Beating the Petroff

At the highest level of play the Petroff (or Russian) Defence is generally regarded as a problem for White. Quite often a symmetrical pawn position is obtained, and White struggles to convert his extra tempo into something more concrete. In some quarters the notion of banning the Petroff Defence from tournament play has been suggested. But what do the Petroff experts say?

“A more skilful strategic player triumphs in the Petroff Defence regardless of the colour of his pieces and the position's symmetry.” -- Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik

That is certainly encouraging. And how about this quote from the noted author of Think Like a Grandmaster:

“When I stayed behind at school with my school friends after lessons, and managed to play up to a hundred games in a single afternoon, the strategy was simple enough: I castled on the opposite side in the middle of violent (and mutual) King attacks. Whoever got his attack in first, won. [When] the Kings find themselves at opposite corners of the board... the attacker not only can but must carry out the attack with pawns...” -- Alexander Kotov

The message is clear: let's castle queenside against the Petroff!

dadian - lox1900, G/5 Chess Assistant Club 2010, Petroff Defence C42

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 d5 [7...Nc6 8.Qd2 Be6 9.0–0–0 Qd7 10.Kb1 a6 11.h4] 8.Qd2 c6 9.0–0–0 [9.c4!?] 9...Bg4 10.Be2 0–0 11.h3 Bxf3 12.gxf3 (first diagram) 12...b5 13.Rhg1 Bf6 14.Rg4 [14.Bd4 Nd7 15.Qh6 g6 16.h4 Re8 17.Bd3 Ne5 unclear] 14...Nd7 15.Rdg1 [15.f4!?] 15...g6 [15...Ne5 16.R4g3 Re8 17.f4 Ng6 18.f5 Nh4 19.Bd4±] 16.f4 Bg7 17.f5 Ne5 [17...Nf6 18.Bg5 (18.R4g2 Qa5 19.Kb1 Ne4 20.Qd3 b4) 18...Qa5 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 20.Kb1 d4 21.Qd3 dxc3 22.fxg6 and White wins] 18.R4g3± Nc4 19.Bxc4 bxc4 20.Bd4 Qd6?! [20...Rb8! with counterplay] 21.h4 c5 22.Bxg7 Kxg7 (second diagram) 23.h5 f6 24.hxg6 h6 25.Rh3 Rh8 26.Rgh1 Qe5 27.Rxh6 Qxf5 28.Rxh8 Rxh8 29.Rxh8 1–0

Find the continuation 3

A couple of weeks ago I was spectating at an active tournament at the Milwaukee Market Creamery on Hornby Street in Vancouver. One of the games attracted particular attention when it arrived at the position shown in the diagram.

White, an A-class player, had uncorked the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit against his Expert-class opponent, and had sacrificed the exchange to speed up his attack. His last move was Ne2-g3, bringing his knight into action. His opponent had replied with ...Rd8-d5, trying to deal with White's massed pieces.

It was now White to play, and White was thinking.

Here I recalled something that Emanuel Lasker once wrote: there are certain moves you either see right away, or you do not see at all.

I remembered this because I could see a forced win for White, but White was still thinking.

After what seemed like forever he picked up his c-pawn and played 1.c4? Black immediately replied 1...Rf5!, returning the exchange and effectively killing off White's attack. White made a few more attacking gestures but was eventually was forced to capitulate.

In the diagram position White has a very powerful follow-up to his previous move:

1.Nh5!

Black is forced to take this knight because he is threatened with mate on g7 and 1...Qf8 doesn't help.

1...gxh5

This has the drawback of opening the b1-h7 diagonal for White's bishop, but taking with the knight is even worse: 1...Nxh5 2.Qxh7+ Kf8 3.Qh8 mate.

2.Bxh7+ Kh8 3.Rxf6

Black is now completely helpless. His next move is as good or bad as any other.

3...Rxg5 4.Bg6+ Kg8 5.Qh7+ Kf8 6.Qh8 mate.

We've already quoted the World Champion Lasker, so let's finish off with a quotation from his successor Jose Raul Capablanca:

“...the games of the great masters are not played by single moves, but must be played by concerted plans of attack and defence...”

The right execution

Here is a tense position from the game Fine-Reshevsky, A.V.R.O. 1938 (first diagram). White – to play – is a pawn down, and he obviously wants to win it back before Black can consolidate. The pawn on a6 is the natural target.

16.Qe2!?

Theatening 17.Bxa6, which is not easy to meet directly because of the pressure against Black's e-pawn.

16...Nh5!

A counterattack against the central light squares, and against White's queen in particular.

17.Bxa6

In the actual game, Fine prevented the threat of ...Nf4 by playing 17.g3. The matter of interest today is Reshevsky's analysis of 17.Bxa6. In his book Reshevsky on Chess (1948) he gave the following line:

17...Nf4 18.Qf1 Rxa6 19.Qxa6 Rb8 (second diagram)

and wrote that “White is helpless against the threat of ...Bb5.”

It is obvious that White cannot prevent ...Bb5, so things are certainly looking grim. What is not obvious is that White has a defence – more precisely, a counterattack. How about this:

20.b4!

Making a square for the queen on a5, and also attacking the knight.

20...Bb5!?

Pushing ahead with the plan of trapping White's queen. The alternatives are less promising:

A. 20...Nb3? 21.Nxb3 axb3 22.Bxf4 exf4 23.Qa3 and White is simply the exchange up with a clear advantage;

B. 20...Rxb4 21.Ba3 (or the more complex 21.dxe5 Bc8 22.exd6 Bxd6 23.Qf1 Rb6 24.e5 Bc5 25.Re4, etc.) 21...Bc8 22.Qf1 Rb6 23.Rec1! (winning time to make space for the queen) 23...Qd7 24.Nc4 Nxc4 25.Qxc4 Ba6 26.Qc7 Ne2+ 27.Kh2 and White is again up the exchange, although Black's bishop pair is also a factor;

C. 20...Nc6 21.Qxa4 Nxd4 21.Qa5 with equality.

21.Qxa5 Qd7

Now Black is threatening 22...Bd8, so White needs to find another resource.

22.Rxa4!

White does have an extra rook, so that gives him the option of returning it in order to extricate his queen.

22...Bxa4

White's queen escapes after 22...Bd8 23.Qa7 (also interesting is 23.Qa8!?, aiming to get two rooks for the queen) 23...Rb7 24.Qa8 (here too 24.Qxb7!? is possible) 24...Bxa4 25.dxe5. Here White must still tread carefully but having all the pawns on one side of the board is the key leveling factor.

23.dxe5! Nd3 24.Rf1

White has survived the complications and reached an equal position.

Does this mean that White can recover the pawn with 17.Bxa6? Of course not. After 17...Nf4 18.Qf1 Black has a much stronger way to exploit the light squares:

18...Qb6!

Now if 19.Bxc8? then 19...Bb5 wins easily for Black. White must retreat his bishop:

19.Bd3 exd4

White is again a pawn down but can play to win it back by gaining a tempo on Black's knight.

20.Nc4 Nxc4 21.Bxc4 Be6!

The most accurate way to preserve the advantage. Now if 22.Bxe6 then 22...Nxe6 and Black keeps the extra pawn. Of course White cannot contemplate 22.Bxf4? Bxc4 and wins.

22.Bb5 Ng6 23.Rd1

With this move White clears a square for his queen and renews the threat to recover the pawn.

23...Bf6!

Consolidating the more important pawn.

24.Rxa4 Rxa4 25.Bxa4 Bc4 26.Qe1 Qa6!

Taking control of the key diagonal without loss of time.

27.b3 Be2! 28.Rd2 Bxf3 29.gxf3 Nh4! (third diagram)

The culmination of Black's strategy commencing with 18...Qb6! The strategic advantage of controlling the a6-f1 diagonal has been transformed into a decisive advantage in pawn structure.

One might say that Reshevsky had the right idea, but did not show the right way to execute it.

Mystery annotations

Every so often you come across an annotation that you just can't believe. Today's example is taken from Larry Christiansen's excellent book Storming the Barricades, published by Gambit in 2000.

The position in the first diagram arose in the game V. Ciocaltea – L. Christiansen, Torremolinos 1976 after Black's 15^th move. White decided it was time for an unwarranted attack, and came up with the aggressive-looking:

16.g4?!

Black can safely ignore this pawn advance with 16...Bb7 17.g5 hxg5 18.Bxg5 Rfd8, when it looks like all White has done is weaken his position. But Christiansen has a somewhat different idea.

