moves .
1 1 . . . liJxf4 1 2 exf4 Jld7 1 3
.d2 .bS 1 4 :tfe1 !
Another Karpovian move . He
switches the play from the d6
pawn which Veselin has man­
aged to defend to the e6 pawn.
The th reat is now 15 f5 exploit­
ing the pin on the e file.
1 4 . . g6
. him more vu lnerable to an at­
Vese l i n prevents the th reatened
f5 but this creates a weakening
i n his k i ngside pawn formation.
I will briefly try to explain the
25
position as far as I can see i nto
it although no doubt there are a
few more poi nts that Karpov
would p robably be able to add .
Su perficially it appears as if
Black is fine; he has the two
bishops and the bette r pawn
structu re but this is only a small
piece of a very large j igsaw
puzzle. Anatoly will have con­
sidered the followi ng points:
A) His pawns on f4 and c4 ex­
ercise a clamp on Black's posi­
tion which leaves him more
room in which to manoeuvre.
B) He has a slight lead i n de­
velopme nt; Black's queen on b8
and rook on a8 aren't exactly in
the game and it will take some­
time to rectify this state of af­
fairs .
C) Some o f Black's pieces are
partly tied down to the defence
of the d6 pawn which will make
tack elsewhere.
D) His m inor pieces are m uch
more active, especially the
bishop on g2.
E) Finally Karpov has the much
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
safer k i n g . I n particular he will
try to exploit Veselin's last move .
Conclusion: Anatoly wil l think
the time is ripe to launch an at­
tack at the opponent's king as
so m any factors are in his fa­
vou r.
1 5 h4!
Let the battle com mence!
Pawns are often very effective
when used as a batteri ng ram to
open the way for the rest of the
army.
1 5 . . . a6
Veselin desperately tries to or­
ganise some cou nter-play on
the queenside in order to dis­
tract Karpov, but it is to no avail.
If he had p layed the obvious 1 S
. . . hS then 1 6 l:tad 1 l:td8 1 7 fS!
gxfS 1 8 'ifh6 is very p romising
for W h ite .
1 6 h5 b5 1 7 hxg6 hxg6 1 8
ltJc5 !
Karpov's brings his least active
piece i nto play.
1 8 . . . dxc5
Veselin is forced to part with his
26
bishop for the knight as 1 8 . . .
i.e8 would allow 1 9 tiJxe6! !
destroying his kingside pawn
cover.
1 9 'ii'x d7 l:[c8
Clearly Vesel i n was banking on
this move to rescue his position
but he is i n for a nasty s u rprise.
20 l:[xe6 ! !
When Karpov sacrifices a rook
then the opponent has good
cause to worry as Anatoly does
not undertake such risks l i g htly.
It is wo rth noting that after 20
.i.xc6 l:ta7! 2 1 'ifd3 l:txc6 22
cxbS c4! 23 'iff3 l:tc8 Black
would have reasonable com­
pensation for the pawn because
the bishop would then be m uch
stronger than the knight.
20 ... 1:[a7 21 lbg6+ !
In chess terms this is called a
despe rado - a piece that does
as m uch damage as poss ible
before the enemy can remove it
from the scene of action. This
rook has not died in vai n as it
has completely opened up
Black's king.
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING

21 ... fxg6 22 "e6+ �g7 23 25 ... ..td4 26 bxa6 !

..txc6
Although m ate rial is rou g h ly
leve l , Anatoly w i l l have thought
that two t h i n g s , i n particu lar,
were now i n h i s favo u r. Apart
f ro m the fact that Black's k i n g
on g7 is rather exposed there
is one other facto r that is not
so obvious but equally i m por­
tant.

It is highly instructive to see

Karpov i n action . H e uses the
a6 pawn as a decoy so that
Veselin will have to waste valu­
able time removi ng it, before all
his pieces can come to the aid
of his king. At no time i n the at­
tack does Karpov rush to finish
the job off - he wants to make
absolutely certain of winning the
game rather than finding a
There is now the p resence of
spectacular finale.
opposite coloured bishops which
m eans that when Anatoly at­ 26 ... "b6 27 l:td1 ! 'iVxa6
tacks on the wh ite squares he
has one more piece than his
opponent, because the black
bishop on e7 is j ust a helpless
bystander.
23 . . . l:td8 24 cxb5 !
W hy not? Karpov g rabs some
more booty while he has the
opportunity.
24 . . . ..tf6 25 l£le4!
The knight enters the fray. Look The pawn has gone, but with
h ow Karpov's pieces move eve r the black q ueen now misplaced
closer i n the d i rection of Black's on a6, Karpov strikes!
king. 28 l:[xd4! !
27
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
Anatoly removes Veselin's m ost
usef u l defender. Now his three
remaining pieces can swarm all
over the black king.
28 ... lIxd4 29 .fS+ �g8 30
"xgS+ �f8 31 .e8+ r;t>g7
32 "e5+
Karpov loves to have his queen
on any of the central squares
(especially d4, e4, d5 and e5)
as the q ueen is then at its most
powe rf u l . In addition , because
he has a wh ite squared bishop
he p uts his queen on a black
square so they complement each
other.
32 ... �g8 33 �fS+ �f7 34
1.e8+ �f8 35 "xc5+
Vesel in's last and fi nal pawn
b ites the d ust! Two rooks are no
match for a bishop, knight and
five pawns .
35 . . . "dS 3S .xa7 .xf6
37 1.h5!
A m u ltipu rpose m ove. From h5
the bishop controls d 1 , is ready
to go to f3 from where it can
defend the k i n g and finally it
28
keeps an eye on f 7 s o that t h e
black qu een w i l l b e permanently
tied down .
37 . . . l:td2 38 b3 ltb2 39
�g2
Vesel i n res igns because he has
run out of constructive moves.
Karpov will sim ply wal k his
q ueenside pawns up t he board .
GAME 7
Two of my favou rite playe rs are
Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei
Shirov. Creating works of art is
the norm for the m , as they are
two of the most talented and
creative players the wo rld has
ever seen. They enhance their
in nate ability with that most im­
portant ingredient of all, HARD
WORK, which makes them very
form idable opponents . It's a bit
of a treat when they are on op­
pos ing sides of the chessboard,
because it i nvariably leads to a
fireworks' display.
White : Vassily Ivanchuk
Black : Alexei Sh irov
W ij k aan Zee 1 996
1 d4 d5 2 c4 cS 3 tbc3 tbfS
4 tbf3 e6 5 1.g5 dxc4 S e4
b5 7 e5
This is the Botvi n n i k Variation. It
is unquestionably one of Black's
sharpest repl ies to 1 d4. Ivan­
chuk is u p to the challenge.
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING
7 ... h6 8 i.. h 4 g5 9 tDxg5
hxg5 10 i.. x g5 tDbd7 1 1
exf6 i.. b 7 1 2 g3 cS 1 3 d5
'iib 6 1 4 i.. g 2 0-0-0 1 5 0-0
b4 1 6 tDa4 'ii' b 5 1 7 a3 exd5
1 8 axb4 cxb4 1 9 i.. e 3 tDc5
20 "g4+
Sti l l following theory! Let me try
to put my i nterpretation on the
position. Firstly the material is
stil l leve l ! Secondly, we come to
the important part: the respec­
tive location of the kings -
W hite's king is in no real danger
n icely tucked away on g 1 . It has
three pawns on h2, g3 and f2
added to a bishop on g2 which
provide it with ample protection.
Black's , on the other hand, has
a lot of ventilation with no real
pawn cover to speak of. So, you
m i g ht ask , what is the up side of
Black's position? Well, basi-
cally, i n my opinion, I think
Black is hoping that his four to
one pawn majority on the
q u eenside can do some serious
damage. So to put it simply,
W h ite's plan is to play for an
29
attack in the m iddlegame, while
Black is hoping to come storm­
ing th rough in the ending.
20 . . . :d7
This is a new move (normal is
20 . . . �b8) , but I doubt that we
will be seeing too m uch of it i n
the futu re.
21 'iWg7 ! !
Spectacular but also very strong!
Vassily is prepared to actually
g ive u p his queen for just two
m inor pieces in order to in­
crease the power of his attack .
I n addition, he also obtains a
huge pawn on g7 which will tie
down Alexei's rook on h8 to po­
licing it.
21 ... i.. x g7 22 fxg7 :g8 23
tDxc5
23 . . . d4
Alexei had a n u m ber of other
i nte resting poss ibil ities but they
all seem to favour W h ite. Here
are a few variations to whet
you r appetite:
A) 23 . . . ':'c7, the most natu ral
m ove , 24 tDxb7 Axb7 25 ':'fd 1
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
l:td7 26 i.d4! when Vass i ly has
the s i m ple plan of advancing his
h pawn as far as it wil l go.
B) 23 ... l:txg7 removing W h ite's
most dangerous asset. 24 i.h3
.tc6 when 25 l:txa7! seems to
win oodles of material.
24 ..5txb7+ l:txb7 25 ttJxb7
'ii' b 6
Recapturing the knight with 25
. . . c;i?xb7 was no good e ither as
after 26 i.xd4 a5 27 l:tfe 1 !
Vassily is winning because
there is no way that Alexei's
poor queen can cope with
W h ite's maraud i n g army. It is
worth beari ng i n mind that the
queen is not nearly so effective
when the opponent's king is
safe f rom checks, as is the
case here.
26 ..5txd4! !
Another thunderbolt from the
U krai nian wizard .
26 . . . 'iVxd4 27 :fd1
Note how Vas s i ly never g ives
his opponent a c hance to re­
g roup. His every m ove is made
30
with tem po, which as I have
said before and I will say agai n ,
is often the key to a successf u l
attack.
27 ... 'iVxb2
Again Alexei would have been
sorely tem pted to re move that
i rritating g pawn , but after 27 . . .
'ii'x g7 2 8 l:txa7 �b8 2 9 l:tda1
l:te8 30 lLld6! threatens mate in
two . Now after the forced 30 . . .
l:te1 + 3 1 l:txe1 �xa7 3 2 lLlxc4
the ending is good for Vassily
altho ugh it is not completely
over.
2S ttJd6+ �bS 29 l:[db1 !
'iVxg7
The alternative 29 . . . 'ii'c 3 would
lose prettily to 30 l:txa7! �xa7
31 lLlb5+ �a6 32 lLlxc3 bxc3 33
l:tb4! ! picking u p both c pawns .
30 :xb4+ �c7 31 :a6 !
Vassily's makes that final stroke
that is needed to complete the
masterpiece. There is now no
satisfactory defence to 32
l:tb7+.
31 . . . :bS
Alexei could have tried 31 . . . c3
32 l:tb7+ c;i;>d8 33 l:taxa7 when I
will leave it to you to work out
how many m ates i n one are on
the men u .
3 2 :xa7+ �xd6 3 3 l:xbS
'iVg4 34 :dS+ �c6 35 :a1
Alexei now res i g ned as there is
no adequate response to the
simple plan of doubling both
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING

rooks against the c4 pawn and d4 lDd7 S lDc3 1.g7 6 lDf3

then exchanging off i nto a win­
ning king and pawn ending.
No doubt some of these two's
further encounters will b e appear-
lDgf6 7 0-0 0-0 8 'ii'c2 l:e8
9 l:td1 c6 1 0 b3 "iie 7 1 1 a3
e4! ?
Normal here i s t o p lay 1 1 . . .

ing in some of my futu re books. exd4 but Artu r decides to go for

GAM E S
It is hard to imagine the tens ion
that there m ust have been in
the following exciting encounter
between Vassily Ivanc h u k and
Artur Yusupov. Vass ily had
been leading for most of this
Quarter-final World Champion­
ship Match u ntil he lost the final
game i n which Artur played with
g reat energy and creativity.
i t and boldly advances h i s e5
pawn wel l into enemy territo ry -
a b rave but risky decision.
12 lDgS e3 13 f4 lDf8 1 4 b4
Vassi ly gets his q ueenside play
going. It is now a race to see
whose attack is qu icker.
1 4 ... 1.fS 1 S 'ii' b 3 h6 1 6
lDf3 lDg4 1 7 bS gS!

They then went i nto overtime i n

which i t was A rt u r w h o dealt the
f irst decisive blow. After the
game had fi nished Vassily went
outside the hotel and let out an
a l m i g hty scream - I don't blame
h i m ! S i nce that game was
p layed, he has not qualified for Both players are j ust ignoring
another match in a World what the other is doing!
Championship Cycle. Are the 1 8 bxc6 bxc6 1 9 lDeS ! ?
psychological scars from this
Vassily uses the pin o n the d6
game sti l l with h i m? We can
pawn to gang up on the c6
only wait and see. Let's hope not.
pawn. However, it does have
the serious d rawback of taking
Wh ite : Vassily Ivanchuk the knight on f3 away from the
B l a c k : Artur Yusupov defence of his king.
Brussels 1 991
19 gxf4 20 lDxc6 'ii'g S 21
•.•

1.xd6 lDg6
1 c4 eS 2 g3 d6 3 1.g2 g6 4
31
 A11ACK with GM Julian Hodgson

I have to say I would not e njoy

playin g either colou r. I would
expect to get mated as W h ite
and lose the ending as Black!
22 ttJd5 'ii'h 5 23 h4

The critical pos ition - W h ite is a

So let us try to get to g rips with
the position: Black's queenside
is something of a wasteland but
that is not so important when all
the action is happening on the
kingside.
piece u p but can he defend?
25 ttJde7+
After the game finished eve ry­
one thought this was the deci­
sive m i stake and gave 25
�ce7+ as winning for W h ite but
they had all m issed Artur's bril­
liant idea 25 . . . �h8 26 �xf5
'ii' h 2+ 27 �f 1 i.e5! ! This is it!

It is clear that A rt u r's chances

of a successfu l outcome are not
at all bad . I have cou nted the e3
pawn i n the statistics because it
is such a thorn in W h ite's side
as it virtually c uts the board in
two. The only reason Vassily is
in the game at all is because he
has an an noyin g check on e7
which can slow Black down.
23 .•. ttJxh4 ! ?
Artu r goes for it. W hat a hero!
24 gxh4 'iVxh4
Artur prevents i.xf4 for one vital
tempo, while opening up the g
file for his last p iece the roo k on
a8. Now Black is winning as
follows 28 i.xe5+ 1:xe5 29 dxe5
1:g8! (th reatening 30 . . . Wh 1 +! !
31 i.xh 1 �h2+ 32 �e 1 1:g 1
mate. ) 30 �dxe3 The only

32
 ALL OUT FOR THE KING

move. 30 . . . fxe3 31 �xe3

"f4+! 32 .i.f3 �xe3+ 33 �e1
':g1+ 34 'itf2 �g4+! 35 �xg1
"h2+ 36 �f1 "f2 mate!

W h ite should therefore have

played 25 .i.xf4, when the best
Black can do is force a perpet­
ual check with 25 . . . "f2+ 26
'iii> h 1 "h4+ but at this stage of
the game Vassily was stil l play­
ing for a win . W ho would n't? 28 ... :g6 ! !
25 ... <it>h8 26 lbxf5 'iVh2+ Two pieces down - what's an­
27 �f1 other rook between friends?
It is hardly believable that Black 29 'iVxa8+ �h7 30 'ii'g 8+!
has enough play for two pieces Vassily finds the only way to
but that is the beauty of chess. prolong the game. There is no
27 ... :e6 other way to prevent 30 . . .
'ii' h 1+ ! ! followed b y mate i n two.
It seems logical to bring the
rook i nto the attack but 27 . . . 30 ... �xg8 31 lbce7+ �h7
.i.f6! was even stronger as then 32 lbxg6 fxg6 33 lbxg7
the bishop joins the f ray. The lbf2 ! !
main line ru ns as follows : 28
l:td3 or (28 cS ':g8 29 "d5
"h1+ ! ! with mate to follow) 28
. . . .i.h4! , this is the point of
Black's p revious move, 29 l::tx e3
.i.f2 ! , look at that bishop go! 30
':xe8+ ':xe8 31 e4 "g1+ 32
<ifi>e2 'ii'x g2 and now there is no
way for W h ite to defend his
poor monarc h .
28 'iWb7?
This is the decis ive m istake. The final b rilliant move i n a tru ly
Vass ily could still have made a brilliant game. There is no ade­
d raw with 28 �ce7! l:[xe7! 29 quate way to defend against 34
�xe7 "g3 30 ..tg 1 with another . . . �h3.
d raw by perpetual check.
34 i.xf4 'ii'xf4 35 lbe6

33
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

The alternative 35 ':db1 loses It is mate next move.

as follows : 35 . . . lLlh3+ 36 'ite1
'iVh4+ 37 'itd1 'ifxd4+ 38 'itc2
'iVxc4+ 39 'itb2 'ifxe2+ when it
is actually Black who has more
pieces !
35 'iVh2 36 l:tdb1 lDh3 37
• • .

l:tb7+ <itgS 3S l:bS+ 'iVxbS

39 .itxh3 'iVg3 !
The c u m u lation o f Artu r's strat­
egy - the advance of the e5
pawn that origi nated on move This has to be one of the most
eleven has been completely inspired performances I have
vind icated . ever seen.

34
 THE KING HUNT
2 THE KING HUNT
The title of this chapter is fai rly
self explanatory. King hu nts are
i n essence a more spectacular
version of what we saw in the
p revious chapter. The attacking
side donates varying amou nts
of material to l u re the enemy
king u p the board from where
there will be no escape .
GAM E 9
I first saw the following game in
most u nusual c i rcumstances. I ,
together with N igel Short, an d a
couple of other players , we re
coaching some JUniors one
weekend in a school in North
London.
D u ring one of my breaks , I de­
cided to nip i n and spectate on
one of N i gel's lectures. He was
talking to a group of about
twenty 7 year-olds on the topic
of weak squares. It was clear to
me that they did not have the
faintest idea of what Nigel was
on about. I think you could
safely say it was all G reek to
the m !
It was a t t h i s point I decided to
35
make my presence known and
as k N igel if he would demon­
strate one of his wins f rom his
previous tournament. He was
only too happy to oblige. Here
then is his brilliant sac rificial win
against the mighty Lj ubom i r
Lju bojevic, o n e o f m y favou rite
personalities on the chess
scene.
White : Nigel Short
Black: Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Euwe Memorial 1988
1 e4 c5 2 tbf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4
4 tbxd4 tbf6 5 tbc3 tbc6 6
i.g5 e6 7 'ii'd 2 a6 8 0-0-0
h6 9 i.e3 i.d7 1 0 f4 b5 1 1
i.d3 i.e7 1 2 <iit b 1
N igel is very fond of th i s move
in the Sicilian. He calm ly takes
a time-out to improve the pos i­
tion of his king. There are no
longer any nasty checks on the
c1 - h6 d iagonal, which is very
useful.
12 . . . b4? !
N igel felt that this pawn thrust
was premature. Black should
have continued his development
with 12 . 'iVc7.
..
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

1 3 �ce2 0-0 1 9 ... hxg5 20 fxg5 �d7

This is definitely a case of cas­
tling i nto it. W h ite's attack is
more dangerous as Black has
already played the very weaken­
ing h6. However, it's all very
wel l for me to say this in hind­
sight, but where else can the
black king go?
1 4 h3!

21 .i.xg7 1 !
Ban g ! N igel rips away the pawn
cover from the black king.
21 ... <ifi>xg7 22 �h5+
C rash !
22 ... �g6
Lj ubo boldly marches his mon­
arch into the valley of death. I n
Simple but effective! N igel in­ the words of Margaret Thatcher,
tends the highly su btle g4 fol­ "There will be no turning back!"
lowed .by g5 followed by check­ On a more serious note, all king
mate. How I wish chess was retreats would be well met by
always so easy! 23 g6! which wins i n all lines.
1 4 . . . "iic 7 1 5 g4 23 e5+ !
Here we go!
1 5 ... 'ii' b 7 1 6 �g3 �xd4 1 7
.i.xd4 .i.c6 1 8 .1:.he1 .1:.fe8
1 9 g5!
W ith a queen, two rooks , two
bishops, a knight and four pawns
all pointing at the black king,
N igel decides the time is right
for an attack . It is hard ly s u rpris­
ing that Lju bo cannot find a de­
fence because put q uite simply, Wallop! By now even the j u niors
there isn't one! were getting excite d ! Who
36
 THE KING HUNT
doesn't like a good king h u nt?
23 ... �xh5
Basically, Black is two pieces
u p but a king down .
24 .f4!
A q u iet move th reatening 25
_g4 mate. The net is closing i n .
24 ... .ltxg5 25 .xf7+ «iit h 4
H i ho, h i ho, it is u p the board
we go . . . .
2 6 .h7+ �g3 2 7 .h5 �h2
It m i g ht seem as if the black
king has a death wish but there
is no escape from the maraud­
ing white a rmy.
A stats box shows the hope­
lessness of Lj ubo's task.
28 .xg5
This i s the move that I too
would have played but accord­
ing to m y computer Fritz 4 it is
37
not the most accu rate move.
After 28 'ife2+ F ritz seems to
think that it is mate i n 6 against
the best defence. W ho am I (a
mere mortal) to argue?
Here it is: 28 ... c;t,>g3 (the other
two moves 28 ... �xh3 and 28
... �g2 both get mated i n 5
moves) 29 :%g 1 + �g2 30 �e4
�f4 31 "g4+ �xe5 32 'ifxg5+
�xe4 33 ':'ge 1 + 'it'f3 34 'ife3
mate. Thank you Fritz! You are
more than j ust a pretty interface .
28 ... 1:g8 29 1:d2+ .i.g2 30
.f4+ 1:g3 31 .i.e4 'ii' x e4 32
'ii'x e4
At this j u nctu re Lj u bo decided to
call it a day. I have to say that is
often more enjoyable taking
you r opponents pieces than de­
livering checkmate. Oh yes , and
by the way, all the j u n iors
seemed most i m p ressed !
GAM E 1 0
It is not often that you see a
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

game that j ust seems to flow move!

from start to finish. The follow­
ing is one such example. W hat
made such a big impression on
me was the way J u lio G randa
Z u n iga coordinated his small
army to generate an overwhelm­
ing attack so qu ickly. After only
five moves the queens had al­
ready been exchanged , but in
only fifteen more the wh ite king
had found itself i n a mating net!

White : Nick De Firmian 8 ... f6 !

