My last September 2024 Quad report I wanted to begin with a request to all students: please read all the reports on this site. In particular, it is important with respect to my reports – to be better prepared for me in chess games because I am a very stable (in the same openings) player. By Black, I almost always play King’s Indian defense opening (for 1.d4 players) and 1… g6 for (1.e4 players). By the way, these King’s Indian defense and Pirc’s defense openings often have the same feature in my games – setting my b8-knight to d4 and supporting it by e5/c5-pawns.
In my last August report, this feature was explained by the d4-knight pattern. This pattern was repeated in September and shown by the very upper position of the picture. This position occurred when Leon, my opponent, had just made his ninth move, 9. Be3. Last month I supported the d4-knight by c5-pawn, but in the game with Leon, I did it by the e5-pawn, which led to position 1. This is the position I will discuss in detail below, but before I do, I want to say that Leon wasted too much time in the whole game, especially in position 1, which resulted in tremendous time pressure and numerous mistakes later (in one of my reports I said that for this time control you could not think more than 7-10 minutes for one move).
Many of us are probably very surprised by the central part of my picture, which says that in position 1, White has only one good move, Nc3-b5 (here an expression “one good move” has mostly a strategic sense, since many other normal moves, for example 0-0, are possible). But let’s analyze position 1 from the d4-knight-pattern perspective, in other words, in the long-term strategic sense.
Clearly, setting the d4-knight in the center greatly favors Black. Just imagine (if this knight were not killed) that almost all game White would suffer because Black would execute any plan (for example, the f7-f5 plan) freely and powerfully. So, White cannot stand this knight.
Leon understood this fact and tried to find a way to trade my d4-knight. He decided to do it immediately, at the cost of his beautiful e3-bishop. In general, Black does not object to such a trade, even at the cost of his e5-pawn, which is lost after Nc3-b5 (this actually happened – look at position 2; but more on that below). The reason is that Black gets good positional compensation for the loss of a pawn; his dark-squared bishop starts breathing fully.
So, I was not afraid of trading his e3-bishop for my d4-knight, and White should not make this trade. White needs to organize another trade – trading “a knight for a knight.” For this purpose, White may play Nc3-b5, and Black cannot support his d4-knight by c7-c5 because of losing the d6-pawn. So the move Nc3-b5 is possible. In conclusion of this paragraph, I reason that this is the only good move in position 1 satisfying the requirements mentioned above. Thus, if White, in position 1, does not play Nc3-b5 immediately, Black supports his d4-knight by c5-pawn (since Nc3 is not on b5). Then Black, having the d4-knight supported by e5 and c5-pawn, secures a good position in all variants of game development.
Playing 9…e7-e5, I understood all of this and was afraid only of 10. Nc3-b5, after which I would have traded my d4-knight either for the b5-knight or the e2-bishop (but not the more valuable e3-bishop!). I just hoped that Leon would not find this move. Luckily for me, my opponent at first traded his e3-bishop and only then played Nc3-b5. It resulted in position 2, which we are now going to discuss.
In addition to the fact that I was not afraid of losing my e5-pawn (which became the d4-pawn after the trade), I calculated two good moves in position 2. These moves are 11…d3 and 11…a6. Variants are simple. After 11…d3, Black trades his d4-pawn for the b2-pawn; for example: 11…d3 12. Bxd3 Bxb2 13. Rb1 Bg7, and Black is okay. After 11…a6, the variant is 11…a6 12. Nxd4 Qf6 13. Nb3 Qxb2, and Black is okay as well. So, taking into consideration the fact that trading the d4-knight for the e3-bishop generally favors Black (even at the cost of a pawn), in these variants, I would have gotten a very good position (and no pawns would be lost!).
But I chose the 11…c7-c6 move, sacrificing the d6-pawn. One of the reasons is that before playing d3-move (as in one of the two variants above), I wanted to deprive White of castling by giving a check with Qd8-a5. But I definitely messed up somewhere, which resulted in a position where Black is a pawn down (but with good compensation). The game went on as follows: Leon suddenly gave up the exchange, hoping to get the powerful d6-pawn, but did not handle it in his big time trouble. Yet, objectively, White’s position after sacrificing the exchange was lost anyway.
I am finishing my report. Its peculiarity is not in the concrete and tactical variants but rather in the strategic analysis and thinking over a concrete class of positions (here: the d4-knight pattern in the King’s Indian or Pirc’s defense openings). I have shown how White should proceed and confront this d4-knight. Main conclusions for White include the following facts: getting rid of a strong d4-knight is necessary; possible trading of the d4-knight but not for the e3-bishop (even with the win of a pawn) but for a less valuable piece.
I am not afraid of giving these conclusions to young players; I hope that next time they will be ready to fight more precisely, having learned many new chess facts. And that will make our games more interesting. Thank you for reading!
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 October 5. Enjoy and we hope to see you soon!
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