Thursday, August 4, 2022

Castling into it (King's Placement-2)


 Fischer used the term 'Castling into it'  to signify Castling into a flank with a risky or a weakened pawn shelter. I am using this term more broadly to signify a risky King placement because we show our cards too early.We had earlier looked at the factor of King's placement being an important one based on games of Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Ganguly. This is a time honoured problem, and one that is not easily understood even by the all time greats. From the games of Steinitz until modern ones, this has been something to ponder about. I was recently looking at a game from 1948 World Championship match tournament between Keres and Botvinnik, that sparked an interest to revisit this topic. 

Keres-Botvinnik Round 5 Hague/Moscow World Championship Tournament 1948

1.c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3.Bg2 d4!? 


An interesting attempt to grab more space. This was what Carlsen tried too in the most recent World Championship versus Nepo. Botvinnik does not rate this move highly, but his move has stood the test of time and is considered to be good even to this day!