Black: Julio G randa Zuniga
Donner Memorial 1 996
1 e4 d5
I can definitely recommend this
move . . .
2 exd5 'iix d5
. . . as I have yet to see a good
way for W h ite to play this posi­
tion.
3 d4
I don't think this is it!
3 ... e5 ! 4 dxe5
4 lilf3 would have been more
prudent.
4 ... 'iix d1 + 5 �xd 1 lLlc6 6
f4 i.f5 7 c3 0-0-0+ 8 �e1
J ust take a look at this position
for a moment; J u lio has devel­
oped three pieces while N ick's
are yet to get out of the starting
blocks. To make matte rs worse,
W h ite can no longer castle and
o n top of that it is stil l Black's
J u lio plans to open the central
files to bl ast away at N i ck's k i n g .
9 i.b5 fxe5 1 0 i.xc6 bxc6
1 1 fxe5
And still N ick's pieces are stuck
on their original squares.
1 1 ... i.c5 1 2 lLlf3
At last! In this type of position ,
time i s of the essence. If W h ite
is allowed to complete the rest
of his development re latively
unhindered , then he will have
good prospects on account of
his extra pawn and Black's long
term pawn weaknesses on the

38
 THE KING HUNT

queenside. J u lio, therefore, al­ Sad ly 18 It)xg5 is no i m p rove­

lows N ick no opportunity to re­ ment on account of 1 8 . . . l:Id3+!
g roup. 1 9 It)f3 :g8! 20 'itr'f4 .i.h7 when
12 . . • ltJf6 ! 1 N ick's king will not s u rvive for
very long on f4-.
Absol utely brilliant! The knight
is taboo on accou nt of 1 3 exf6 1 8 ... gxh4+ 1 9 ltJxh4 i.h7
Ahe8+ 1 4 'it>f 1 .i.d3 mate. 20 ltJf3 l:thg8
1 3 i.g5
N ick sens ibly continues his de­
velopment but he did have one
other i nteresting possibility: 1 3
b4! ? .i.b6 1 4 c4 c5! 1 5 exf6
Ahe8+ 1 6 'it>f2 cxb4+ 1 7 'it'g3
:e4! 18 h3 gxf6 1 9 'it>h2 :e2

W h ite's king is now i n a mating

net.
21 l:txh5
This loses material but the al­
ternatives are even worse as he
loses a king! Here is one ex­
ample: 2 1 e6 It)e3+ 22 �f2
:xg2+ 23 'it>xe3 l:Id3+ 24 �4
I don't know whether J u lio saw :g4+ 25 ..tt e 5 Axf3
this line when he played 1 2 . . .
It)f6 but i f h e d i d then I a m as­
tou nded ! There is no good way
for N ick to deal with the threats ,
especially agai nst g2.
1 3 ... h6 1 4 i.h4 g5 ! 15 i.f2
i. xf2+ 1 6 �xf2 ltJg4+ 1 7
�g3 h5!
J u l io never allows N ick a free
m ove to complete his queen­
side development.
and it is mate on either f5 or e4.
18 h4
39
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
21 ... l[)f6+ ! 22 :gS l[)e4+
23 �h4 l[)xgS 24 l[)xgS
J u lio now finds the last accu rate
move that puts an end to the
proceedings.
24 ... l%d1 !
N ick never gets a chance to
move his u ndeveloped pieces.
2S e6
Or 25 tLlxh7 l:[h1 mate
2S :1g1 26 l[)d2 ':xa1 27
• . •
l[)df3 �e4! 28 l[)d4
Two knights are no match for
two rooks and a bishop.
28 ... cS 29 l[)b3 ':g1
I opening against them is a use­
And mate follows shortly.
40
GAM E 1 1
-------
Eve ry February there is a lovely
chess festival i n Bern. Usually
the tou rnament is a 9 rou nd
Swiss, but i n 1 996 the sponsors
wanted something d ifferent; as
a res u lt a 32 player knock-out
tournament was organised in­
stead.
Matthew Sad ler played the out­
standing game of the first
rou n d . He dispatched Switzer­
land's number 1 home bred
player, Lucas Brunner, in a g lo­
rious king h u nt. It is definitely
worth seeing agai n .
White : Matthew Sadler
Black: Lucas Brunner
Bern 1 996
1 d4 dS 2 c4 dxc4
A very brave choice from Lucas
as Matthew is THE world's
leading expert on the Queen's
Gambit Accepted. Often , how­
ever, playing you r opponent's
ful tactic as they can feel very
u ncomfortable as i n effect they
are playing themselves - but
that was not the case here!
3 e3 l[)f6 4 �xc4 e6 S l[)f3
cS 6 'ii'e2 a6 7 dxcS �xcS 8
e4 bS 9 �b3 �b7 1 0 �c2
This is a new move ; 10 e5 is
more normal.
 THE KING HUNT
1 0 ... tt)bd7 1 1 0-0 'ii' b 8 1 2
tt)bd2 0-0
It m i g ht appear as if noth ing
much is going o n , but from al­
most nowhere Matthew
lau nches a massive attack.
1 3 e5!
A good move that d rives away
Black's best kingside defender.
1 3 ... tt)g4 1 4 tt)e4 ! !
One of the hardest parts of be­
ing a good attacker is being
able to see the opponent's de­
fens ive resou rces before it is
too late.
It is reasonably obvious that 14
'it'd3 g6 1 5 'it'xd7 is not good as
41
after 15 . . . l:td8! the white q ueen
is trapped. Howeve r, it is m uch
more d ifficult to see what Black
would have done against the
seemingly very strong 14 lLlg5.
Can you see the reply? 14 . . .
h5! ! i s the star move with the
following brilliant point: 15 'ii'd 3
g6 16 'it'xd7 tbxe5! and again
the white queen has no moves !
1 4 ... tt)gxe5 1 5 i.f4!
Matthew develops another piece
and at the same time pins
Black's knight on e5.
1 5 ... tt)xf3+ 1 6 'ii'xf3
Now the queen has to move so
losing time.
1 6 ... "87 1 7 "h3 i.d4
1 8 tt)c5 ! tt)f6
Lucas cannot captu re the knight
on c5 on accou nt of 19 'ii'x h7
mate
1 9 tt)d7!
Very strong. Lucas has to lose
material as there is no way he
can m eet the twi n th reats of 20
lLlxf6+ and 20 lLlxf8.
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
1 9 ... ':fd8?
There was a good case for 1 9
. . . g6 and giving up the ex­
change. W h ite would then have
no real attack and would be
forced to try to eke out a win in
t h e ending - not an easy task as
Black's position is so solid.
20 tDxf6+ �xf6 21 �e3 !
An i m po rtant move - Black's
bishop is forced to relinquish
the h4 - d8 d iagonal which will
mean that his king will become
m uch more exposed .
21 ... �d4 22 'ii'x h7+ <ii? f8
23 'ii' h 8+ <ii? e 7 24 'ii' h 4+
�e8 25 'ii' h 8+
Matthew keeps checking to get
nearer the time contro l . There is
nothing q u ite as i rritating as
blu ndering on the 40th move
when you had a chance to get
you r opponent to repeat earl ier.
This is a tactic W estern players
have learnt from the top Sovi­
ets .
25 . . . <ii? e 7 26 .i.g5+1
Revealing the point of W h ite's
42
21st m ove .
26 . . . �f6 27 'ii'x g7!
Lucas's defence starts to
crumble.
27 ... 'ii'd 4 28 �g6!
Again Matthew shows great
care. It would have been so
easy to play 28 l:tad 1 ? missing
28 . . . l:tg8! when Black is fine.
28 ... �xg5 29 'ii'xf7 +
Now Lucas's king beg ins its
long and lonely march up the
board .
29 ... <ii? d 6 30 l:ad 1 �d2 3 1
'ii'x b7 l:t h 8 3 2 'ii'f3
32 "e4 ! would have won a
piece on the spot but Matthew
was now in serious time trouble
so it is u nderstandable that he
could miss it.
32 ... <ii? c 5 33 l:tc1 +! �xc1
34 lbc1 + �b6 35 'ii'c 6+
<ita5 36 'ii'c 7+ <itb4 37 a3+
<ii? b 3 38 'ii'c 2+ <ita2
White to play and m ate i n two?
Not so d ifficu lt you m ight think,
 THE KING HUNT
but wou ld you have found it with
only 5 seconds remain in g on
you r clock?
39 .b1 +
The answer is 39 :a 1 +! �xa 1
40 'iVb1 mate.
39 ... �b3 40 .i.c2+ �c4 41
.i.e4+ �b3 42 ':c3+ �a4 43
'iic 2+
Lucas now resigned which is a
bit of a shame as the finish
would have been ve ry satisfyi ng
43 . . . �a5 44 b4+ 'iti>b6 45 ':c6+
'iti>a7 46 ':c7+ �b8 47 ':b7
mate. It is not often the king
visits three corners of the
board !
GAM E 1 2
After the 1 995 chess festival at
W ij k aan Zee had ended , eve­
ryone (and I mean everyone ! )
was ravin g on about o n e game.
" D id you see it? " , I was asked.
"See what?" I would reply. "Oh,
come on J u lian, you must have
seen 'the Pearl of W ij k aan
Zee'. " Well, I didn't have the
fai ntest idea what they were
talking about. Eventually some­
one put me out of my misery
and showed me this gem. I
have to say, in all honesty, that I
d id not think it was a particularly
g reat game but it did have an
exq u i s ite finish.
43
So here is you r chance to enjoy
'The Pearl of W ij k aan Zee'
you rself; it is between Robert
Cifuentes Parada from Holland ,
via Chile, (known to all the
Dutch players as Roberto) and
another of the many you n g
Russian superstars Vadim
(try spel ling that
Zvjagi nsev
when you have had one too
many! ) .
White : Robert Ci1uentes
Black: Vadim Zvjaginsev
W ij k aan Zee 1 995
1 d4 eS 2 4)13 dS 3 c4 4)1S
4 4)c3 cS S e3 4)bd7 S 'ii'c 2
bS 7 .i.e2 .i.b7 8 0-0 .i.e7 9
':d1 0-0
It had a slow bui ld up.
1 0 e4 dxe4 1 1 4)xe4 'ii'c 7
1 2 4)c3 cS 1 3 dS exdS 1 4
cxdS as !
A very important move; Black
p repares to advance his queen­
side majority and at the same
time cuts out an annoying lbb5.
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

1 5 lLlh4 g61 Although Roberto blu nders , we

should be thankful that he did,
Cool, c a l m a n d collected . The
because in doing so, we get to
you n g Vadi m plays a prophy­
witness the fol lowi ng beautifu l
lactic m ove that is so typical of
a n d yet b rutal finish.
the Russ ian school of chess -
kill you r opponent's cou nterplay
before it has a chance to get
too serious. Now the white
knight looks rather silly on h4. It
would have been easy to
q u ickly play 15 . . . �d6 but after
1 6 lLlf5! Roberto would obtain
reasonable play for a pawn as
the knight on f5 would then be a
sou rce of constant worry to the
black king.
16 i.. h 6 :fe8 1 7 'ii'd 2? If he had played the correct and
normal 24 :ac 1 ! b ringing his
Very careless. W h ite should last piece into the game then as
have first played the almost far as I can see Vad i m would
automatic 1 7 a4 to hold up the have no clearly good continua­
advance of Black's queenside tion. e.g. 24 . . . lLlxf2? 25 �xf2
majority. 'ii'h 3 26 �f4 'ii'x h2+ 27 lLlg2
17 ••. i.. d 6 1 8 g3 b5 ! �xf4 28 lLlexf4! when it is W h ite
But of cou rse, my dear Watson ! that is winning.
Vadi m is now better a n d the
reason for this is very clear: his So let the Show beg i n . . .
pawn majority i s mobile, while 24 .•. lLlxf2 ! !
Roberto's passed pawn o n d 5 is
This move is made possible be-
f i rm ly blockaded. cause the bishop retreat to g2
1 9 i.. f 3 b4 20 lLle2 lLle4 has loosened W h ite's control
Vadi m has to be careful as a ove r g4.
g reedy move such as 20 . . . lLlb6 25 c;t>xf2 1be3 ! !
would al low 2 1 lLlf5! with a
Another thunderbolt stri kes!
mess . I would have g iven seri-
ous consideration to 20 . . . 26 i.. xe3? !
:e5 ! ? blunting W h ite's play and Roberto had another chance to
preparing to double rooks. spoil the fun with 26 �xe3 but
21 'iic2 lLldf6 22 lLlg2 'ii'd 7 after 26 . . . lLlg4+ 27 c;t;>d2 lLlxh6
28 'iti>c1 'ii'e 7! W h ite's position is
23 lLle3 J:lad8 24 i.. g 2?
44
 THE KING HUNT

still pretty d readfu l as the a 1

rook is out of play and the king
is awkwardly placed on c 1 .
26 ... l£lg4+
Exploiting W h ite's weak 24th
move because the bishop no
longer controls the g4 square .
27 �f3 l£lxh2+ 28 �f2
l£lg4+ 29 �f3
Hoping for another repetition
but no such luck! I bet Roberto 31 ... 'iVe3+ ! !
had m issed Vadim 's next Ahhhhhhh . . . W hat can I say?
bombshell as the m ind often 32 �xe3 lbe3+ 33 �xg4
has as a psychological block at
s potting such moves . �c8+ 34 �g5
34 �h4 is also not too prom is­
ing on accou nt of 34 . . . �e7
mate
34 ... h6+ !
There is someth ing q u ite spiri­
tual about l u ring the opponent's
king into the valley of doo m !
35 �xh6 :e5

29 . . . 'iVe61 !
Did you m iss it also? The rea­
son we have a block for seeing
such moves is because for vir­
tually the enti re game the d5
pawn has controlled the e6
square , and then suddenly it is
not d u e to the pin. This is a
classic case of chess blindness
that effects eve ryone. And so ended 'the Pearl of W ij k
a a n Zee' I leave you t o decide
-

30 �f4 :e8 31 'iVc4 whether it is worthy of such an

So now is your chance to be a accolade.
he ro . . . Go for it!
45
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
3 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
Many gambits rely on speedy
development to make them vi­
able. Extra pieces do not cou nt
for very m uch if they are still at
home doing noth ing. In this
chapte r it is a lead in develop­
ment that is the c rucial factor in
aiding the attacking side to
c reate th reats until they are
eno u g h to force through a de­
cisive advantage .
GAM E 1 3
I always feel a small tingle of
excitement when I come across
a new opening that I think might
help me chalk up a few easy
points. Such was the case when
I played over the fol lowi ng
game between Andre i Sokolov
and Jonathan Speelman from
the Madrid rapidplay in 1 988.
Jon employed the Icelandic
Gambit (so called because it
was pioneered by a g roup of
Icelanders headed by the highly
talented Hannes Stefansson)
and scored a convi ncing victory.
Andrei Sokolov, h i s opponent in
t h i s ga me, is something of an
46
enigma. I first played Andrei in
the E u ropean J u n ior Champi­
onsh ips in G roningen in 1 982.
Although I lost the game, I did
not think he was anything spe­
cial ( I was actually more i m ­
pressed b y the other Soviet
com petitor, Valery Salov) .
However, And rei seemed then
to make a tremendous s u rge up
t h e world rankings. I ndeed,
such was his progress that i n
1 987 he actually played the
great Anatoly Karpov in a W o rld
Championship eli m i nator to de­
cide who would have the right to
challenge the W o rld Champio n ,
Gary Kasparov. He lost that
match 7 4 without winning a
-
single game. After that Andrei
seemed to be a broken man
and was never the same force
again. P layi ng Karpov a match
should carry a government
health warning: playing m e
takes ye a rs off you r life!
I did use this opening with some
success , most notably against
Rini Kuijf in W ij k aan Zee the
next year - but you will have to
wait for my next book for that
game!
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT

White : Andrei Sokolov the game.

Black: Jonathan Speelman S d4 i.b4+ 6 i.d2 'ii'e 7!
Mad rid Rapidplay 1 988
This move threatens a nasty
discovered check.
1 e4 dS 7 i.xb4 'iVxb4+ a ltJd2 ltJc6 ! !
A very underrated opening in
This is the move that does the
my opinion. There are ve ry few
damage. Jon is only a couple of
W h ite players who know how to
moves from completing his de­
handle it as they hardly ever
velopment while Andrei has
have to face it.
hardly started his.
2 exdS ltJf6 3 c4 e6
9 ltJgf3
Andrei would have wanted to
play 9 d5 forking two pieces but
after 9 . . . O-O-O! he would be in
something of a dilemma as ei­
ther piece capture wou ld be
bad :
A) 1 0 dxc6 :he8 1 1 cxb7+
'it>b8! The pawn on b7 acts as
shelte r for the black king. 1 2
.i.e2 ll) e4 1 3 ll) gf3 ll) xd2 1 4
ll) xd2 .i.xc4! winning back the
This is the starting point of the piece and more besides .
Icelandic Gambit. It is a genuine B) 1 0 dxe6 :he8! 1 1 .i.e2 :xe6
pawn sac rifice as opposed to 3 when W h ite has virtually no
. . . c6 4 d4 cxd5 5 ll) c3 transpos­ constructive moves .
ing into the Panov Variation of
the Caro-Kann defence. 9 . . . 0-0-0
4 dxe6 i.xe6
You m i g ht as k, "What exactly
does Black have for the pawn?"
Well, Black al ready has devel­
oped two pieces to W h ite's
none and can q uickly bring the
rest of his army into battle. In
addition there is the psychologi­
cal aspect: it is extremely un­
pleasant to have to go on the
defensive as W h ite so early into

