Author: Peter McKenzie
Date: 23:27:57 04/02/01
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On April 02, 2001 at 16:07:12, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On April 02, 2001 at 15:50:24, Frank Quisinsky wrote: > >>Hi there, >> >>in the game Chess Tiger vs. The Web ... >>http://www.rebel.nl/gt2-web.htm >> >>the position is not easy for The Web. White have at the moment all important >>fields and black not a very good plan. So I think an idea is to play h5 later >>Ng8 - Ne7 to have here more possibiliys on the king side. >> >>We will see ... interesting ... ! >> >>Best >>Frank > >If white can't win with a king-side attack it is going to lose miserably in >the endgame. Well it seems that this comment has drawn alot of responses, so I thought I'd take a look at the position to see what all the fuss is about. Firstly concerning the alleged pawn weaknesses, I will list the 3 possible problems that I see here: 1) the hole on b3 2) the holes on h3 and h4 3) a possible over-extension with g4 These features in the pawn structure are interesting, but cannot be viewed in isolation. Here is my view on the general strategic nature of the position. Clearly white has a space advantage, and a useful space advantage it is because all pieces except queens are still on the board. This means that the side with less space will run into problems with pieces getting in the way of each other. We see this already with the Bd7 blocking any possible Nf6-d7 move and once the Bf8 develops to its only square (e7) then any regrouping involving Nc6-e7 becomes difficult. Also, the Bd7 is itself blocked by the e6 pawn and the N on c6. On the contrary, white's pieces have alot of scope and are not in each other's way. Also, white currently has enough pieces to guard the entry squares to the various holes mentioned above. If however one or two pairs of minor pieces were exchanged, then white would be alot more exposed to possible infiltration by black. In this sort of position, white's top priority should be to maintain a 'clamp' on black's position. That is white must prevent black from making freeing moves, especially exchanges. With this reasoning, the move 13.a3 seems very natural as it prevents black from playing the freeing Nb4 with a view to swapping his bad Bd7. I agree the hole on b3 is a concession by white, but the question is will black be able to exploit it? I think h4 is a less serious hole (since h4 is possible), but the g4 pawn could be a point of attack (via h5, or e5-e4) for black under the right conditions. If white can finish developing its pieces while maintaining the 'clamp', then black could very easily be slowly pushed off the board. No need for a crazy king-side attack, white should just develop its pieces and use the space advantage to out manouvre black. Of course black will be trying to free up his game by swapping off a piece or two and then getting into some of those weak squares ... should be an interesting struggle! So in conclusion I think Bob may have over simplified the issue a little, but I agree with his general direction (I think). cheers, Peter
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