More Jeremy Silman Imbalance application

Position Analysis of Rubinstein – Salwe 1908

5 step method to planning.

• List all the imbalances that exist or can be created for BOTH sides
• What side of the board should I play on? (this should be where I either have or can create a favorable imbalance – as a general default it is usually where you have or can gain the most space).
• Dream position – We create a position in our minds of where we like all our pieces or the piece needed to complete the improvement/use of a particular imbalance or combination of imbalances. DREAM BIG and then go back and figure out what is possible and what is too farfetched and then revise your dream position to one that is achievable.
• A) Figure out if the opponent can stop our plan with one or two moves. If they are able to stop our plan but it comes at a serious cost of creating new weaknesses, we can exploit then this shouldn’t deter us from our idea. The main way to determine if we should pursue a plan is if the opponent can easily stop us with moves that don’t hurt them. B) Figure out if the opponent can IGNORE our plan altogether and launch a stronger faster idea against us.
• CALCULATE AND EVALUATE – We list the moves in our current position that lead us to our dream position. We list them in order of what looks best naturally and through calculation and evaluation we come up with a final move to play now. If a particular move is time sensitive (meaning it can be stopped by the opponent if we don’t act now) then it should be moved to the front of our candidate move list.

• Bishops v. Knights – In this mostly open position Bishops should be superior to Knights – also with pawns on both sides of the board they should be favorable in endgames. Nc3 is slightly worse than Bishops. Some good potential future homes for this beast (in order or preference) are d6, c5, e5 and d4. C5 is reachable via a4, d4 is reachable after e3, Ne2-d4, unless we can get the move e4 in AND force Black to capture – getting into d6 doesn’t seem reasonable. E5 is nice but also taking AT LEAST 4 moves to reach. So c5 is likely the best home for this piece. Black’s Nf6 is also no better than a Bishop. C4 and e4 are most likely the best squares for this Knight. E4 is probably the most likely since it’s only one move away. Technically neither Bishop is bad because White doesn’t have center pawns. Bc1 is inactive. A good future home for this piece might be d4 or e5. This might encourage White to play b3 and Bb2 or ideas like Be3-d4 or Bf4-e5. White’s Bg2 is an active Bishop applying pressure on d5 but this is mostly a moot point while Black’s c6 pawn easily guards it but with possible ideas like e4 or undermining the c6 pawn (base pawn on a weak square on our half open c file) might also be possible so it seems well placed. Black’s Be7 is a “good” Bishop as Black’s center pawns are light squared however it is inactive. The best diagonal for this Bishop seems the a1-h8 diagonal and if Black’s Nf6 is indeed heading to e4 then that frees up the f6 square to it. The Bc8 is a “bad” Inactive Bishop. We probably don’t want to trade it without good reason because Bishops are superior in this position so squares like f5, a6 or g4 grant this Bishop mobility and pressure.
• Pawn Structure – White has two pawn islands and no weak pawns to target that well (perhaps b2 and e2 are the most vulnerable pawns but they aren’t really weak. White technically has a Kingside pawn majority but it doesn’t seem very useful. Black has three pawn islands. The isolated a7 pawn isn’t exactly a weakness because it doesn’t lie on an open file and it doesn’t seem that easy to assault. Perhaps with a White Bd4 it might come under some pressure. Black has HANGING PAWNS on c6 and d5. Black has Queenside pawn majority that is definitely more mobile that White’s Kingside majority but I don’t see any passed pawns being created soon. The hanging pawns are probably the most notable. We remember the “rules” of Hanging pawns. They grant their owner more space and control over key central squares and they are looking for a dynamic advance that will open the position favorably for Black’s pieces however if they can be made immobile by White and FROZEN on the same color then they will be fixed targets to be attacked. This lends the idea to White that freezing the squares c5 and d4 (which we already mentioned a Nc5 and Bd4 being good potential homes for these pieces) would aid in this endeavor.
• Material – is even
• Space – White has no space advantage but could try to create one on the Kingside by advancing pawns to e4 and f4. Black has the only notable space advantage in the center and Queenside because of the d5 pawn. Black should look to increase this advantage by pushing the c and d pawns and as a general rule avoid trading pieces with White and take away mobility from White’s pieces to cramp him. Because Black has center domination it tells White that he has an obligation to destroy it.
• King Safety – neither King seems in any real danger. Black’s King is in the center but can castle without obstacle in one move.
• Control of Key Files – White has half open c and d files. White doesn’t currently control them but according to strategy laid out by playing against hanging pawns – White would like to have Rooks on c1 and d1 to apply pressure to these pawns, keep them immobile and eventually destroy them. Black has half open b and e files, some control over b file because of Qb6. Neither side seems to have domination over any particular files. White can create new open files by play e4.
• Control of Weak Squares – White has one weak square on h3 that Bc8 is eyeballing but nothing seems too exploitable at the moment. Black could try to open a file by playing h5-h4 to access this square better if the position warrants. Black has weak squares on a6, a5, c6, c5 and d6. White cares mostly about the c5, c6 and d6 squares because they are on half open files. The c5 and c6 weaknesses probably are more important because we have more immediate access to them while Black’s d5 pawn blocks our d file’s access to d6.
• Development – neither side has an advantage in development
• Initiative – neither side has any immediate threats against the opponent but White can start an initiative with moves like Na4, Be3 and especially e4.