47
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
How often can you get a posi­
tion as good as this as Black
after only 9 moves?
10 d5 .i.g4! 1 1 .i.e2
Again And rei spurns the oppor­
tunity to take a piece and again
it is the rig ht decision as after
1 1 dxc6? ! :he8+ 1 2 iLe2 iLxf3
1 3 gxf3 �h5! 1 4 a3 "e7! there
is no defence to �f4.
11 .i.xf3 1 2 �xf3 :he8+
• . •
1 3 �f1 lLld4 1 4 'ifc1
W h at a sorry position to have to
play! J ust com pare the relative
worth of each players' rooks. My
advice to Andrei wou l d be try
starting again .
14 ... lLlxf3 15 lLlxf3 lIe4
In it goes!
1 6 b3 lIde8 1 7 h3 lLlh5! 1 8
g3?
A mistake in a wretched posi­
tion, but the ending after 1 8
'ifd2 "xd2 1 9 �xd2 ':'e2 is
nothing to write home about.
1 8 ... lLlxg3+ !
T h e knight gives itself u p t o rip
48
away the pawn cover around
W h ite's king. I h a ve to say I
h ave a good idea exactly what
And re i was fee l i n g at t h i s
m o m ent beca use I have also
been o n the receivi n g e n d of
many of Jon's lethal d e m o l i ­
tion j o b s .
19 fxg3 l:te3 ! 20 lLlg1 'ifd6 !
The q ueen homes in on another
weak spot in the W h ite position
- the g3 pawn.
21 :h2 ':xg3 22 "b2 "g6 !
2 3 �f2 l:tee3!
24 ... "f5+ is coming and there
is nothing Andrei can do.
24 lLle2 :gf3+ 25 <it>e1 "g 1 +
26 <it>d2 'ii'x h2 27 l:te1 'ii'f 2 !
Andrei resigned as he will lose
more mate rial to l:td3+.
A tremendous game fro m
Jonathan Speelman. He is ab­
solutely deadly in such posi­
tions, invariably finding the most
precise move to cause maxi­
mum devastatio n .
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
GAM E 1 4
The following game was played
by one of my best friends, Joe
Gallagher, in the British Cham­
pionships, in Blackpool , i n 1 988.
H is opponent was the u ltra
solid, Sheila Jackson , who has
been one of England's leading
ladies for the last couple of
decades. It is hard to describe
the feelings of jubilation with
which Joe greeted this wi n . To
say that he was over the moon
was someth ing of an under­
statement.
A rather n ice touch was that
there was a best game prize,
which was to be adj udicat e d by
a panel consisting of And rew
Martin and myself. This game
made our task of choosing the
winner rather easy.
White : Joe Gallagher
Blac k : Shei la Jackson
The B ritish Championships
1 988
1 e4 e5 2 f4
Joe is undoubtedly the leading
expert on the King's Gambit. He
has had many tremendous vic­
tories in this opening, by playi ng
with an al l-consu m i ng passion
and c reativity. I ndeed, a few
years after this game was played
he wrote a best selling book on
this openi ng which I can highly
49
recommend.
2 . • . exf4 3 tDf3 d6
Sheila opts for the Fischer De­
fence.
4 d4 g5 5 h4 g4 6 tDg1
I f i n d i t q u ite extrao rdinary that
W h ite can give u p a pawn ,
weaken his kingside and spend
a couple of tempi moving his
king's knight back to its original
square and sti ll claim to have a
reasonable position! But that
seems to be the case!
W h ite has the centre and some
j u icy targets such as f4 and f7
to launch an attack against.
6 �h6 7 tDc3 c6 8 tDge2
..•
"f6 9 g3 !
I
It may seem hard to bel ieve that
W hite vol untarily lets Black have
a p rotected passed pawn on his
third rank before move ten !
Howeve r, in t h e m iddlegame
this pawn is someth ing of an i r­
relevance and W h ite has no
intention of reaching an end­
game!
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson
9 ... f3 1 0 lDf4 'ile7 1 1 i.d3
i.g7 1 2 i.e3 hS
Black is wasting a lot of time,
while W h ite is q u ickly getting
developed.
13 'ifd2 lDd7 14 0-0-0 lDf8
1 S ':he1 i.d7
J oe is now ready to begin the
fi reworks display. He immediately
sets about opening up the posi­
tion to get at the black king, sti ll
stuck i n the middle of the board .
1 6 eS !
The fun begins!
1 6 ... dxeS 17 dxeS lDe6 1 8
lDe4 i.xeS
Sheila grabs a second pawn but
there is not much else she can do.
1 9 lDxe6 i.xe6
The alternative 1 9 . . . "ifxe6 is
met with 20 .i.c4! winning, eg
20 . . . 'it'xc4 21 'it'xd7+ �f8 22
.i.c5+ 'itg7 23 "iff5 1:Ie8 24
"ifg5+ 'ith7 25 "ifxh5+ lLlh6 26
lId6! and that is the end of that.
20 i.cs 'ii'c 7
50
21 lDd6+ 1 1
This is the star move that really
does the damage.
21 ... i.xd6 22 ':xe6+1
Oooh I say! That h u rts .
22 ... i.e7
This is the only move as 22 . . .
fxe6 2 3 .i.g6+ �d7 2 4 .i.xd6 is
rather painful. Look at Black's
pieces - the two rooks and
knight haven't even woken u p ,
let alone got o u t o f bed .
23 i.d6
It u psets me to have to say this
but I don't think that the text
was the best move. I suspect
that J oe got rather carried away
with his own brilliance. I can see
nothing wrong with the rather
prosaic 23 lIxe7+! lLlxe7 24
1:Ie1 0-0-0 25 :xe7 'it'xg3 (or
25 . . . 1:Id7 26 .i.f5) 26 "ifb4!
when Black has to suffer huge
loss of material to stave off mate .
23 ... 'ifxd6 24 ':xd6 i.xd6
2S i.a6 !
Joe keeps finding tricky tactics !
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
25 ... 0-0-0? !
I t i s natural that Sheila should
want to find some shelter for
her king but I think this was the
wrong moment to castle. The
g reedy 25 . . . .i.xg3 would have
caused more problems as there
is no im mediate finish for W h ite
and Black's two u n ited passed
pawns wi ll always be a worry in
the long term . Havi ng said that
W h ite of cou rse is sti ll much
better as Black's king is still in a
lot of trouble.
26 "c3 !
Another ham mer blow! Black
has no satisfactory answe r to
the twin th reats to c6 and h8.
26 ... l:£Je7
Sheila deals with two of the
th reats but Joe hits her with a
third one.
27 :txd6! bxa6 28 :f6!
It's important to keep a pai r of
rooks on the board , as W h ite's
rook is m uch more active.
28 . . . :thf8 29 'iic 5 ! :d7
51
30 'iix h5
Joe begins the process of hoo­
vering Black's kingside pawns.
30 ... :tfd8 31 'ifxg4
A nice touch. The rook on d7 is
pinned.
31 ... �b7 32 'ifxf3
Again mate on d1 is p revented
and again Joe mu nches another
pawn to do so.
32 ... I:£Jd5 33 l:bf7 I:£Jb6 34
b3
Very safe!
34 . . . a5 35 h5 a4 36 � b2
axb3 37 axb3 a5 38 h6 a4
39 h7 axb3 40 cxb3 �a7 41
:txd7+
And Sheila decided she had
had enough.
J oe spent the entire evening,
giving us a play by play ac­
count, going over the d ifferent
variations and demonstrating all
the different mates. His enthu ­
siasm was somewhat infec­
tious. W ith a few d rinks inside
me, I even felt b rave enough to
play the King's Gambit, but then
I woke u p the next day and
thought discretion was the bet­
ter part of valou r!
GAM E 1 5
I n the followi ng game I am
W h ite against J u lio G randa Zu-
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
niga. My opponent spends m ost
of h is time in Peru on his hobby,
which is farming! However, when
it comes to chess, I can safely
say that J u lio is one of the most
talented players I have eve r had
the privilege to do battle with .
White : J u l ian Hodgson
Black: Julio G randa Zuniga
Donner Memorial 1 996
1 d4 liJf6 2 i.g5
W hat a s u rprise! I was actually
q u ite intrigued to see how J u lio
would deal with my pet opening.
2 • . • e6
This is one of the best moves -
it is no coincidence that it is
Karpov's p referred choice
against the T rompovsky.
3 e4 h6 4 i.xf6 'iWxf6 5 liJc3
i.b4 6 'ifd2 d6 7 a3 i.a5 8
f4 g5 1 7
I was expecting this m ove as
Black i mmediately u ndermines
the W h ite centre. I now knew I
had to be extremely careful.
9 liJh3 gxf4 10 liJxf4 c6
In the post-morte m , J u lio told
me he played this m ove be­
cause he wanted to win. How­
ever, he also noticed that the
best move was 1 0 . . . .i.b6!
when
A) 1 1 0-0-0 is d u bious on ac­
count of 1 1 . . . .i.xd4! 1 2 .!l:)fd5
( 1 2 .!l:)h5 is answe red by 1 2 . . .
52
'iVg5 ! winning a pawn. ) 1 2 . . .
exd5 1 3 'iVxd4 'iVxd4 1 4 l:.xd4
.!l:)c6 1 5 l:.xd5 .!l:)e5 and Black is
s l i g htly bette r in the ending, due
to the wonderful knight on e5.
B) Therefo re I would have had
to play the less ambitious 1 1
l:.d 1 when B lack should be fine.
1 1 i.c4 d5 12 e5 'iWg5 1 3
i.e2
A careless move. I should have
played my intended 1 3 b4 .i.b6
and only then 1 4 .te2 when I
believe that W h ite is doing
rather wel l , as there will be a lot
of p ress u re down the f file.
1 3 ... cS !
W h ite's centre comes under
i ntense press u re. I played the
next few moves in something of
a haze .
1 4 b4 cxd4 1 5 liJb5 i.b6 1 6
liJd6+ �e7
Suddenly it was time to take
stock. I remember d u ring the
game feeling very hot and flus­
tered . I couldn't believe how
quickly I had blown my good
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
position. Not only is W h ite a
pawn down , but the e5 pawn is
also in danger of d ropping off.
So "Pop q u iz, Hotshot. What do
you do?"
1 7 lLlxf7
"Shoot the hostage! " or in this
case sacrifice you r best piece to
confuse the issue. I thought if I
was going to go down , I was
going to go down in flames.
1 7 ... �xf7 1 8 il.h5+ �g8
1 9 0-0 :h7 20 :f3 :g7 21
:af1
I had played the last few moves
q u ite q u ickly. I d idn't really be­
l ieve in my attack, but I thought
I would try to look confident
nonetheless (probably this had
someth ing to do with the couple
of h u n d red spectators watch­
ing.) H owever, I suddenly
perked u p when I noticed that
Black could not play his most
nat u ral m ove 21 . . . �c6 on ac­
cou nt of the brilliant 22 �g6! !
when a white rook is landing on
f8 with a huge, g reat thump!
53
This is the critical position and
fortunately for me my opponent
now blu ndered .
23 ... 'iVf5?
J u lio blows it! He had to play 23
. . . 'ii'x e5 when I had intended 24
i.f7+! d riving Black's king into
the open. After 24 . . . 'itt xf7 25
�h5+! is the move that is in
keeping with the position . W h ite
gains back some material with­
out losing momentum for the
attack. After 25 . . . <j;e7 26 �xg7
the position is hard to assess
but there is one underlying
p roblem for Black that just
doesn't seem to go away - his
u ndeveloped queenside. I would
defi nitely p refer to play W h ite.
24 il.g6! 'iff8
24 . . . 'ii'x e5 wou ld now lose to
25 �h5 'ii'e 2 26 'ii'f 4! winning.
25 'ii'x d3 !
J u lio told m e after the game h e
had completely m issed this
m ove.
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
25 ... ltJxe5 26 i.h7+ �h8
27 ltJg6+ ltJxg6 28 i.xg6 !
Not 28 1:xf8+ lLlxf8 when it is
Black who is winning as the
bishop o n h7 is doomed .
28 . . . 'ii'g 8 29 :U6 !
Another very powerf u l move .
W h ite s i m ply th reatens 30 "d2
followed by captu ring on h6.
Black has no answe r to this
simple plan.
29 ... .i.d8 30 "e3 .i.xf6 31
'ii'x h6+ :h7 32 .i.xh7 .i.g7
32 . . . 'iVxh7 would lose to 33
"f8+
33 -.h5 .f8
33 . . . 'it'xh7 would lose to 34
'it'e8+ "g8 35 l:th3+.
34 .i.d3+
And now my opponent resigned
as 34 . . . .i.h6 loses to 35 1:g6
while 34 . . . 'i\>g8 allows 35 "h7+
..t>f7 36 1:f3+ winning the queen.
After this defeat, J u lio ve ry
sportingly said "pe rfect attack . . .
I t was a perfect attack " . H e then
54
s howed what a great competitor
he was by scoring 3% from his
remaining fou r games to win the
tou rnament for the second year
ru nning - a remarkable achieve­
ment!
GAM E 1 6
Tony M i les has been one of
Eng land's top players for we ll
over t h e last twenty years. He
has set the standards for Eng­
land's later g randmasters to
emu late.
T ony has played all sorts of
openi ngs from the good, to the
interesting, to the outrageous.
I n the seventies he was the
leading expert on the Dragon -
now he plays rather less ana­
lysed openings almost i nvaria­
bly with s uccess. For the last
few years he had been scoring
ve ry wel l with the Chigorin De­
fence ( 1 e4 lLlc6) until he came
up against Spai n's n umber one
player, Miguel l IIescas , in last
year's zonal tou rnament, in Li­
nares. The game was some­
thing of a disaster for Tony in
particular and the opening in
general .
I first came ac ross Miguel I l Ies­
cas in an all-play-all tou rnament
in Alicante in 1 985. He i m ­
pressed me g reatly t h e n , when
he was a complete u nknown
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT

and he has gone f ro m strength move to meet because it ex­

to strength to becom e one of
the world's Super Grandmasters.
His dismantling of Tony's pet
opening is well worth another
look.
On a final note, he was the per­
son mainly responsible for set­
ting me off on my long affai r
with t h e Trompovsky.
White : Miguel lllescas
Black: Tony M i les
Linares Zonal 1 995
ploits the fact that the bishop on
h5 no longer defends the white
squared weaknesses on the
q ueenside.
8 ... c6 9 dxc6 bxc6
This natural recaptu re is Tony's
one and only real mistake of the
whole game. After the correct 9
. . . lDxc6 W h ite is better but
Black can certainly fight.
1 0 .ta4!

1 e4 4J c6 2 4Jf3 d6
Black could and probably
should play 2 . . . e5 but that is
m issing the point. The idea of 1
. . . lDc6 is to reach uncharted
territory as q uickly as possible,
where the opponent has to think
on his own at an early stage.
U nfortunately for Tony, Miguel After t h i s retreat th e black pawn
had spent the entire rest day on c6 becomes a constant tar­
before prepari ng something get.
rather nasty. 1 0 ... 'ilc7 1 1 'ile2 !
3 d4 4Jf6 4 4J c3 .tg4 5 .te3 Mi g uel gets ready to go long in
e6 6 h3 .th5 7 d5 4Je7 spite of the sem i-open b file.
So far so good. T ony has 1 1 ... 4J d7 12 g4!
played all this befo re . I ndeed , Now the bishop on h5 is forced
we had even looked at this po­ out of the game.
sition the night before and came
to the concl usion it was a little 1 2 ... .tg6 1 3 0-0-0
risky but worth a punt - how
wrong we we re!
8 .tb5+ !
This i s a n extremely unpleasant

55
 A17ACK with GM Julian Hodgson
If you compare each side's de­
velopment, the statistics do not
look too good for Black.
13 .•. e5
Tony makes another non devel­
oping m ove but 1 3 ... 0-0-0
would lose to 1 4 'ii'a 6+ �b8 1 5
l:[xd6! 'ii'x d6 1 6 lLlb5! winning;
the othe r move that Tony would
have wanted to play is 1 3 . . .
lLlb6 but that also loses t o 1 4
.i.xb6 axb6 1 5 lLlb5! when the
knight is i m m u ne to captu re on
account of 1 5 . . . cxb5 1 6 'ii'x b5+
�d8 1 7 'ii'e 8 mate. These two
variations are a warning that
something is very wrong with
the black position .
1 4 'ii'e 4
Now is a good time to mention
that another game d u ring the
same rou nd between Manuel
Apicella and Albert David had
reached this identical position.
Both players could see the
I Ilescas - Miles game on the
demonstration board . Apicella
now deviated with 1 4 lLlh4 and
in only th ree more m oves he
56
had won ! Afte r 1 4 . . . lLlc8 1 5
'it'c4 lLlc5 1 6 �xc5 dxc5 1 7
'it'd5 ! puts an end to proceed­
ings.
1 4 ... J:te8
Again 1 4 . . . lLlb6 would lose to
1 5 �xb6 axb6 1 6 lLlb5!
1 5 ttJh4 ttJb6 1 6 �xb6 axb6
1 7 J:td3 !
W h ite prepares to double rooks
agai nst the weak d6 pawn.
Black's pieces are very clumsily
placed to deal with the th reat.
The knight on e7 can hardly
move which in tu rn means that
the bishop on f8 is stuck which
means that the black king can­
not castle into safety.
1 7 ... d5 ! ?
T ony decides t o break out but
Miguel has this advance well
cove red .
1 8 exd5 ! �xd3 1 9 'ifxd3
%ld8 20 J:td1 96 21 d6 �h6+
22 <itb1 'ifb8 23 ttJe4 b5
This move is asking a lot from
t h e position , but the obvious 23
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
. . . 0-0 would lose to 24 dxe7!
':xd3 25 exf8'ii'+ 'ii'x f8 26 cxd3 !
when Black's q u een is no match
for W h ite's rook, bishop and
knight. Now Miguel finishes off
the game in g reat style.
24 lLlf6+
Here comes the caval ry!
24 ... �f8 25 dxe7+ �xe7
26 lLld7!
This is the move that does the
real damage. The knight on d7
controls two of the key escape
squares (f6 and f8) that pre­
vents the black king from doing
a ru nner.
26 ... bxa4
W e l l , at least this is one less
piece for T ony to worry about!
Now it is a case of White to play
and win. Can you spot the star
m ove?
27 lLlf5+ ! !
This is it! The other half of the
caval ry comes charging in.
27 ... gxf5 28 'ii'a 3+ �e6
The alternative 28 . . . c5 would
57
lose as fol lows 29 'ii'x c5+ �e6
30 'ii'c 6+ <j;e7 3 1 gxf5 ( 3 1 'ii'f 6+
is also good) 31 . . . i.g7 (there
is nothing else) 32 f6+ i.xf6 33
'ii'x f6+ 'iti>e8 34 'ii'x h8+ <j;e7 35
'ii'f 6+ <j;e8 36 'ii'c 6 and that is
the end of that!
29 gxf5+ �xf5
I nto the valley of death . . .
3 0 'ii'f 3+
Tony resigned on accou nt of 30
. . . �g6 3 1 ':g 1 + i.g5 32 "f6+
<it>h5 33 'ii'x g5 mate .
GAM E 1 7
Tony M i les has played some
g reat games in his long and il­
lustrious career. The following
one agai nst Suat Atalik, Tur­
key's n u m ber one playe r, m ust
rate as one of his better ones.
The reason I j ust had to include
this game was because the fin­
ish to it was positively beautiful -
I have never seen anything
q u ite like it.
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
White : S u at Atalik
Black : Tony Miles
Heraklion Open 1 993
1 d4 ltJf6
Already a s u rprise! Tony nor­
mally develops his other knight
first.
2 c4 g6 3 ltJc3 .lig7 4 e4 d6
S f3 0-0 6 .lie3 cS !
I personally believe that this is
the best response to the Sae­
misch Variation of the King's
I ndian . There have been literally
thousands of games i n which
W h ite has now captu red the
pawn on c5 but it seems to me
Black's dynam ic pieces are
worth a pawn. It is noticeable
that there are now very few
W h ite playe rs who are p repared
to take this hot potato .
7 ltJge2
W h ite supports the d4 pawn but
now it is not so easy to develop
the rest of the kingside.
7 ... ltJc6 8 'iVd2 e6 9 l:d1
58
Tony has also played the W h ite
side of this position (there
p robably aren't too many posi­
tions he hasn't played ! ) against
lan Rogers , Australia's number
one player, in 1 989. He instead
g rabbed the pawn on c5 with 9
dxc5 dxc5 1 0 �xc5 but after 1 0
. . . 'it'xd2+ 1 1 �xd2 l:td8+ 1 2
�c2 b6 1 3 �e3 �a6 1 4 lDg3
lDb4+ 1 5 �b3 lDd3! it m ust
have been clear to him that
Black had more than enough
play for the pawn . As a general
ru le: if you don't like playi ng one
side of a position then why not
g ive the other side a try.
9 ... b6 1 0 .ligS .lia6
I have to say I would already not
be very happy as W h ite in this
position. The reason for this is
simple: Black's king is nicely
tucked out of the way on g8
while W h ite's is still on e 1 with
no immed iate hope of finding
safety on g 1 .
1 1 dS ltJeS 1 2 b3 h6! 1 3
.lie3
White would obviously li ke to
have played 1 3 �xh6 but then
1 3 ... lDxe4! would be a real
body blow on account of 1 4
lDxe4 'it'h4+ wi nning back the
piece with a s u perb position .
This i s a ve ry common trick that
Wh ite has to constantly watch
out for in the Sae m isch.
13 ... exdS 1 4 ltJxdS ltJxdS
1 S 'iix dS
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT

Of cou rse! W h ite i s not allowed

It looks as if Tony is in trouble
as it appears that the d6 pawn
is history, but often cou nte rat­
tack is the best form of defence.
15 b5 !
to exchange queens . Now the
black queen is well placed on
e8 as it is on the same file as
the wh ite king, which can often
tu rn out to be very useful.
20 'iVxe5 fxe4 21 f4 ttJd3+ !
22 ttJxd3 exd3
Now we see why the queen
went to e8. The pi n on e3 is
most unpleasant for W h ite.
23 <it>f 2
Out of one pin but i nto another!
23 Ae8 24 'iVe4+ <it>h8 25
•..

..•

'iVxd3
Now the action starts . . .
1 6 exb5
If W h ite had played 1 6 'ii'x d6
then 1 6 . . . 1i'xd6 1 7 ':xd6 ltfd8!
is f i n e fo r Black because 1 8
l:txa6 is not good on account of
1 8 . . . tLld3+ 1 9 ..ti>d2 tLlb4+!
picking up the rook on a6.
16 • . • �xb5 1 7 ttJe1
If 1 7 'ii'x d6 then 1 7 . . . tLld3+! is
good for Black.
25 • . • g5 ! !
17 ••. �e6 ! First Tony uses the f pawn as a
A good move, Black does not battering ram and then he fol­
allow W h ite to exchange bish­ lows u p with the g pawn - a
ops as that would ease his op­ lovely concept.
ponent's task considerably.
26 l:e1 Ad8 27 'ii'e2 gxf4 28
1 8 'iVd2 f5 ! �e5 f3 !
I l i ke this move. Everything Note how Suat is neve r g iven
possible is done to open lines the chance to get off the ropes.
against the enemy king.
29 'ii'x e8 fxg2+ ! ! 30 �xf8
1 9 'iVxd6 'iVe8 !

59
 ATfACK with GM Julian Hodgson
So can you see the final attack­
ing m ove needed to finish it off?
30 . . • gxh 1 lD+ ! 1
W hat a move! Tony promotes a
pawn to a knight, captu res a
rook and gives check all at the
same time - it is not every day
that that happens!
Suat now sportingly resigned.
He could have played on with
3 1 �e1 but the ending is hope­
less after 3 1 . . . l:txe8+ 32 �e2
�b5! winning fai rly comfortably.
GAM E 1 8
Gary Kasparov has a knack of
breathing new l ife i nto old l ines
that everyone else had forgot­
ten about. In 1 990 he i ntro­
d uced the Scotch Gambit i nto
his repertoire in his World
Championship M atch with
Anatoly Karpov with reasonable
success. Five yea rs on, he res­
u rrected anothe r of the romantic
openings that were more
60
p ro m inent at the beginning of
this centu ry. I am sti l l hoping
G a ry will one day give the
King's Gambit a whi rl - maybe
he is waiting u ntil the year 2000!
White : Gary Kasparov
Black: Viswanathan Anand
Tal Memorial, Riga 1 995
1 e4 eS 2 lDf3 lDc6 3 i.c4
i.cs 4 b4!
An i nvention of Captai n Evans
d u ring the 1 820's, while sailing
on the Royal Mail steam boat
between M i lford Haven and
W aterford (Wales- I reland) . Not
a lot of people know that!
The gam bit has stood the test
of time, although it has rarely
been played at master level
over the last few decades as
top playe rs are reluctant to g ive
up a pawn so early in the
opening.
4 ... i.xb4 S c3 i.e7 6 d4
This is the point of the gam bit:
Gary uses the time that the
sacrifice has g iven him to b u i ld
an imposing centre. W he n I
look at this position I always
think it will be a long time before
Black's extra pawn on b7 will
become a relevant factor.
6 . lDaS 7 .i.e2
. .
7 �xf7 + is maybe worth an
outing in a blitz game, but it
would take a brave person to
 THE LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT
give it a try in a normal game.
7 ... exd4 8 'ii'x d4!
Capt u ring with the q ueen on d4
is Gary's new idea.
8 ... lDf6 9 e5 !
Now Gary starts hassling
Black's pieces .
9 . . . lDc6 1 0 'ii' h 4 lDd5 1 1
'ii'g 3 g6
Not a move that Vishy would
have wanted to play but the
natu ral 1 1 . . . 0-0 would simply
be bad on account of 1 2 ..ih6!
wi nning the exchange.
1 2 0-0 lDb6 1 3 c4 d6 1 4
:d1 lDd7 1 5 i.h6!
Now Black will be u nable to
castle for the foreseeable fu­
t u re .
1 5 . . . lDcxe5 1 6 lDxe5 lDxe5
Gary is now two pawns down
but he has al ready realised that
Black will find it extremely hard
to complete his development.
1 7 lDc3
Many players would have now
61
chosen to win back some ma­
terial with 1 7 ..i g7 ! ? ..if6 1 8
..ixh8 ..ixh8 1 9 c!Llc3. Gary is
qu ite happy to s i mply increase
the pressu re and remain two
pawns down for the time being.
17 ... f6
Vishy comm its a fu rther weak­
ening but after the obvious 1 7
. . . ..ie6 then 1 8 ..ig7! ..if6 1 9
..ixh8 ..ixh8 20 cS! would be
good for W h ite.
1 8 c5 Ci:Jf7?
I don't l i ke this move as it
wastes fu rther time but even
after 1 8 . . . ..ie6 1 9 cxd6 ..ixd6
20 c!Lle4! Vishy is in trouble.
1 9 cxd6 cxd6 20 'ife3 !
Of cou rse Gary does not retreat
the bishop because then Vishy
would be able to castle i nto
relative safety.
20 ... Ci:Jxh6 21 'ii'x h6 i.f8
This position is definitely worthy
of a diagram . Twenty moves
into the game all Black's pieces
are back on their original squ­
ares ! It's not often that you see
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
that happen at such a high
level. That is part of the reason
why Gary is such a great player
- he can make even the strong­
est opponents seem like begin­
ners .
22 "e3+ �f7 23 lLld5 ! i.e6
24 lLlf4!
After this retreat Vishy is in
desperate trouble.
24 . . . 'iie 7?
Finally Vishy c racks u nder the
strain - it is hard to keep on
finding good moves i n such a
d ifficu lt position . Even after the
improvement 24 . . . .td7 I doubt
if Vishy would have held out for
very m uch longer. e . g . 25
'ii' b 3+! �g7 26 'ii'x b7 when it is
hard to see a reasonable move
for Black.
25 ':e1 1
Somewhat s u rprisingly Vishy
resigned i n this position - no
doubt he did not want to g ive
Kasparov the pleasu re of i nflict­
ing fu rther punishment! I shall
g ive the followi ng variations to
62
explain why Vishy did not carry
on any longer:
A) 25 . . . .td7 26 .tc4+ �e8 27
'ifd2 ! wi n n in g the queen.
B) 25 . . . d5 26 .tf3 :te8 27
lDxe6 'ii'x e6 28 'ifxe6+ (28
.txd5) 28 . . . l:1xe6 29 .txd5
wi n n i n g a rook.
C) 25 . . . l:1e8 26 lDxe6 'iVxe6 27
'iVxe6+ �xe6 (or 27 . . . l:1xe6 28
.tc4 ! ) 28 .tb5+ wi nning the
rook on e8.
D) 25 . . . .th6 26 .i.c4! winning a
piece.
E) 25 . . . 'iVd7 26 .i.b5! This is
the key variation. 26 . . . 'ifxb5 27
'ifxe6+ �g7 28 l:1ab 1 'iff5 29
l:1xb7+ �h6 30 'iVxf5 gxf5
Although the position looks
pretty disg usting for Black, he
can stil l g rovel on. But I have to
say if I had this position against
Kasparov I wou l d be sorely
tempted to save us both time
and make a q u ick departure to
the nearest available bar! N ot
an option for Vishy as he
. is stil l
a teetotaller.
 USING THE INITIATIVE
4 USING THE INITIATIVE
W hat exactly is the i n itiative? It
is a fickle friend i ndeed ; you can
have it one moment and then
lose it the next move .
I s u ppose it is when you create
th reats in a section or sections
of the board which constantly
forces the opponent onto the
defensive in order to parry
them .
I n tennis, for example, the per­
son smashing the ball has the
i nitiative ; one weak smas h ,
however, c a n quickly hand i t
over t o t h e receiver.
GAM E 1 9
I could not write a book on at­
tacking without including at
least one game from the
G R EATEST genius of them all -
the one and only Mikhail Tal ,
t h e m agician from Riga.
I f i rst got the chance to play him
in a s i m u ltaneous display at the
Cavendish chess club when I
was o n ly 1 0 years old - an ex­
perience that I will never forget.
He absolutely crushed me and
63
what is more I really enjoyed
the game! I remember he sacri­
ficed a rook against my D ragon
to send my king i nto o rbit. I am
s u re this game was the inspira­
tion for my rook sacrifice
against Paunovic.
If someone asked me what ex­
actly was the special quality that
Tal had , then I would have to
say that he understood how to
co-ordinate a scatte red army
perfectly - he could make the
i m possible a reality. Tal saw the
chess board as a whole rather
than as d ifferent sections, which
enabled him to do things that
other playe rs si mply could not
even d ream about.
White : M i khail Tal
Blac k : lan Rogers
San F rancisco 1 99 1
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 lDd2 dxe4
4 lDxe4 lDd7
lan elects to play the u ltra solid
Rubi nstein Variation - a sensi­
ble choice against the m ighty
M isha!
5 lDf3 lDgf6 6 lDxf6+ lDxf6
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
7 Jtd3 cS 8 dxcS JtxcS 9
"e2 0-0?!
T h i s is l iving dangerous ly. l a n
probably should have played 9
. . . "fIc7 which even sets a trap
1 0 It)e5? �xf2+! 1 1 �xf2 "fIxe5!
1 2 "fIxe5 It)g4+ although I doubt
Tal would have fallen for it.
1 0 JtgS "as+ 1 1 c3 �e7
1 2 12JeS b6? !
This is extremely p rovocative at
the best of times but against
Tal it is almost s u icidal!
1 3 JtbS ! !
This move has Tal written all
over it. Instead of playi ng for the
obvious checkmate against the
opponent's king, he plays to
mate Black's queen!
I am s u re I would have spent all
my time analysing such tempt­
ing possibilities as 1 3 · �xf6? !
�xf6 1 4 It)c4 "fIg5 1 5 'ir'e4 with
a double-attack on the rook and
the pawn on h7 but after Black's
reply 1 5 . . . 'ir'f5! 1 6 "fIxa8? 1 6
. . . 'ir'xd3 it wou ld be B lack who
64
wou ld be on the offensive.
1 3 ... a6
lan has to suddenly try to extri­
cate his queen from a5 - as it
happens an impossible task. A
normal move such as 1 3 . . . �b7
would be met by 1 4 a4! fol lowed
by b4.
1 4 Jtc6 1:a7 1 S b4 .a3 1 6
'iVc2 !
Take a good look at this posi­
tion . I would be d istinctly nerv­
ous as W h ite: my king is stil l i n
t h e centre while m y opponent's
is n icely tucked away on g8. O n
top o f that, m y pieces are all
over the place and my queen­
side pawn structu re seriously
comprom ised.
None of this, however, bothers
Tal for he has already worked
out that Black wi l l have to suffer
heavy mate rial losses to save
his queen, which makes all the
other factors i rre levant.
1 6 ... l2JdS
The only move as 1 6 . . . b5
would lose prettily to 1 7 It)c4 ! !
 USING THE INITIATIVE
1 .7 . . . bxc4 1 8 .i.c1 trapping the
queen !
1 7 1.xd5 exd5 1 8 1.c1 1.f5 !
A desperate attem pt to save her
majesty but she is doomed.
1 9 1.xa31
lan was of cou rse hoping for 1 9
'iVd2? 'iVa4 but no such luck!
1 9 ... i.xc2 20 �c6!
The stin g in the tail !
20 ... i.f6!
Again lan finds the toug hest
defence . 20 . . . l:tc7?! 21 lLlxe7+
l:.xe7+ 22 �d2 .i.e4 23 b5!
wou l d lose the exchange.
21 �xa7
65
Tal is in his element. Look how
his pieces are stru ng out over
all corners of the board . But
there is one crucial point that
should not be missed - he has
one more piece than his oppo­
nent!
21 ... i.xc3+ 22 �e2 ':e8+
23 �f3 :e6
lan boldly plays like the great
man himself but his position
does not have quite the same
oomph. The alternative 23 . . . d4
was also no good on accou nt of
24 l:.ac1 .i.e4+ 25 'it>g3 l:.a8 26
l:thd1 ! h6 27 l:xc3! dxc3 28 l:.d7
with a healthy piece u p .
24 l:[hc1 ! 1.e4+ 25 �e2 !
Misha is not afraid of ghosts -
lan has no usef ul discovered
checks.
25 ... d4 26 f3
That was about it!
There is nothing l i ke a spot of
Tal magic - I stil l don't know
q u ite how he does it!
GAM E 20
The next game was played in
the first round of the knockout
stage of the peA rapid in Lon­
don. The story of Ivan Sokolov's
q ualification was qu ite an amus­
ing one. He, together with E ric
Lobron (the d river) and Loek
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson

