Vitolins-Rubinstein-Furman-Tal...the Bb5 Connection!
We have all played Bb5 at some point in our life.....it is such a great move! Probably the first time we see it and use it is when we see a game with the Ruy Lopez:
and of course, it is a very attractive move: it develops a piece and attacks the knight on c6, which is fighting for the centre. What a move!
There is a two-volume set titled: "The Life and Games of Akiva Rubinstein", by John Donaldson and Nikolai Minev. It is a great combination of biographical details and chess games, giving us a complete picture of this great player, one of the greatest of our era. Modern players are still benefiting from the ideas of this great Master.
Leafing through this book, as I often do with this one and others, the diagrams always catch my attention. I guess I follow Petrosian's method, which was to try to go from diagram to diagram without moving pieces, but moving them in your mind.
Recently, in one of my posts about Geller, I wrote about how, when he was Spassky's second for the 1972 Fischer-Spassky World Championship Match in Reykjavik, Geller had an antidote against a Bb5 move that Furman had essayed in 1970 vs. Geller against the Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky Variation of the Queen's gambit Declined with Black, which Spassky loved to play.
Here is the stem game:
So, what was the idea of Furman's Bb5? To induce Black to play ....a6, which would slightly weaken Black's Queenside. it is a deep positional idea, given the fact that the Tartakower Variation is quite solid, and usually enables Black to develop and equalize solidly.
Geller found a refutation against Furman's Bb5, and told Spassky about it, but Spassky did not want to use it when he had a chance to against Fischer. As a result, Spassky lost game no. 6 in that WC Match.....
Great, but what does this have to do with Rubinstein?
Well, the following game is on page 252 of the Donaldson/Minev book:
NOW we know where Furman got his idea from! Rubinstein aimed (and was successful in) to create weaknesses in Black's position by enticing Black to attack the bishop on b5.
Back to Geller. All great players study their losses, and learn from them. Geller found the refutation for Furman's Bb5; his loss to Furman two years earlier should have been used by Spassky, but it was not.
In 1973, one year after the Reykjavik match, Geller had his chance to use the refutation, in the following game against Timman:
All well and good, but what has all this to do with Alvis Vitolins? Well, he loved the move Bb5! There are one or two variations which bear his name, and both include the Bb5 move!
One of them is in the Scheveningen:
and the other is in the Dragon Variation:
Here is a sample game:
and another:
Now, Vitolins also had a Bb5 variation in the Richter-Rauzer Sicilian. Take a look!:
