"There is no such thing as an even trade"- William Lombardy
In the last part we have seen some modern games. So it is now time to take a look at two classical games!
Botvinnik-Smyslov 13th game of the 1957 World Championship Match
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Nge2 Ba6 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Nxc3 d5 8.b3 0-0 9.a4 c5 10.Ba3 dxc4 11.bxc4 Nc6 12.Nb5 Bb7 13.Be2 Ne4
A position typical for this line of the Nimzo Indian Defence. White has the bishop pair and as compensation black has a slight lead in development and centrally placed pieces. Should white neutralise the immediate activity of black, he should be better in the long term as his dark squared bishop would rule supreme without an opponent. So how should white continue? Here Botvinnik comes up with an original idea.
14.Bf3 If white had tried to play 14. Qc2 Black had the sharp response Nb4.
14.... Ng5 as Botvinnik points out Black was doing completely fine here with 14.... Na5! However, his previous move was perhaps aimed at tempting black to attack white's light square bishop with a tempo. After all what can be wrong with that?
15.Bxc6! An unexpected idea! White voluntarily gives up the bishop pair, but instead decides to play for the restriction of black's sidelined knight on g5. 15..... Bxc6 16. f3 a6 positionally speaking this move weakens black's pawn on b6 and thereby indirectly even weakens his c5-pawn. 17.Nc3 f5 18.0-0 Qf6 19.Qd3 Rfd8 20. d5 Nf7 21.e4
This was Botvinnik's idea while playing Bxc6. He has placed the pawns on opposite colours of his bishop, but at the same time on the same coloured squares of opponent's bishop.This method was recommended by Capablanca to restrict opponent's bishop and keep one's own bishop active.
21... exd5 22.cxd5 Bd7 23. Bb2 Ne5 24.Qe2 f4 Temporarily black has succeeded in blocking White's central majority. But this is only short lived, white can improve his pieces in such a way as to evict the blockade soon. 25.Nd1! intending Nf2 and Nd3 25...b5 26. Nf2 c4 If black had played 26...Qe7 white would have kept the pressure with 27.Rfd1
27.axb5 axb5 28. Qd2! Cleverly white has forced black to push his pawns to white squares and now he can completely blockade them. From now on, White's better bishop and his qualitatively better majority decides the game. 28...Rac8 29.Rfc1 Re8 30.Bc3 Rc7 31. Kh1 Rb7 32.Ra2 h5 33. Rca1!
By means of simple moves White has shown the helplessness of Black's pieces. He is simply powerless to stop the infiltration on the a-file. This combined with pressure on the central diagonals is too much for black to handle. Hence, he gives up a pawn in an attempt to muddy the waters.
33....b4 34. Bxb4 Qb6 35. Bc3 Qe3 36. Nd1 Qxd2 37.Rxd2 Nd3 38.Bd4 Reb8 39.Nc3 Rb3 40. h4 R8b7 41. Ra8+ 1-0 Black decided to just resign as White's central passers will win atleast a piece. Mercilessly executed plan- typical of Botvinnik! This game warrants careful study as it beautifully shows original plans based on simple positional ideas. Botvinnik proudly declared that he had conducted the game in the style of the Cuban World Champion himself!
While discussing this game with Sandipan Chanda, he pointed out that the critical moment occurred after White's 17th move.
White's plan was to play against the badly placed knight on g5 and he in fact succeeded with it in the game. But lets bear in mind that at this moment black is still better developed and if instead of trying to save the knight on g5, if black can use it as an attacking force the character of the game would completely change. When Sandipan asked me to take a second look at this particular position I understood that black has to play dynamically here and has to start with 17....Qf6! to answer 17.h4 with Nxf3! 18. 0-0 Rfd8 in order to answer 19.h4 with 19...Nxf3 20.gxf3 cxd4
19. Ne2 cxd4 20.exd4 b5! with dynamic equilibrium.
This shows that in the original position White by no means had an advantage. But Botvinnik's idea is still original and beautiful and the fact that black had resources shows the inexhaustible nature of Chess! Repeated viewing of this game would no doubt be very pleasurable and instructive for all chess lovers!
The next game am about to show is dealt with by Sadler and Natasha Regan in their exceptional book Chess for Life.