van Wely (the teetotaller) came 1 3 ... c5 1 4 b4 ttJc6?

all the way together from Hol­
land by car. They all arrived in
Hastings for the qualifier to the
main event i n London. G uess
what: they all qual ified!
White : Nigel Short
Black: Ivan Sokolov
London PCA 1 995
This is actually a mistake. Black
had to first play 1 4 . . . cxb4 1 5
axb4 lLlc6 1 6 exd5 lLlxd5 1 7
lLle4 when W hit e has a pleasant
pos itional advantage.
1 5 exd5 ttJxd5 16 ttJe4 cxb4
1 7 ttJfg5 ! !
;o==��

1 e4 e5 2 ttJf3 ttJc6 3 i.b5

a6 4 i.a4 ttJf6 5 0-0 i.e 7 6
'iVe2
N igel has had an incredible
amou nt of success with this
move . I ndeed, it was one of the
main reasons for his heavy de­
feat of Anatoly Karpov in the
World Championship Semi-final It is about at this stage that I
Match in 1 993. Karpov j ust should let you into a l ittle secret.
couldn't find an effective anti­ N igel was still followi ng a previ­
dote. ous game he had played
6 . n b5 7 i.b3 0-0 S c3 d5 agai nst Robert H uebner, in the
Manila I nterzonal i n 1 990. The
Optically this move looks im­
only person in the audito ri u m
pressive, but it is a l ittle loosen­
who d i d not seem t o know this
ing.
fact was a certain very strong
9 d3 i.b7 1 0 lIe1 lieS 1 1 grandmaster who happened to
ttJbd2 i.fS 1 2 a3! be defending the black side!
A typical Short move . It is both 17 ... f6?
a waiting and an agg ressive This is Black's feeblest defence
move rolled into one. but I suspect Ivan was very de­
12 ... ttJa5 1 3 i.a2 pressed for by now he m u st
have realised that he had been
This is the point. W h ite gets to
cau ght in some vicious prepa­
keep the bishop on the ve ry ac­
ration ; little did he know that it
tive a2-g8 d iagonal , f ro m where
was ove r five yea rs old and had
it takes aim at the potentially
all been played before! H uebner
vulnerable f7 pawn .
found the toughest defence 1 7
66
 USING THE INITIATIVE
. . . h6 1 8 'ii'f 3! hxg5 1 9 lLlxg5!
"f6 20 'ii'x d5! lLld8 21 "d7 .ioc6
22 'ii' h 3! This is the star move
that makes the whole variation
viable. Mate is th reatened on h7
which allows W h ite time to
captu re on b4 and so emerge a
pawn u p - a remarkable piece
of analysis by Nigel.
18 -.h5 !
Another bone c rusher! B y now
I'm s u re N igel was enjoying
h imself.
1 8 ... fxg5 1 9 liJxg5 h6 20
.f7+ �h8 21 .i.xd5 .i.c5 22
-'g6 ! .i.xf2+ 23 �h1 'iix g5
24 .i.xg5
Sokolov now resigned as 24
.ioxg5 .ioxe 1 would be mated in
two after 25 .iof6! .
N igel played the enti re game in
about five m i nutes flat. Ivan,
however, showed his true char­
acter by winning the rematch
with W h ite, and then winning
the blitz play-off.
67
GAM E 2 1
I n the September o f 1 993, the
biggest chess event i n Eng­
land's history took place i n Lon­
don. It was , of cou rse, the
match between the W orld
Champion Gary Kasparov and
the Challenger, England's very
own Nigel Short.
The match provided g reat enter­
tain ment. All the games we re
extremely hard fought which is
not often the case i n something
so tough and g ruelling as a
World Championship Match.
The game below is one I actu­
ally com mentated on while it
was happening at the London
Chess Centre. It was a classic
demonstration of how to con­
duct an attack from the open­
ing, to the m iddlegame, right
through into the ending.
However, m uch to my embar­
rassment, I ended the commen­
tary about half an hour early as
I thought N igel's position was
resignable - how wrong I was !
O n arriving home, the first thing
my wife said to me was N igel
had m issed an opportunity to
make a d raw.
I was shocked and amazed that
even the strongest player of all
time could almost th row away
all his p revious hard work with
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

one silly error. It proves j u st 1 1 lDge2!

about anything is possible in chess!
This is Gary's big improvement
over 1 1 .i.e5 which he had
White : Gary Kasparov played in game five. N igel had
Blac k : Nigel Short this move covered and u n ­
wee, peA 1 993 leashed a b i g novelty t o d raw
q u ite comfortably. Gary said
1 d4 that after game five, he did not
sleep very wel l for the next fou r
One of Gary's g reat strengths is
days , a s h e saw i t as a matter
that he can play either 1 d4 or 1
of hono u r to find a way to deal
e4 with equal dexterity.
with N igel's i mpertinent new
1 . . . lDf6 2 c4 e6 3 lDc3 move!
�b4 4 .c2
In game 7 he took a time out by
This is Gary's pet system
again st the N i mzo- I ndian . T�e
playin g 1 e4 but then by game 9
. he was ready to strike! For it
idea is to p revent W h ite s
had taken Gary and his team
queenside pawns from being
over fifty hours of analysis to
doubled. However, over the last
perfect his new move.
few years Black players have
found new ways to neutralise 1 1 . . . i..f5 1 2 i.. e5 0-0
this line. This is one of the main
reasons why Gary has switched
to p laying 1 e4 more often .
4 ... d5 5 cxd5 exd5
5 . . . 'iVxd5 6 lLlf3 "f5! ? is one of
Black's new ideas .
6 i.. g 5 h6 7 i.. h 4 c5 8 dxc5
g5 9 i.. g 3 lDe4 1 0 e3 "a5

I n this very complex position

there are a host of othe r inter­
esting possibil ities. It says m uch
for N i gel's strength of characte r
that he managed to put u p so
much resistance when it wo u l d
have been clear t o h i m that he
had been caught i n some of
Gary's lethal home brew!
68
 USING THE INITIATIVE
1 3 lbd4 .ltg6 1 4 lbb3! lbxc3
1 5 .ltxc3! .ltxc2 1 6 lbxa5
.ltxc3+ 1 7 bxc3 b6 1 8 �d2!
Believe it o r not we are still fol­
lowing Gary's home prepara­
tion. He stopped his analysis
around this point as he felt
W h ite had a clear advantage.
He still however, plays the next
phase of the game with g reat
skill and energy. N igel makes
him work every step of the way.
1 8 . . . bxa5
The alternative 1 8 . . . J.a4 is
also good for W h ite after 1 9
cxb6 axb6 20 ttJb7! i.b3 2 1 a3!
1 9 �xc2
69
Now it's time to take stock :
W h ite is a pawn u p , has th e
better m inor piece and a more
compact pawn structure, but
Black does have serious cou n ­
terplay down t h e c f i l e . The
position is stil l far from easy.
1 9 ... ':c8 20 h4!
Excellently played! Gary finds
the q u ickest way to activate his
king's rook.
20 ... lbd7
N igel decides to complete his
development. The alternative 20
. . . g4 is wel l met by 21 i.e2 h5
22 f3! opening up the kingside.
21 hxg5 lbxc5 !
This is much stronger than the
obvious 2 1 . . . hxg5? ! when
Gary had worked out the follow­
ing way to win : 22 .l:1h5 f6 23
i.b5! ttJxc5 24 l:tah 1 ttJe4 25
i.c6!
Beautifu l ! 25 . . . l:txc6 26 l:th8+
winning the exchange and with
it the game.
22 gxh6 lbe4 23 c4! lbxf2
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
24 :h4! f5 25 l:d4 dxc4 26
.i.xc4+ <ith7 27 lU1 lLlg4 28
�d2 :tab8 29 :txf5
It was at this stage, I held out
very l ittle hope for N igel but he
continued to fight bravely on .
29 . . . ':b2+ 30 <itd3 ':xg2
31 .i.e6 l:c7!
Nigel finds the only move that
does n't lose i m mediately.
32 ':xa5 lLlf2+ 33 <ite2 ':h2
34 <itf3 lLlh1
N ot a happy square for a knight!
35 ':d7 + ':xd7 36 .i.xd7
<itxh6 37 ':xa7 <itg5 38 ':a5+
<itf6 39 .i.c6 :tc2 40 :f5+
70
I could not bear to commentate
on this game any longer after
this cheeky m ove was played. It
was now I decided to shut u p
shop a n d go home. A s a resu lt
of my hastiness I m issed all the
actio n ! I remember at the time
some of the audience as king
me whether N igel had the
slightest chance of saving the
game - I can't q u ite remember
what I said i n reply!
40 ... <ite7
Or 40 . . . <it>xf5? 41 �e4+ <it>e5
42 �xc2 winning easily.
41 .i.d5 'it>d6 42 ':h5 ':d2
43 ':xh1 ? !
Gary starts to relax. There was
no need to give up his good
bishop for Black's wretched
knight.
43 ... ':xd5 44 a4 :a5 45
':a1 ?
Another inaccu racy as the rook
stands rather passively on a1 .
45 :h6+! 'i;c7 46 l:h4 was
m uch simpler.
45 ... �e5 46 e4??
 USING THE INITIATIVE
G ary's worst bl under of the en­
tire match - it should have cost
h i m half a point. A val uable les­
son can be learnt from this little
episode: never R ELAX u ntil
you r opponent has signed the
score sheet. 46 ..ta>e2 ! ? ..ta>e4 47
J:.a3 �dS 48 'itd3 would still win
eas ily.
46 ... �e6 ? ?
N igel, b y this stage thoroughly
dejected, m isses his chanpe to
produce a m i racle. He could
have d rawn with 46 . . . lIcS! 47
as :lc3+ 48 ..ta>g4 'it'xe4 49 a6
:lc8 50 a7 :la8 when his king
wi l l come back to help gobble
up the a7 pawn .
47 �e3
Now it's easy agai n .
47 ... �d6 48 �d4 �d7 49
�c4 �c6 50 �b4 l:te5 51
l:[c1 + � b6 52 l:[c4
N igel now resigned as Gary will
s i mply march his king to d4 and
shepherd home the e4 pawn.
71
GAM E 2 2
J udit Polgar i s undoubtedly the
strongest woman player of all
time. She is a sponsor's d ream :
attractive and charm i ng off the
board and a g reat fighter on it.
I first saw her i n action as early
as 1 987 when she won the
Hastings Chal lengers with con­
s u m mate ease. I remember one
game in particular i n which she
defeated G lenn Flear on the
white side of a King's Gambit - it
was poetry i n motion. After­
wards, all one very strong
American G randmaste r could
say was "Awesome, positively
awesome! "
W e l l , si nce that tou rnament she
has made phenomenal p rog­
ress to become one of the m ost
feared adversaries in the wo rld .
It can safely be said that J udit
has dispelled the myth that
women can't play chess!
In the following game she dis­
patches one of the wo rld's best
playe rs in a masterpiece of rare
beauty.
White : Alexei Shi rov
B l a c k : Judit Polgar
B uenos Aires 1 994
1 e4 c5 2 tDf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4
4 tDxd4 tDc6 5 tDc3 d6 6 g4
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

a6 7 �e3 lLlge7 8 lLlb3 b5 9

f4 it.b7 1 0 .f3
At first s ight, it might look as if it
is W h ite that is attacking on
the kingside but J ud it's next
move soon puts paid to that
idea!

Absolutely wonderful! First g5

and then h5. By now Alexei
m ust have been blowing a fuse.
1 4 gxh5?
An u nderstandable m istake. AI­
exei should have played 1 4
gxh6 .i.xh6 1 5 .i.xh6 l:[xh6 1 6
1 0 .. g51 1
.
0-0-0 lLl7g6 when Judit has
play for a pawn but the position
W hat a move! J u d it i s p repared is still ve ry u nclear.
to g ive up a pawn to gain the e5
square for her knight. I would 1 4 ... lLlf5 !
have loved to have seen the The knights start hopping all
look on Alexei's face when this over the place - by now they
move was played. would have been g iving me a
1 1 fxg5 lLle5 1 2 'iVg2 headache.
Alexei would not have wanted to 1 5 �f2 'iVxg5! 1 6 lLla5
leave his queen on the same
diagonal as Black's bishop on
b7, but the alte rnative 1 2 'ii'e 2 is
even worse on accou nt of 1 2 . . .
b4! 1 3 lLla4 .i.c6 ! 1 4 lLlb6 .i.xe4
with a crushing attack.
12 ... b4 1 3 lLle2
The more natu ral 1 3 lLla4 is well
met by the abs ol utely stu nning
1 3 . . . lLld5! !
1 3 ... h5! ! It is possible that Alexei sti l l

72
 USING THE INITIATIVE
thought he was doing OK - if
that was the case then the next
move would have b u rst his
bubble.
1 6 ... lLle3 ! !
OUCH! W hat makes this move
so good is the fact that Judit
would have had to have seen it
q u ite a few moves before. It is
worth taking a time-out j ust to
let the move sink i n.
1 7 "g3
There is nothing else W h ite can
do but to meekly move his
queen. Afte r 1 7 .txe3 'ii'x e3
there is no defence to 1 8 . . .
lL\f3+, while 1 7 'ii'x gS allows the
aesthetic 1 7 . . . lL\f3 mate.
17 'iVxg3 1 8 lLlxg3
lLlxc2+ 1 9 �d1 lLlxa l 20
lLlxb7 b3 !
Another excel lent move - now
the knight on a1 gets out of jail.
W ithout this move Alexei would
stil l be i n the game but as it is
he is si mply the exchange down
with a bad position.
2 1 axb3 lLlxb3 22 <iPc2 lLlc5
73
23 lLlxc5 dxc5 24 .i.e 1 lLlf3
25 .i.c3 lLld4+ 26 �d3 .i.d6
27 .i.g2
27 b4 looks wo rth a try but Judit
had calculated the following
variation out to a win: 27 . . .
'ite7! 28 bxcS .txcS 2 9 .txd4
l:thd8 30 lL\e2 eS! wi nning the
piece back.
27 ... .i.e5 28 �c4 �e7 29
l:ta1 lLlc6
Alexei now resig ned as not only
is he the exchange down but
two of his m i nor pieces on g3
and g2 are in the sin bin.
My only reg ret was that I was
not in Buenos Aires as the
game was played to savour the
atmosphe re .
GAM E 23
I n 1 988, at t h e Barbican centre,
a s ix game match took place
between Eng land's two premier
players to decide who wou ld
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
reach thro ugh to the Semi-final
of the World Championship Cycle.
As the match drew near the
tension and i nterest g rew and
g rew. The English chess com­
m u n ity was torn between who
they wanted to wi n . The first two
games ended in tame d raws
and then the match bu rst into
l ife. I was l ucky enough to be
one of the commentators so I
could feel the excitement at first
hand - it was fantastic!
However, what is really s u rpris­
ing and what few people know
is that the person who had the
g reatest i m pact on the match
was not one of the players Nigel
Short or Jon Speelman or for
that matte r the i r seconds John
Nunn or Jonathan Tisdall. No, it
was actually Jonathan Tisdall's
g i rlfriend Marianne ( now wife)
who made the key contribution!
About a week before the m atch
took place she had seen an ob­
scu re Soviet game in a Norwe­
gian paper. She showed it to
her boyfriend and asked if it
was of any i nterest. W e l l , you
could safely say it was ! The
game contained a m ass ive
novelty in N igel's main defence
to 1 d4. I ndeed , the new move
was so good it won the prize in
t h e next I nformator (the one
book all chess p rofessionals
cannot do without) as novelty of
the year!
74
White : Jonathan Speel man
B l ac k : N i gel Short
WCC Quarter-Final 1 988
1 d4 liJf6 2 c4 e6 3 liJf3 dS
4 liJc3 i-e7 S i-f4 0-0 6 e3
cS 7 dxcS liJc6 8 'ii'c 2 i-xcs
9 a3 'iVaS
This position had occu rred
countless times in master
chess. I ndeed , Korchnoi and
Karpov have disputed the mer­
its of this position i n many of
thei r own encou nte rs . W h ite
would now either play 1 0 lLld2
or 1 0 l:.c 1 but that has all
changed si nce the followi ng
bombshell was found . . .
1 0 0-O-0 !
What a move! W h ite si m ply
castles out of the pin and s i m u l­
taneously applies added pres­
sure on the pawn on dS. The
original game that Marianne
had come across i n the paper
was between M i khail G u revich
and Andrei Sokolov played i n
the Soviet Championship a
mere week before . Eight years
 USING THE INITIATIVE

on 1 0 0-0-0 is sti l l considered 1 3 ltJd2 !

