Grand Prix Analysis

Due to my affinity to the King's Gambit, I am also quite intrigued by the grand Prix attack against the dreaded Scicilian, my arch nemesis.

I have had many very nice games against the scicilian, but they are often long positional battles, requiring accurate and well-thought out strategy throughout the match.

Case in point - this latest 'long' live game win. I'd like to get some analysis please on what black did wrong/right, and likewise for white.

This battle boiled down to a positional endgame with knights, but the actual lead was seized much earlier:

I don't see any good continuation for white after 7... fxe6 and would therefore favour 6. a4. 10. Bg5? doesn't gain a tempo but instead looses a tempo (after 11... Qxe7 both dark squared bishops have left the board but black has gotten usefull Qe7 for free). I think 10. Nxd4 should be better and 12. Nxd4 as well - after all Qh4+ can be comfortably met by g3. I don't see anything wrong with 12... e5. True, it does weaken some light squares but protecting the extra central pawn should be more important.

I don't like 15... 0-0-0?! since blacks queenside is very loose. Therefore black should maybe rather castle short either immediately or after 15... h6. By the way I think black should be better around here not least because of his extra pawn. 21... d3? is very hard to understand since this pawn will probably just die here. