| Dec-21-05 | | sharkbenjamin: This is an absolutely brillant game. WOW! Phase One: White starts with the 3 Bb5 Sicilian. Black allows the b & c pawns to be doubled. Black's "a" pawn is isolated. These three pawns are targets. The three pawns can only be protected by pieces. Phase Two: Black is tricked by White into exchanging the white square bishop for a knight and exchanging the "d" pawn for the "e" pawn. Phase Three: Control of the critical white squares d5 and e4 with 10 Nc3. Then control of the long white diagonal h1-a8 with 11 Qxf3. Phase Four: A Rook lift manuever of historic proportions. With 14 Re1, 15 Re5, 16 Rg5, and 18 Rxg7 White completes the creation of three additional weaknesses in black's camp. Black is left with no safe haven for the king, a weak "h" pawn, and is not able to easily coordinate the black rooks. Phase Five: This is my favorite: "rake in the goodies". White takes aim at the "a" pawn, then the "h" pawn. White then wins the "h" pawn, 29 Rhxh4. While attacking the pawns white is also attacking the black king and threating the uncoordinated black rooks. White even wins the "a" pawn, 40 Rxa7, and with this last acquistion the "a" file is opened allowing the white rook, 41 Ra8, to combine with the white queen on the eight rank attacking the weak black king. This is one of the best games of 2005. This is a great game to teach how to attack isolated pawns on closed files. For me this is the best game of 2005. |
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| Dec-21-05 | | The17thPawn: <sharkbenjamin> - Enjoyed you're narrative but was wondering what black should have done to avoid the bishop versus knight exchange and the position opening d for e pawn exchange that bring whites position alive. I couldnt find any immediate improvements for black and was hoping you had some ideas. |
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| Dec-21-05 | | olaf4lena: Fantastic game! Well worth study. |
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Dec-21-05
 | | tamar: Other 7th moves for Black, 7...e6:
Shirov vs Gelfand, 2002 1-0 Gelfand tried 7...e6 but his two bishops did not make up for his doubled isolated c pawns and Shirov won a nice game by gaining outposts with his knights on c5 and e5. |
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| Dec-21-05 | | The17thPawn: <tamar> - Thanks for the Shirov game but I didn't understand why Gelfland didn't just play 19..Bxe5 and 20..Rxe5 regaining his pawn and simplifying the game while offering a slightly advantageous Queen trade. Instead he enters complications that eventually cost him the exchange five moves later. Any thoughts? |
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| Dec-22-05 | | sharkbenjamin: <The17thPawn> Thanks for the compliments. You had two questions: 1. "what black should have done to avoid the bishop versus knight exchange". 2. "and the position opening d for e pawn exchange that bring whites position alive." Answer to #1: (a) Black's two bishops are potential compensation for a weak queen side pawn formation. (b) Black's white square bishop is a good defender of the c6 pawn and if the situation arises it can easily defend black pawns on a6 and e6. (c) In this black pawn formation: a7,c6,c5,d6,e7,f7,g7,h7 the black bishops need to stay behind the pawn chain. The black bishops can come to life if black sucessfully engineer a c4 pawn break, or f6 pawn or f5 pawn push depending on how white maneuvers. (d) Note that 5...Bg4 is good to provoke 6 h3. But black should then play 6...Bd7. This bishop then covers the square e6 if white plays e5 then e6: black would then play Bxe6. When black plays 6...Bh5 the bishop is misplaced: it cannot cover key white squares on the queen side and the center. Answer to #2: (a) In the pawn formation of a7 (or a6),c6, c5, d6 (or d5), e7, f7, g7, h7 black should keep his his d pawn on either d6 when it protects the c5 pawn and controls or pressurizes the the e5 square; or the d pawn should be on d5 to shield the c6 pawn on the long white diagonal, help with a potential c5 to c4 pawn advance and control or pressurize the e4 square. The black pawn formation of c6, c5, d5 is called the Wyvill formation in Hans Kmoch excellent book "Pawn Power In Chess". The pawn formation of c6, c5, d6; c6, c5, d5; and c6, c5, d4 is discussed by Aron Nimzovich in his outstanding book "My System". http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... Great Game.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... Black plays 7...e6 so as to prevent 8 e6 which would bottle black up. But this allows white to play 8 exd6 this eliminates the very valuable black d pawn. sharkbenjamin |
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| Dec-22-05 | | MelvinNofx: ohohohoho...fantastic...agressive chess |
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| Dec-22-05 | | patzer2: Black seems to be caught not fully prepared to meet the rare try 7. e5!? Perhaps Fritz 8's suggestion of 10... Qd7 11. Qxf3 Nh6 12. Ne4 Nf5 13. Nxc5 Qd5 14. Qxd5 cxd5 15. Nd3 d4 = (.009 @ 15 depth) would have given Black even or better chances. |
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| Dec-22-05 | | patzer2: White's 14. Re1! is a positional sacrifice which gambits a pawn to gain tempo and development chasing the exposed Black Queen. Of course White quickly wins back the pawn with the advantage and the initiative |
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| Dec-22-05 | | patzer2: <sharkbenjamin> Excellent posts and commentary! |
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| Dec-22-05 | | patzer2: White's 23. Be5! is an unusal pin of a Bishop on a Bishop, which forces a series of deflections to gain a near decisive advantage. |
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| Dec-22-05 | | patzer2: White's 26. Qg7! is a deflection which removes the guard of the Black Rook on h8, which allows the White Rook's advance to e5 in order to chase down and capture the pawn on h5. |
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| Dec-23-05 | | patzer2: White's 36. Qe5! threatens a double attack at b8 to win Black's isolated a-pawn. Black cannot counter this threat. |
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| Jan-02-06 | | csmath: This is the best game of Rublevsky on this championship, however Rossolimo is not exactly a big suprise. Many tried this pawn doubling but it isn't exactly as beneficial as a beginner might think.
The problem here for Dreev is forgeting basic principle of development. 11. ... Rc8?!
12. ... Qf6?
are too defensive and planless. He should have develop the pieces instead and he would have even game with excellent countergame. From 12th move on he made 6 consecutive moves with queen only making his position worse. Yes, Rublevsky played excellent but his opponent did not. |
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| Jan-03-06 | | prinsallan: Rublevsky sure plays aggresive, both players grabbing a lot more pieces than I am used to see in top world chess. For a moment I actually thought there would be a queenetrade as well with 13. Qxf6. If so, more than half of the points would have left the board at 13....Nxf6. Obviously Rublevsky wanted more, since a Queentrade would probarbly lead to nothing more than a draw. Would love to hear what Benjamin says about a queentrade. |
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| Sep-24-07 | | sanyas: Talk about a rook lift! |
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Kibitzing