16...Nd7!?

At first this too looks fishy. Why not 17.Qe4 threatening mate and the rook? Of course Christiansen had seen all this, and he wrote that 17...f5 18.Qxa8 Nxe5 would give Black a “crushing counterattack.” That is certainly true, but White can do better with 18.gxf5 exf5 19.Qd5+ Kh7 20.Nc4 Qh4 21.Be3, which could be just equal.

More critical for Black's idea is 17.Be4 Nxe5 18.Bxa8. Christiansen gave 18...Qh4 19.Bf4 Ba6 20.Qxe5 Qxf2+ 21.Kh1 Rxa8 22.Qe4 (second diagram) and now “22...Be2! 23.Qxa8+ Kh7 24.Rd3 Qxf4, when Black's raging bishops rule the board.”

Here is the real mystery. Well, two mysteries actually. Black's bishops can do all the ruling they want, but if all they can do is win back the double exchange, then it doesn't add up to much. Try to find a win for Black after 24...Qxf4 25.Qg2! I don't think it's there.

The second mystery – and the true subject of today's article – is why on earth Black should give up his rook with check. After 22.Qe4 he should forget about abstract ideas of ruling the board and instead play the simple 22...Rc8! The threat is Bb5-c6 with disaster on the long diagonal. White can grovel, but in the long run Black must prevail.

For the record, the game continuation was:

17.g5 Nxe5 18.Qxe5 f6 19.Qe4 f5 20.Qh4 Bb7 21.Qh5 Qc7 22.Bb5 Rad8 23.Rxd8 Rxd8 24.gxh6 Qe5 25.Qg5 Qe1+ 0–1

The sacrifice

I'm not talking about giving up material for the initiative or an attack. I'm talking about accepting the inability to think too deeply that goes along with entering an “active” (30-minute) chess tournament. With life's many demands, it is often more convenient to play a tournament that lasts one day instead of two or three. But there is a price. If you treat active chess like classical chess and try to find the best moves as much as possible, you will inevitably fall behind on the clock. We all know what can happen then.

Here is an illustration of this theme from a recent active game of mine. The result was favourable for me, but later analysis showed the creative aspect to be anything but satisfying.

The diagrammed position arose in the game Scoones-Milicevic, Vancouver Express Open 2010, a 16-player Swiss System event hosted by Metro Vancouver's official Russian-language newspaper. This encounter was played in the last round and was crucial for deciding who would finish in second place behind the winner of the event, IM Stanislav Kriventsov.

White has two bishops against a rook and pawn, but more important than that, he has the ability to start a dangerous attack against Black's king. The downside is that White has only 90 seconds left on his clock.

37.Bc4+! Kg7 38.Ne6+ Kh6?!

With 2 minutes on his own clock, Black goes wrong – by the standards of active chess. He had to try 38...Kg8!? 39.Nd8+ Kg7 40.Nxb7 Ra8 and hope that White ran out of time while trying to promote his queenside pawns. The text leads instead to a mating attack.

39.Bf8+ Kh5?!

Here too Black should give up further material with 39...Rxf8 and hope that White cannot convert within the time limit.

40.Be2+ Kh4 41.Bg7?!

When I played this move I believed it was quite brilliant. White threatens both 42.Bxf6+ followed by mate, and 42.Bxh8 winning a rook. However, much stronger was 41.Bc5!, when Black can stave off mate for only a couple of moves.

41...g5?!

Here 41...Rf8 was slightly stronger but by now it would not change things much.

42.Bxh8?

It isn't too often that capturing a free rook merits a question mark. But it does happen, and this is one of those times. Much, much stronger was 42.Nf4! threatening 43.g3 mate. The only defence is taking the knight with 42...gxf4, but then White mates with 43.Bxf6.

After taking the rook I was down to 60 seconds on the clock. Fortunately (for me) I managed to exchange off my opponent's remaining knight and then queen my b-pawn, ending the game quickly.

There is only one way to improve at active chess: practise, practise, practise!

Alonso vs Suttles, Gijon 1965

Here is an early tournament game by GM Duncan Suttles, which remained undiscovered at the time of publication of Chess on the Edge, the monumental three-volume work by FM Bruce Harper and GM Yasser Seirawan.

