Unzicker – Fischer – Triumph of Black’s Strategy in Najdorf Sicilian

Unzicker – Fischer, 1962
Black to Move. Young Bobby Fischer has outplayed his opponent strategically. White’s king is weakened, the knight on ‘b3’ has no useful squares. However the "bad" bishop on g5 is placed not badly at all. Also Black’s rooks are very active. How to wrap up the game?

Too see the solution – watch the full game video from my youtube channel:

Play Like Vassily Ivanchuk – Exploiting Weakness of Dark Squares

Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the greatest players of our time, and in this position he found a way to increase his advantage against another great player.

Ivanchuk – Kortchnoi, 1994
 White to move. He has setup a nice blocked on Black’s center, but how to break through this wall of Black pawns?

See the entire game for the solution.

Hint: remember Bronstein’s explanation: the weakness of the dark squares is also the weakness of light squares because opponent’s pieces can occupy key dark squares and attack your pieces that are placed on light squares! This rule applies perfectly in this position.

Fischer’s Strategic Decision – Endgame masterpiece

Fischer – Euwe, 1960

White to move. Fischer’s move was based on the deep strategic understanding of the role of pieces in this position. He identified that among Black’s pieces, only one is serving a useful defensive purpose, and only one of White’s pieces has not yet joined the battle. As a result of this observation, Fischer immediately traded off that pair of pieces, that left Black pieces tied up, and his ‘a7’ pawn – even more vulnerable.

For the solution, and brief overview of the entire game (taken from the “Mastering the Endgame” book by Shereshevsky) - watch the YouTube video: