I see this as an excellent example of advancing the Queen Pawn and it seems that it could have been stopped on move 16 with Nxc3
I am not sure how to paste the board and show you the progression ? Some help in this would be nice and so would a comment ... I think this is where Karpov could have saved the game and got a drawish position.
There would not be enough support from the white pieces to advance the Queen Pawn after this.
But .... I could have missed something ?
Cheers
Iain
Masteriain - I think if I were white I would respond
17. ... Nxc3
18. bxc3
This results in white's isolated pawn being supported. I also leaves white's "a" pawn being isolated and attacked by black's dark bishop. But, black cannot take it because his rook is under attack by white's dark bishop. This gives us
18. ... Re8
19. Pa4 ...
In other words, white doesn't have to agree to a six piece trade.
That all being said, however, I think you are correct with Nxc3. It would certainly change the play and look of the game. White's dark bishop can be removed from h6 either by forcing it to move or by a dark bishop trade. That would relieve a lot of pressure on black.
We'll use this new topic to continue our study of Marovic's "Understanding Pawn Play in Chess" book. This topic will cover Game 3, pgs 13-14 - A game between Vasily Smyslov and Anatoly Karpov from the 1971 USSR Championship, held in Leningrad. For those who are also members of chessgames.com and like to use their Guess-the-Move chess training tool (my favorite way to play through a game!), here's the direct link: Smyslov-Karpov, 1971. I'll post the game in the chess.com game previewer after some introductory comments, so as not to give away the moves for anyone who wants to play "Guess the Move".
In 1971. Anatoly Karpov, 20, is on his way to the world championship – which he wins four years later. But on his way he encounters a future predecessor. Vassily Smyslov, 50, was the seventh world champion. The key encounter results in an overwhelming victory for the older man.
Dennis Monokroussos writing for chessbase.com (on the Chessbase Playchess server) has this to say about the game:
"Back in 1971, Anatoly Karpov was a rapidly rising star, but no one thought the 20-year-old grandmaster would become world champion in just four more years. Vassily Smyslov, his 50-year-old opponent, was a former world champion and still one of the best players in the world. Neither was at his prime, but they were still very strong and this clash in the 39th Soviet Championship was intriguing and significant to the final standings. Although the title was won that year by Vladimir Savon in one of the great surprises in Soviet chess history, Smyslov had a fantastic result, going undefeated and tying for second with Mikhail Tal. Karpov was half a point behind Smyslov, finishing alone in fourth place, ahead of such luminaries as Stein, Bronstein, Polugaevsky, Taimanov and Geller in only his second shot at the national title. The event was a good sign for players: for Karpov, of his inevitable rise to the top, and for Smyslov, an indication that age was far from catching up with him. Indeed, 13 years later, at the age of 63, he would play Kasparov for the right to face Karpov for the world championship – an incredible achievement.
Turning from the broader picture to the game itself, which was won by the older man, we might think that the win came as the result of technical prowess. After all, Smyslov is known as a great endgame technician, and it’s what we would expect from an older player beating a youngster. That’s an understandable assumption, but a mistaken one. Smyslov is a fine attacking player, and especially adept at handling isolated queen pawn (IQP) structures. Karpov is completely overwhelmed by Smyslov in this game – strategically, tactically, every which way! It’s a tremendous performance by the 7th world champion, and one we can learn from in at least two ways. First, there are the general lessons of the IQP we can glean from the game. These are enduring ideas that show up in a wide range of openings, from the Caro-Kann to the Nimzo-Indian to a host of Queen’s Gambit lines. Second, there’s a nifty trap Karpov fell for – and that Smyslov failed to take advantage of! Remarkably, quite a number of strong players have fallen into this trap (and a few others with White have failed to take advantage), so this is something you can add to your own bag of tricks."
Enough of the preliminaries, on to the game:
As we've done before, feel free to comment on what you learn about pawn structures by playing through this game. I may add a quiz/puzzle from the game after my own run-through - or, feel free to challenge the group with your own puzzle from this game.