Capablanca, Jose- Mikenas,V 1939
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Qxc3 a5 8. b3 0-0
Sadler comments here that while playing through the game he was expecting 9.g3 or 9.e3 to keep the bishop pair intact and hope to exploit it later. I completely agree with him, most of the players would have not even thought of anything other than holding on to the bishop pair and playing for an endgame advantage. But Capa's play was always fresh and free from any kind of dogmas. He was a specialist in transforming one kind of advantage into another. Here he relinquishes the bishop pair to get back some time for development and also put an end to Black's hopes of central breaks.
9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11 e3
At this point I quote Sadler completely. He has given a great explanation of the position.
" What has White achieved with this exchange? White has removed the major part of Black's protection of the d5 and e4-squares. This puts a brake on Black's chances of generating counterplay in the centre:
1. The knight on c6 blocks the ...c5 break
2..... e5 will only be achievable after a preliminary ... dxc4 as Black's support of d5 is so weakened. However, after ....dxc4, bxc4 Black still has to find a good way to meet d5 after ....e5. Moreover, the half-opening of the b-file is not to his advantage since he has already weakened his queenside with .... a5.
The exchange on f6 has essentially taken the life out of Black's position, and set him a number of unpleasant dilemmas however he seeks counterplay. As we can see, Black- a very strong player- didn't get to grips with the problems at all." -Sadler
11.... Bd7 Here perhaps black could have considered a move to stop White's development in Capa's style!- 11... Qg6!?
12. Bd3 Rfc8 13.0-0 a4 14.b4 dxc4 15.Bxc4 Na7 16. Ne5 Be8 17 f4
Compared the last diagram white has improved his position a lot. The rest of the game is won in the usual effortless style by the 3rd World Champion.
17... b6 18.Qd3 Rd8 19.f5 b5 20. fxe6 bxc4 21. Rxf6 cxd3 22.exf7+ Bxf7 23. Rxf7 Nb5 24. Rf2 Rd5 25. Nxd3 Re8 26. Rf3 1-0
The problem of exchanges is a fascinating topic worth painstaking study. In general, there is always a tendency, even for strong players to have a bias towards not considering exchanging Bishop for a Knight. Many a time our brain filters from even considering such a possibility. But therein lies the greatest difficulty, because if we can break the principled shackles and consider the improbable, playing such an idea is not far fetched at all!
In the last part we have seen some modern games. So it is now time to take a look at two classical games!
Botvinnik-Smyslov 13th game of the 1957 World Championship Match
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Nge2 Ba6 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Nxc3 d5 8.b3 0-0 9.a4 c5 10.Ba3 dxc4 11.bxc4 Nc6 12.Nb5 Bb7 13.Be2 Ne4
A position typical for this line of the Nimzo Indian Defence. White has the bishop pair and as compensation black has a slight lead in development and centrally placed pieces. Should white neutralise the immediate activity of black, he should be better in the long term as his dark squared bishop would rule supreme without an opponent. So how should white continue? Here Botvinnik comes up with an original idea.
14.Bf3 If white had tried to play 14. Qc2 Black had the sharp response Nb4.
14.... Ng5 as Botvinnik points out Black was doing completely fine here with 14.... Na5! However, his previous move was perhaps aimed at tempting black to attack white's light square bishop with a tempo. After all what can be wrong with that?
15.Bxc6! An unexpected idea! White voluntarily gives up the bishop pair, but instead decides to play for the restriction of black's sidelined knight on g5. 15..... Bxc6 16. f3 a6 positionally speaking this move weakens black's pawn on b6 and thereby indirectly even weakens his c5-pawn. 17.Nc3 f5 18.0-0 Qf6 19.Qd3 Rfd8 20. d5 Nf7 21.e4
This was Botvinnik's idea while playing Bxc6. He has placed the pawns on opposite colours of his bishop, but at the same time on the same coloured squares of opponent's bishop.This method was recommended by Capablanca to restrict opponent's bishop and keep one's own bishop active.
21... exd5 22.cxd5 Bd7 23. Bb2 Ne5 24.Qe2 f4 Temporarily black has succeeded in blocking White's central majority. But this is only short lived, white can improve his pieces in such a way as to evict the blockade soon. 25.Nd1! intending Nf2 and Nd3 25...b5 26. Nf2 c4 If black had played 26...Qe7 white would have kept the pressure with 27.Rfd1
27.axb5 axb5 28. Qd2! Cleverly white has forced black to push his pawns to white squares and now he can completely blockade them. From now on, White's better bishop and his qualitatively better majority decides the game. 28...Rac8 29.Rfc1 Re8 30.Bc3 Rc7 31. Kh1 Rb7 32.Ra2 h5 33. Rca1!
