Carlsen–Karjakin – Game 5 with opposite coloured bishops

Karjakin’s d5-d4 pawn break in today’s game really reminded me of the move that I played almost 10 years ago in a position with similar material (bishops of opposite colour) and ideas:

Carlsen–Karjakin match, 2016 – Game 5
Karjakin played 42…d5-d4! with initiative

Jiganchine – Trotchanovich, Keres 2007
White to move.

I also analyzed this game in the book Spanish Opening - Strategy and Tactics, here is the full analysis:

Jiganchine, Roman - Trotchanovich, Pavel
Keres Memorial 2007   2007.05.20 , C80

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Nxe4 7. d4 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3

10. ... Nxb3?!

This is a positional mistake, as now White's control over d4 and c5 becomes very firm. Black instead had 3 main moves: 10... Bg4, 10... Be7, and 10... d4, the last of which was played in the Karpov-Korchnoi game.

11. Nxb3 Be7 12. Nfd4! Nxd4

( 12. ... Nxe5 is considered dangerous - Black is likely to lose material 13. Re1 Ng6 14. Nxe6 fxe6 15. Nd4 e5 16. Ne6 Qd7 17. Qxd5! Qxd5 18. Nxc7+ Kf7 19. Nxd5 +/- )

13. cxd4 O-O 14. Be3

White won the majority of the games that arrived at this position. Black's pieces are rather passive, and he has no compensation for the weaknesses along the 'c' file. However to exploit his position, White would have to build up pressure on both sides of the board and only then execute a breakthrough. His plan is roughly as follows:

1. establish a knight on 'c5' and control the 'c' file
2. advance pawns on the kingside and resolve the pawn structure there
3. activate the dark squared bishop to the a3-f8 diagonal
4. use the third rank for manoeuvres of heavy pieces and build pressure on both sides of the board
5. once Black pieces are tied up - either engineer a pawn break, or open a file and invade with heavy pieces.

Of course, depending on how the opponent acts, White would have to modify his plan accordingly.

14. ... Rc8

( 14. ... f6 was a bit more active, but did not fundamentally change the evaluation of the position. )

15. Rc1 c6 16. Nc5 Bxc5 17. Rxc5 a5 18. Qc2 Bd7 19. f4

Not only White is putting pressure on the queenside, but he also wants to advance with f4-f5-f6, so Black has to prevent that somehow.

19. ... f5

A committal move, as now the 'e' pawn will need to be continually watched by Black.

( Also possible was 19. ... g6 20. f5! Bxf5 21. Qd2 and White has great compensation for the sacrificed pawn, as Black's dark squares are very weak. 21. ... Qd7 22. Bh6 Rfe8 23. Bg5 h5 24. Bf6 Kh7 25. Qg5 a4 26. Rf4 a3 27. b3 and White can continue to build up pressure, with possible sacrifices either on 'f5' or on 'h5'. Black's position cannot be saved. )

20. Rf3 Qe7 21. Bd2 a4

Black has completely surrendered the dark squares, tying all hopes to passive defence. Such positions however are very unpleasant to defend as White can combine threats on both sides of the board. The game goes on for quite a while from here, but Black is always struggling due to the weaknesses of his position.

22. Bb4 Qf7 23. Rcc3 Rfe8 24. Rh3 Re6

Black manages to trade off one pair of rooks, which is probably to his advantage.

25. Rcg3 Rg6 26. Rxg6 Qxg6

Now my main risk is that Black will trade off the second rook the same way, so I tried to go back and forth, hoping to tie up the black rook to be guarding e6 or the a file.

27. Rg3 Qf7 28. Ra3

One of White's ideas is to play b2-b3, and invade on the 'a' file. This has to be timed very carefully, of course.

28. ... Qe8 29. Re3

( With his last move Black made sure that he is prepared to meet 29. b3 axb3 30. axb3 with 30. ... Ra8 )

29. ... Qe6 30. Qe2 Re8 31. Ra3 Ra8 32. h3 Qe8 33. Kh2 Be6 34. Rg3

With the queenside threats, White forced Black to put the rook to 'a8', and now Black is unable to quickly transfer the rook to g6.

34. ... Kh8 35. Bd6

White is preparing to play e5-e6 and Be5 with pressure on g7 at the right time.

