ant nat STRATEGY IN ACTION The successor to the best-selling Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy BYTOM ETc)Chess Strategy in Action John WatsonFirst published in the UK by Gambit Publications Ltd 2003 Copyright © John Watson 2003 The right of John Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being im- posed on the subsequent purchaser. A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 901983 69 2 DISTRIBUTION: Worldwide (except USA): Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 SLN. Tel +44 (0)20 8986 4854 Fax +44 (0)20 8533 5821. E-mail: orders@Centralbooks.com USA: BHB International, Inc., 302 West North 2nd Street, Seneca, SC 29678, USA. For all other enquiries (including a full list of all Gambit chess titles) please contact the publishers, Gambit Publications Ltd, P.O. Box 32640, London W14 OJN. E-mail: info@gambitbooks.com Or visit the GAMBIT web site at http://www.gambitbooks.com Edited by Graham Burgess Typeset by John Nunn Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts. 10987654321 Gambit Publications Ltd Managing Director: GM Murray Chandler Chess Director: GM John Nunn Editorial Director: FM Graham Burgess German Editor: WFM Petra NunnContents Symbols Dedication Acknowledgements Preface Part 1: Theory and Practice Combine Introduction and Philosophical Considerations Chapter 1: Broader Issues and Their Evolution 1.1 The Surrender of the Centre Surrender in the Double e-Pawn Openings Examples in the King’s Indian Defence Old and New: Central Capitulation in the French Defence 1.2 Space, Centre, and Exchanging On Principle Space and Exchanges in the Queen’s Gambit Hedgehogs and their Territoriality The Philosophy of Exchanging in a Broader Context 1.3 The Development of Development Pleasure before Work! Revitalizing the Establishment Development and Pawn-Chains Chapter 2: Modern Understanding of Pawn Play Introduction 2.1 The Flank Pawns Have Their Say Introduction General Examples from Practice Flank Attacks, Space, and Weaknesses Knight’s Pawn Advances Radical Preventative Measures 2.2 Doubled Pawns in Action The Extension of Doubled Pawn Theory Doubled Pawns in Pairs AnH 10 78 80 80 86 100 107 1074 CHESS STRATEGY IN ACTION Voluntary Undoubling of the Opponent’s Pawns Examples from Modern Play Doubled f-Pawns Doubled Pawns on the Rook’s File 2.3 The Positional Pawn Sacrifice Assorted Examples Kasparov’s Pawn Sacrifices Pawn Sacrifices in Ultra-Solid Openings 2.4 Majorities and Minorities at War The Effective Minority Development to the Rescue Chapter 3: The Pieces in Action 3.1 An Edgy Day and Sleepless Knight Eccentric Knights in Double e-Pawn Openings Knight Decentralization in Contemporary Play Sleepless Knights 3.2 The Behaviour of Bishops Bishops Good and Bad Bishops in Complex Environments Restless Bishops 3.3 The Minor Pieces Square Off Bishop and Knight Conflicts In Praise of the Bishop-Pair 3.4 Her Majesty as a Subject The Relative Value of the Queen Early Queen Excursions Part 2: Modern Games and Their Interpretation : Topalov-Rozentalis, Batumi Echt 1999 : Dautov-Lputian, Istanbul OL 2000 hirov-Kramnik, Novgorod 1994 : Lautier-Shirov, Manila IZ 1990 : Beshukov- Volkov, Antalya 2002 : Stein-Benko, Stockholm IZ 1962 : Gelfand-Bacrot, Cannes 2002 : Kasparov-Portisch, Nik8i¢ 1983 : Kveinys-Speelman, Moscow OL 1994 10: Kasparov-Shirov, Horgen 1994 11: Serper-Nikolaidis, St Petersburg 1993 12: Nunn-Nataf, French Cht 1998/9 13: Voiska-Alexandrova, Warsaw wom Ech 2001 14: Khouseinov-Magomedov, Dushanbe 1999 Cer auaone 11 115 119 127 133 133 139 147 150 151 152 156 156 157 163 170 170 181 185 189 189 194 201 201 210 212 215 216 218 219 221 225 227 229 231 234 238CONTENTS : Kan-Eliskases, Moscow 1936 : Leko-Fritz6, Frankfurt rpd 1999 : Shmulenson-Sanakoey, corr. 1972-5 : _Hodgson-Adams, Wijk aan Zee 1993 : Shabalov-Karklins, USA 1998 : Salinnikov-Miroshnichenko, Ukraine 2000 : Kramnik-Leko, Tilburg 1998 : Nadanian-Ponomariov, Kiev 1997 : Pelletier- Yusupov, Switzerland tt 2002 : Nevednichy-M.Griinberg, Romanian Ch (Targoviste) 2001 ; Van Wely-Piket, Wijk aan Zee 2001 :_ Kasparov-Karpov, Linares 1992 : Hiibner-Petrosian, Seville Ct (7) 1971 : Marciano-C.Bauer, French Ch (Méribel) 1998 : J.Shahade-Ehlvest, Philadelphia 1999 : Bologan-Svidler, Tomsk 2001 : Gulko-Hector, Copenhagen 2000 ; Petrosian-Korchnoi, Moscow Ct (9) 1971 : Shirov-Nisipeanu, Las Vegas FIDE 1999 : Timman-Topalov, Moscow OL 1994 : Nimzowitsch-Olson, Copenhagen 1924 Bibliography Index of Players Index of OpeningsSymbols + check ++ double check # checkmate " brilliant move ! good move "7 interesting move ” dubious move ? bad move ” blunder Ch championship Cht team championship Wch world championship Wcht —_ world team championship Ech European championship Echt European team championship ECC European Clubs Cup ct candidates event IZ interzonal event Z zonal event OL olympiad i junior event wom women’s event rpd rapidplay game tt team tournament corr. correspondence game 1-0 the game ends in a win for White Ya-Y2 the game ends in a draw 0-1 the game ends in a win for Black (n) nth match game (D) see next diagram Dedication To the Hummels: Paul, Carla, Patrick, and Christina, with love and appreciation Acknowledgements Thanks to: John Tomas for his insights; Eric Schiller for advice on technical issues; Jeremy Silman and John Donaldson for chess inspiration; and my editor Graham Burgess for help in every aspect of the book’s preparation.Preface This book is a companion volume and continu- ation of my Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (Gambit 1998). I will refer to that book often and use the acronym ‘SOMCS’ for that pur- pose. A premise of that book (one that I find al- most self-evident) is that modern chess has undergone great changes both conceptually and philosophically since the time of the old mas- ters including Nimzowitsch. The latter was, I feel, a transitional figure who consolidated older theory and presented new ideas, some of which have survived to this day. My project in both books has been to identify and discuss the post- Nimzowitschian changes in chess middlegame theory. This involves an investigation of the na- ture of chess itself with an emphasis on experi- mentation involving an ever-widening set of ideas and positions which have gained general acceptance since his time. As this book began to develop, I realized that it was beginning to resemble its predecessor in terms of its structuring, layout, and verbal dis- cussions about theoretical issues. In other re- spects it was less like SOMCS than envisaged, both because I placed so much more emphasis on complete games and because I kept adding new material about concepts not discussed in the former volume. Thus the two books stand in a theory-to-practice relationship, but they also have a Volume 1 — Volume 2 connection, with the second volume filling in gaps in theory left by the first. I have also stressed recent games that reflect current practice and thought right up to the time of publication. Before addressing structural and philosophi- cal issues in the Introduction, I think that it might be useful here to give an explanatory overview of the contents of this book. Much as with SOMCS, it begins with a look backward emphasizing a couple of areas that have seen a constant but unpunctuated evolution over the years. As in most of this book, I have chosen to investigate topics that were relatively neglected in SOMCS. One such is the concept of the ‘surrender of the centre’, to which I devote a rather technical section describing its historical progress from the early part of the twentieth century to the present. Both that section and the next highlight the important relationship of space to the exchange of pieces, an area that has, I think, been inadequately addressed in the literature. Then the discussion moves forward in time to the extraordinary changes in the mod- ern practice of and attitude towards develop- ment. To put bounds upon this immense topic, I concentrate upon recent ideas as well as meth- ods of development in specific pawn-struc- tures. The centre has always been considered sa- cred territory with assumed primacy over other areas of the board. What if, after all of these years of investigating it, we would have to change or revise our most fundamental theories about the centre’s nature? Surprisingly, that’s exactly what’s happening in a radical change that has accelerated dramatically even since the publication of SOMCS. In that work I cau- tiously discussed ‘the new relationship of flank to centre’; but five years later I see that this con- siderably understates the case. We have experi- enced an explosion in the use of flank pawns in nearly every context and type of position, so much so that this must be considered the most revolutionary development