My last post was about how to win fast with dynamic play. https://marcoferrante.wixsite.com/website/post/be-dynamic
Unfortunately, you cannot always do that. Some times your opponent won't leave you such easy opportunities to put dynamic into the game, and some other times you may want to play a slower, more sophisticate game just because you woke up that way.
This is how you squeeze your opponent slowly!
Me! - HQayu, chess.com 25 Jan 2022
1.Nf3 c5 2.b3!? Nf6 3.Bb2 e6 4.e3 Be7 5.Be2 0-0 6.0-0 Nc6
Natural development so far. Taking care of developing the minor pieces and castling the king. Very much classic chess. Now, how suggested by the arrow, it is time to push some central pawn.
7. c4 d6 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Qc7 10.Nb5 Qb8 11.Nc3 a6 12.Nd4 Rd8
Black is rock-solid, and White's only plus is a small space advantage and perhaps a little initiative to be the first to start his strategical operations. But what strategical operation?
I thought that exchanging the knight and playing the light-square bishop in f3 could be a good starting point (I did not like 13.Bf3 immediately because of 13...Ne5)
13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bf3 Bb7
Always rock solid! At this point the most natural move would be something like 15.Qe2 to bring the rooks into the game (so classical chess!), but I another idea attracted by attention. 15.Ne4!? Nxe4 16.Bxe4 d5
Of course, Black creates a strong center. But here I noticed an interesting intermediate move to spice up the game.
17.Qg4! Bf8 18.Bc2 c5
I have not given checkmate, but I liked the bishop pair pointing at Black's castle.
19.Ra1 Qc7 20.h4!? Rab8
I like the idea of bringing the h-pawn into the game. Black is about fine and White is merely improving the position of his pieces and slowly preparing the opportunity of an attack. As you can see, there is no real immediate threat. Yet, this is the most important moment of the game and it is where I miss the right move. We have completed the development except for the rook in f1 that is not doing much (in fact, instead of h4 I was even considering 20.f4 to prepare a rook lift via f3, but I did not believe in it because it was too slow and Black can always open the d column and I might end up missing the rook on the 1st rank). So I knew that I had to do something because the position seemed ripe, but what?
I was excited about the possibility of a direct attack and played
21.cxd5 exd5 22.Qf5 g6 23.Qf6
It looks scary! But cold-blood Black can simply defend with...
23...d4!
And now after 24.exd4 Bg7! This strong intermediate solve all Black's problems, cutting off my dark-square bishop. Now that you saw what happen can you find a good move in the position above? Dust off your chessboard because you are going to need it!
....
....
....
....
....
....
21.Bf6! I found this move so elegant. The bishop is untouchable there, in fact after 21...Rd7 22.Rd2 and Black cannot play 22...Kh8 because 23.Qh5 forces checkmate! You may say that Black it is not forced to move the king. He could just play 22...g6 like in the game and it does not seem the end of the world. Isn't it? Look at 23.h5 Bg7 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.Qh4 f6 26.Rfd1 Rad8 27.Qh3! And I dare you to defend this position without looking at the engine. Perhaps Black is not lost but the practical chances here are huge.
Let's go back to the game.
24.h4?! Qe7?
We both missed 24...Rd5 followed by Rh5 with a strong counter attack.
25.Qd4 Qd6
And now White can convert his positional advantage into one pawn. Guess what, this is exactly what you get when you play slow, classical chess. And then you have to learn how to convert your extra pawn!
26.Qxd6 Rxd6 27.hxg6 hxg6 28.exd4 cxd4 29.Rxd4 Rxd4 30.Bxd4 Rc8 31.Bb1 Rd8 32.Be3 Bc8
Here we are with our extra pawn, but we need to activate our rook. I thought that in a bishop endgame I had better chances to convert my pawn (because all rook endgames are draw! I am exaggerating I know...but just a little bit).
33.Bc2 Be6 34.Rd1! Rxd1+ 35.Rxd1 Ba3
An interesting concept by my opponent. He tries to create a blockade, but I don't believe it works so easily in a minor piece endgame.
36.Bd2 Bd7 37.Be2 Bb5
No other way to defend the pawn...
38.Kf1 Kf8
The march is on!
39.Bxb5 axb5 40.Ke2 Ke7 41.Kd3 Kd6
And this how you win a slow game. You convert your little opening advantage in an extra pawn in the middlegame, and then with your extra pawn you win the endgame! Without the need for your opponent to do any blunder or tactical mistake. Just classical chess.
42.Kf5?
42.Kc3 was forcing the win much more easily. I am threatening b4, and if he plays 42...Bc5 43.Be3 forces the exchange of the bishops. The pawn endgame is trivial with an extra pawn.
42...Ke6 43.Kd4 Kd6?
My opponent probably thought that it was a matter of keeping the opposition, but it was not about that. Now White could have won (again) with 44.Kc3, same idea as above.
44.Bf4+? Kc6 45.Kc3 Kd5 46.b4
And Mr. bishop is lost.
46...Ke4 47.Be3 f3 48.g3 1-0
Always prophylactic thinking. There is no rush to capture the bishop, it cannot escape. So I hope that you enjoyed the game and you can also appreciate slow classical chess now!
To the next!
Comments