Falling into opponent's plan! Anand vs MVL and more....

Times Correspondent: "Why do good players lose?"

Answer (Tartakover): "The board is full of mistakes, waiting to be made" 

As the saying goes, good positions do not lead to a win, rather good moves lead to a win! To play good moves consistently is the supreme talent which only great players possess - you have only handful in the history of Chess! They too are not immune to mistakes....but commit them on very few occasions compared to others.

It is something similar to this assumption: if in Tennis or Shuttle Badminton or in Table Tennis, if a player is capable of putting the ball (or shuttle cock) into the other side of the net, successfully returning it, then he would never lose. It never happens!

So..... in Chess! Playing good moves consistently is almost imposible even for the greatest!

Then comes the most intriguing question, What is a good move? It is hard to define a good move as it is highly subjective. Suffice to say, a move is good if it sufficiently confuses your opponent and makes him lose track or creates enough doubt!

Vishy himself said in his book, Mind Master, "At the board, your job is to win. The process you follow to do this, the improvements you make, your consistency till the end ofthe game..... decides games for you."

One of the prime technique in chess, at various degrees, is to play into the hands of your opponent and falling into his or her plan! That way, you are assured of the path and the moves and you save time, but prior to that, you should have thoroughly worked out all the possibilities and seen through your opponents veil!

V.Anand - MVL, Global Chess League - 2023

Let us start from this position!

Black sacrificed a pawn in the opening and got the Bishop pair and some free space for operation, especially the half open c-file on which he can prospectively double his Rooks and attack the Queen side pawns.

16.f3!

Just to nullify any future action on that long diagonal and to limit the scope of that Bishop on b7.

16.....Qd7; 17.Qd2 Rc6 18.Qf2!

Anand is in no hurry and gets ready to play Re2 in the event of Black doubling his Rooks on the c-file. By and by, the move also has some pressure on the isolated d4 pawn and to the least tying down Black Queen to its defence.

Trying to play 'actively' with 18.c4?! would only play into Black hands after 18.....dc3 19.bc3 f5 20.Ng3 g6 followed by.....Bf6. When your opponent has the double Bishops, then do not open up the pawn position which will only become targets for the Bishops. 

18.....f5; 19.Ng3 Bh4

Perhaps, 19.....g6! and taking a simple course of action without trying to do something, is the best way to proceed! The Bishop pays high price for exerting some pressure sitting in the corner of the board. The corner squares are not best suited for Bishops and Knights.

20.Qd2 h6; 21.Qb4!

A fine move, which exploits the exposed King position on g8! MVL would have loved to have that King tucked in the corner, not allowing a check on the a2-g8 diagonal, but he was busy doing something and could not find time for that prophylactic King move.

21.....Rc5

Probably 21.....Rf7 coverig the check and defending the second rank may have been a better choice.

22.Re2 g5; 23.Be5!

And here comes our topical move - playing into Black's plan!

23......f4; 24.Bd4!!

'Falling into opponent's trap' willingly, especially when White has a decent choice in.... 24.Qd4!? Qd4 25.Bd4 fg3 26.Bc5 bc5 27.h3! with a nice advantage!

24......a5?

Black falls into his own trap! It is time to move on with 24.....fg3 25.Bc5 bc5 26.Qc5 gh2 and White does have an advantage but a lot of play left and Black can hope to equalise in the long run with precise play.

25.Qb3! Bd5

Such moves which counter attacks, especially a stronger piece like Queen, is generally over valued while calculating long variations! One can easily miss a little nuance, zwitschenzug that may be lurking somewhere in the line (as happened in this game)!

Hence, Larsen once quipped, "Long variations, wrong variations"! 

26.c4! Bc4; 27.Qc3!!

..... and this move, almost decides the game in White's favour! 

27.....Rd5; 28.Bf6! 

One of my student suggested 28.Re4!? here and if .....Ba6 29.Nh5!?