of chess theory and practice in many decades. I have naturally de- voted a lengthy section to this subject, but since that can only begin to touch upon the subject, examples appear throughout the book in many contexts, and of course in the games of Part 2. Another subject that I skimped upon in SOMCS was the contemporary treatment of doubled pawns (as opposed to a history of con- ceptual changes in their use). That receives spe- cial attention, as does the ever-more-important subject of the positional pawn sacrifice. I touch upon other pawn issues such as majorities and minorities less extensively throughout various sections. One might note that pawn-chains are8 CHESS STRATEGY IN ACTION given considerable attention in the section on development, but not in the chapter on pawns itself. The chapter on piece play initially deals with the controversial subject of knights developed to the edge of the board as well as elaborate knight manoeuvres. It includes a section on good and bad bishops in the context of their use as individual pieces, a topic I just touched upon in SOMCS. While the issue of two knights ver- sus two bishops (minor-piece pairs) crops up repeatedly throughout the book, it was given extensive treatment in SOMCS, and I only added enough separate material here to give a taste of the subject. Exchange sacrifices pop up everywhere; they are played so routinely that they hardly seem a part of theory any more, but still have new and noteworthy aspects that may be seen throughout the book. I have included a section on the early development of the queen, another subject that is only lightly discussed by other sources. The more general and/or abstract topics in SOMCS are incorporated into the text. Exam- ples of prophylactic techniques, for example, appear throughout the book. Although philo- sophical issues appear in the Introduction, they are limited thereafter since the main body of the book stresses practice. In general, opening play receives a great deal of attention. There are two reasons for this. First, as has become a com- monplace observation, opening theory now ex- tends so far into the middlegame that it tends to determine the nature of the play that follows in terms of structure or piece placement or both. Thus the distinction between a study of middle- games and openings (never very clear anyway) fails to apply in many cases. Another motiva- tion for talking about openings and early mid- dlegames stems from the fact that anyone can pick individual middlegame examples and use them to say something like ‘See? Capablanca was so classical in his thought’ or to argue the contrary. But for openings and the pawn-struc- tures which persist into the middlegame, we can clearly see overall trends, discuss the extent of their use in practice, and do statistical counts thereupon. Regarding the latter, I have com- piled some statistics about the practices of lead- ing players for various epochs. Assisted by Steve Solas’s historical ratings research, I put together lists for the best players in four histori- cal periods (with the number of such players in brackets): a) before and including 1900 [12]; b) 1901-1935 [22]; c) 1936-1970 [32]; d) 1971-2002 [35], with a subcategory for 1985-2002 in one case. Especially in the first few chapters, which tend to be more historically oriented, I have used statistics from these periods to try to iden- tify trends. For the book as a whole this tech- nique, inevitably inexact and subjective, has been kept to a minimum. The games in Part 2 of this book are meant to unify the discussion and illustrate key concepts from both books. With luck, they will also pro- vide an entertaining break from an ordered the- oretical presentation. Selecting these games has been enjoyable and challenging. I have tried to avoid the temptation to include chaotic strug- gles that illustrate 6-10 modern strategic themes in one game, although such contests indeed ex- ist. When too many ‘counter-intuitive’ moves are seen in a single contest, it is likely that the players employing them are doing so partly by accident! Good illustrations need a limited number of focal points, so the more typical game will involve three or fewer main themes. I have chosen a large majority of games from 1990 onwards, and within that time have tended to feature the play of leading grandmasters. Quite apart from the fact that they make fewer