to be the main line - there are
Not an obvious move but a
now few takers of the black
good one nonetheless. The
side, such is the move's po­
knight heads ove r to the
tency.
queenside to hassle Black's
queen.
It was quite entertai ning to watch
Jon Speelman's second, Jon 1 3 ... eS?
Tisdall , pacing u p and down i n This central pawn th rust is too
nervous anticipation before the ambitious. N igel should have
move was played . Six years on I been consistent and carried on
was to go through the same with his plan by playi ng 1 3 . . .
m ixture of emotions seconding b5! when after 1 4 cxd5! It:\xd5
M icky Adams i n his match with 1 5 It:\xd5 ':xd5 W h ite has only a
Sergei Tiviakov - but that is slight advantage.
another story!
1 4 gS!
10 •.• i.. e 7
Sokolov had played 1 0 . . . dxc4 •
b ut after 1 1 .i.xc4 .i.e7 1 2 g4!
soon found himself in trouble.
1 1 g41
A d ual pu rpose move that both
starts a kingside pawn storm
while at the same time u nder­
m ines Black's central strong­
hold on d5. By now the audi­
ence i n the commentary room
we re really getting into it, mak­ Excellently played - Jon ignores
ing all sorts of suggestions from the th reat to his bishop and at
the good , to the bad , to the the same time continues to un­
u g ly! dermine d5.
11 .•. l::t d 8 1 2 h3 1 4 ... ltJe8
Very calm ! 1 4 . . . exf4 is clearly bad for
B lack on accou nt of 1 5 gxf6
12 • • • a6 .i.xf6 1 6 It:\xd5
I always find it amusing when a
1 S ltJb3 'it'b6 16 ltJxdS
move such as h3 is then met by
the equ ivalent move on the l::t x dS
other side of the board - any­ This is forced.
thing you can do, I can do also . . . 1 7 cxdS exf4 1 8 dxc6 fxe3
75
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
1 9 fxe3 i.xg5 20 �b1 !
A good p recautionary move.
20 ... bxc6
The i n itial set of complications
are over. It m ight look as if Ni­
gel is OK as he has the two
bishops and one pawn for the
exchange but that is not the
whole story. W h ite still has an
i nitiative with f7 i n particu lar a
potential target.
21 �c4! :87 22 l:[hf1 i.f6?
Finally N igel cracks u nder the
p ressu re. He had to play 22 . . .
l:e7! when 2 3 �d4 i s clearly
better for W h ite but Black can
still struggle on.
23 'iie 4! !
Jon centralises his queen with
devastating effect. There is no
satisfactory response to the
s i m ple th reat of 24 'ii'x e8 m ate;
the obvious 23 . . . l:e7 loses to
24 'ifxe7! i.xe7 25 l:xf7. By
now the atmosphere in the
commentary room was at feve r
pitch. John N u n n ( N igel's sec­
ond) walked in to see what was
76
going o n . He did not look ve ry
happy when I had asked him
what had gone wrong with his
p reparation (hardly s u rpris ing
real ly! ) .
2 3 . . . �f8 2 4 'ifxh7
This is the end for Nigel.
24 ... g6 25 e4!
This l ittle pawn adds the finish­
ing touches.
25 . . . c5 26 e5 i.g7 27 e6
At this stage N igel res igned as
27 e6 .txe6 28 'ifxg6! is com­
pletely hopeless. A g reat game
by Jon which enabled him to go
on and win the match.
I was thoroughly d rained after
my exe rtions as the com menta­
tor - I am s u re it is more tiring
s pectating rather than playing!
GAM E 24
The Donner Memorial i n 1 995
contained enough g reat attack­
ing games to fill a whole book
just by itself. I was l ucky enough
to be playi ng in the open sec­
tion adjacent to it which gave
me a bird's eye view of all the
games at first hand.
One of the highlights for m e
was Judit Polgar's fantastic f i n­
ishing sprint, i n w h i ch she de­
feated top g randmasters Alexei
Shirov, Valery Salov and Loek
van Wely respectively. The fol-
 USING THE INITIATIVE
lowing game against Loek was
something of a massacre . But
what remains in my memory most
was the expression on her elder
s ister's face, Sofia, as she sat
in the audience. Sofia spent the
game trying to stifle her g iggles
as Loek's ears became redder
and redder as her l ittle s ister
removed his pieces one by one!
White : Judit Polgar
Blac k : Loek van Wely
Donner Memorial 1 995
1 e4
J u d it true to her style always
plays 1 e4 - the most agg res­
s ive choice.
1 ... cS 2 lLlf3 dS 3 d4 cxd4
4 lLlxd4 lLlfS 5 lLlc3 as
Loek, true to his style always
plays the sharpest response, the
N ajdorf Variation of the Sicilian.
S f4 eS 7 'fif3 'fibS 8 lLlb3
"c7 9 g4!?
77
J udit springs her first s u rprise.
1 1 lLlb5!
I n an earl ier game against
Lj ubom i r Lj ubojevic she had
played the i nferior 1 1 gxfS
which no doubt Loek was ready
for. But u nfortunately for h i m ,
J u d it h a d spent most o f t h e rest
day looking at this and p repar­
ing it for h i m . It is always a n ice
feeling when you r preparation
comes off.
1 1 ... axb5 1 2 gxfS lLld7 1 3
ii.xb5 gxfS 1 4 f5!
This is invariably a key move i n
this type o f position . J ud it tries
to u nderm ine Loek's central
pawn mass, so that she will
then be able to achieve her
main objective - mating Loek's
king! Here it is especially effec­
tive because the one square
that it weakens, e5, is not avail­
able to the black knight as it is
pinned by the bishop on b5.
1 4 ... �e7?
Believe it or not this is an at­
tem pted improvement ove r 1 4
. . . "bS from an earlier game
that Loek had played i n Gaus­
dal i n 1 992 (wh ich he won) .
It seems incredible to me that
Loek should willingly enter i nto
such a risky variatio n , against
J u d it of all people. But this is
missing the point - the reason
that Loeky is such a strong
player is because he is pre­
pared to take s uch risks.
 A11ACK with GM Julian Hodgson
1 5 i.xd7 i.xd7 1 6 fxe6
fxe6 1 7 ':f1 !
Very d i rect! J udit spots an en ­
e m y weak point a n d im medi­
ately homes i n on it. She of
cou rse was not tempted by the
g reedy 1 7 eS? as after 1 7 . . .
dxeS 1 8 'iVxa8 .i.c6! i t would be
Loeky who would have all the
fun.
17 . . . .i. b5
Sad , but true - Loek is forced to
abandon the pawn on f6. I sus­
pect what he overlooked was
that after the obvious 1 7 . . . .i.g7
then 1 8 .i.h6! ! is a crushing ri­
poste. 1 7 . . . fS is equally hope­
less because of 1 8 .i.gS+ �f7
(or 1 8 . . . we8 1 9 'iVhS mate ! ) 1 9
exfS when black's king is toast.
1 8 "'xf6+
Now J udit starts the clean up
operation.
1 8 ... �d7
Loek could have tried 1 8 . . . 'iPe8
but after 1 9 "xh8 .i.xf 1 20 .i.h6
"f7 21 "xf8+ "xf8 22 .i.xf8
78
�xf8 23 'iPxf 1 the extra white
knight on b3 should decide the
iss u e.
1 9 "'xh8
One down , one to go.
1 9 ... i.e7
Or 1 9 . . . .i.xf1 20 "xh7+ .i.e7
21 .i.gS wi n n i ng.
20 "'xa8
Rook n u mber two bites the
dust! One would now think that
being two rooks down is a
strong arg u ment for resigning,
but Loeky always fig hts to the
bitter end.
20 ... 'iVc4
Th reatening mate! 20 . . . .i.h4+
would also lose as fol lows 2 1
:f2 "it'xc2 2 2 "it'b7+ 'i!i>d8 23
.i.gS+!
21 'ii'b 7+ �e8 22 :f2 i.h4
23 .f7 + �d8 24 i.g5+
Loeky now res ig ned as 24 . . .
.i.xgS 2 S "g8+ �d7 2 6 "xgS
"xe4+ 27 'iPd2 does not look
too prom ising.
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE
5 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE
As the understanding of chess
has developed over the last
three decades or so, it has be­
come increasi ngly commonplace
to sacrifice the exchange for
long term compensation. I n the
Dragon , for example, Black of­
ten sacrifices a rook for the
knight on c3 without so much as
a second thought.
There are a variety of situations
where such a ploy might work
out well e . g . to gain the in itia­
tive; destroy the enemy's king­
side (or queenside) defences;
rupture their pawn formation or
s i m ply play with a m uch more
active bishop or knight against
a passive rook.
GAM E 25
If someone we re to ask me
"W hat is the best game you
have ever played?" I would be
hard pushed to think of a good
answer. However, if someone
asked m e "W hat is the best
m ove you have eve r played? "
then one i n particular stands
out. It was played in the follow­
i n g game against Lembit 011 in
79
t h e PCA qualifier i n G ro n i ngen
i n 1 993.
White : Lembit 0 1 1
Black: Julian Hodgson
G roningen PCA Qualifier 1 993
1 e4 cS 2 tLlf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4
4 tLlxd4 tLlf6 5 tLlc3 tLlc6
This game was the first and u p
t o now only time i n m y l ife that I
had played the Classical line of
the Sicilian. The reason I de­
cided to g ive it a try was be­
cause in my previous tou rna­
ment (a category 1 6 event i n
Belgrade) , Vas i lios Kotron ias,
G reece's n u m ber 1 player, had
been generous enough to share
with me some of his wonderf u l
opening preparation.
This was good news for me but
defin itely bad news for Lem bit.
The next fifteen moves have
been played cou ntless times
befo re - I was j ust prayi ng that
Lembit would not deviate as
then I would be left to my own
devices - not a happy thought!
6 .ltg5 e6 7 'ii'd 2 .lte7 8
0-0-0 0-0 9 f4 tLlxd4 1 0
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
'iVxd4 "as 1 1 .ie4 .id7 1 2
eS dxeS 1 3 fxeS .ie6 1 4
.id2 lLld7 1 S lLldS "d8 1 6
lLlxe7+ 'ifxe7 1 7 ':he1 ':fd8
1 8 "g4 lLlf8 1 9 .id3
..
This was the first position I was
hoping to reach .
19 . . . ':xd3! ?
This i s a completely standard
exchange sacrifice. By captu r­
ing on d3 , Black virtually rules
out any chance of a white at­
tack. At the same time W h ite's
remaining bishop on d2 be­
comes a relatively bad piece
because the pawn on e5 seri­
ously restricts its m ovement.
Finally, W h ite's king on c 1 be­
comes more of a target. The
downside to all this is obvious -
the exchange is q u ite a lot of
material to g ive u p for nebulous
compensation.
20 exd3 'iVd7 2 1 � b 1
There i s actually no way W h ite
can avoid losing a pawn as a
move such as 21 .i.c3 would be
wel l met by 21 . . . 'iVd5 ! forking
80
both the a2 and g2 pawns .
2 1 . . . \i'xd3+ 22 �a1 hS
P hew! I had finally reached the
position I had been hoping for.
22 . . . h5 was the move that Ko­
tronias had shown to me in Bel­
g rade. It is m uch stronger than
22 . . . W'f5 which had been
played in an earlier game be­
tween Ivanch uk and Anand in
linares in 1 992.
23 \i'xhS .ia4 !
This is the big idea. W h ite is
more or less forced to ret u rn
the exchange as 24 b3 iVd4+
25 �b1 .i.b5! is extremely dan­
gerous for W h ite.
24 .ie3 .ixd1 2S :txd1 \i'e4
I was now q u ite content with my
position. All I needed to do was
manoeuvre my knight to d5
when Black would be doing fine.
Lembit seemed totally oblivious
to this plan - I think he was sti l l
reeling from t h e shock o f m y
choice o f new opening.
26 'ifgS as !
I now decided to advance my
queenside pawns to g ive Lem­
bit's kin g someth ing to worry
about.
27 'iid 2 lLlg6 !
I was now very happy for I could
see no way for Lembit to p re­
vent my knight reaching d5 via
either f4 or e7.
28 g3
28 .i.xa5 wou l d not have been
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIflCE
good on accou nt of 28 . . . "a4!
29 b4 lZ)xeS when W h ite's king
looks d istinctly d raughty.
28 ... ttJe 7 29 'iVd7 ttJd5
30 �d4!
Of cou rse not 30 "'xb7?? which
wou ld lose a piece to 30 . . .
lZ)xc3!
30 . . . 'iVe2
I spent a long time pondering
this move as I could not work
out how good the ending was
after 30 . . . lZ)b4! ? 31 a3 'iVdS . I
knew that W h ite's eS pawn was
weak but would it be enough for
me to win? If only I could have
asked Karpov for his opinion! I n
the e n d I decided t o keep the
q u eens o n as I felt that Lembit's
king wou l d be more vulnerable
to attack than mine.
31 :c1 ! b5
At f i rst sight it looks as if I can
win a piece with 31 . . . 'ii'd 2 but
then 32 1:[f1 ! 'ii'x d4 would lead
to perpetual check after 33
'ii'x f7 + 'iti>h8 34 'ii'h S+ <itg8 3S
"f7+ etc .
81
3 2 �c5 'iVd3
The ending after 32 . . . "xeS! ?
33 'iVxbS 1:[b8 34 .ltd4! , an i m­
portant resource, 34 . . . nxbS 3S
.txeS f 6 is also q u ite p romising
as the e6 pawn is ready to rol l .
33 "c6?
Lembit comm its a far from ob­
vious error. It was essential to
keep an eye on the f7 pawn to
prevent my forthcom i n g plan.
33 ... :d8 34 �d6
Can you spot what I did now?
34 ... �h7! !
Lembit gave me a rather f u n ny
look as I played my move. To
say I was pleased with 34 . . .
<ith7 i s someth ing of a n under­
statement - it is the one move
that stands out from all the oth­
ers .
Howeve r, i f o n e exam ines the
position logically it is actually
not so d ifficu lt to find. Here is
what went through my mind: my
queen and knight are superbly
centralised on d3 and dS, so
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson

there is no need to move them. than 4 1 . . . 'iVxg3 42 l:c2 ! l:tf3 43

However, my rook is not pulling
its weight on d8. How can I get
it into the game? Simple - play
my king to g6 and then ma­
noeuvre my rook to f5 via h8
and h5!
3S "cS �g6!
My king is perfectly safe on this
square as it is very difficult for
any of W h ite's pieces to attack
it. W h ite's bishop on d6 is es­
pecially i neffective - it is more
like an overg rown pawn.
36 h4 :h8 37 a3 :hS 38
"g1 <ith7?
'iVxg3 ':xg3 when the ending is
good for me but by no means
wi n n i n g .
39 :d1
Phew! Not only did Lembit make
a mistake he compou nded the
error by offe ring a draw - I did
not take long to decline it! I had
no intention of letting my oppo­
nent off the hook a second time.
39 ... 'ii' b 3 40 l::t d 2 ::[1s

At last, I thought, all my pieces

are activated ; it should only be,
a q uestion of time before White's
defences start to crumble.
It stil l h u rts me when I think how 41 g4 :'4 42 'iWb1 + <itg8 43
one careless move could have gS b4!
th rown away the fru its of my
hard labour. W hy I didn 't simply
play 38 . . . l:.f5! I j ust don't know.
As soon as I played the move I
wished that I could have taken it
back because I noticed that
Lembit could win a pawn with
39 "ir'a7! hitting both f7 and a5. I
would then have continued 39
. . . l:tf5 40 "ir'xa5 l:.f2 but afte r 41
"ir'e 1 ! there is nothi n g better

82
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE
It's time to bring u p the i nfantry
- pawns are very useful for
making the final breakth rough.
If· W hite now had sim ply contin-
ued advancing his kings ide
pawns with 4 4 h 5 then 4 4 . . .
li)c3! wou ld be c rushing: e.g. 45
bxc3 'ifxc3+ 46 'ii'b 2 (or 46 1:b2
bxa3; 46 �a2 'ii'x a3 mate. ) 46
. . . 1:f 1 + 4 7 �a2 b3+ 4 8 'ii'x b3
1:a1 mate.
44 :d3
At this stage of the game I be­
came very excited. I had seen a
truly beautiful finish which I was
s u re wou ld occ ur . . .
44 ... ttJc3 ! 4 5 i.xb4
After this move it looks as if
Black has j ust blu ndered; 45 . . .
axb4 allows 4 6 1:d8 mate while
after 45 . . . li)xb1 46 lIxb3 1:f 1
47 �a2 axb4 48 a4 li)d2 49
':xb4 it is not at all easy to see
how Black halts White's
q ueenside pawns .
At this stage , out of the corner
of my eye, I had seen Lev
83
Polugaevsky and Vlad i m i r T u k­
makov approaching. I decided
to wait until they were wal king
past before I moved . W hen I
did, they both stopped dead i n
their tracks!
45 . n
\Illr
.- a2+ "
..
Lembit resigned - it is mate i n
three.
GAM E 26
Chess at the ve ry top req u i res
almost superhuman qualities. It
is now getting to the stage
where one m istake can virtually
lose a game. This is the fate
that befalls Zoltan Almas i , an­
other of the young and highly
talented H u ngarian prodigies.
He was playing the Bosnian
G randmaste r Ivan Sokolov.
Ivan is one of the fittest g rand­
maste rs in the wo rld . His stam­
ina and concentration are q uite
phenomenal as can be seen
from the amount of energy that
 ATI'ACK with GM Julian Hodgson
he puts i nto his games. I n the
following game, all it takes is
one mistake and he is in like
Flyn n !
White : Zoltan Almasi
Black: Ivan Sokolov
W ij k aan Zee 1 995
1 e4 eS 2 ltJf3 ltJcs 3 i.bS
as 4 i.a4 ltJfS S 0-0 ltJxe4 S
d4 bS 7 i.b3 dS 8 dxeS
i.eS 9 i.e3
This game was played before
Kasparov had found his stun­
ning novelty against Anand in
the ir World Championship Match.
9 ... i.e7 1 0 c3 0-0 1 1
ltJbd2 'ii'd 7 1 2 1.c2 fS 1 3
exfS ltJxfS 1 4 'ii'b 1
Zoltan is stil l followin g mainline
theory but I have to say that his
last move looks very artificial ; it
will now take a long time for the
rook on a 1 to play any part in
the game.
1 4 ... �h8 1 S ltJgS
-===-;;;===
84
Everything is stil l going to plan
u ntil the fol lowing happened . . .
1 S . . . ltJg4 ! !
W hat a move from Ivan! I nstead
of meekly retreating the bishop
to g8 he meets Zoltan's knight
charge with one of his own .
1 S ltJgf3
It is always very demoralising
when you have to retreat a
piece to the square it has j ust
come from (although computers
happily do this without a second
thought) but it is the correct de­
cision. The foolhardy 1 6 �xh7 ? !
would c o m e a c ropper t o 1 6 . . .
:f5! which would win two
pieces for a rook as follows 1 7
h3 �xe3 1 8 fxe3 g6! when the
knight on h7 is history.
1 S ... 'ifj'dS
Having been given a whole two
tempi, Ivan does not need a
second i nvitation to get his
pieces in there.
1 7 l:e1
1 7 . l:lxf3 !
. .
Fi rst one exchange is g iven u p
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE

to get to Zoltan's king . . .

1 S ltJxf3 ltJce5 1 9 ltJd2
Sad but true! Zoltan would have
wanted to play 1 9 lLlxe5 but af­
ter 1 9 . . . 'ii'x e5 he could lose in
t h e fol lowing l on g variation 2 0 The problem for Zoltan is that
g3 'ii' h 5 2 1 h4 J.xh4! 22 gxh4 two of his major pieces are hav­
'ii'x h4 23 J.d4 'ii' h 2+ 24 <iti>f 1 :f8 ing a q u ick chat in the corner
oblivious to the rest of the
25 ..t>e2 lLlxf2 - although this l i ne
board .
is not completely forced it is in­
d icative of the kind of trouble 22 . . ':xf1 +!
.

that W h ite is i n . T h e second exchange sacrifice

1 9 ... ltJc4 20 ltJf1 comes with equal ferocity. Now
Zoltan's king is completely laid
Zoltan has to waste yet more
bare.
time with his knights. Often it is
a good idea when you are at­ 23 cJ(xf1 'ii'x h2 24 �f3 ltJe5
tacking to count up the n u mber 25 'ii'd 1
of men i n their penalty area and
T h e qu een comes over b u t i t i s
the n u mber of defenders that
too late t o help its better half.
are also around. If we cou nt up
Ivan has six pieces attacking 25 ... �h4 26 l:c1 �g4!
agai nst Zoltan's fou r defending.
20 . . . 1Us
The last black piece joins the
fray - the end is near.
21 .*.d1 ltJcxe3 22 fxe3

Le coup de g race. There is no

defence to 'ifh 1 + fol lowed by
'ii'x g2+.

A virtuoso performance from

Ivan. It was real ly a case of
W e a re now reaching the climax Wham ! Barn ! Than kyo u Zoltan!
- let's exam ine the position
85
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

GAM E 27 lLlc6 4 0-0

W hile I was playing in a tou r­
nament in the Soviet U n ion i n
1 987, Lev Psakhis (a former
Soviet Champion himself) told
me about the latest sensation
that was about to hit the chess
scene - that person was Gata
Kamsky. Not long after Gata
defected to the U n ited States
f rom where he has risen to the
very s u m m it of world chess.
Gata is the u ltimate chess kill­
ing machine and I mean that as
W h ite could also play 4 d4 but
B ranko wanted to play very
conservatively.
4 . . . eS
We have now reached a King's
I ndian with colours reversed.
The extra tempo that W h ite has
should be enough for equal ity
but no more.
5 c4 d4 6 d3 lLlf6 7 e3 ..te7
a lte1 lLld7
Kamsky aims to keep the posi­
tion compl icated. After the obvi­
ous 8 . . 0-0 9 exd4 exd4 1 0
.

a compli ment. He has an in­ ti)e5 ti)xe5 1 1 ':'xe5 i.d6 1 2

credible will to wi n , fantastic :e1 h6 the position is dead equal.
concentration and determ i nation
added to a g reat natu ral talent
9 lLla3 0-0 1 0 lLlc2 as 1 1
for the game - all the qualities :tb1 fS
that are now needed to make I would be extremely reluctant to
the g rade in chess. play this move with my queenside
so undeveloped. However, other
The following game was played plans are not so easy to spot.
in 1 991 when Gata was coming
1 2 exd4 cxd4 1 3 a3 a4 1 4
u p the ran ks at g reat speed .
Branko Damljanovic, his oppo­ ..td2 ..tf6 1 5 ..t b4 :tea 1 6
nent, is cu rrently Serbia's num­ lLld2 !
ber one player. B ranko knew
that his best chance to beat
Kamsky was to play a wait and
see game and hope that his
young opponent would overpress
- that is precisely what happened.

White : Branko Damljanovic

Black: Gata Kamsky
Belg rade 1 991
1 lLlf3 dS 2 g3 cS 3 ..tg2
86
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE
W h ite's plan is very simple. He
i ntends to play c5 followe d by
plonking the knight on dS via
c4. There is not an awful lot that
Black can do to p revent this
plan.
16 •.. �h8 1 7 c5 e4
Kamsky decides to go for it! 1 7
. . . i.e7 was the alternative but
after 1 8 lDc4 i.xc5 1 9 i.xc5
lDxc5 20 i.xcS! bxcS 21 lDxe5
'ii'f S 22 'iVh5! W h ite has the up­
per hand but of cou rse Black
can fight.
1 8 dxe4 �de5 1 9 f4!
This is the key move.
1 9 . . . �d3 20 e5 �xe1 21
�xe1 �e7
W h ite has given up the ex­
change but has more than
enough compensation . The e5
pawn is extremely strong while
the white knights are very wel l
placed a s o n e is ready t o hop in
on dS and the othe r is ready to
go to d3 f rom where it block­
ades the d 4 pawn . The position
is al ready close to winning for
87
W h ite.
22 �c4 �e6 23 �d6 �xd6
Black removes the pesky knight
but at a g reat cost. W h ite now
has two protected passed pawns
which are already far advanced .
24 cxd6 tDxb4 25 axb4
'iVb6 26 �d3 a3
Gata could also have tried 2S . . .
.i.c4 but then the following
variation would occ u r 27 lDc5
'ii'x b4 28 'ii'x d4 a3 29 d7 .l:ted8
30 eS bS 31 e7 bxc5 32 i.xa8
when the white pawns touch
down . I wonder if B ranko is any
good at space i nvaders .
27 bxa3 ':xa3 28 �c5
The knight is now on the ideal
square to assist the advance of
the central pawns as it controls
both the two squares d i rectly i n
front o f the m , eS and d7 re­
spectively.
28 ... d3 29 � h 1 �a2 30
':c1 'iVxb4 31 �xd3 !
3 1 d7 looks very tem pting but
after 3 1 . . . .l:tg8! 32 eS? d2 33
.l:tc2 i.xeS! 34 lDxeS .l:td3 the
position is not completely clear
as the d2 pawn offers serious
cou nte rplay.
31 . . . 'iVb5 32 �c5 !
This move really rubs it in -
Gata can only sit by helplessly
as W h ite's pawns march up the
board with an air of inevitably.
32 . . . b6 33 d7 ':d8 34 e6
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
34 . • . bxc5 35 e7
It can be safely said W h ite's
strategy has been a rip-roaring
s uccess.
35 ... 'ifbS 36 exdS'if+
"xdS 37 l:txc5
G ata now resigned as there is
no answer to 38 :tc8. It is often
s u rprising how a seemi ngly in­
nocuous opening can contain
plenty of venom - especially if
one's opponent overplays his
hand as was the case here.
GAM E 28
The following game i m p ressed
me g reatly. I was sitting d i rectly
behind it, while struggling again­
st another exceptionally strong
Soviet Artur Yusupov. The game
itself g ives an excellent dem­
onstration of the slow fol low up
to a positional sacrifice.
In fact, this is precisely how you
should play against you r com­ 13 It)d4 ! ? e5
puter as they are completely It might seem a strange deci-
88
hopeless i n such positions.
Wh ite : Boris Gelfand
B l a c k : Alexei Dreev
Tilburg 1 993
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6
J ust about every single one of
the top Soviet players has
played the Slav at some time i n
their lives - it is a very soli d and
reliable opening.
3 lt)f3
The u ltra boring 3 cxdS is one
reason why many Western
players do not play the Slav, but
you r average Russian is never
afraid to make a d raw with
black.
3 ... It)f6 4 It)c3 e6 5 e3
S i.gS is considered the most
critical test of this variation but
l ife is simply too short to get in­
volved in the complications after
S . . . dxc4 6 e4 bS 7 eS.
5 ... It)bd7 6 i.d3 dxc4 7
i.xc4 b5 S i.d3 i. b7 9 0-0
a6 1 0 e4 c5 1 1 d5 c4 1 2
i.c2 "c7
This position has been seen
countless times befo re. Cu rrent
theory suggests that W h ite
should now play 1 3 dxe6 fxe6
1 4 lL\d4 with the advantage but I
am sure this assessment will
change in a few months.
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE
sion to allow W h ite a protected
passed pawn on dS, but it
seems to work out q u ite wel l .
1 4 lDf5 g6!
Black has t o remove t h e knight
from fS as q uickly as possible.
1 5 lDh6
A double-edged move: on the
one hand it is now very d ifficu lt
for Black to castle kingside but
on the other hand the knight is
somewhat m isplaced on h6.
15 n. lDh5 ! ?
The automatic 1 S . . . .i.d6 would
be well met by 1 6 "f3! when
Black is in trouble due to the
p res s ure agai nst f6 and f7.
1 6 .f3 lDf4 1 7 lDxf7! ?
This move is hard to resist but I
s u spect that the more prudent
1 7 It)g4 is a l ittle bette r for
W h ite. Knowing when to retreat
rather than go forward is one of
the hardest skills in chess to
master.
1 7 ... �xf7 1 8 g3
W h ite wins back the piece but
89
at the cost of compromising the
pawn cove r in front of his king. I
am always reluctant to either
advance or part with my g pawn
as it is usually the pawn that
offe rs the king the most protec­
tion .
A b rave decision but Dreev has
calcu lated that the opening of
the g file will be to his advan­
tage.
1 9 gxf4 gxf4 20 'iVh5+ �e7!
21 'ii' h 4+ �f7
The natu ral 21 . . . It)f6 would be
bad after 22 .i.xf4! exf4 23 eS!
winning.
22 � d 1 ?
W h ite should now repeat with
22 'ifhS+ but I suspect that
there are ve ry few playe rs who
wou l d be able to resist the text
move. Afte r 22 'ifhS+ Black can
either repeat or try the risky 22
. . . 1; e7 23 'ifh4+ �e8 with a
mess.
22 . . . :g8+ !
Again 22 . . . It)f6 would be a
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

m istake on accou nt of 23 .i.h5+ 30 exd5 .i.xd5

�e7 24 .i.xf4!
T h i s is t h e point - Black's
23 � h 1 lDf6 24 .i.h5+ :g6 ! ! bishop on d5 is so dominating
that it is easi ly worth a rook.
31 :f1 .i.f6 32 'ifh7+ 1:[g7
33 "h3 .i.e6!
Another very strong move - the
natu ral 33 . . . g5 could be met by
the i rritating 34 'ii' h 5+.
34 "g2 g5 35 a3 !
W h ite finally gets round to de­
veloping his queenside pieces
but it is too little to late.
A n absolutely bri l l iant move self
pinning the rook - one sees this
35 ... g4 36 axb4 .i.d5 !
idea very rarely. However, after The bishop retu rns to its best
the obvious 24 . . . It)xh5 25 d iagonal.
'ii'x h5+ :g6 26 'ii'x h7+ .i.g7 27 37 lDc3 gxf3 !
:g 1 ! W h ite is OK.
25 .i.xg6+ hxg6
All of a sudden with the h file
open the white king is i n serious
danger. A key point to notice is
that as the position is rather
blocked W h ite's extra exchange
does not compensate for his
rather d raughty king.
26 :g1 .i.e7 27 'ifh6 :g8
28 f3 b4!
38 .f2 ? !
It is amazing how q u ickly
In desperate time-trouble W h ite
W h ite's position falls apart as
falters - he had to try 38 'ii'x g7+
Alexei strikes on all sides.
when the main line woul d run as
29 lDe2 lDxd5 ! follows 38 . . . iLxg7 39 It)xd5
Fi rst Black sacrifices the ex­ 'iVc6 40 :a5 (the only move as
change and now a piece - Gel­ a knight retreat would allow 40
fand m ust have wondered what . . . f2+) 40 . . . 'iVg6 41 :xf3 'ife4!
had hit h i m . 42 'iii'g2 'ii'c2+ 43 1:.f2 'ifxc1 when

90
 THE EXCHANGE SACRIFICE

43 :'xa6 .i.h3!
The net closes i n . . .

44 :12 il.h4!

in this position Black's queen is

much stronger than the scat­
tered white rooks. In order to
defend agai nst a marauding
q ueen it is essential to have a Finally this move comes with
safe king - sadly for W h ite this devastating effect - W h ite now
is not the case here. resig ned . Black's pawns com­
38 ... .i. b7 39 1:[a5 b ined with the bishops are j ust
too much of a handf u l e . g . 45
39 :g 1 wou l d lose to the beauti­
:a7+ 'ittf 6 46 1:[xg7 .i.xf2 47
ful 39 . . . .i.h4! !
1:[g8 .i.d4 fol lowed by 48 . . . f2.
39 . . . 'ilid7 ! 40 li:)d5 .i.xd5
41 'ifd2 A splendid creative perform­
ance by D reev - it is rare that
41 :d 1 "h3 42 1:[axd5 :g2 is
one sees Gelfand so outplayed
equally as hopeless for W h ite.
with wh ite .
41 . . . .i.c6 42 'ilixd7+ .i.xd7

91
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

6 RAKING BISHOPS

It has taken a long time but I White : J u l ian Hodgson

have finally come to treasu re B l a c k : Boris G u l ko
the bishops. Nestled safely in G ron ingen 1 994
you r own half of the board , they
can stil l wreak u ntold damage
on the opponent's position. 1 c4
No Trompovsky today - I wanted
W he n the bishops are at full to be very solid.
power they are simply a joy to 1 c5 2 g3 g6 3 i.g2 i.g7
. . .

behold.
Here then are some of the
games that have helped me
realise what the Soviet School
of Chess has u nderstood all
along :
4 It)c3 It)c6 5 a3 e6
So far so good . I now tried to
exploit my opponent's "weak"
move with a pawn sacrifice.
6 b4

Bishops really are better than

knights.

GAM E 29

The following game was played

when I was going throu g h the
worst run of my l ife. I had j ust
lost my last two games in the
1 994 Moscow Olympiad and
then had beg u n G roningen with
the fantastic sco re of 1 out of 8!
- not an ideal s ituation to be
facing one of the U n ited States'
toughest ar'ld strongest play-
ers . . .
92
I had only calculated 6 . . . cxb4 7
axb4 lLlxb4 8 .i.a3 lLlc6 9 lLlb5!
with fantastic compensation for
a pawn.
6 ... lt)xb4 !
Ouch! I had completely over­
looked this stu n n i n g blow - my
 RAKING BISHOPS
immediate reaction was that 1
out of 9 would not sound much
worse than 1 out of 8 !
7 axb4 cxb4
This is the point; W h ite has to
return the piece due to the pin
on the knight.
S lLlb5
Objectively, the best move would
have been 8 e3 bxc3 9 d4 fol­
lowed by olLle2 and then olLlxc3
when W h ite has reasonable
compensation for the pawn -
but I was not feeling very objec­
tive!
S . . . .i.xa1
An exchange and two pawns
down after only eight moves
with W h ite - not a bad resu lt! To
be honest d u ring the game I
had m iscounted and thought I
was only the exchange and one
pawn down.
9 .a4 -*.e5 ? !
Boris no doubt flushed by his
success i m m ed iately goes as­
tray. Correct would have been 9
. . . .iof6 when it is doubtfu l W h ite
has enough play for the mate­
rial. A few months later Eric
Lobron told me he had reached
an identical position against
Kavalek in the Bu ndes liga way
back in 1 98 1 - he also com­
mented that 6 . . . olLlxb4 came as
a s u rprise as well!
1 0 lLlf3 .i.bS
Boris has succeeded in keeping
93
my knight out of d6, but he has
now weakened the a1 -h8 di­
agonal . I was al ready beg i nni ng
t o feel more cheerful .
1 1 .i.b2 f6
The only move but it does have
the d rawback of further weak­
ening Black's kingside. It is also
worth pointing out that W h ite
has now developed five pieces
while Black stil l has his enti re
army on the back rank - i n
chess, i t is not what's off the
board that cou nts but what is on
it.
1 2 h4!
This is not the type of position
where automatic moves such
as 1 2 0-0 will do. I wanted to
activate my last u ndeveloped
piece (the rook on h 1 ) as
q u ickly as poss ible. My king is
also pe rfectly secure on e1 as
Black is a long way from getti ng
anyth ing remotely near it.
12 . . . as
Boris no longer has time for
such moves. It is true that the
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
pawn on b4 is defended but
now my knight on b5 is a con­
stant menace that is not easily
got rid of.
1 3 hS gxhS
After 1 3 . . . g5 I had i ntended 1 4
h6 when Black is hard pressed
to find a good move .
1 4 ':xhS
This rook has a g reat future as
it performs wonders along the
fifth rank.
1 4 ... 'ife7 1 S lLlgS !
Another good move - the knight
reroutes to e4 f ro m where it can
take aim at the two weakest
poi nts in Black's position - the
d6 and f6 squares.
1 S ... ':a6 1 6 lLle4 eS
A very ugly move as it weakens
a lot of the white squares but
my opponent felt it essential to
b l u nt my bishop on b2 - how­
ever, even this is only a tempo­
rary meas u re .
1 7 cS ! �f8
You can ru n but you can't hide.
94
1 8 lLlbd6 i.xd6 1 9 lLlxd6
l:txd6
This move is virtually forced as
1 9 . . . 'it'd8 is simply too disgust­
ing to contemplate.
20 cxd6 'ii'x d6 21 d4!
W ith this strong move both the
bishop on b2 and rook on h5
are b rought into the game - it is
amazing what one l ittle pawn
can do.
21 ... exd4 22 lidS -.c7 23
':xaS
One by one the black pawns
start to fal l .
23 ... lLle7
Finally Black develops a piece
but it is too little too late.
24 -.xb4 d6 2S l:lbS �g7
Boris should have tried 25
lDc6 when 26 .lxc6 'ii'x c6 27
'ir'xd4 'ii'x b5 28 'ir'xf6+ 'iii> e 8 29
'iVxh8+ 'it>d7 30 'it'xh7+ should
win for W h ite although it would
not be absolutely trivial .
26 'ifxd4 ':f8
 RAKING BISHOPS
27 g41
I was extremely pleased with
this move as now the bishop on
b2 comes i nto the game with
deadly effect - the poi nt is that
Black has no black bishop to
defend the black squares.
27 ... "d7 28 :lh5 <it>g8 29
g5 "g4 30 gxf6
At this pOint my opponent de­
cided enough was enough and
resigned. 30 . . . 'ii'x h5 and 30 . . .
'ii'x g2 both lose to 3 1 fxe7. The
finish I had been hoping for was
30 . . . 'ii'x d4 31 .i.xd4 �c6 32
.i.d5+ Wh8 33 .i.xc6 bxc6 34 f7
mate.
This one l ittle gem made up for
my previous disastrous ru n - it
is now the only game that I can
remember from that tou rna­
ment.
GAM E 30
J u lio G randa Zuniga was the
95
s u rprise winner in the 1 995
Donner Memorial . His play re­
vealed an originality and fresh­
ness of thought that is rarely
seen in today's master chess
which often consists of rather
d ry, technical and characte rless
g rinds.
J u lio then proved that this res u lt
was no fluke by emerg i ng victo­
rious a year later in the same
tou rnament in an even stronger
field. His finishing bu rst of 3Y2
out of 4 was q u ite remarkable.
Each of his three victims was
blown away with cons u m mate
ease.
Before going onto the game, I
m ust mention one small anec­
dote. I asked J u l io if he was
going to play in the Blitz to � r­
nament (5 m i nute chess) which
was on one of the rest days . He
replied that he was not s u re as
to use his words "The mind is
fast but the hands are slow! "
W e l l , he did play and won with a
scorching 1 8% out of 20!
Here then is his demolition job
on Gata Kamsky, who has to be
one of the toug hest players on
the tou rnament circuit to beat.
Wh ite : Julio Granda Zuniga
B l a c k : Gata Kamsky
Donner Memorial 1 996
1 d4 ttJf6 2 c4 e6 3 ttJf3 b6
 A11ACK with GM Julian Hodgson

Gata is capable of playing j ust track. He should have calm ly

about any opening with either retreated his bishop to b7 when
colour. In this game he elects to he would have little to fear.
play it safe by adopting the 1 4 tDxd4
Queen's I ndian defence.
Now W h ite's knight is well­
4 g3 olta6 5 b3 oltb4+ 6 oltd2 placed on d4 while the bishop
olte7 7 oltg2 e6 a �e3 d5 on g2 exerts serious press u re
W h ite has a little more space on Black's centre.
but Black is very solid. This very 14 . • . tDe5 ? !
position also occu rred in game
Another inacc u racy f rom Gata -
three of the recently finished
the knight will become a target
Karpov - Kamsky match . Kar­
on cS.
pov played 9 lLleS but J u lio de­
cided to calm ly complete his 1 5 olta1 !
queenside development. Excellently played! The th reat is
9 tDbd2 tDbd7 1 0 :'e1 0-0 si mply to advance the b pawn to
1 1 11e2 ! ? bS and then land someth ing big
on c6.
I ' l l now b e completely honest
and adm it that I don't really un­ 15 . . • dxe4
derstand this move but I am
s u re there is some hidden poi nt
that I haven't q u ite g rasped.
11 • • • :tea 1 2 0-0 cS 1 3 a4
Another semi-waiting move.
J u lio wants to stop Black from
playi ng a later bS.
13 .•• exd4? !

Now the tactics begi n - this is

where J u l io really comes i nto
his element.
1 6 b4! e3
Gata tries to confuse the iss ue.
After the game J u lio thoug ht
that Gata should have tried 1 6
. . . lLlxa4! ? 1 7 bS �xbS 1 8 lLlxbS
'ii'd 7! 1 9 l:[a2 ! 'ii'x bS 20 'ii'x a4
Gata goes off on the wrong
96
 RAKING BISHOPS
when he felt that W h ite's extra
piece was worth more than the
pawns but the position would
stil l be extremely hard to win.
1 7 1.xc3
Thank you .
1 7 ... lbxa4 1 8 1.a1
Now I will go back to where
came from. Gata is a pawn u p
b u t his position h as become
very d ifficult as his pieces have
lost all their co-ord ination.
1 8 ... 1.xb4
G ata g rabs some more booty to
compensate hi m for his trou bles
but now J u lio demonstrates his
mastery of such a position. It
was about this stage that he
had seen right through to the
end!
1 9 ':xc8 1.xc8 20 'ii'x a4
1.xd2
D u ring this part of the proceed-
ings I was in the press room
watching the game on a moni-
tor. I was i nterested to see how
J u lio wou l d justify his double
pawn sacrifice. His position
97
looked good but I could see
nothing completely clear . . .
21 lbc6 !
This is m uch stronger than the
obvious 2 1 l:td 1 when Black can
struggle on with 21 . . . b5! - an
easy resou rce to overlook.
21 ... 'iVe8 22 :d1 1.a5
J u st com pare the relative
strengths of the bishops -
J u l io's are almost worth the two
pawns alone. W h ite has many
tem pti ng possibilities here but
finding precisel y the right one
req u i res q u ite a lot of calcu la­
tion .
23 'iVh4 ! !
The queen switches to the
kingside with deadly conse­
quences . By now I was getting
qu ite excited i n the press room
as even t h e computer program
"King" was assessing the posi­
tion as bette r for W h ite despite
the two pawn defi cit - that meant
W hite's position had to be good !
I decided to go i nto the playing
hall and watch the game l ive - I
cou ld already sense the tension
 ATTACK with GM Julian Hodgson
mounting in the audience as they
began to anticipate an upset.
23 ... e5
Desperation but there is abso­
l utely nothi n g that Gata can do
to wriggle out of this mess. 23
. . . lLId7 wou l d lose prettily to 24
lLIe7+ �h8 25 l:txd7! .i.xd7 26
.i.xg7+! <;txg7 27 "g5+ 'ifr>h8 28
"f6 mate; 23 . . . .i.d7 is wel l met
by 24 .i.xf6 gxf6 25 "xf6 i.xc6
26 ':d4 h5 27 "g5+ also mat­
ing.
24 .txe5 .td7
J u lio has it all under control. He
had also calcu lated 24 . . . "e6
out to a win as follows : 25 l:td6!
'ii'g 4 26 ':'xf6 'ii'x h4 27 lLIe7+!
(an important i ntermezzo) 27 , . .
<;th8 2 8 gxh4 .i.b4 2 9 lLIxc8
gxf6 30 .i.xf6+ 'ifr>g8 31 lLIxa7 -
very pretty.
25 .txf6
Gata's main defender is re­
moved. Note how his black
bishop is merely a helpless by­
stander on a5.
25 ... gxf6
98
26 .te4!
J u lio brings his other bishop
into play - the end is in sight.
26 . h6 27 l:txd7! 'iYxd7 28
. .
'iYxh6 f5 29 .txf5 !
J u lio made this move almost
instantly. Gata shrugged his
shoulders and then resigned at
which point the audience broke
out into spontaneous applause -
the first and only time this had
happened d u ring the tou rna­
ment (and also the previous two
Donner Memorials as well) .
GAM E 3 1
I t i s always i nteresting to ob­
serve the early development of
a g reat natu ral talent. England
has had its fai r share of child
prodigies: N igel Short, M ichael
Adams and Matthew Sadler to
name but a few. It now looks as
if there is a new one on the ho­
rizon - the precocious but very
l ikeable, Lu ke McShane.
The fol lowi ng game of Lu ke's
really impressed me. He out­
plays a ve ry strong R ussian
G randmaster, Alexander Babu­
rin (cu rrently first board of the
I rish National Team and also
their trainer) from start to finish.
Let us now enjoy the you n g
maestro in action.
 RAKING BISHOPS

White : Luke McShane well placed to do damage. As it

Blac k : Alexander Baburin stands, the knight is forced to
Cambridge 1 995 retreat to a rather pass ive
square.

1 e4 �f6
The Alekhine Defence is Alex­
ander's pet opening against 1
e4.
2 e5 �d5 3 d4 d6 4 �f3
i.g4
I remember one of my first eve r
chess coaches showed me this
system and recom mended that
I should try it out, but I neve r
plucked u p the cou rage to do 1 2 ... �c8
so. You might wonder why was I Luke m ight have doubled
so reticent about the opening - pawns b ut Black has a severe
at that time, I just did n't fancy oxygen deficiency!
tru ndling my knight ove r from
1 3 b4 �c6 1 4 "a4!
g8 to b6 for, as I could see it, no
partic u larly good reason.

