Author: Laurence Chen
Date: 17:08:21 12/10/02
Hope this position will help to clarify Space advantage
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 g6 4. d4 Bg7 5. h3 a6
6. Bf4 Nf6 7. e5 Ng8 8. Qd2 b5 9. Be2 h6 10. O-O-O e6
[d]rnbqk1nr/5pb1/p1p1p1pp/1p1pP3/3P1B2/2N2N1P/PPPQBPP1/2KR3R w kq - 0 10
Andy Soltis in his book, "The Art of Defence" comments as follows:
"It doesn't take long to conclude that White has a very strong game. He has
developed nearly all his pieces while Black's only developed piece, his king's
bishop, bites on granite. Black's queenside is full of holes on dark squares
and he has just locked in his queen's bishop. A quick mating attack is assured,
you might conclude. And you'd be right!"
What does your chess engine think about this position?
11. g4 Nd7 12. Bg3 Bf8
13. Rdf1 Nb6 14. Nd1 a5 15. Ne1 b4 16. Nd3 Nc4 17. Qe1 Qb6 18. b3 Qxd4 19. bxc4
Qa1+ 20. Kd2 dxc4 21. Nf4 Qxa2 22. Ke3 Bb7 23. Qd2 g5 24. Nh5 c3 25. Qd3 Rd8
26. Qe4 Bc5+ 27. Kf3 Rd4 28. Qe3 Qd5+ 0-1
Andy Soltis: "Yes, Black delivered the mate. And in less than 20 moves from the
diagram!"
Below is the complete game.
[Event "Latvian Championship"]
[Site "."]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Khliavin"]
[Black "Zhdanov"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B15"]
[Annotator ""]
[PlyCount ""]
[TimeControl ""]
{256MB, Elect2002.ctg} 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 g6 4. d4 Bg7 5. h3 a6
6. Bf4 Nf6 7. e5 Ng8 8. Qd2 b5 9. Be2 h6 10. O-O-O e6 11. g4 Nd7 12. Bg3 Bf8
13. Rdf1 Nb6 14. Nd1 a5 15. Ne1 b4 16. Nd3 Nc4 17. Qe1 Qb6 18. b3 Qxd4 19. bxc4
Qa1+ 20. Kd2 dxc4 21. Nf4 Qxa2 22. Ke3 Bb7 23. Qd2 g5 24. Nh5 c3 25. Qd3 Rd8
26. Qe4 Bc5+ 27. Kf3 Rd4 28. Qe3 Qd5+ 0-1
Here Black chooses to under-develop his pieces, and move some of his pieces back
to its original squares, and several times. This gave White a huge space
advantage, but such advantage was not good at all. Why? Because the pieces
which White had developed did not meet the demands of the pawn structure.
Hence, the space advantage was useless, it had no value. White's developed
pieces are unable to take advantage of his space advantage, therefore, White has
to loose Time re-developing his pieces. What good is to have an advantage which
cannot be exploited? Just because one has space advantage does not translate
into a winning advantage. Because Black pieces are back to its original
squares, Black is able to regroup and put his pieces in squares which are more
useful. Hope this position helps demystifying some ideas about Space as an
advantage. Look at the Modern Defence as an example where Black chooses
deliberately to have a space disavantage and allow White to build a huge space
advantage. These games are see-saw battles where White tries to mantain his
space advantage and Black tries to destroy it. See Gruenfeld Defence, too.
Regards,
Laurence
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