Jose Ramon Alonso - Duncan Suttles, Gijon 1965 Modern Defence [A42]

1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 Nc6 5.Be3 e5 6.Nge2 Nh6 7.d5 Ne7 8.f3 f5 9.Qd2 Nf7 10.h4

White has no real attacking prospects on the kingside, so perhaps he is merely looking for complications. If so, he has met a worthy associate in Mr Suttles!

10...c5

Radically forestalling a possible c4-c5 pawn break by White.

11.Ng1 h5 12.Nh3 f4 13.Bf2 Bh6 14.Bd3 a6 15.Ke2

Black is not well-placed for a queenside attack, so White should consider castling long, perhaps following up with Rdg1 and g2-g3!?

15...Bd7 16.a4 Qa5 17.b4 cxb4 18.Na2 Rc8 19.Rhb1 Bxh3 20.gxh3 Qxa4

With White's king still in the centre, Black should not be thinking about exchanging queens.

21.Rxb4?!

Stronger was 21.Qxb4! with queenside pressure for White.

21...Qd7 22.Rab1 Nd8

Here Black could make White's life difficult with 22...Qxh3! and if 23.Rxb7 then 23...g5!

23.Rb6 Rc7 24.c5 Nc8 25.cxd6 Nxd6 26.Qb2 N8f7 27.Rg1 Rg8 28.Nc3 Bf8 29.Qb3 Be7

Here too 29...Qxh3 would have posed problems for White.

30.Na4 (diagram) 30...Qxh3!?

But now it seems better to play 30...Qc8 and if 31.Qb1 then simply 31...Kf8 with advantage to Black.

31.Nc5 Rxc5?

This looks like a time trouble error. 31...Bxh4! was still good for Black. Now things turn around dramatically.

32.Bxc5 Bxh4 33.Rxb7 Nxb7 34.Qxb7 Nd8 35.Qh7! Rf8 36.Qxg6+ Rf7 37.Bxa6 Qh2+ 38.Rg2 1-0

In many ways a typical Suttles game: strategically deep, but tactically... not so deep!

The Forklift

From humble beginnings in the early 1950s, chess-playing computers have now surpassed the strongest human players. Less than $100 is needed to buy one of the electronic warriors that gave so much trouble to GMs Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Michael Adams in specially-arranged test matches.

Twenty years ago, when chess computers were first approaching master strength, an initiative was started to prohibit them from entering human tournaments. It was argued that trying to defeat a machine at chess would eventually be as futile as trying to win a powerlifting contest against a forklift.

In 2009, a FIDE Category 6 tournament with a mostly human entry was won by a mobile phone.

These days many authorities proclaim the futility of trying to defeat a top chess-playing program. Instead it is recommended that players use such programs to analyse their own games and identify and perhaps correct their mistakes.

I recently acquired a copy of Fritz 12, the newest version of one of the best-selling chess programs of all time. Never mind the advice from the experts. When the DVD arrived at my study, I installed the program, set the time control for 5 minutes each, and banged out my first move 1.e4. Here is the resulting game:

Dadian-Fritz 12, G/5, Port Coquitlam 2010

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.0-0 0-0 9.h3 a6 10.a4 Nh5 11.Bh2 Bh6 12.Re1 Bf4 13.Bxf4 Nxf4 14.Bc2 f6 15.Qd2 (diagram) 15...e5 16.dxe5 fxe5 17.Nxe5 Qg5 18.Ng4 h5 19.Ne3 Ne5 20.Kf1 Bxh3 21.gxh3 Nf3 0-1

Well, that was a sobering experience. I thought the exchange variation of the Caro-Kann was supposed to be a safe way for White to play, but I guess not.

Of course my first big mistake was 16.dxe5, which opened the f-file and also allowed Black's queen to get to g5. Replace 16.dxe5 with 16.Qe3 and White should be fine.

On the very next move I made my second big mistake 17.Nxe5, which allowed Black to set up a winning attack with 17...Qg5. Instead of taking the e-pawn there was the interesting option of counterplay with 17.Bb3.

After 17...Qg5 I managed to grovel for a few moves but the issue was settled after 20...Bxh3!

I suppose there is some risk of embarrassment in publishing this game, but here I will appeal to the reader's conscience.