Si nce those early years of my

chess l ife, I have now real ised
that what Black is hoping for is
that W h ite's centre will become
overextended - it still seems to
me that this is a bit of wishful
thinking.
5 i.e2 e6 6 0-0 i.e7 7 h3
i.h5 8 c4 �b6 9 �c3 0-0 Luke h its Alexander with a very
1 0 i.e3 d5 1 1 c5 i.xf3 1 2 powerful new move. Now b5 is
gxf3 ! a constant wo rry for Black and
This is the key move of this what is worse the obvious way
variation . Luke's captu re with to stop it with a6 fails because
the pawn m i g ht look odd but the rook on a8 is loose.
after the nat u ral recapture with 1 4 . i.h4
. .

the bishop, then Black's knight

Alexander plays this move
can hop i nto c4 f rom where it is
99
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

partly to activate the bishop but Lu ke's next stunning move

even more i mportantly to free wou ld have i nstantly shattered
e7 so that his knights have at Alexander's i l l usions!
least one square to go to. =-;;;===

1 5 .i.d3!
Luke slowly but s u rely improves
the position of all his pieces
before deciding which side of
the board to attack on.
15 . • . f6 1 6 f4 lD6e7
Clearly Alexander would have
p referred to put his other knight
on e7 but then 1 6 bS would be
very u npleasant to m eet. 23 lDg1 ! !
1 7 lDe2 lDf5 1 8 i.xf5 ! Absolutely brilliant! Luke does
Luke correctly decides to part not play the obvious 23 11ag 1
with his bishop for a knight be­ doubling the rooks on the semi­
fore his opponent has the open file but instead he plays a
chance to play 1 8 . . . l:iJce7. As a move that is much more deadly.
resu lt of this exchange the Alexander is actually lost be­
pawn on eS d ramatically g rows cause in order to save his
in strength. bishop on h4, he has to totally
wreck his position .
18 ••• exf5 1 9 'iVc2
23 fxe5 2 4 dxe5 lDc6 25
The q ueen has done its job on
. • .

a4 so now is the time to retreat lDf3 ! lDxb4 26 'iVb2 !

it to a more productive square.
19 . • . lDe7 20 <ii.> h 2!
Luke now embarks on a s uperb
plan which is based on the poor
position of Black's bishop on h4.
20 'iVd7 21 1%g1 <ii.> h 8 22
• • •

:g21 a5
I am s u re that Alexander would
now have been q u ite content
with his position; his rook on a8
Now eve rything has become
is coming i nto the game while it
m uch clearer. Before Luke's
looks as if W h ite's attack down
23rd move he had only one
the g file can easily be thwarted .
1 00
 RAKING BISHOPS
avenue of attack, the g file, but
now he can also use his queen
and bishop down the a1 - ha di­
agonal to mount a joint attack
on g7. This was not possible
u ntil Alexander was forced to
captu re on e5 to f ree his bishop
on h4.
26 ... "e7 27 :ag1 :g8 28
lDxh4 "xh4 29 e6! d4
This only p rolongs the agony for
a few moves .
30 i.xd4
This position is the cumu lation
of all Lu ke's forward planning.
Look at that pawn on g7 - it is
the target of every one of Luke's
pieces . It is a battle that W h ite
is always going to win as Black
cannot shield his king from the
added firepower that Luke's
bishop provides.
1 01
30 ... 'iixf4+ 31 cJth1 h6 32
i.xg7+ cJth7 33 "f6
Alexander now resigned be­
cause it is forced mate i n three
moves. I think we will be seeing
many more such games from
Luke.
GAM E 32
I was particu larly proud of the
fol lowing game - it was perhaps
my most creative achievement
of 1 996. I had lost to the same
opponent a few months before
i n a brilliant sacrificial game. I
was dete rm ined to take my re­
venge . . .
Wh ite : Jul ian Hodgson
Blac k : Keith Arkell
Isle o f Man 1 996
1 c4 c5 2 g3 g6 3 i.g2 i.g7
4 lDc3 lDc6 5 a3
Keith now sank i nto a fifteen
m i n ute think. After the game he
said that he had never faced
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
this move befo re which is q u ite
s u rprising really as Keith has
played an awf u l lot of games i n
h i s l o n g a n d i l lustrious career.
5 ... tbh6 6 h4!
I was very happy with t h is move
as my rook on h1 gets into the
game at an early stage - always
someth ing of a bonus!
6 ... tbf5 7 h5 b6
Black would have liked to play 7
. . . g5 but that would lose a
pawn to 8 �e4! forking c5 and
g5.
S d3 i.. b 7 9 h6!
This poses the bishop on g7 a
tricky question .
9 ... i.. fS
I was pleased to s ee t h is re­
treat. But, after 9 . . . .i.e5 I had
i ntended the very powerf u l 1 0
g4! �fd4 1 1 f4 .i.b8 1 2 e3 �e6
1 3 b4 with a very flexible pos i­
tion.
1 0 b4!
I decided to attack on all f ronts .
1 0 ... "c8 1 1 tbe4!
1 02
An extremely strong pawn sac­
rifice - it is often worth g iving up
material fo r th e i nitiative espe­
cially when the opponent's king
is trapped in the m iddle of the
board .
1 1 ... cxb4 1 2 axb4 tbxb4
1 3 i.. b2 f6
This looks ugly but the alterna­
tive 1 3 . . . :g8 is even worse
after 1 4 'ii'd 2! �c6 1 5 g4! �fd4
1 6 �g5 �b3 1 7 'ii'f 4! f6 1 8
�xh7 when the h6 pawn wi l l
decide t h e issue.
1 4 g4!
More mate rial is jettisoned for
the sake of the i n itiative.
1 4 ... tbxh6 1 5 g5!
1 5 'ii'd 2 looked ve ry tem pti ng
but I could not see a good way
to continue after the cou nte r­
attacking 1 5 . . . d5!
1 5 ... tbg8
So Black's kingside pieces are
back where they started - not a
good sign! I ndeed it would be
hard to imagine that the bishop
and knight have already made
no less than six moves between
them!
The more ambitious 1 5 . . . �g4
would have been wel l m et by 1 6
Ah4! when my king's rook
would swing into action and so
giving fu rther weight to my
.
move 6 h4.
1 6 "b3 ! !
 RAKING BISHOPS
My best move of the game. The
queen is very wel l placed on b3
as it has many latent th reats on
the a2 - g8 d iagonal which
Black has seriously weakened
by playi ng the move f6.
16 ... d5?
This is the losing move. Black
had to try 1 6 . . . as when I had
i ntended 1 7 gxf6 exf6 1 8 cS!
hS! (this is the only move as 1 8
. . . .i.dS wou ld lose spectacu larly
to 1 9 lLld6+! .i.xd6 20 .i.xdS
lLlxdS 21 'ifxdS .i.xcS
22 l:[xh7! ! winning.) 1 9 lLlh3!
with a stro n g i n itiative for the
two pawns .
17 gxf6 exf6
1 03
Afterwards Keith confessed that
his original intention had been
1 7 . . . dxe4 1 8 f7+! �xf7 1 9
.i.xh8 exd3 but then he noticed
20 l:[xh7+ - Ouch!
1 8 .ltxf6 !
W hen victory is close at hand it
is easy to become lazy and start
making second rate moves. 1 8
lLlxf6+ looks even stronger but
after 1 8 . . . lLlxf6 1 9 .i.xf6 dxc4!
20 'ii'a 4+ �f7 21 .i.xh8 .i.xg2 22
l:[xh7+ �g8 23 l:[h2 .i.c6 24
'ii'd 1 cxd3 the position is rather
u nclear as the i nitiative is sud­
denly with Black. Care is re­
q u i red u ntil the point has been
signed , sealed and delivered !
1 8 ... dxc4
I had · been hoping for 1 8 . . .
lLlxf6 1 9 lLlxf6+ �f7 which
would then give me the chance
to develop my king's knight with
devastating effect 20 lLlf3! ! .ig7
(there is nothing else) 21 lLlgS+!
�xf6 22 'iVc3+ �xgS 23 'ii'x g7
when the black king will not
s u rvive for m uch longer on g5.
1 9 'ifc3 ! .ltxe4 20 .ltxe4
tLlc2+ 21 <iit f 1 tLlxa1 22
.ltxh8
And now Keith resigned before I
took any more of his pieces ! A
strange game in some ways as
W h ite's king's knight stayed
firmly rooted on g 1 but when the
rook is already developed on h 1
there i s not the same necessity
to move it.
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
7 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX
A weak colour complex is a
concept that is hard to explain
but fundamental to the game of
chess. I f i rst read about it in Al­
exander Kotov's wonderful book
"Think l i ke a G randmaster".
A weak colo u r complex refers to
a set of weak white or black
squares that you r pieces have
little or no control over. This is a
major problem as then you r op­
ponent's pieces can then settle
on them with relative i m p u n ity
and strike at you r positio n .
If that all sounds very confusing
then I hope the games below
will make things a l ittle clearer.
GAM E 33
The followi ng game pleased me
g reatly. I ndeed , my wife has
told me on several occasions
(and also many other people)
that it is perhaps one of the
most instructive games that I
have eve r played . I have had
many exciting tussles with
G le n n over the years and I have
noticed one thing in partic u lar -
he loves g rabbing material. Now
1 04
when I play G lenn I try to use
this to my advantage.
White : G l e n n Flear
Black: J u l ian Hodgson
British Championships 1 989
1 d4 d6 2 e4 liJf6 3 f3
This move is a real pain if you
don't play the King's I ndian, as
objectively Black's best move is
probably 3 . . . g6 when after 4 c4
we are back in a main line
Saemisch.
3 ••. liJc6
I made this move up on the
spur of the moment; I have
neve r played it again although I
don't think it is that bad .
4 c4
The im med iate 4 lLle2 was also
wo rthy of consideration as then
Black's knight will never be able
to jump into d4.
4 •.. e5 5 d5 liJd4 6 .lte3
A risky move , but typical of
G lenn's style. He sees a pawn
and tries to g rab it. After the
more circu mspect 6 lLle2 lLlxe2
7 .i.xe2 the position is perhaps
a little better for W hite.
 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX

6 ... c5! 7 dxc6 bxc6 1 0 lDd2

I am s u re this came as a slight
s u rprise to G lenn as it loses a
pawn, but the obvious 7 . . .
�xc6 i s clearly bad as Black
has a backward pawn on d6
and a gaping hole on d5.
8 �xd4 exd4 9 'ii'x d4
I was delighted as I felt that for
a mere pawn I had j ust won all
the 32 black squares.
Let me briefly try to explain this
position. Black has a black
bishop but W h ite has no oppo­
s ite n u m be r to mark it. This
wou ld not always be a problem
but i n this particu lar position
with W h ite's pawns al ready on
c4, e4 and the horribly weaken­
ing f3 the situation is much
m o re serious for W h ite, as his
pawns provide no alte rnative
cover on the black squares.
9 ... lIb8!
A good move p reventing White
f ro m developing his queen's
knight o n it s best square c3.
The knight is m uch more c u m ­
be rsomely placed on this
square.
1 0 ... �e7 1 1 lDe2 0-0 1 2
lDb3 lDd7!
Another good move as the
knight is ready to jump to either
cS or e5, while the bishop on e7
can go to f6 from where it can
wreak havoc on the long black
d iagonal .
1 3 lDc3 lDc5 1 4 lDxc5 �f6 !
A ve ry strong zwischenzug
(German for in-between move).
1 5 lDb7!?
I have t o say that I had not ex­
pected this s u rprising rejoinder,
but after the natu ral 1 5 'it'd2
dxc5 1 6 'it'xd8 Axd8 W h ite is
very hard pressed to find a
good move. I was looking for­
ward to playing this position .
15 ... lIxb7 16 'iVd2
Now at least W h ite can defend
his b2 pawn.
16 ... 'iVb6 !

1 05
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
Look how my q ueen and bishop
control the two long dark d iago­
nals. W h ite is being sl iced in
two.
1 7 b3
An u gly move, but 1 7 0-0-0
would lose on the spot to 1 7 . ..
�g5!
1 7 ... :e8 1 8 l:d1 i.. e 5 1 9
lLla4 .d8 !
Now that W h ite can n o longer
castle queenside, the black
queen p repares to switch to the
kingside.
20 93 f5 !
W ith W h ite's king stil l stuck in
t h e centre the ti me is right to
blow the position wide ope n .
21 i.. g 2 f4!
I continued my strategy of play­
ing on the black squares.
22 g4
A desperate attem pt to keep the
pOSition closed . Howeve r, the
alternative 22 gxf4 is wel l met
by 22 . . . 1i'h4+ regain i n g the
pawn .
1 06
22 . . . h5!
It's o n e ham mer blow after an­
other!
23 gxh5 'i¥h4+ 24 'i¥f2
'ii'x h5 25 cS d5!
After this strong move, W h ite's
knight on a4 is j ust a spectator.
26 0-0
Finally, W h ite manages to cas­
tle but it is a case of out of the
frying pan into the fire.
26 ... dxe4 27 fxe4
I now fou nd a ve ry simple idea
of advancing my g pawn to g3
and delivering mate on h2. I
could see no defence to this
plan - partly because I did n't
think there was one and partly
because I am always very op­
tim istic.
27 · · · 95 !
I was now ve ry happy as I felt
that the pawn deficit was of l ittle
significance and my rook on b7
could swi ng across to the
kingside in one move .
28 tiJb2 94! 29 lLlc4 g3!
 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX
At this point G lenn resigned as
mate on h2 or loss of the queen
are u navoidable .
To say that I enjoyed this game
is something of an u nderstate­
ment. I wish chess could always
be such f u n . It's made me feel
good j ust annotating it!
GAM E 34
On the rest day before the fol­
lowin g game was played I and
my wife together with Gary
Kasparov and Joel Lautier had
gone to see a film called " I love
trouble" in which the baddies in
the film worked for a company
by the i nc redible name Chess
Chem icals!
The main topic of conve rsation
d u ring the evening was whether
Kasparov could take on any
other fou r playe rs i n the world in
a clock s i m u ltaneous with White
on all boards and not lose the
1 07
match. I said to Gary, "Come
on, you cannot be serio u s , " to
which he repl ied that he m ost
definitely was . I asked Joel if he
would play in such a match but
he replied he wou ld only play
Kasparov in a one to one con­
frontation!
Such was the prelude to the
following game between Gary
Kasparov and Alexei S h i rov
(one of the possible contestants
in such a match ! ) .
White : Gary Kasparov
Black: Alexei Shirov
Horgen CS 1 994
1 e4
This is Kasparov's preferred
cho ice these days - as the g reat
Bobby Fischer used to say:
" Best by Test".
1 ... cS 2 liJf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4
4 liJxd4 liJf6 S liJc3 liJc6 6
liJdbS d6 7 .i.f4 eS 8 .i.gS
a6 9 liJa3 bS
I absol utely hate this opening as
I think the position looks awf u l
f o r both sides - I am s u re that I
would lose with either colour.
1 0 liJdS .i.e7 1 1 .i.xf6 .i.xf6
Black has the bishops but W h ite
has a big square on dS.
12 c3 .i.b7 1 3 liJc2 liJb8
Ve ry strange!
1 4 a4 bxa4 1 S lba4 liJd7 1 6
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
ltb4 �c5 1 7 l%xb7 ! ! �xb7
An absolutely brilliant concept -
Gary g ives u p the exchange for
Black's best minor piece and all
the white squares. He late r
commented that a computer
wou ld never find such a pro­
found move - at the moment he
is rig ht but for how much
longer?
1 8 b4!
This one l ittle pawn dominates
the black knight.
1 8 ... i.g5 1 9 �a3 ! 0-0 20
�c4
The white knights are wel l and
truly entrenched i n the middle of
the board .
20 . . a5 21 i.d3 axb4 22
.
cxb4 'iVb8 23 h4!
Another good move - Black's
bishop is forced to an i nferior
square .
23 ... i.. h 6 24 �cb6
I find it remarkable that Gary
still hasn't castled. That, how-
ever, is one of the g reat arts of
1 08
chess - knowing precisely the
right time to do so.
24 . . . :a2 25 0-0
Not before time!
25 ... :d2 26 'iif3 "'a7 27
�d7
The white knights have Black's
d6 pawn sandwiched .
27 . . . �d8
Shirov decides to give back the
material but he should have
tried 27 . . . Aa8! hoping for 28
li:)e7+?! 'iti>h8 29 'iVxf7 Axd3 30
li:)f8 when he can defend with
the i ncred ible 30 . . . 'iVa2 ! ! I n ­
stead Gary would have had to
si mply repeat with 28 li:)7b6
when after 28 . . . Af8 (there is
nothing better) 29 i.b5! li:)d8 30
li:)d7 li:)e6 3 1 li:)e7+ �h8 32
li:)xf8 'iVxe7 33 li:)xe6 'it'xe6 34
i.c6 W h ite is clearly better but
Black is still fighting.
28 �xf8 <it>xf8 29 b5 !
Whit e is basically a pawn u p so
why not push it!
29 ... 'iia3
 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX
After 29 . . . 'ii'd 4 Gary had ana­
lysed the following twenty-five!
move variation to a win . Here it
goes . . . 30 l:[d 1 l:[ xd 1 + 3 1 'ii'x d 1
It)e6 32 b6 It)c5 33 .i.c2 'ii'x d 1 +
34 .i.xd 1 �e8 35 .i.g4 It)d7 36
b7 It)b8 37 .i.e2 �d8 38 .i.b5!
(now the knight is paralysed) 38
. . . .i.c 1 39 h5 .i.a3 40 �h2 .i.c5
41 �g3 .i.a7 42 f3 It)d7 43
.i.xd7 �xd7 44 h6 gxh6 45 �g4
�c6 46 �h5 �xb7 47 'it>xh6
�c6 48 'it>g7 'it>c5 49 'it>xf7 'it>d4
50 'it>g7 'it>d3 51 �xh7 �e2 52
�g6 'it>f2 53 g4 'it>xf3 54 �f5
winning - truly amazing! Did
Gary really see all that?
30 'ii'f5 !
The white q ueen closes i n for
the kill.
30 ... we
,...6... 8
The o n ly move a s 3 0 . . . :txd3?
wou l d lose i m mediately to 31
'ii'd 7!
3 1 i.c4 1:c2 32 "xh7!
The q u ickest path to victory.
32 ... :'xc4 33 ..g8+ �d7
34 ttJb6+ �e7 35 ttJxc4
"c5 36 1:a1 ! 'iVd4
Or 36 . . . "xc4 37 :a7+ 'it>e6 38
"e8+ wi nning.
37 :a3 i.c1 38 ttJe3
And Shirov decided to call it a
day.
A fantastic, creative achieve­
ment by Gary. His first com­
ment to me after the game was
that he could have played it in a
s i m u ltaneous (especially as he
had spent less than an hou r for
the whole game) . He had
_ proved his poi nt!
GAM E 35
The following game impressed
me g reatly. It sees N igel at his
very best. The finish is particu­
larly amazing - i n fact it has in­
spired me a few times. N igel
often uses the following ex­
pression when he has played a
good game of chess : Domi­
nate , Trap and - Flatten !
White : Nigel Short
B l a c k : Jan Ti mman
Tilbu rg 1 99 1
1 e4 !
I don't think I 've seen N igel play
anyth ing else.
1 . . . ttJf6
A very b rave choice from Tim-
1 09
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

man. Ever since N igel beat Lev
Alb u rt in a match between The
B ritish Champion and The
American Champion, 7 1 , no
-
e6. Short is very consistent in
keeping eS wel l defended .
1 3 . . . e6 1 4 lDd2 lDd5 1 5
lDf3 'iic 5 1 6 .e4!

one has been particu larly eager

to play the Alekhine, as N igel N igel cal m ly improves t h e pos i­
won all fou r W h ites in that tion of his queen. From e4 it
opening - it was a massacre. can go to h4 and launch a dan­
gerous attack against the black
2 e5 lDd5 3 d4 d6 4 lDf3
king.
U ndoubtedly the best move.
The Alekhine used to be a lot 1 6 ... 'ii b 4
more f u n when eve ryone tried Black: "W ould you like to ex­
to blow it away with the Fou r change queens?"
Pawns Attack. 1 7 i.c4!
4 ... g6 5 i.c4 lDb6 6 i.b3 W h ite: "No, than k you . I want to
i.g7 7 'iie 2! checkmate you ! "
An important move in W hite's 1 7 ... lDb6
plan , whose whole strategy is
based on keeping the eS pawn
as a strong point.
7 ... lDc6 8 0-0 0-0 9 h3!
It is essential to prevent Black
from playing .i.g4 which would
c reate i ntolerable pressure
against eS. Note that 8 . . .i.g4
.

was not playable on accou nt of

9 .i.xf7+ �xf7 1 0 �gS+.
9 ... a5 1 0 a4 dxe5 1 1 dxe5
lDd4
As a general ru le, it is a good
idea for the side with less space
(in this case , Black) to ex-
change pieces. The d rawback
of this plan, in this position, is
that Black will later lose time
with his queen.
1 2 lDxd4 'iVxd4 1 3 :'e1 !
This is much stronger than 1 3
1 10
1 8 b3 !
Excellently played. N igel is p re­
pared to double his q ueenside
pawns in order to keep the ini­
tiative.
1 8 ... lDxc4 1 9 bxc4 :e8 20
ltd1
A very important move. By con-
trolling the only open file, N igel
makes it extremely d ifficult for
 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX

