Who said you should never castle!? - Round 3 of Aeroflot
Delaying castling is a strategy....but denying obstinately is a crime and we shall see two such examples from round - 3 of Aeroflot!
Anton Demchenko - Boris Gelfand; Aeroflot, 2016
Gelfand just completed his development and is ready for castling, if he finds no other useful moves to be done near the center. The fact that White has advanced his Kingside pawns, will not forestall castling on that side and if somebody is afraid, then they won't be playing sicilian!
Only that care should be taken not to touch any of those pawns on the Kingside.....unless it is absolutely forced.
White on the other hand is yet to find a suitable place for his f1-Bishop. It usually lands on e2 or d3 or h3....but none of these is a possibility here.
Hence he should have just exchanged the Knights on c6 now and castled long and then tried to solve the problem of developing this Bishop to an appropriate square, conducting the attack on Black King and fortifying his own King cover on the queenside. Black cannot delay the castling for long and the game would have taken its own course.
But....
13.Rh3?!
A strange way to bring this Rook into action and as we can see, it just acted as a precursor to further listless play on which Black thrived.
13.....b4! 14,ab4 Nb4; 15.Nce2?
This Knight has no business to leave the c3 square and give-up the control of vital 'd5' and 'e4' squares.
15.....a5! 16.c3 Nc6; 17.Nb5 Nc5; 18.Bc5?!
An unfortunate necessity, after having commenced play in such a way. A clear admission that White did not (not "is not") playing for initiative, in the first place!
18....dc5; 19.Rd3 Qb6; 20.Nd6 Bd6; 21.Rd6 OO! 22.f4 Rcd8; 23.Rd8?
Another bad move. At least, 23.e5 would have pretended to make some sense to what has been undertaken by White so far!
23......Rd8; 24.Qc2 c4; 25.Rd1? Rd1; 26.Qd1
Unfortunate necessity, as 26.Kd1 loses the Bishop on f1 to 26.....Qf2!
It can be conveniently written, here....as the cliche goes...."rest is a matter of routine technique"! The a-pawn marches on, majestically!
26.....Qb2; 27.Qd7 Kf8; 28.Qc7 a4; 29.f5 ef5; 30.ef5 a3; 31.Qd6 Ke8; 32.Bg2 Qb1; 33.Kf2 Qf5; 34.Ke1 Qb1; 35.Kf2 Qb6; 36.Nd4 a2; 37.Bc6 Bc6; 38.Qa3 Qc7! 39.Nc6 Qf4!
No harm in giving few checks and picking up a pawn or two before entering the Queen ending. Care to be taken only to not allow the only threat that White had in this entire game.....mate on e7!
40.Ke2 Qe4; 41.Kf2 Qh4; 42.Kf3 Qh1; 43.Kf4 Qc6; 44.Qa2 h6!
Two pawns up is more than enough.....Black's c-pawn is more precious than that lone shivering deer standing in front of three hunters!
45.gh6 Qh6; 46.Ke4 Qe6; 47.Kd4 g5 0 - 1
Gelfand just had a stroll in the park!
Alexander Moiseenko - Mikhail Antipov, Aeroflot - 2016
In classical chess, the pawns were dealt with great reverence and touched only when it had to be! Handling pawn pushes along with its exchanges - and the act of leaving it untouched - is an art in itself!
Black's last move 7.....a5 is just a pretense...perhaps, it intends to stem the push b2-b4 which has happened in this opening on occasions; but that can't be a justification!
White should just ignore it and carry on with his work, first by castling short, look forward to what Black does and then decide on constructing a valid central formation and then deciding a place and diagonal for the c1-Bishop....which again is a subject on its own! The c1 and c8 Bishops may already be developed even without moving an inch, on many occasions; and moreover, trying to develop them compulsively may just interfere with your plan of action!
Instead, he started dealing ....a5 with contempt and continued.....
8.Qc2 Nc6; 9.b3?! Nh5; 10.Bb2 Nf4!
Why not!?
11.Bf1 e5! 12.d5 Nb8; 13.h4?
Just ends up weakening his Kingside....probably the Russian Grandmaster is not in form.
13.....Nh5; 14.g3 c6; 15.Be2?! Nf6; 16.Rd1 Na6; 17.Nh2 cd5! 18.ed5 Bh3! 19.Qc3 Qd7; 20.Rg1 Ng4; 21.Ng4 Bg4; 22.f3 Bh5; 23.Qa5? Nc5; 24.Qc3 f5! 25.Rh1 Bf6; 26.Qe3 Rae8; 27.b4 e4!
This opens up the Center, Queen and King and ends the matter!
28.fe4 Ne4; 29.Bh5 Nd2; 30.Be8 Re8; 31.Kd2 Re3; 32.Bf6 Ra3; 33.Bc3 Ra2; 34.Kd3 f4; 35.gf4 Qf5; 36.Ke3 Qc2; 0 - 1
A game which does not deserve writing about....but only for.....as Znosko Borowsky would have said...."How not to play chess"!!
There were few other games too, in the above theme....two of them were quick miniatures....befitting the play; and which just needs a passing mention..... Debashis Das - Vitaly Kunin and Kirill Alekseenko - Vladimir Fedoseev
In both these cases, White played as though Black player did not existed and got justly punished quickly.....by the Black pieces!! Certainly not the way to play chess....you may want to play chess like Tal or Bronstein...but primarily one needs to try to understand the way they understood chess, before attempting to play like them!
