Elementos para conceptualizar el hábitat

British Championship, Liverpool, 2008 P a r t i

In this position (after 17 moves i n a Griinfeld Defense) I made the decision to play:

18.e5

Sometimes i n Griinfeld positions this move is forced, to protect the d4- pawn from the Jlg7 but here this is not so. A move such as 18.<4)f2 followed by

bringing the H h l into the center was perfectly possible (indeed, perhaps even stronger).

Having previously studied the vari- ation played in this game, I decided

18.(4)f2 wasn't i n the spirit of the line

and that 18.e5 was much more ambi- tious.

The idea is that the A g 7 is blotted out and the center is more or less solidi- fied. Eventually White hopes to create some attack on the kingside by means of g2-g4, ideally in conjunction with £}e2-f4 (which also menaces e5-e6, so probably Black will play e6 himself). The white queen also gains a square on e4 which can sometimes be useful. In re- turn of course Black has a monopoly on the central light squares.

Jumping ahead to move 39, the fol- lowing position was reached:

Hawkins — Gormally,

British Championship, Liverpool, 2008 Part 2

Despite Black's material advantage, the situation is not at all clear. Black's bishop is hindered by White's center pawns set on the dark squares, but it does perform an important role stopping the h-pawn.

P A R T 2. P r i n c i p l e s and Essential T h e o r y

I felt, rather optimistically, that I should be better here. M y opponent, I think, thought the opposite. Who was more correct is an open question. I now believe the position is drawn but there are some feasible ways either side could lose i n over the board play.

The first point to make is that al- though the white pawns preserve a kind of status-quo against the black bishop, Black does have a 2 vs. 1 majority on the queenside and hence a very simple plan. If White does nothing he will lose to the advance of these pawns.

This leads to another issue, which is i f White has to play dynamically it must involve advancing the central pawns to create counterplay. In doing so the wall against the A h 8 will be removed and the bishop will become more useful, extending its influence to include the queenside.

Black's queenside play is straight- forward; how White should create his counterplay is less clear. I had two ideas to make progress with the white posi- tion.

P L A N A

> Remove the white king from the g-file and maneuver the rook to g8.

> Black could respond by placing

(4)e7 and Hd8 (or e8) himself (we will see

that Black has a more dynamic defense than this). The black pieces are para- lyzed in this case though, and the white king is free to roam back to support the

center pawns. I felt given enough time White would win, but the black queen- side pawns would still be a problem.

P L A N B

> A n alternative plan (which I did not consider enough in the game), is to play * g 5 - g 6 followed by Hf7.

I think this is a more problematic setup for Black to meet. If his rook ever leaves the back rank he will have to reckon with White taking this rank himself (and poten- tially winning the A h 8 ) . Moreover from the seventh rank the white rook is far more active than it would be on g8 and can har- ass the black queenside pawns, which at the very least would make it more difficult for them to advance.

39...Hd8

A natural enough move, which worked out well for Black in the game. The most accurate is probably 39...Hc8 intending 40...Bc2, since i f White plays correctly Black will be a tempo down on this i f he starts with 39...Hd8 (although still the game should be drawn).

After 39...Hc8 Black should have the better side of a draw after 40.(4>g6 B c 2

41.Hf8 Bg2+ 4 2 . * h 5 A g 7 43.Hf3 Hxa2 44.Bc3! intending H c 7 with a perpetual attack against the black bishop, saving the game.

40.Bf4?!

I don't recall being in time pressure, in which case this is just a lazy move.

Lesson 7. P a w n Walls Against Bishops

Black was not threatening to capture on d4. Prophylaxis has its place, but in a sit- uation such as this where every tempo of the black queenside pawns may be criti- cal, then the first question to pose upon an opponent making a threat should be "can I ignore that?"

More logical and testing would be 40.<4>g6! putting the second of the two plans discussed into action.

After for instance 40...b5 (it is not too late for 40...Hc8!) 41.Sf7! Black is already in serious trouble since 41...Sa8 42.Sb7 a6 is the only way to avoid losing a pawn immediately. Then comes 43.a3 and Black must shed a pawn anyway due to Zugzwang (unless he wishes to allow 43...<4>d5 44.<4>f7! which looks extreme- ly dangerous).

Once Black loses one of his queen- side pawns he also loses his counterplay. A recipe for disaster.

The move 40.Sf4 has the effect of losing a tempo, the result is not changed but White is now on the worse side of a draw.

40...b5 41.*h6

Pursuing the first plan (to place the rook on g8).

41.<4>g6 was still possible intending Hf7, even with the extra tempo (Hfl-f4- f7 rather than Hfl-f7) Black would still be advised to play 41...Sc8 and force a draw.

41...a5 42. Hg4 b4 43. H g 8 * e 7

Forced.

Having achieved this setup (albeit with Black having been allowed more progress on the queenside than was necessary) the next step is to bring the king back to support the center pawns and if possible halt the black queenside pawns.

44.*g5?!

It would be more unpleasant to face 44.<4>g6!, after which 44...a4 45.Bxd8

<4>xd8 46.<4>f7 might worry Black, al-

though a draw should result after 46...b3 47.e6 b2 (not 47...bxa2??) 48.e7+ * c 7 49.e8=# b l = # 50.#xh8 # f 5 + (the reason it is important to queen on b l ) with perpetual check.

Instead after 44.<4>g6! Black should find 44...He8! 4 5 . * f 5 a4 4 6 . * e 4 b3 47.axb3 a3! (it is vital that White has to

P A R T 2. P r i n c i p l e s and Essential T h e o r y

retreat his rook to stop the queenside pawn; after 47....axb3?? White catches the pawn with his king and maintains the paralysis on the black pieces) 48.b4 a2 49.Hgl Ha8 with similar play to the game.

44...a4 45.4>f5b3 46.axb3 axb3

Unlike the situation i n the previous note, White cannot catch even the b- pawn because of the lost tempo.

47.4>e4 b2 48. H g l Hb8 49. H b l

I believe the reason I discarded the superior plan with <4)g6 and Hf7 in favor

of the Hg8 plan was that I knew that the worst case scenario after Hg8 would be precisely this type of position (I stress I was not aiming for this position, but was aware of it as a fallback).

Playing a higher rated player and wanting a safety net, I realized even i n this situation I should draw because I can remove Black's final pawn and u l - timately defend H + A vs. H , an end- game with which I was reasonably fa- miliar.

49...4>e6

Our observation at the beginning that advancing the pawns will release the black bishop makes itself felt here. 50.d5+?? i n fact loses the game, for example 50...4>d7 51.4>f5 Hb4! with a winning Zugzwang.

50.4>d3

White has no choice but to remove the last black pawn at the cost of his own pawns.

50...4>d5 51.&c3 Bc8+ 52.4>xb2 4>xd4

Eventually the game was drawn after 50 moves of B + A vs. H .

Now a second example, i n which a difficult decision arises when a potential exchange will erect a powerful pawn wall for the opponent.