For this report, I prepared a short story from the past. Garry Kasparov, being in 1987 a world chess champion, in his 23rd game of the fourth World Championship match with Anatoly Karpov, played a sacrifice that he thought would win the game and the match. However, Karpov found a refutation and won the game, leaving Kasparov needing to win the final game to retain his title. In a dramatic 24th game, Kasparov specifically chose a less active double fianchetto opening (look at position 0; details are below), hoping Karpov would not withstand the pressure of the entire game. This idea worked out! At some point, Garry sacrificed a pawn for an attack, and in desperate time pressure, Karpov missed the best defense and lost the game. Thus, the match ended in a 12–12 tie, with Kasparov remaining the World Champion. That is the end of the short story.
In my third game of a quad with Kian, to clinch the clear first prize, I decided to repeat Kasparov’s experience. For this purpose, I chose the same slow opening characterized by positions 1, 2, and 3 (in all of them White is to move). By the way, in chess, the fianchetto is a pattern of developing a bishop on squares b2 or g2. If both bishops are developed on these squares, then the opening is called “double fianchetto.”
Usually, double fianchetto is less active than a simple fianchetto because it requires more time to develop two bishops on b2 and g2. Besides, White has to choose a proper active plan in the center (where and when his other pieces move toward the center). I think I executed this plan perfectly. Just look at position 2; in it, White has ideally developed all his pieces. Five pieces (c4-pawn, two rooks, f3-bishop, and a queen) are aiming at the black d5-pawn. It is interesting that these five attacks (at one aim!) constitute probably a maximum number of attacks in a game (in all my games, it has happened for the first time and only now). In turn, Black has five defenses, and all his pieces are completely tied up; they cannot move away, weakening the defense of the d5-pawn.
Now I am asking you a question given in the picture with respect to position 2 (the same question will be for position 3, which occurred later in the game) – can White play cxd5?
There is an important arithmetic rule: you may win the opponent’s piece if the number of attacks is greater than the number of its defenses (equality is not enough!). Observing this rule, I had not even considered taking the d5-pawn; I decided to open the h-file for my rooks and queen to finish the black king by a direct mate attack. I played 31. g5 Kg8 32. Kg3 Kf7 33. h4 Qa8 34. h5 Qb7 35. Rh1… - look at the comments for position 3. This plan was good and worked out, but after coming home, I found that White could still play 31. cxd5, not to win the d5-pawn but to weaken the f5-pawn. After penetrating my pieces into the opponent’s territory, I could create many powerful threats. A possible variant is 31. cxd5 Bxd5 32. Rxd5 Rxd5 33. Rxd5 exd5 (33… Rxd5 is bad because the same idea of e5-e6 at some time happened in position 3; read further) 34. gxf5 gxf5 35. Qg5 with a very good position for White.
But in position 3, I had clearly calculated the winning variant: 41. cxd5 Bxd5 42. Bxd5 Rxd5 43. Rxd5 Qxd5 (if 43…exd5 then 44. e6 anyway) 44. Qxd5 exd5 45. e6+ Kxe6 (if 45... Kg8 46. e7!) 46. Bxg7 winning a bishop and the game. So the answer to the question for position 3 is definitely and necessarily “yes”; if White had not executed this breakthrough “e5-e6 idea,” Black would not have allowed it anymore, for example, if 41. Rd2 then 41…Kg8 (this idea also explains the possibility of capturing cxd5 in position 2 mentioned in a paragraph above).
So, there are some conclusions and advice from this game.
Conclusion and advice #1 (about the pattern “double fianchetto”):
Double fianchetto is not my usual opening since I almost always play 1. e4. I played it because of the following reasons: I played Kian for the first time and tried to surprise him by choosing this rare opening. There is also a little detail. Kian, in his recent report, has shown that he usually plays the Scandinavian defense (and plays it well!), so I decided to vary my opening. At that time, I recalled Kasparov’s story and executed it…
But I do not recommend young students playing the “double fianchetto” opening. It is a very complicated opening… And, do not play it with Black; you do not have time for that!
Conclusion and advice #2 (if somebody plays a rare or unusual opening against you):
If your opponent applies some rare or unusual opening, do not panic! Try to understand the opponent’s ideas/plans and find an antidote to these openings. Remember that they themselves do not win a game; they affect mostly psychologically. Do not play passively; play actively! In my game with Kian, I was under a slight impression that he was afraid of either me or my opening choice (but I greatly respect him for his talent and chess progress in the last tournaments!).
Conclusion and advice #3 (about studying chess in general and chess history in particular):
Systematically study chess in general. And sometimes read something about chess history; some books and articles on them bring useful knowledge!
Congratulations to Yefim Treger for winning our report contest, and a free entry to the tournament. If you want a chance to win a free entry into our Saturday Quads, email a report to icanewjersey@gmail.com, following these guidelines. We hope you guys have had a great week and we hope to see you at our next Quad which is September 28. Enjoy and we hope to see you soon!
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