By means of simple moves White has shown the helplessness of Black's pieces. He is simply powerless to stop the infiltration on the a-file. This combined with pressure on the central diagonals is too much for black to handle. Hence, he gives up a pawn in an attempt to muddy the waters.
33....b4 34. Bxb4 Qb6 35. Bc3 Qe3 36. Nd1 Qxd2 37.Rxd2 Nd3 38.Bd4 Reb8 39.Nc3 Rb3 40. h4 R8b7 41. Ra8+ 1-0 Black decided to just resign as White's central passers will win atleast a piece. Mercilessly executed plan- typical of Botvinnik! This game warrants careful study as it beautifully shows original plans based on simple positional ideas. Botvinnik proudly declared that he had conducted the game in the style of the Cuban World Champion himself!
While discussing this game with Sandipan Chanda, he pointed out that the critical moment occurred after White's 17th move.
White's plan was to play against the badly placed knight on g5 and he in fact succeeded with it in the game. But lets bear in mind that at this moment black is still better developed and if instead of trying to save the knight on g5, if black can use it as an attacking force the character of the game would completely change. When Sandipan asked me to take a second look at this particular position I understood that black has to play dynamically here and has to start with 17....Qf6! to answer 17.h4 with Nxf3! 18. 0-0 Rfd8 in order to answer 19.h4 with 19...Nxf3 20.gxf3 cxd4
19. Ne2 cxd4 20.exd4 b5! with dynamic equilibrium.
This shows that in the original position White by no means had an advantage. But Botvinnik's idea is still original and beautiful and the fact that black had resources shows the inexhaustible nature of Chess! Repeated viewing of this game would no doubt be very pleasurable and instructive for all chess lovers!
Capablanca, Jose- Mikenas,V 1939
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Qxc3 a5 8. b3 0-0
Sadler comments here that while playing through the game he was expecting 9.g3 or 9.e3 to keep the bishop pair intact and hope to exploit it later. I completely agree with him, most of the players would have not even thought of anything other than holding on to the bishop pair and playing for an endgame advantage. But Capa's play was always fresh and free from any kind of dogmas. He was a specialist in transforming one kind of advantage into another. Here he relinquishes the bishop pair to get back some time for development and also put an end to Black's hopes of central breaks.
9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11 e3
At this point I quote Sadler completely. He has given a great explanation of the position.
" What has White achieved with this exchange? White has removed the major part of Black's protection of the d5 and e4-squares. This puts a brake on Black's chances of generating counterplay in the centre:
1. The knight on c6 blocks the ...c5 break
2..... e5 will only be achievable after a preliminary ... dxc4 as Black's support of d5 is so weakened. However, after ....dxc4, bxc4 Black still has to find a good way to meet d5 after ....e5. Moreover, the half-opening of the b-file is not to his advantage since he has already weakened his queenside with .... a5.
The exchange on f6 has essentially taken the life out of Black's position, and set him a number of unpleasant dilemmas however he seeks counterplay. As we can see, Black- a very strong player- didn't get to grips with the problems at all." -Sadler
11.... Bd7 Here perhaps black could have considered a move to stop White's development in Capa's style!- 11... Qg6!?
12. Bd3 Rfc8 13.0-0 a4 14.b4 dxc4 15.Bxc4 Na7 16. Ne5 Be8 17 f4
17... b6 18.Qd3 Rd8 19.f5 b5 20. fxe6 bxc4 21. Rxf6 cxd3 22.exf7+ Bxf7 23. Rxf7 Nb5 24. Rf2 Rd5 25. Nxd3 Re8 26. Rf3 1-0
The problem of exchanges is a fascinating topic worth painstaking study. In general, there is always a tendency, even for strong players to have a bias towards not considering exchanging Bishop for a Knight. Many a time our brain filters from even considering such a possibility. But therein lies the greatest difficulty, because if we can break the principled shackles and consider the improbable, playing such an idea is not far fetched at all!
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