his opponent to complete his 30 ... h5

development.
20 ... "c5 21 "h4 b6 22
-*.e3 "c6
There was a strong arg u ment to
play 22 . . . "f8 in order to de­
fend the dark squares around
the black king. Play might then
continue 23 l£lg5 h6 24 l£le4 g5
25 .i.xg5! hxg5 26 "xg5 - when
W h ite's attack is eas ily worth a
piece.
The only move to prevent the
23 -*.h6 .i.hS aforementioned plan.
Black has t o keep t h i s bishop to 31 �h2 ! !
have any hope of staving off the
attack. This m ust b e one of the m ost
amazing concepts I have ever
24 lidS! .i. b7 25 lIad 1 see n . W h ite's plan is s i mply to
Jan is now completely tied up. play his king to h6! and then de­
He would like to play 25 . . . l ive r mate on g7. There is l ittle
.i.xe5 but afte r 2 6 ':xa8 .i.xa8 Black can do to prevent this
27 l:td8! He has no good way to from happening.
p revent 28 "e7 as 27 . . . .i.d6 31 . . . l:cs
allows 28 l:txd6! 'ifxd6 29 'iff6
winning. This move loses without a fight.
Black had to try 3 1 . . . .i.c8 when
25 ... .i.g7 26 :Sd7 :US Nigel would have had to find 32
Sad , but true. The more active g4! ! which seems to win i n all
26 . . . 'ife4 would lose spectacu­ variations . e . g .
larly to 27 ltxf7! ! 'ifxh4 28 A) 3 2 . . . .i.xd7 3 3 gxh5 � h 7 3 4
.r:.xg7+ <it>h8 29 l£lxh4 winning. l£lg5+ �h6 3 5 l£lxf7 + l:txf7 36
27 .i.xg7 <iit> x g7 2S 1:[1 d4! "xg6 mate .
N igel b ri n gs another piece into
B) 32 . . . hxg4 33 l£lg5! .i.xd7 34
h5 gxh5 35 'ifh6 followed by
the fray.
m ate on h7.
2S . . . :aeS 29 .f6+ �gS 30
32 �g3 !
h41
It was only at this stage that Jan
The th reat is simply to move the
realised to his absol ute horro r
h pawn to h6, and then delive r and astonishment exactly what
m ate on g7.
was going o n , but now there is
111
 A'ITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
nothing to be done.
32 •.. llce8 33 �f4
A joy to behold!
33 . . . �c8 34 �g5
Timman now decided to th row
in the towel. There cannot be
too many things worse than
being mated by the opponent's
king i n the middle game. There
are two variations:
A) 34 . . . .i.xd7 35 �h6 followed
by 36 "g7 mate.
B) The beautiful 34 . . . ..th7 35
"xg6+ �h8 36 "h6+ Wg8 37
..tf6 followed by 38 "g7 mate.
GAM E 36
Every January there is a big
chess festival i n W ij k aan Zee,
a small village not very far from
Amsterdam . I n 1 985 I was lucky
enough to be i nvited to the "B"
g roup. Now, ove r ten years on , I
cannot remember any of my
games - they have all faded in
t h e m ists of ti me. H owever, one
Very di rect, but also ' very effec-
112
game that I sti l l do remember,
and still stands out like a shin­
ing beacon was the following
masterpiece - played i n the "A"
g ro u p .
John N u n n took great delight i n
showi ng m e the game on the
same evening i n the bar. W hat
he li ked most was the fact that
he had got in some vicious
preparation that he had been
savi ng u p for the last couple of
years . So here goes . . . .
White : Alexander Beliavsky
Black: John Nu nn
W ij k a a n Zee 1 985
1 d4 lLlf6 2 c4 g6 3 lLlc3
�g7 4 e4 d6
John has been a loyal convert
to the King's I n d ian for more
than a decade - you need his
b rilliant mathematical mind to
remember all the variations .
5 f3 0-0 6 �e3 lLlbd7 7
'iVd2 c5 8 d5 lLle5
A very provocative move. Black
puts his knight i n the middle of
the board and dares W h ite to
try and remove it.
9 h3
Alexander takes up the chal­
lenge, and p repares 1 0 f4, but
look at the holes appearing
around his king, (g3, h3 and f4) .
9 . . . lLlh5 !
 WEAK COLOUR COMPLEX
tive . The knight i m mediately
homes i n on W h ite's black squ­
are weaknesses .
1 0 .i.f2?1
W e are now ban g, s mack i n the
middle of John's wonderful
opening preparation . Alexander
is walking straight through a
m inefield without a care in the
world . It is worth pointing out
that the obvious 1 0 f4 is wel l
met b y 1 0 . . . �g31 exploiting the
weakness on g3.
10 '•.• f5 1
The u ndermining of W hite's
centre commences .
1 1 exf5 ':xf5 1 1
John was partic u larly pleased
with this m ove . By now q u ite a
large c rowd was building up i n
t h e bar t o watch John's rendi­
tion of his masterpiece.
12 g4
In for a penny i n for a pou nd.
12 ':xf3 1 3 gxh5 'l'f8 1 1
• • •
I t was around this stage, that
John's p reparation was com ing
113
to an end. He felt that this was
the key move - the queen joins
the attack with a vengeance . I
still find it hard to believe that
Black really has enough com­
pensation for a whole piece
(and I am s u re that Alexander
probably felt the same) and that
is one of the reasons that this
game is so impressive. It takes
a long time to realise q u ite how
bad W h ite's position is.
14 tDe4
It might seem strange that
W h ite moves one of his few de­
veloped pieces rather than his
kingside minor pieces . How­
ever, if you try movi ng either of
the bishops (f2 or f1 ) or the
knight on g 1 you wi l l find that
they all lose material i m medi­
ately.
1 4 ... .i.h6
Now we see one of the poi nts
behind 1 3 . . . 'iVf8.
15 'iVc2 'iVf4 16 tDe2
It would have been tempting to
remove the rook on f3 but that
wou ld lose as fol lows 1 6 �xf3
�xf3+ 1 7 �d 1 i.f5 1 8 i.d3
�d4! 1 9 i.xd4 'iVf3+! wi nning
the house - W h ite's pieces wi l l
fall o n e b y one.
16 ... ':xf2 1
Bri l liantly played , and very logi­
cal too. John sacrifices a further
exchange to have absol ute
control over the black squares .
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
1 7 tiJxf2 tiJf3+ 1 8 �d1 'ii' h 4!
1 9 tiJd3 �f5
It g ives me goose pimples j ust
looking at those raking bishops.
20 tiJec1
W h ite might be a rook u p but
look at the poor creatu res -
betwee n them they are attack­
ing a s u m total of three squares
(one less than the black king ! ) .
2 0 ... tiJd2 !
It was at this stage that John
felt he was winning. W h ite has
no good way to defend the
pawn on c4.
21 hxg6 hxg6 22 i.g2
The obvious 22 b3 wou l d lose
114
p rett ily to 22 . . . "e4! 23 1:[g 1
'ii'd 4! forki ng the white rooks .
22 . . . tiJxc4
The clean up operation commences.
23 'ii'f2 tiJe3+ 24 �e2 'ii'c 4!
John's delicate hand ling of his
q ueen is a sheer joy to behold!
25 �f3 :f8
The end is near as Black's last
piece joins in the attack.
26 1:g1
A white rook actually makes a
move j ust before the final c u r­
tai n comes down .
26 ... tiJc2 !
This move really appeals to m e.
S ix moves a go t h i s sam e kn ight
landed on d2 with stu n n i n g ef­
fect and now here it is again
wreaking even more havoc on c2.
27 �d1 �xd3
At this point, Alexander decided
to call it a day. W ho can blame
him?
 THE PAWN ROLLER

8 THE PAWN ROLLER

"Les pions sont I'ame du jeu"; impartial observer.

so wrote Andre P h ilidor in the
m iddle of the 1 8th Centu ry,
which translated l iterally means
"the pawns are the very life of
the game." Philidor was clearly
a man ahead of his time.
Pawns are especially danger­
ous when they can be advanced
as a broad phalanx: they then
can destroy everything in their
path, gain space for the heavy
artillery behind, or force the de­
cisive breakthrough towards the
enemy king. Final ly, they can
make that one last tri u mphant
leap to the eighth ran k where
they transform from a l ittle pawn
to a m ighty queen.
GAM E 37
Matthew also added that on the
night before the game he had
been reading the chapter on
u nderm i ning the pawn chain i n
that famous book " M y System "
b y Aaron Nimzowitsch.
Well, I would have to agree that
it was a very good game and I
think the great Aaron N i m zow­
itsch would have ag reed too.
White : Matthew Sadler
Black: Jul ian Hodgson
Lloyd's Bank Masters 1 989
1 d4 d6 2 c4 e5 3 tiJf3 e4 4
tiJg5 f5 5 tiJc3 tiJf6 6 h4 c6
7 tiJh3 tiJa6 8 .i.g5 .i.e7 9
e3 tiJc7 1 0 tiJf4

I had neve r g iven the following

game m uch of a second
thought. I'd been well beaten by
E n g land's latest ris ing star,
M atthew Sad ler. It was only
when Matthew had told me a
few years on (seven to be pre­
cise ! ) that it was one of the best
games he had ever played , that
I decided to g ive the game an­
oth e r look, but this time as an In effect, it is Black who is
115
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

playing the White side of a W ith his last move, Matthew

F rench Defence (yes, I know it h its at the front of the pawn
sou nds c razy, but if you take a chai n , the pawn on e4; with this
closer look you will see some one he strikes at the base, the
s i m ilarities) . However, W h ite pawn on f5 - classic strategy
has got a rather good version accord ing to N i m zowitsch .
a s his bishop on g5 is outside 1 6 . . . d5
the pawn chain, rather than ====;m;;�=
stuck behind it on c 1 .
1 0 ... 0-0 1 1 �e2 tLle6 1 2
'iVd2 tLlxf4 1 3 �xf4 tLle8
I don't u nderstand why I played
this move; did I really want to
take the pawn on h4?
1 4 0-0-0 a6
Then why didn't I take it? It is of
cou rse a hot pawn to captu re as
it opens up the h file but it is stil l Now you see my pawn centre . . .
better tha n what I played.
1 5 f31 1 7 gxf5 b 4 1 8 tLlxe4 ! dxe4
Now Matthew begins the p roc­ 1 9 fxe4
ess of u ndermining the black
pawn chain. It is s u rprising how
often when you look at some­
thing the night before , you rec­
reate something si m ilar the next
day - amazi ng how the s u bcon­
scious works !

Now you don't! I n t h ree powe r­

f u l moves Matthew has de­
stroyed the core of my position.
I remember finding it very hard
to find any co nstructive m oves -
probably as there we ren't any!
19 ... a5 20 �d3 a4
1 5 ... b5 1 6 g4!
116
 THE PAWN ROLLER

This is all rather aimless but I

could see nothing better to do.
The problem for Black is that
W h ite's mass of pawns in the
centre control all the important
squares. I might be a piece up
but there is nowhere useful for
me to put it!
21 �g3
Matthew g radually improves the
placing of his pieces before
Oh no, there's another one!
tru ndling u p his central pawns . I
Have you eve r seen a more im­
felt l i ke a steamroller was com­
posing centre than this? I was
ing towards me, and I had no­
sorely tempted to end it all here
where to ru n .
as I cou ld not see the slightest
21 . . . liJf6 22 'iVe2 h5 23 e5 glimmer of cou nte rplay.
liJg4 32 ... g6
At least my knight is happy, but A desperate attem pt to break
it is fighting a lonely crusade. u p W h ite's pawn centre .
24 :df1 "a5 25 �b1 :a7 33 fxg6 1
26 :f3 iod8 27 :hf1 a3 28 The white rooks come i nto play.
b3 :e7 29 c5
33 ... 'iVg7 34 l:U7 :'xf7 35
gxf7
They just keep com ing.
35 . . . :'f8 36 .id6 'iix d4 37
�xf8 .if6
At last I had a threat - my only
one of the game.
38 :'xf6 1
Dam n ! He spotted it!

Now the pawns start to roll.

38 . . . liJxf6 39 i.d6
W ith the i m m i nent arrival of a
29 ... �h8 30 .ic4 'iia7 31 second q ueen it seemed a good
e6 :tee8 32 e41 time to call a halt to the pro­
ceed in gs . Rarely have I felt so
utte rly helpless d u ring a game.
117
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson
GAM E 38
I can safely say that I have
never felt q u ite as nervous or
on edge as I did before the fol­
lowing game - and I was n't eve n
playi n g ! Let me explai n : I was
seconding M icky Adams d u ring
his match with Sergei Tiviakov
in the PCA World Champion­
ship Quarte r-finals i n New York.
M icky had won the first game in
the most ridiculous playing
conditions imag i nable, i n the
centre of the Tru m p Tower (a
shopping mall) right next to a
cafeteria overflowing with shop­
pers . It is one of the most s u r­
real sights I have ever wit­
nessed (but I had to s m i le).
Anyway afte r that one game
play was moved to an art gallery
on the fifth floor, but I dig ress.
Let the game commence and
everything will become clear.
White : Michael Adams
Black: Sergei Tiviakov
W CC (PCA) Quarter-fi nal 1 994
1 e4 c5 2 ttJf3 d6 3 olt b5+!
T h e exclamation mark is for the
move's psycholog ical val u e as
M icky had never played this i n
his life before. Sergei was at
that time the world's lead i n g ex­
pert on the Dragon - a hard
opening to break down against
118
a well p repared opponent.
3 . . . ttJc6 4 0-0 oltg4
We had discovered i n o u r
preparations before t h e match
that Sergei had seve ral systems
agai nst 3 �b5+. Havi ng lost the
f i rst game with white, it came as
no s u rp rise when he chose his
most aggress ive weapon .
5 h3 olth5 6 c3 'ii b 6? !
To me, Black's opening set-up
looks exceptionally risky as he
is a l on g way from getting king­
side castled but this m isses the
point. Sergei is intending to castle
queenside and play for a kingside
attack - a remarkable concept.
7 ttJa3 a6 8 olta4 lIc7 9 d4
W hen we had reached this po­
sition in our pre-game analysis,
I felt that W h ite's position was
enormous. He is way ahead i n
development a n d has a big
presence in the centre. Believe
it or not we we re also following
the preparation of Tiviakov who
was playing extremely confidently.
9 . b5? !
. .
 THE PAWN ROLLER

This was the position that had

.
10 . • . ax b5 1 1 .iL.X
..... b 5 0-0-0
m e tossing and turn i n g in my
sleep the night before . W h ite
can of cou rse j ust retreat the
bishop but I was convi nced that
sacrificing a piece with lLlxb5
had to be good because Black
is j u st so undeveloped and his
king is severely lacking i n pro­
tection .

T he n all of a sud d e n it ca m e to
me d u ring my sleep as I real­
ised what the key move was . I
woke up at about 3 o'clock i n
t h e morn i n g a n d started analys­
ing the position. I was so ex­
cited I even woke up my poor
wife to let her in on the good
news and show her ALL the
variations - she did not seem as
enthusiastic as I was about it!
U nfortu nately for her she had to
l isten to me rabbiting on about
this position u ntil noon when
M ic ky would normally wake up
to get ready for the game.
I showed the idea to Micky, who
although d u ly impressed , was
still reluctant to g ive up a piece
without a more thorough analy­
s is .
1 0 �xb5 1
After an u nbearable fifteen mi­
n ute think M icky decided to take
the plunge. He told me after­
wards what swung his decision:
he d id not want my wife's dis­
tu rbed sleep to have been in
vain !
1 19
T h i s was the position where I
found the new move that so
excited me. A previous game
between Iskov and Larsen from
1 979 had continued 1 2 'ifa4
lLlb8 1 3 dxc5 when the position
seemed far from clear. How­
eve r, the following move changes
that assessment!
1 2 b4 ! !
I thought it was essential for
W h ite to try to open u p a file on
th e queenside before Black has
a chance to complete his devel­
opment. It seemed to me that
after this pawn th rust Sergei
would have a hard time beating
off the attack, but we could take
nothing for g ranted as Sergei is
a g reat defender.
12 ••.i.. xf3 1 3 gxf3 ! ttJb8 1 4
'iVa4 !
M icky's handling of the rest of
the game is fau ltless. I asked
him later why he had not played
the obvious 1 4 bxc5 dxc5 1 5
:b1 ? to which he pointed out
that B lack could possibly defend
 AITACK with GM Julian Hodgson

h imself with 1 5 . . . :td6! . The velopment but it is now too late

text is much more clinical as to help. The obvious 20 . . . lDxc6
Black has no useful moves. would lose to 21 bxc6 lDxd5 22
14 ... c4 'ifb5 ! lDxe3 23 'ifa6+ wi nning.
A desperate attempt to keep the 21 a4 �f6 22 as ltJxc6 23
pos ition closed but now M icky bxc6 ltJxd5 24 'ii b 5 !
switches plans and prepares
the advance of h is queenside
pawns.
1 5 d5!
An excellent move that pre­
pares 1 6 .t.c6 followed by a
later b5-b6.
15 ltJf6 1 6 �e3 ltJfd7 1 7
.•.

�c6 e6 1 8 b5 1
The boys start to rol l .
1 8 ... exd5 19 exd5 ltJb6 20
'ii' b 4!
M icky's plan is very s i m ple - he
will cal m ly advance the a2 pawn
as far as it will go - Sergei finds
no good answer to such a d i rect
plan. I , myself, was even start-
ing to relax as I was now s u re
Although Black is still a piece
u p he has no good way to parry
the th reat of 25 'ifa6+ followed
by 26 :tb1 . Sergei attempts to
make an escape route for his
king to the kingside but M icky is
ready for h i m .
24 . . . l:tde8 25 � b6
Sergei now resigned on accou nt
of the fol lowi ng variation 25 . . .
'ife7 (or 2 5 . . . lDxb6 2 6 axb6)
26 'iia6+ �b8 27 �c7+! ! �xc7
28 'ii b 7+ �d8 29 'ifb8 mate. I
was one relieved and happy
bunny!
GAM E 39
------

that M icky would wi n .

I n 1 994 a young R u ssian, Alex-
20 . i.. e 7
. . ander Morozevich, took the
At last Sergei completes his de- Lloyd's Bank Masters by storm .
1 20
 THE PAWN ROLLER

He scored an incredible 9.5 out

of 1 0 with an Elo performance
well ove r 2900. He played with
the carefree abandonment of
youth .

Look how he dispatches Ice­

land's n u mber one player Mar­
geir Petu rsson who has the
reputation of being a ve ry hard
player to beat.
W h ite prepares to gain space
White : A Morozevich on the queenside. It is q ui et
Blac k : M Petursson moves such as this which show
Lloyd's Bank Masters 1 994 the d ifference between a good
and a g reat player.
1 e4 c5 2 lDf3 lDc6 3 ..tb5 1 2 . . . lDge7 1 3 lDbd2 lDf5
You would expect the young 1 4 ..td3 ..te7
Russian to play a main line Sicil­ 1 4 . . . �fxd4? would lose a
ian but his real genius l ies in piece to 1 5 .txd4 �xd4 1 6
finding new ideas in the lesser 'iVa4+ when either the knight on
explored variations. d4 or the bishop on g4 will d rop
3 ... d6 4 0-0 ..td7 5 lIe1 off.
lDf6 6 c3 a6 7 ..tf1 1 5 'it'b1 ! 'it'd7 1 6 b4
It is a very n ice feeling tucking
the bishop back on f 1 where it
defends the king and keeps out
of the way of W h ite's other
pieces .
7 . . . ..tg4 8 d4 cxd4 9 cxd4
d5 1 0 e5 lDg8 1 1 ..te3 e6
Black has wasted a lot of time
but he has achieved a French
type position with his white -
squared bishop outside the The queenside expansion
pawn chain - a definite plus com mences . . .
1 2 a3 ! 1 6 . . . ..t h 5 1 7 :a2 0-0
am s u re Morozevich was
1 21
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson
waiting for this move - now he
can launch an attack on the
kingside with freedom .
1 8 h 3 �h8
1 9 :f1 1
I l ike this prophylactic move -
sooner or late r Black's knight on
f5 will captu re the bishop on e3
when after fxe3 the white rook
will be well placed on f 1 .
1 9 ... l:ac8? ! 20 g4 tbxe3
21 fxe3 �g6 22 �xg6 hxg6
22 . . . fxg6 would have been
more p rudent but then W h ite
wou ld have good long term
p rospects as Black's th ree to
two majority on the kingside
would be worthless .
23 tbb3
Now the · point of 1 7 :a2 is re­
vealed - the rook is ready to
swing over to the kingside with
devastating effect - sadly for
Black his pieces do not have
the same mobility.
23 .. tba7 24 tbc5 "c6
.
If 24 . . . .txc5 25 bxc5 W h ite
1 22
would then change plans and
switch to attacking down the b
file.
25 a4!
Another very strong q u iet move
that temporarily takes Black's
knight on a7 out of the game.
25 ... b6 26 tbd3 !
The knight reroutes to the king­
side. After the g reedy 26 ttlxa6
Black would obtai n some activ­
ity with 26 . . . 'ifc4 !
26 . . . �g8
The black king sensing the im­
pending storm tries to flee - it
can ru n but it cannot hide!
27 h4!
Here we come!
27 ... 'Vi'd7 28 g5
The careless 28 h5? would al­
low Black to close the position
up with 28 . . . g5!
28 . . l:c3 29 h5! gxh5 30
.
tbf4 :xe3
Black decides to carry on g rab­
bing material but the alterna-
 THE PAWN ROLLER

tives are no better. e . g . 30 . . . g6 This loses on the spot but there

31 �xg6! wi nning or 30 . . . l:!.fc8
31 �xh5 g6 32 �f6+ �xf6 33
gxf6 'iii'f 8 34 l:!.h2 when m ate will
fol low shortly.
31 liJxh5 'it'cS
is no good alternative. R ela­
tively best was 34 . . . 'ifxa4
when play would contin u e 35
l:!.g2 l:!.c8 (or 35 . . . l:!.e4 36 'ir'c 1 !
followed by 37 "ii' h 6.) 36 l:!.xg6+!
'it'f8 37 l:!.g2 l:!.e4 38 �g5! with
an ove rwhelming attack.
35 'iVc1 !
Co mmonly known as a goolie
crusher! Any rook move allows
36 'ii' h 6 so Black res igned.

A lovely ; controlled attacking

game. It is very impressive how
the you n g R ussian switched the
play from the queenside to the
32 liJfS+! kingside with such ease.
It j ust had to be played !
32 �xfS 33 gxfS
GAM E 40
. . •

A pawn so close to the oppo­

nent's king always spells dan­
ger.
33 ... gS
33 . . . l:!.c8 would lose to the di-
rect 34 1:[g2 g6 35 l:!.xg6+
34 llc2 'ii'd 7
Although this next game is not
the most attacking of games, I
felt I j u st had to include it. For
when I am j ust another name
from the dim and d istant past, I
doubt that I will be remembered
for any of my brilliant attacking
victories (he says modestly! ) or
any of my eve n more crushing
defeats . No, I suspect the game
that has the best chance of
keeping the Hodgson name
going is one that I played in the
first rou n d of the 1 995 New
York Open.

At the time it m ade no impres­

sion o n me whatsoeve r, proba-

1 23
 ATIACK with GM Julian Hodgson

bly as I had j u st got off a plane
and arrived at my board dis­
tinctly jet lagged. It was only
much later when I saw it in a
chess magazine wondering why
it was in there that I realised
what I'd created.
My game contained an Excel­
sior - that is when a pawn ad­
vances fro m its original square
to the eighth rank (preferably in
consecutive moves) . Th e n on
f u rther investigation , I found I
had actually c reated a real little
rarity which normally only eve r
occ u rs in com positions.
I n fact, they are so rare in I nter­
national Chess, that there have
been probably only about 20 in
the whole history of the game.
Out of these only about 1 0 are
complete ones where the pawn
actually p romoted in the game.
Maybe only 2 or 3 including this
one have so many captu res and
what makes it rarer stil l , is the
fact that it is i n the m iddlegam e .
So with all these featu res could
this be the ONLY one of its
kind?
Still feeling rather g roggy, I was
in no mood to take the bait on c3.
6 cxd4 ttJf6 7 ttJc3 0-0 8
i.b3
I think you could safely say that
W h ite's ope ni ng strategy has
been a s uccess. He has both
the centre and easy development.
8 . . . 1.g4 9 h3 1.xf3 10
"'xf3 ttJc6 1 1 1.e3 ttJd7 12
'iVd1 ttJa5 1 3 0-0 ttJb6 14
"'e2 ltc8 1 5 ltfd1 ttJbc4 16
1.g5 a6 1 7 ltd3
A lucky escape. 1 7 li:ld5! Ae8
1 8 e5! looks horrible for me.
17 ... b5 1 8 ltad1 lte8 1 9
i.c1 e6 20 "g4 ttJxb3 21
axb3 ttJa5 22 ttJe2 ltc2
Now my position is perfectly all
right because W h ite has no real
attack.
23 1.g5 "'a8 !
My queen is well placed on the
long white d iagonal .
24 lt1 d2 f5 !

White : Patrick Yee

B l ac k : J u l ian Hodgson
New York Open 1 995

1 e4 g6 2 d4 1.g7 3 1.c4
U n usual, but by no means bad .
3 . . c5 4 c3 cxd4 5 ttJf3 d6
. Act One: Here comes the jewel
1 24
 THE PAWN ROLLER

(or should I say the J u le(s) of one piece and then forks two
the c rown ! ) . more !
25 'ifh4 27 :c7 dxe2
Capturing the f5 pawn is not
possible as 25 exf5 loses the
knight on e2 after 25 . . . exf5!
when the white queen has no
good squares.
25 ... fxe4

Act Two
26 l:[xc2 exd3

Act Five : The final part of the

Act Three: my favou rite move of
the game as my pawn captu res
play " M ission I m possible! " The
extra queen is vital as I m ust
give up my other one to fend off
W h ite's m ati ng attack.
29 <it>h2 'ii' b 7!
And that was that. My claim to
immortal ity!

1 25