Nova Daily - 17 March 2025
Hi!
Let's start off with an unwanted accomplishment. I did it: I got my second unintentional self-inflicted injury of the month March. The count now stands at 2.
This time it's not a dish that I dropped, but I managed to cut myself while sanding a plank. I may wish to be a little more careful with myself. I only have one body, and it's the vessel that will take me to every place I'll ever be.
Fortunately, again, it's not exactly a deep gash. Just an inconvenience that looks worse than it is. And it could've been rather much worse, of course.
Much as I love writing small essays to begin my posts with these days, it's taking up a lot of time, and I feel that I've been neglecting my analyses because of this. So, without further ado, let's just laugh at my pains for another second and get down to business.
The game
In an interesting Karpov-variation of the English, my opponent allowed me to change the pawn structure a little bit. Although I got a pawn majority on the kingside, my opponent managed to take control over the d-file with a tactic I hadn't foreseen. I managed to reduce the damage to a minimum. In the rook endgame my opponent loosened up his kingside with 31...f5, which gave me the opportunity to become active with my rook. It was a tense battle between my e- and f-pawns and my opponent's pawn mass on the queenside. The constant threats against black's king helped me mount the initiative. I believe that I attacked the enemy queenside pawns at the right moment, so that I could deal with the threats there. In any case, the position was hard for my opponent to play, and in the end I was able to promote my pawn with a thematic rook sacrifice.
My thoughts:
Model games:
Marin suggests in the introduction chapter to the Karpov variation that if black doesn't commit to h6, white should use this time making the normal obligatory moves. 8.a3 is his recommendation, and also the most popular move. Ntirlis opts for 8.h3 in response to bishop moves into g4 and f5, but doesn't cover 7...Be6. The slightly less played 8.Bg5 is of approximately equal strength and scores about as well as 8.a3.
There is a case to be made about 8.e3: with the bishop on e6, white immediately threatens to win a piece. However, black is ready to lash out in the centre with 8...d5, and play could get very sharp in that case. With black having slightly more space in the centre and a reasonable development, it'd take a lot of effort to prove any advantage here.
So, I'll stick with 8.a3 and 8.Bg5 as the main moves, with 8.a3 allowing for the two main variations 8...a6 and 8...a5. A model game for each of them:
The analysis:
So, an anything but perfect game after all.
What can I take away from this game?
- 8.Bg5, 8.a3 and 8.e3 are all playable variations, but 8.a3 is simplest. 8.e3 is so complex that it's probably worth studying it in order to out-prepare opponents, but it's probably not worth bothering myself with this until I've gained enough experience with this line elseway.
- If white trades the bishop on c5, the reality is that black has the advantage. Black might have the more vulnerable pawn structure, but the activity provides more than enough dynamic compensation.
- Good calculation and a keen eye for details could be useful. 17.e3 was unnecessary; 25.Kg1 was unnecessary.
- Passed pawns should be pushed! There were several chances in the rook endgame in which pushing the e-pawn to e6 was the winning move.