Not a great day from the creative angle!
Anton Demchenko - Boris Gelfand; Aeroflot, 2016
Gelfand just completed his development and is ready for castling, if he finds no other useful moves to be done near the center. The fact that White has advanced his Kingside pawns, will not forestall castling on that side and if somebody is afraid, then they won't be playing sicilian!
Only that care should be taken not to touch any of those pawns on the Kingside.....unless it is absolutely forced.
White on the other hand is yet to find a suitable place for his f1-Bishop. It usually lands on e2 or d3 or h3....but none of these is a possibility here.
Hence he should have just exchanged the Knights on c6 now and castled long and then tried to solve the problem of developing this Bishop to an appropriate square, conducting the attack on Black King and fortifying his own King cover on the queenside. Black cannot delay the castling for long and the game would have taken its own course.
But....
13.Rh3?!
A strange way to bring this Rook into action and as we can see, it just acted as a precursor to further listless play on which Black thrived.
13.....b4! 14,ab4 Nb4; 15.Nce2?
This Knight has no business to leave the c3 square and give-up the control of vital 'd5' and 'e4' squares.
15.....a5! 16.c3 Nc6; 17.Nb5 Nc5; 18.Bc5?!
An unfortunate necessity, after having commenced play in such a way. A clear admission that White did not (not "is not") playing for initiative, in the first place!
18....dc5; 19.Rd3 Qb6; 20.Nd6 Bd6; 21.Rd6 OO! 22.f4 Rcd8; 23.Rd8?
Another bad move. At least, 23.e5 would have pretended to make some sense to what has been undertaken by White so far!
23......Rd8; 24.Qc2 c4; 25.Rd1? Rd1; 26.Qd1
Unfortunate necessity, as 26.Kd1 loses the Bishop on f1 to 26.....Qf2!
It can be conveniently written, here....as the cliche goes...."rest is a matter of routine technique"! The a-pawn marches on, majestically!
26.....Qb2; 27.Qd7 Kf8; 28.Qc7 a4; 29.f5 ef5; 30.ef5 a3; 31.Qd6 Ke8; 32.Bg2 Qb1; 33.Kf2 Qf5; 34.Ke1 Qb1; 35.Kf2 Qb6; 36.Nd4 a2; 37.Bc6 Bc6; 38.Qa3 Qc7! 39.Nc6 Qf4!
No harm in giving few checks and picking up a pawn or two before entering the Queen ending. Care to be taken only to not allow the only threat that White had in this entire game.....mate on e7!
40.Ke2 Qe4; 41.Kf2 Qh4; 42.Kf3 Qh1; 43.Kf4 Qc6; 44.Qa2 h6!
Two pawns up is more than enough.....Black's c-pawn is more precious than that lone shivering deer standing in front of three hunters!
45.gh6 Qh6; 46.Ke4 Qe6; 47.Kd4 g5 0 - 1
Gelfand just had a stroll in the park!
Alexander Moiseenko - Mikhail Antipov, Aeroflot - 2016
In classical chess, the pawns were dealt with great reverence and touched only when it had to be! Handling pawn pushes along with its exchanges - and the act of leaving it untouched - is an art in itself!
Black's last move 7.....a5 is just a pretense...perhaps, it intends to stem the push b2-b4 which has happened in this opening on occasions; but that can't be a justification!
White should just ignore it and carry on with his work, first by castling short, look forward to what Black does and then decide on constructing a valid central formation and then deciding a place and diagonal for the c1-Bishop....which again is a subject on its own! The c1 and c8 Bishops may already be developed even without moving an inch, on many occasions; and moreover, trying to develop them compulsively may just interfere with your plan of action!
Instead, he started dealing ....a5 with contempt and continued.....
8.Qc2 Nc6; 9.b3?! Nh5; 10.Bb2 Nf4!
Why not!?
11.Bf1 e5! 12.d5 Nb8; 13.h4?
Just ends up weakening his Kingside....probably the Russian Grandmaster is not in form.
13.....Nh5; 14.g3 c6; 15.Be2?! Nf6; 16.Rd1 Na6; 17.Nh2 cd5! 18.ed5 Bh3! 19.Qc3 Qd7; 20.Rg1 Ng4; 21.Ng4 Bg4; 22.f3 Bh5; 23.Qa5? Nc5; 24.Qc3 f5! 25.Rh1 Bf6; 26.Qe3 Rae8; 27.b4 e4!
This opens up the Center, Queen and King and ends the matter!
28.fe4 Ne4; 29.Bh5 Nd2; 30.Be8 Re8; 31.Kd2 Re3; 32.Bf6 Ra3; 33.Bc3 Ra2; 34.Kd3 f4; 35.gf4 Qf5; 36.Ke3 Qc2; 0 - 1
A game which does not deserve writing about....but only for.....as Znosko Borowsky would have said...."How not to play chess"!!
There were few other games too, in the above theme....two of them were quick miniatures....befitting the play; and which just needs a passing mention..... Debashis Das - Vitaly Kunin and Kirill Alekseenko - Vladimir Fedoseev
In both these cases, White played as though Black player did not existed and got justly punished quickly.....by the Black pieces!! Certainly not the way to play chess....you may want to play chess like Tal or Bronstein...but primarily one needs to try to understand the way they understood chess, before attempting to play like them!
Not a great day from the creative angle!
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