CAPITULO II Del Recurso de Revocación
NORMAS DE APLICACION
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After 40 moves m a Closed Ruy Lopez
White has the advantage through extra space. But in this case it is not apparent that he can do anything with this extra space. There are no entry-points and no weaknesses within reach. Furthermore White's bishop is tied to the defence of the a5-pawn. All in all, the game should soon end in a draw (as indeed it did) .
In our example Rubinstein has freer hands and can start using his extra space to organize an assault on the kingside, presumably connected with f2-f4. And although it is not going to be easy to break Black's defences, it might be possible, due to the smoother manoeuvring White's space advantage gives him.
17.c!lid2 .th3
Black is continuing his plan. There is not really any reason to suggest alternatives.
Chapter 3
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Space Advantage 1 0318.a4!
Played to secure the c4-square.
It is also possible to play 1 8.lt:ic4 with the idea 1 8 .. . b5?! l 9.lt:ia5, which does not improve things for Black. Bue it is quite typical of Rubinstein to spend as much time as possible improving his position. This is a clear sign of his style. 1 8.lt:ic4 is neither better nor worse than the move Rubinstein chose in the game. It is a bit more energetic, but Rubinstein did not value dynamics that highly.
Realistically Black would not change his play. But we should remember Bocvinnik's idea, which is that when you have to play several moves to follow your plan, it is best to start with the moves chat keep your ideas hidden and options open, if only to confuse the opponent.
18 ... J.xg2 19.©xg2 geb8 20.tllc4 b5 I do not like this much. It seems to create extra weaknesses. Black was of course hoping chat b3 would become a target too, but due to the space advantage, it is easy enough for White to organize his forces for the defence of this pawn. At the same time Black's weaknesses on a7 and d6 are more exposed.
If Black had not done anything on the queenside (you can argue he already decided to do so on his last move - a point we will quickly
gloss over) , but had tried to slowly improve his position, say with 20 .. . lt:ig6, Rubinstein would presumably have played in much the same way with 2 1 .i.c l i.e7, though here there is a trick.
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1 a b c d e f g hIf White plays 22 . .ie3?, Black gets instant counterplay with 22 .. . lt:ih4t! 23.�h l �h3 24.!!gl lt:if3 25.!!g2 �g4 and things are far less clear than they ought to be. Bue we should not be concerned; Rubinstein would never allow any tactics.
White can play either 22.h4!? or something like 22.f3 i.g5 23.i.a3. Forcing Black to go back. 23 .. . i.e7 8
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6 .....
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a b c d e f g hProbably now I would play 24.:1'!fcl with the idea of doubling on the c-file, playing slowly and improving the position. You can imagine chat in a position with the rook on c3 we then play lt:ie3 (of course not allowing ... i.g5 with exchanges) with ideas such as lt:if5, �b5, i.b4 and other moves chat slowly improve the position.
1 04 Positional Decision Making in Chess
simply wait, trying to make sure that he would have some counter-attacking ideas for when the game finally opens.
21 .axb5 YNxb5 22Jia3!
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22 ... �g6
Probably it was already time to put the knight on a passive place like c8. Sure it is not much fun to do so, but it is hard to see what the knight is doing on g6. White's advantage is extensive no matter what; probably the position is already lost for Black, somewhere between ± and +-. When I grew up our evaluation was formed by the system used in Chess Informant, where a slight advantage (t) meant that one side was pushing, and a large advantage (±) meant that nothing conclusive could be seen, but the opponent is in a dire situation.
The players from my generation still think like this, while the younger players operate with a different system, which they learned from the computer (+0.20 for example) , which is not very informative in my opinion. Or maybe I am just suffering from the afflictions of middle age.
(I should probably say that the use of + 1 or +2 as descriptions is now used almost universally among grandmasters. But more or less only when they want to explain how winning the position was that they misplayed!)
23J:Ua l a6 24.�cl
The bishop is rerouted to a better square. The action is on the queenside and the bishop has nothing to do on b2 anymore; it definitely belongs on e3.
26 ... �e7
We have arrived at the final impressive move. White is obviously doing well, but the question is how to improve the position further. The knight belongs on d2, where it can defend the b3-pawn. Rubinstein's move keeps an eye on a6 while preparing to retreat the knight.
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1 a b c d e f g hChapter 3 -Space Advantage 105
27.1Yfl!
Played with the idea of exchanging the queen on b5, which is holding the black position together.
This is not the only way for White to improve his position, but it is a rather elegant way to do so. White now wins the a-pawn.
Something like 27.lllb2 would be imprecise. Black plays 27 .. . !!ab8 and gains a bit of time to create counterplay.
27 ... tncs 2S.�d2 1Yb4
28 . . . a5 loses a pawn to 29.Wxb5 l:!xb5 30.lllc4. Black has no defensive resources left. 29.1Yc4 1Yxc4
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1 a b c d e f g h 30.�xc4!The natural move. Rubinstein knows that he will win the a-pawn and ensures that he will keep a passed pawn, which is much more important than unifying the pawns into one super structure.
30 .. J:!:abS 3I .tnd2 �k7
White wins no matter what, of course. The attempt to bring the knight into the game with 3 1 . .. llla7 is most simply eliminated with 32.ixa7! !!xa7 33.l:!xa6 !!ab7 34.l:!a8 when
Black has no counterplay. The white king will come to the queenside and White will win. 32.gxa6 gc2 33.g6a2 gxa2 34.gxa2 fi.e7 35.©fl ©f7 36.©e2 ©es 37.©d3 ©d7 3S.©c3 .ids 39.tnc4 !i.c7
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This is the final instructive moment of the game. White is completely winning. He has more space, better pieces and not least, an extra pawn. Still Rubinstein shows his excellent technical feeling by first improving the position on the kingside, even though it was probably already winning to simply push the b-pawn. As said before, Rubinstein never rushed unnecessarily; so much so that the mantra promoted by modern books on endgame technique (Shereshevsky, Dvoretsky, Yusupov, Aagaard and Muller} , "Do not hurry" is attributed to Rubinstein.
40.g4 .ids 4IJ'fa6 J.c7 42.h4 /i.ds 43.h5 Fixing the g7-pawn. White is now (over) prepared and ready to move the b-pawn up the board. The quality of the preparation is underlined by the fact that nothing really happened towards the end of the game. 43 .. .J.c7 44.b4 gb7 45.gas ©ds 46.©b3 gbs 47.gxbS Lbs
106 Positional Decision Making in Chess