1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 e6
3.Nc3
White can avoid the Nimzo-Indian
by playing 3 Nf3, but then Black can switch to the Queen’s Gambit (3
… d5) having avoided the critical lines of the exchange variation, or to
the Benoni (3 … c5) having avoided all the dangerous lines where White
plays an early f3 or f4.
3 … Bb5
4.e3
White has many alternatives here
of which 4.Qc2 and 4.Nf3 are the most frequently played. 4.Qc2
avoids getting doubled pawns, loses time. 4.Nf3 often leads to
doubled c-pawns, and an inflexible central pawn mass. The direct
4.a3 forces Black’s hand immediately at the cost of a tempo and a
weakened q-side. 4.f3 takes permanent control of e4, but loses
time and weakens the king-side. Spassky’s 4.Bg5 is more dynamic,
but currently unpopular. The black squares on the q-side become
weak in the bishop’s absence, and Black usually ends up having to
sacrifice a pawn to get some activity.
4 … c5
Now 5 Nf3 transposes back to the
main lines, but:
5.Ne2
This was the preference of
Rubinstein and Reshevsky, and they knew a thing or two about chess.
It is also playable against 4 … Nc6 and 4 … 0-0. Whatever the objective
strengths and weaknesses of the move it has the psychological merit of
crossing up Black’s plans. Black was probably looking forward to a
typical Nimzo game and now he gets no chance to double White’s c-pawn
and play one of the standard Nimzo plans.
5 … cxd4
6.exd4 d5
7.a3 Bxc3+
8.Nxc3 dxc4
9.Bxc4
Of course you can’t play this
line if you are afraid of an Isolated Queen’s Pawn.
9 … Nc6
10.Be3 0-0
11.0-0 b6
In this position my old book on
the Nimzo (Play the Nimzo-Indian by Gligoric, Pergamon 1985)
mentions only 12.Qd3, and awards it an exclamation mark. Gligoric quotes
Botvinnik – Tolush, Moscow 1965, which continued 12 … Bb7 13.Rad1 Ne7
14.Bg5 Ng6 15.f4! with a nice position for White (eventually won in 54
moves). But Black can do much better with Olafsson’s move 13 … h3!, as
played against Tigran Petrosian in the 1959 Candidates. That game
continued 14.Rfe1 Ne7 15.Bf4 Rc8 16.Be5 Nfd5 17.Nb5 Ba6 and Black was
fine. Almost 20 years later Korchnoi found an improvement in his 1978
match with Karpov: 14.f3! but after 14 … Ne7 15.Bf2 Nfd5 16.Ba2 Nf4
17.Qd2 Nfg6 18.Bb1 Qd7 19.h4 Rfd8 20.h5 Nf8 21.Bh4 f6 22.Ne4 Nd5 23.g4
Rac8 24.Bg3 White still had nothing special.
When I started looking at this
variation as a weapon against the Nimzo the move 12.Qd3 just felt wrong,
and looked awkward. Perhaps it is arrogant to question Botvinnik
and Gligoric’s judgement, but if you are going to play this game with
success you have to be able to trust your own judgement and ideas.
To me d3 just seems like the wrong square for the queen. It
constricts the c4-bishop, and will interfere with the action of a rook
at d1.
I would really like to put my
king’s bishop on d3, a rook on d1, and get my queen to h3. Then Black
would be unable to move his N at f6, and the attempt to prevent Bg5 with
h6 would create the possibility of Bxh6, stripping the black king of
cover.
The obvious first move of this
plan is 12.Qf3. Black’s replies are limited because of the attack
on the loose knight and the pin on the rook beyond. It looks as though
it might be dubious to put the queen on the diagonal that Black has
earmarked for his bishop and there is a risk of losing the d-pawn, but
20 minutes of analysis persuaded me that the idea was promising. A
further 10 minutes checking it out on a database was enough to convince
me to add it to my repertoire.
12.Qf3 Bb7
This is the obvious move, but the
untried 12 … Rb8 may be better.
13.Bd3 Qd7
The tactical point that makes
12.Qf3 playable is that 13 … Ne5? (or Nb4?) 14.Qxb7 Nxd3 fails to
15.Qa6! Nxb2 16.Qb5 trapping the reckless knight.
14.Qh3
Now my independent study of this
position suggested that 14 … Ne7 with the idea of Ng6 to block the b1-h7
diagonal is Black’s only chance against the simple threat of B-g5xf6,
and iwhen I checked out this line on a database it was indeed what Black
had played in every Grandmaster game where 12.Qf3 had been tried.
I was intending to answer 14 …
Ne7 with 15.Bg5 Ng6 16.Bxf6 gxf6 and now instead of the boring 17 Rad1
which most of the GMs played, I planned the much more interesting 17
d5!? as played by Vaganian against Arshak Petrosian in the 1982 Russian
championship.
That game continued: 17 … Bxd5
18.Rad1 Rad8 19.Be4! Qb7 20.Qf3! with an excellent game. Black
continued 20 … Kg7 but after 21.Bxd5 exd5 22.Nxd5 his position was
terrible. It may not be objectively lost but it is horrible to have to
defend such a mess in over the board play.
14 … Nxd4 ?!
But this is way too optimistic.
Black’s sense of danger should have warned him to look out for tactics
based on the activity of White’s pieces, and the passivity and loose
placement of his own.
15.Rad1
I believe Black’s best chance now
is 15 … Rfd8. White’s threat of 16 Bxd4 Qxd4 17 Bxh7+ Nxh7 18 Rxd4 Rxd4
doesn’t look convincing. The material imbalance is theoretically
in White’s favour, but I could not see any clear way for White to
improve his position. Perhaps a Karpov would know what to do here.
Transposing moves with 16 Bxh7+ Nxh7 17 Rxd4 gives Black the chance to
wrong with 17…Q moves 18.Rh4!, but with 17…Qxd4 18.Bxd4 Rxd4 it all
comes to the same thing. So after 15…Rfd1 I would have played
16.Bg5! with a strong attack.
Up to now I had deliberately
taken about 10 minutes over the opening, even though I could have
rattled off the moves in less than a minute. I didn’t want to alert my
opponent that this was all well known to me, nor did I want to reach a
position where I had to think for myself without my brain having warmed
up.
Now I had a feeling that Black
would not in fact play Rfd8, but that he had a different move in mind.
So as not to inadvertently tip him off with unconscious gestures or body
language I got up and took a walk around, looking at the other match
games. When I got back to the board he had in fact made the mistake I
had hoped for.
15 … e5 ??
You can understand Black’s
thinking here. White’s Queen is attacked so there is no time for either
Bg5 or Bxd4, and after 16 Qxd7 Nxd7 Black will hang on to his extra
pawn.
On the other hand, after three
straight losses you would have thought that Mark would credit me with
more sense than to blunder away an important pawn for nothing.
There is in fact a big tactical
hole in his idea.
16 Bxh7+ !
The knight at f6 was already
fully occupied guarding h7. Asking it to guard the queen as well was
just too much. Black looked shocked, then after about half a
minute staring at the board he extended his hand in resignation, “I
guess that’s it then?”
0-1
16…Nxh7 17.Qxd7; 16…Kh8 17.Bf5+