Vishy's move is crushing and Black is forced to part with his Queen for the Windmil that follows and subsequently the game. The reminder of the game, I just give the moves. White's pieces coordinated so nicely that it did not need the Rook which was sleeping on a1! It finally makes a guest appearance in the game on move 40!

28.....fg3; 29.Re7 Qd6; 30.Rg7 Kh8; 31.Rf7 Kg8; 32.Rg7 Kh8; 33.Rf7 Kg8; 34.Be7! gh2; 35.Kh1 Rf7; 36.Bd6 Rd6; 37.Qc4 Bg3; 38.Qg4! Bf4; 39.g3 Be5; 40.Re1! Bb2; 41.Re6 Rd3; 42.Rh6 Rdf3; 43.Qg5 Bg7; 44.Rb6 Rf2; 45.Rb8 Kh7; 46.Qh4 Kg6; 47.Qe4 R7f5; 48.Rb6 Resigned

MVL could have sparred himself of atleast 10 moves.....

"Even at the highest level there is an effort of concentration constantly in action, often unconsciously in action. The apparently timeless vision conceals a struggle in time. Moreover, the purpose of the game involves struggle, and the conquest of the material by the mind is struggle, as Lasker pointed out. The endeavour by the players, each to achieve control by means that vision reveals, is, in reality, a struggle by each mind against its own limitations. Always the Chess player is playing against himself" - Gerald Abrahams

And its this limitation that each mind struggles with, is the chief reason which ensured that Chess survided despite some bleak prognosis by Capablanca, a century back and will survive despite the over exploitation of its wealth now by engines!

Jobava - Ponomariov, Olympiad, Baku - 2016

15.Nf5! 

Jobava falls into Black's plan of getting White's rook trapped!

15.....Bf8 fails to 16.Nh6! gh6 17.Bh6 (17.....Bh6? 18.Qh6 Qd8 19.Re3) Qd8 18.Qg5 Kh8 19.Bf8 Qf8 20.Qf6 with advantage

 15.....ef5; 16.Re7! Be6; 17.Bh6!!

This move deserves a diagram!

Probably this move came as a shock to Ponomariov. There is a long analysis to salvage the position a bit, but I am not going to go into it. The point of the matter is, when one is engrossed in a line of action, especially during a tactical skirmish, unless they decondition their thought process there is a danger of getting self inflicted by the very same process.

But these days, do you have time in the sort of time controls that are in vogue, to put yourself in opponents place and have a look at the variation that you propose to play in a critical manner!? That may perhaps eliminate this falling into your own trap!

17.....gh6; 18.Qh6 Rc3; 19.Qg5! Kf8; 20.Qf6 

The Rook sits prettily on e7 and is taboo, as capture by Queen through Qd8-e7 results in Qh8 mate! Meanwhile, White is intending to play the other Rook to e1 and capture on e6.

20.....Rd3; 21.cd3!!

This move defines the state of Black's position

21....Nc6 22.Re6 Resigned

Ponomariov collapsed quickly and never recovered from the shock of 17.Bh6!!

Hug - Kortschnoi, Switzerland, 1978

White should have played 17.Ne4 Bc6; 18.Qb3 and maintained equilibrium, instead of 17.Qb3?!

17.....b4!

Kortschnoi willingly enters into the variation where White was planning to exploit the undefended Bishop on e7!

18.Ne4?

Instead, White should have played eithr 18.Nb1 or 18.Bf6

18.....Ne4; 19.Be7 Rc1; 20.Rc1 Qf2; 21.Kh1 Rc8; 22.Qd1

If 22.Rd1 Nd2 23.Qd3 Nf1! 24.Bg2 Ne3

or if 22.Rc8 Bc8 23.Qd1 Qf3! 24.ef3 Nf2

22.....Rc1; 23.Qc1 Bc6!! 24.Bb4 Qe2!! White Resigned

The final position deserves a diagram as Black pieces are all enprise!

There are many examples and it will be never ending. Next time when you go through a tactical skirmish, look for this aspect of "falling into opponents plan"!

I Remain