mistakes, top players tend to understand what they’re doing! My notes are meant to be limited and non-obsessive. This is not a games collec- tion. Others have authored such collections more skilfully and with greater depth than I have attempted here. The publishers of this book, for example, not too long ago put out both John Nunn’s Understanding Chess Move By Move and Igor Stohl’s Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces, works involving more analytical detail than I have devoted to my Part 2 contests. T hope instead to have achieved a more casual presentation that focuses in upon conceptual is- sues and exptains them in an accessible way. Since the publication of SOMCS, I have been thinking about the times over which criti- cal changes took place in the modernization of the game. Naturally all such changes assertPREFACE themselves gradually and at no particular date. Nevertheless, I think that there have been three very softly bounded transitional periods since the mid-1930s. After an initial conflict between new and classical ideas, the creative experi- menters of the 1940s broke through old barriers and by the early 1960s had established the pragmatic basis for modern play. This dramatic achievement was accomplished mostly in the old Soviet Union and was at first only partially absorbed into Western chess culture. Naturally there was no halt to the progression of chess thought in the late 1960s through to the early 1980s, including a steady growth in the use of positions and structures that were previously considered inferior on general principle; and the steady infusion of new dynamic ideas con- tinued. But in my estimation the nature of that expansion changed as a sort of consolidation took place and new positional ideas began to appear. This emphasis was influenced by Pet- rosian’s careful style, Fischer’ s technical profi- ciency, and Karpov’s particular genius in less dynamic and (sometimes) more classical posi- tions. Play in that era underwent a distinct evo- lution marked by a dramatic rise in the use of space-starved set-ups (with Western players fully contributing) and more subtle changes such as toleration for structural weaknesses (anathema to most earlier players, even the very best of them), an increase of purely pro- phylactic strategies, and a de-emphasis on rapid development and king safety. Then, as Kasparov has pointed out, some- thing very radical began to occur in the mid- 1980s. An almost chaotic dynamism seemed to take over much of the game while the more or- derly part was subject to extreme refinement and positional experimentation. This revolu- tion has to do in great part with the rise of the so-called Information Age. We have seen the exponential increase and rapid dissemination of games and articles. The introduction of com- puters has had two major effects. First, the as- tonishing growth of information at players’ disposal: portable laptops now carry hundreds of games by each opponent and thousands of examples of his or her favourite opening lines and middlegame structures. Then there has been what I feel is an even more significant change: that players on all levels are able to try out seemingly risky, paradoxical, and ‘unprin- cipled’ moves and strategies on a computer in order to, confirm whether they are unsound, playable, or strong. Contemporary play has thus been marked by much greater openness to- wards both positional and attacking strategies that were previously considered anti-positional and/or unsound. Important contributions are thus not only multiplying at an accelerated pace but coming from players of all strengths. Trying to make some sort of sense of this evolution is a daunting task. A book centred about practical play cannot begin to touch upon all of the relevant material. Every day in maga- zines, books, and on the Web, I would see inter- esting and worthwhile new games that were valid candidates for inclusion. We are experi- encing so rich a time in chess that, in the end, choosing among such examples and even among topics seemed almost an arbitrary process. For the average reader, this means that you should be able to find the strategic themes described here in many if not most of the new games that come to your attention. I hope that this book will to help you to identify these and thus to un- derstand the chess of our time. John Watson San Diego, California, 2003