35. ... Qf7 36. Rc3 Qe8 37. Qf2 Ra7 38. Qh4 Ra8 39. Rg3 Qf7 40. Rc3 Bd7 41. Qg5 Qg6

42. Qe7

( 42. Qxg6 hxg6 would only give small winning chances, for example - opposite colour bishop endgame has some promise if white brings king on b6 and takes on g7 with bishop, and creates passed pawn on kingside - but there is only a remote chance of that happening. )

42. ... Qe8 43. Qh4 Rc8 44. Rg3 Qf7 45. Qg5 Re8 46. b3

Going back to the idea of generating play on the queenside. It is essential in the Spanish opening to play on both sides of the board, especially if White wants to convert his spacial advantage into a win.

46. ... axb3 47. axb3

47. ... Kg8

( It would be logical for Black to take over the 'a' file, but then I was hoping to generate enough pressure on kingside: After 47. ... Ra8 there was a brilliant (but predictable ) sacrifice: 48. e6!! Bxe6 49. Be5 Rg8 ( 49. ... Ra7 50. Bxg7+ Qxg7 51. Qd8+ Bg8 52. Rxg7 Rxg7 53. Qf6 +- ) 50. h4!! and Black is completely helpless against h4-h5-h6 50. ... Qg6 ( 50. ... Bd7 51. h5 and Qg6 is no longer an option ) 51. Qxg6 hxg6 52. Rxg6 with double threat Rxe6 and Rh6 mate! 52. ... Kh7 53. Rxe6 +- )

48. b4 Kh8 49. Ra3 Qe6 50. Ra7 Kg8 51. h4 h6 52. Qg3 h5 53. Qg5 Qf7 54. Kh3 Kh7

55. Bc5 Re6

56. Kh2?!

( White was winning immediately after 56. Bf8! Qxf8 57. Rxd7 Rh6 58. g3 with zugzwang! 58. ... Rg6 59. Qxh5+ Rh6 60. Rf7! Rxh5 61. Rxf8 with a completely winning rook endgame for White. )

56. ... Re8

57. e6!?

White gives up the pawn to free up the e5 square for his bishop and to disrupt the coordination of the black pieces.

57. ... Qxe6

( 57. ... Rxe6? 58. Qd8 +- )

58. Qxh5+ Kg8 59. Qg5 Kh7 60. h5 Kh8 61. Rc7 Rc8 62. Ra7 Rg8

63. Qg6 Rc8?

( 63. ... Qe1! +/- was the best chance. )

64. Qxe6 Bxe6 65. Re7 Bg8 66. h6! Rd8

Black tries to prevent Bd6

( 66. ... gxh6? 67. Bd6 Bh7 68. Be5+ Kg8 69. Rg7+ Kf8 70. Rxh7 +- )

67. Rxg7 +-

With the king in the corner, Black clearly has no chance to save this endgame. Opposite colours of the bishops do not help Black because there are still rooks present on the board.

67. ... Bh7 68. Rc7 Rg8 69. Rxc6 Rg6

70. Rc8+ Bg8 71. Bf8 Re6 72. Rb8 Re4 73. Bg7+ Kh7 74. Be5 Be6 75. Rb6

It took a lot of moves for White to win the game, but the entire course of the game gave Black very little hope of escaping from the strategic bind.

1-0

Finding the only path to victory

Leonidov – Jiganchine, 1997 (variation from the game)
 Black to move

If you guessed the first few moves correctly, then there is another sequence of “only moves” that needs to be found:
Black to move
There are plenty of candidate moves to consider – …Rf2, Bxh3, Ng3, Nf4, etc, but only one leads to the win. Can you find it?
Interestingly, when I made a video about this game – I had thought that Black only has a draw here.

Where to Sacrifice the Knight?

DDT3000-JHamberg
White to move. Solution.
I played what seemed like an obvious sacrifice, but the computer found that in fact I made a wrong choice. What does your intuition suggest to you?

Finding The Winning Attacking Idea

In the following game, I could only find a draw in a position where a computer discovered that White was completely winning. Would you be able to figure out how to develop the initiative?
Jiganchine, Roman    --    Cao, Jason
BC ch 99th   2014.10.13     1/2-1/2     B92

White to move

38. Qh8+ 
( Instead correct was 38. Rd6+! f6 ( 38. ... Kh7 39. Qf5+ Kg7 40. Qg4 +- ) 39. Qf5 +- Bh4 40. Qf4+ Bg5 41. Qf3     surprisingly White's threats of Rd6-d8-h8 are completely dominating... )
38. ... Kg6 39. Qg8+ Kh6 40. Qh8+ Kg6 41. Qg8+ 1/2-1/2

Double Pawn Breakthrough for the Win

White to move

Hint: I went for the immediate e5-e6, but that would have not been sufficient if Black played carefully. White has to begin the combination with a preparatory sacrifice before going for the same idea.

Solution here: http://en.lichess.org/yWH53oBg#30

Poisoned pawn in a rapid game

PUUNTUUPPAAJA- DDT3000, 2015
Black just played b7-b5, setting up a trap.
Question: can White take on c6? Why not?

Basic Tactics in the opening

Here is a simple combination that I overlooked in one of my blitz games, but a computer was quick to point out when I ran the game through lichess blundercheck:

DDT-Michael-player, ICC 2015

 White to move (Black just weakened f7 square, so there should be a way to take advantage of that!)
Solution is here: http://en.lichess.org/CgQFr5pf#24

5 Passed pawns - part 2 – ghosts of Karjakin–Eljanov game 6

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme…  (Mark  Twain)

Interestingly the recent 5 passed pawns blog post came about from my internet game where the position was as follows:
DDT3000-hell, ICC 2015

I now realize this almost exactly mirrors the infamous Karjakin – Eljanov game 6 from round 6 of the Baku World Cup that was played only a couple of weeks before that:
Karjakin-Eljanov, 2015

If Black plays a6 and b5, the position is almost exactly the same, except that the queenside pawns are shifted 1 file to the right.

Karjakin-Eljanov, 2015 (analysis)

5 Passed Pawns

How often do you find a chess endgame with 5 passed pawns running up and down the board and most of them being on the verge of promotion? Both kings fight for stopping the pawns and also fall prey to random checks upon pawn promotion, as well as discovered checks of a lone black bishop that also tries to bring some method to this madness and support its own pawns while constraining the opponent’s passers …

An analysis of an ICC game led me down the odd path with this super sharp position being the culprit and Black’s defense relying on some study-like computer–style precision.

analsyis of DDT3000-hell, ICC 2015

8/8/2P3P1/8/P4p2/1kb2K1p/8/8 b - - 0 57

 Black to move and make a draw (the variations are not trivial for either side, so I suggest you analyse it for a few minutes to find the best moves)

Faulting Thinking - the Need to Consider All candidate Moves

Often a move that attacks a pawn, or encourages exchanges is the first one that comes to mind. In the following game - Black needed to consider all candidate moves and not go for the most straightforward one.

Tang, Edward    --    Jiganchine, Roman
Keres mem 39th   2014.05.19     1/2-1/2     D27

 Black to move.

30. ... Bd5

( 30. ... Bc6! -/+ left black with all advantages of his position )

31. Bxd5 Rxd5 32. Nb3 e5 33. dxe5 Nxe5 34. f4 Nc4 35. Ra1 Rd3 36. Nc5 Rxa3 37. Rxa3 Nxa3 38. Nxa6 Nc4 39. Nc7 Nxa5 1/2-1/2

Finding The Correct Positional plan - The Problem with Advancing Pawns

The downside of advancing pawns is that they cannot go back. If that means that an important rank is restricted for heavy pieces - an innocent pawn push can be a crucial mistake.
Jiganchine, Roman    --    Wu, Howard
BC ch 99th   2014.10.10     1/2-1/2     B67
 

 White to move

22. f4?!

This is a positional mistake after which White is struggling to come up with a helpful plan.

( 22. c3 would have kept better control over dark squares while keeping options open. )

22. ... g6 23. Qf2 Kd7 24. Rhf1 Kc7 25. g3 Kb8 26. Qd4 b4 27. Rd2 Rhc8 1/2-1/2

Missing the Obvious - Creating Passed Pawns in the Endgame

The following game illustrates how sometimes a player can fail to apply even the well known concepts if the situation on the board is obscuring them a little bit.

Lai, Peter    --    Jiganchine, Roman
Langley Open   2012.09.03     1/2-1/2     D27
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. O-O a6 7. a4 Nc6 8. Nc3 Be7 9. Qe2 cxd4 10. Rd1 O-O 11. exd4 Nd5 12. Bd3 Re8 13. Ne5 Nxe5 14. dxe5 Qa5 15. Ne4 Bd7 16. Bg5 Bxg5 17. Nxg5 h6 18. Bh7+ Kf8 19. Nf3 Bc6 20. Be4 Rad8 21. Qe1 Qxe1+ 22. Nxe1 Nb4 23. Bxc6 Nxc6 24. f4 Rd4 25. Rxd4 Nxd4 26. Kf2 Rc8 27. Ra3 Ke7 28. Rc3 Rxc3 29. bxc3 Nb3 30. Nd3 Kd7 31. Ke3 Kc6 32. Ke4 g6 33. Nb2

 Black to move

33. ... Kc5

 33. ... b5 34. axb5+ Kxb5  was an obvious way of trying to obtain a distant passed pawn in the knight endgame.

 Black has a nearly decisive advantage here because the 'a' pawn is hard for White to deal with.

34. Kd3 Na5 35. g3 h5 36. h3 Nc6 37. Nc4 b5 38. axb5 axb5 39. Nd6 Nd8 40. Ne4+ Kd5 41. Ng5 Kc5 42. g4 hxg4 43. hxg4 Kd5 44. Ne4 1/2-1/2

Missed Stalemate against Grandmaster

In this ICC game against a grandmaster Leonid Gofshtein I overlooked stalemate opportunity not once, but twice:

Black to move – find the drawing idea ...

Solution and full game: http://en.lichess.org/L6iS8rD7#65

Converting Extra Exchange - What is the Best Plan?

I played this game recently, and to my shame - lost the position with an extra exchange. What is the best plan to convert the material advantage? Is it possible to formulate it up front?

Jiganchine, Roman - Trotchanovich, Pavel, 2015.03.17 , C99

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 d6 9. c3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 cxd4 13. cxd4 Nc4 14. Nxc4 bxc4 15. Bd2 Rb8 16. Bc3 Nd7 17. Qe2 Bf6 18. Rad1 g6 19. Qe3 Bg7 20. Qg5 Re8 21. h4 Rb5 22. Qg3 ( 22. Ba4 exd4 23. Bxb5 dxc3 ~ was rejected because of memories of our last game that went bad for me where Pavel sacked an exchange and won against me )  22. ... d5 23. Ba4 dxe4 24. Nxe5 Nxe5 25. dxe5 Bxe5 26. Bxe5 Qxe5 27. Qxe5 Rbxe5 28. Bxe8 Rxe8 29. Rd4 Bb7 30. Rxc4 Bd5 31. Ra4  ( 31. Rd4 Bxa2 32. Rdxe4 Be6 )  31. ... Re6 32. b3 Kg7

White has a pure extra exchange, but the black pawn on e4 somewhat prevents the white rooks from getting activated, and converting the advantage unexpectedly proved a challenge. Coordinating the two white rooks while insisting on exchanging one of them must be the key to winning this position.

0-1

The Importance of Keeping Rooks behind Pawns

Haukenfrers - Jiganchine, 2004

 Black to move

The game ended with 1… b6?! 2. g4?? Rd4 –+

While researching for my recent book, I realized that White has good chances for a draw by playing 2.Kf2 followed by g3-g4, Rg1, etc. How could Black prevent this? I started thinking about whether starting with 1… Rd2 would be helpful, even though it seems like a potentially time wasting move. But after churning on this position overnight, FinalGen confirmed that this is the right approach – whatever it takes to not allow opponent’s rook to get behind the passed pawn! 

See my book for more examples of how computer-assisted analysis can confirm our ideas.

Knight Endgame Lesson - Back to the Basics

Reviewing your games with a strong human player is the best way to get a “second opinion” about your chess skills, much better than doing it with a computer engine. Here is one example that was shown to me, that illustrates the power of basic strategic components such as distant passed pawn in knight endgames.

Lai – Jiganchine, 2012
 Black to move. Find the best move/plan (feel free to post it in the comments section).
Hint: Black wants to a create a passed ‘a’ pawn.

Endgame Lesson–Bishops of Opposite Color

Cheng – Jiganchine, 2013 (analysis)
 Black to move. Find the best move/plan (feel free to post it in the comments section).
Hint: Black wants to a create a pair of connected passed pawns, such that they would be impossible to blockade with the white king and bishop.

Typical Idea in position with Isolated Pawn

Jiganchine – Baunok, 2000
 White to move

Watch the video for the solution:

Fighting for initiative - Multi-Purpose Move

Cabanas – Jiganchine, 2000
 White to Move
Find the strongest move, that serves multiple purposes:

1. Helps to transfer the White queen to the 'h' file
2. Threatens to open up the center
3. Threatens to support the g6 pawn with other pawns.

For the solution - watch the video.

Overlooked Queen Sacrifice

Angelwette – Jiganchine, 1998
Black played 31… cxd4 and after 32.Bh6 Qc5 – eventually Black won.
What did both players miss after 31… cxd4 ?