Author: Amir Ban
Date: 04:14:11 08/30/98
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Here's my view of what happened in the first game Junior50 vs. Yudasin.
There were several critical points in this game, or perhaps 'points of interest'
is a better desciption. The first one concerns 13... a5. This move, which the
computer considered to give white a slight advantage, was actually played by the
GM quickly and naturally. I pointed out to him that Junior expected 13...Qd6 and
he appeared puzzled: "Qd6? What for?". "Well, to put a rook on d8, for example",
I suggested, but he didn't think this worth doing in this position.
The second point concerned 19.Rh5. The dialog surrounding this move showed me
again that we were talking different dialects. The GM was surprised by this
move, and thought for a long time, finally playing 19...g6 with comment that he
couldn't find anything wrong with it. What he meant was that unless there's a
clear tactical shot, he doesn't see the point of Rh5. Junior's view is that
provoking a move such as g6 is worth the displacement of the rook.
Later we discussed this position in detail. Yudasin thought that in this
position, black has a small advantage, and was interested to hear that the
computer thinks white has a small advantage. We worked out why we disagreed:
Yudasin, unlike the computer, thought white's weakness on a4 much more
significant than black's on b6, especially for the endgame, if black can keep
the bishop on. Junior considered black's king-side dark squares to be weakened
by g6. Yudasin considered this a "potential" but not an "actual" weakness, and
explained that it is difficult to evaluate those. (As a side note, although I
don't know if the GM agrees with me, it seems that this merely "potential"
weakness played a big part in this game, first in forcing black to exchange his
strong bishop for the knight, and later in forcing black to settle for a draw
because of his exposed king).
Another point of disagreement was the value of white's centre pawns. I explained
that the computer considers them as an asset. Yudasin said this: They are indeed
an asset and an attacking option when white has the initiative, but without the
initiative, they are a liability. As an illustration, he added a white bishop on
b2 and a black one on e7, and said this little change makes the pawns much more
valuable, because of the added threat in advances such as d5.
The game continuation was a nice demonstration of this point. With the white
initiative gone, black was able to fix the centre pawns and make them targets.
Junior soon realized it was losing a pawn, but never considered itself to be in
serious trouble because of the many counter-possibilities around the black king.
It showed a very small minus when playing 29.Re1, and a flat zero score on the
next move.
Both sides were aware of the coming draw for several moves, but for some reason
Yudasin did not want an agreed draw, and said that he wants to "demonstrate" it
for the sake of the spectators.
We got GM Boris Alterman's brief comments on the game: He disapproved of Rh5,
said that white had a space advantage but lost it by exchanging too many pieces.
He did not think white was in serious trouble and found the draw result natural.
Amir
[Event "ICC u 120 0 08/26/1998"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "1998.08.26"]
[Round "-"]
[White "*Junior50"]
[Black "*GMYudasin"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[ECO "A47"]
[NIC "QP.06"]
[LongECO "Queen's Indian defense"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 b6 3. e3 Bb7 4. c4 e6 5. Bd3 d5
6. b3 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 dxc4 8. bxc4 Bxd2+ 9. Nbxd2 c5 10. Nb3 cxd4
11. exd4 O-O 12. O-O Nc6 13. Re1 a5 14. a4 Nb4 15. Ne5 Nxd3
16. Qxd3 Nd7 17. Nd2 Nxe5 18. Rxe5 Qc7 19. Rh5 g6 20. Rh4 Rfd8
21. Rb1 Bc6 22. Ne4 Bxe4 23. Rxe4 Qc6 24. Qc2 Rac8 25. Rc1 f5
26. Rh4 g5 27. Rh5 Rxd4 28. Rxg5+ Kf8 29. Re1 Rxc4 30. Qb2 Rc3
31. g4 Qxa4 32. Qxb6 Qf4 33. h4 Rg3+ 34. fxg3 Qxg3+ 35. Kf1 Qh3+
36. Kg1 Qg3+ {Game drawn by mutual agreement} 1/2-1/2
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