White-Square Crisis in the Queen's Indian and QGD, and Other Themes
Dear chess lovers, I start this blog post with a general reflection, on the difference between artists and pragmatists, between courage and excessive caution, between fear and a sense of adventure, between technique and creativity.
Let me give an example or two. Steinitz, aware that any pawn advances weakened squares, would sometimes adopt extremely passive positions, with the conviction that by NOT advancing, by NOT creating weaknesses as part of the advance, he was maintaining the strength of the position.
Chigorin, on the other hand, treasured piece activity as a necessary prelude to combinative play, as part of a successful attack! This brings us to a historic example between Chigorin and Steinitz.
Now, Karpov was also similar to Steinitz in his views. Karpov had great faith in his defensive capabilities, and rightfully so, because he always had great technique. But in Kasparov he met his match! Kasparov, like Chigorin and other Romantic players who regarded chess as an Art, valued piece activity above all!
The next example made a strong impression on me, and showed me the contrast between these to giants of the chessboard, Karpov and Kasparov!
Here is another example from Karpov's games. Geller (White) crushes Karpov's French Defense, with amazing piece activity! Comments by Geller!
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Regarding the title of this article, the seed that sprouted the impulse to write was planted in my mind by the following games. It is an accumulation of a motif, the struggles that Black faces in some variations of the Black side of a Queen's Indian. Now, at first sight, I was asking myself, how is it possible? Because Black's bishop goes to b7, and his pawns often go to e6 and d5, attacking white squares, so how can Black struggle on the white squares?
Ok, now we go into the games originally intended for this article. The first game, Petrosian-Smyslov, is from the 1961 USSR Championship, won by Petrosian. He had 9 wins and 1 loss (to Stein) and 9 draws.
This game we have with Petrosian's comments. It is found in Vol. I of "The Games of Tigran Petrosian", compiled by E. Shekhtman. This two-volume set is invaluable, if you want to know Petrosian's games in a deep way.
Game 1
The next game is significant from various angles. In 1971 Smyslov was 50; Karpov was 20.
If you did not know this, you would think Karpov was White and Smyslov was Black. Yet, what happened? Smyslov played with great energy, and showed Karpov some subtleties about this type of position.
Karpov in 1971 (Photo: Novosty Press; from Douglas Griffin on Twitter)
Vassily Smyslov (1921-2010)
Game 3
The third game is a spectacular win by Kasparov in his second WC Match against Karpov in 1985. It parallels Petrosian's win against Smyslov in then fact that White's Queen goes from a4 to g4 and lands the decisive blows on the Kingside!
Now, one interesting fact is that I cannot find this game (Game 11 from their 1985 WC Match) annotated in the "Kasparov on Kasparov" volumes! from the same match I find other games, but not this one.
Kasparov-Karpov, 1985
Now, our next game features a very strong GM, Rafael Vaganian.
Rafael Vaganian (1951- )
In 1969, he won with Black against Karpov from the Black side of an Alekhine Defense. The interesting thing is that he beat Karpov in positional style!
The next game is an act of wizardry by Vaganian! Karpov is feeling secure behind the wall of his Queen's Indian Defense. But Vagamnian has spotted some subtle tactical weaknesses in the Black position! let us take a look!
Game 5
Game 6
The next game is a Beliavsky masterpiece!
Game 7
Game 8
In our last game, Kamsky gives Karpov a lesson.....
Game 9
I hope you enjoy these games!
Addendum- April 2nd, 2021
Somehow the Smyslov Karpov game, with it's d-pawn going all the way to d7, and the Kasparov-Karpov game, with the White bishop at d5, remind me of the following game, where both themes happened!
Spassky-Petrosian WC Match 1969
