Author: G. R. Morton
Date: 11:13:06 01/01/01
The following position occurred in Kramnik- Lutz, C., Germany 1994, after 17…Rc8. [D] 2rr2k1/pbp1qpp1/1p5p/n7/3P4/4PN2/PQ2BPPP/2R2RK1 w - - What make this position interesting are the striking comments of GM G. Kaidanov in his “The Kaidanov Report”, Sept. 1, 1994, who makes a lot of this position. He says not merely that the very non-obvious 18.h3! is the “best move” but that “most grandmasters will find it in a couple of minutes [Wow!] (this is what I did, when I looked at this game trying to guess Kramni’s moves).” He admits that it “sounds weird” to call 18. h3 ! (his !) the “best move” but goes on to say "I wonder when computers will be able to find it”. His fine explanation for h3! goes like this: black wants to play c5 now and white must conclude that he cannot prevent it. “OK, the next best possibility would be to improve the position of your pieces”. Its logical, he says, to play 18.Rfd1 so that after c5 white can open the file with 19.dxc5. “And 18.Rfd1 will be not a bad move. But the grandmaster can see a little bit further. He will calculate: ‘OK, 18.Rfd1 c5 19.dxc5 Rd1 20. Rd1 and now both 20…Qc5 or 20…Rc5 give black the comfortable equality. All right, in this line the position of my rook on d1 helps him to trade. What if I do nothing on the next move and my rook will be on f1? He will pay 18…c5 19.dc5 20. Rc5 Qc5 21. Rc1 and at least rooks are on the board, his queen is attacked and after it will move away it still will be my move again.” Now Kaidanov at this time was a recent Russian immigrant and strong GM cleaning up on the U.S. circuit and still has a rating of > 2600 so I can hardly presume to question him (although you might). I know of no software that will choose h3 here. After a couple of minutes or so (on a 550 Mhz PIII) Junior6a will go with 18.Rd1, Rebel10b likes Ne5, and Hiarcs7.1, Century 3, and Rebel Tiger 13 all like the plausible 18. Rc3 (all think the position more or less equal anyway). Anyone have a program that thinks the best is h3! ? Is this just too deep for computers yet? Comments?
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