Section 1 Report by Yefim Treger
On the first day of summer I played a very instructive game with my familiar player Shahryar (I was White, he was Black). This game is instructive since it contains many important ideas I told you in my earlier reports. Also, an opening, the Italian game, has to be familiar to many young students of ICA. I had prepared a special variant for Shahryar not to allow him to take my e4-pawn.
Just look at position 1 (by the way in all four key positions Black has a turn to move). Can Black take the White’s e4-pawn? An answer is a “No” because White has a powerful resource of 4. Qh5 and Black has to retreat his knight to d6 with an awkward position (a variant 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. Nb5 illustrates it). Shahryar answered by 3… Nc6 assuming correctly that if I play 4. Nf3 – he can capture Ne4 with a good position. At this moment I decided to play 4. Qe2 hoping for a combination of 4…Bc5 5. Bf7 Kf7 6. Qc4 d5 7. Qc5 but Black responded strongly by 4… Nd4 and my queen had to return to her initial square d1. Position 2 had appeared. And now Black can take e4-pawn since the attack Qh5 has an obvious defect: Nd4 is a very strong knight pressing on c2 (variant 5…Ne4 6. Qh5 Ng5 confirms that since White does not have time to attack g5-knight because c2-pawn is hanging). So my maneuver 4. Qe2 and 4. Qd1 was bad, I should have simply played 4. d3.
Positions 3 and 4 illustrate the strategic Black’s mistakes. I try to explain them by simple words. First you have to understand that after we both have castled in the opposite sides of the board, each of us plans to attack the opponent’s king. For this purpose the pawn storms are necessary. So White plans to play by his pawns: b4, a4, b5, a5 and further. Black plans to play by his pawns: g5, h5 and further. But each side has not only to execute his plan but to prevent the other side from executing the opponents’ plan. Locations of the black bishop on b6 and queen on c6 favor White since the pawn moves b5 and a5 will happen with tempi. Also have I mind that after chasing away the black queen from c6 White’s knight gets the square f5. After a move “pawn a5” the black bishop has to trade his opponent’s bishop on e3 opening f-vertical especially after Black’s pawn move g5.
So, g5-move is preliminary since after b4 Black will be forced to trade bishops on e3 opening f-vertical and square f5 for the white g3-knight. This mistake (playing g5 in position 3) was aggravated in two moves (position 4) when Black played 17…a5 (in one of my previous reports I declared another important principle: “Do not play in the flank where your opponent plays!”). So, the move 17… a5 is a decisive mistake after 18. b5 and 19. Bb6 the Black’s pawn structure had been destroyed and I comfortably pressed all my pieces on the weak pawn d6. This led to the collapse of the Black’s position and I won the game.
So I can repeat my advice to young students of ICA: read my reports, they contain important information (actually read all reports of ICA, not only mine!)
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