2) What side of the Board to play on. With half open c and d files, with prospective Nc5 and Bd4, ideas like e4, Rooks to c1 and d1 it seems clear that White’s play is mostly in the center and the Queenside mostly on the d and c files and possible the e file. Black’s main advantage is the center pawn structure and space granted by c6 and d5. Black should want to advance these and at the right moment advance so as to open lines favorably. This also rests in the Queenside and center. Black might also have additional play on b and e files. So, it seems that both sides will be contesting the Queenside and Center.

3) Dream position – Thanks to our detailed imbalance work it seems that White wants Nc5, Bd4, Rc1, Rd1, Hard to say where the Queen belongs but a4 putting pressure on c6 or b3 putting pressure on d5 seems ideal. In order to support the squares c5 and d4 it seems like White would like a pawn on b4 and e3. White may play for b5 or e4 to help destroy this center pawn structure. Black wants to have pawns on c4 and d4 to gain as much space as possible with hanging pawns and prepare to open the position at the right moment by playing d3 or c3. Black wants Ne4, Bf6, Ba6 (since f5 would be blocked by Ne4 but possibly f5 because it also adds more support to the Ne4 idea and also could aim to prevent white ideas of playing e4, it might also want Be6 to support c4 for the hanging pawns advancement. Black probably wants Rooks on c8 and d8 to support the advancement of the hanging pawns.

White’s ultimate dream position is:

We kind of had a hard time determining where the White Queen belongs – perhaps c2 is another good option for this queen to apply c file pressure and fight more quickly for control over c5 so we can get our Nc3 there and supports the possibility of playing e4.

Black’s ultimate dream position is:

We noticed right away that obviously the Ne4 is completely hanging so perhaps Black is best to swap it off and play to Ne4 before advancing the pawns to d4 and c4 or perhaps this Knight needs a new location all together. Maybe a square like Nb4, Nc5 or Ne5 would be best to help the advancement of these pawns.

4) Can the opponent prevent our ideas? For White it seems very unlikely that Rc1 and Rd1 are preventable. White will need to gain more access over c5 to plant a Knight there because Black has domination over that square. Be3 to d4 seems unstoppable because Black’s ability to play c5 is very unlikely considering the current pressure on d5 from Nc3, Bg2 and Qd1 but will that pressure still stay when the Knight attempts to get to c5? Qa4 also seems hard to stop with normal Black moves that he wishes to play. So overall this plan seems perfectly doable – the only question is how doable is Nc5.

Black will have no problem getting Rooks to c8 and d8, Ba6 or e6, castling, playing Bf6 however getting a Ne4 might be very challenging considering Black’s placement of pieces, getting it to b4 seems pretty farfetched but perhaps Nd7 to c5 or e5 might be the way to go however while it supports the pushing of these pawns a Nc5 blocks Qb6 and Rc8 and a Ne5 blocks Bf6. Also, the difficulty of advancing these hanging pawns clearly will come into question because White is directly playing against it.

• Calculation and Evaluation – Candidate moves for White – For White the candidate moves are: Qa4 or e2, Na4, Be3, b4, e3, a3. Normally we would show the lines of analysis but we were short on time.

In the end we decided that the move we would play is ------ unless Be3 is somehow tactically sound after Qxb2 we think that QC2 is the best move here.

Here is what happened in the actual game.

In the game 11.Na4! was the move chosen. The full game is listed below with complimentary annotations from Grandmaster Lasker

So we were correct about several things including the Na4-c5, Rac1, Be3 (although it did go to c5 to force an exchange of dark squared Bishops that really was effective in fighting for control over the d4 and c5 squares). We were wrong about thinking White should play e4 but correct in the placement of White's pawns. We didn't see ideas like Bf1 and targeting the a6 pawn.

Ultimately I think our assessment of the situation was quite good. I'm wondering if Black could have implemented the plan we suggested or if it was already too late.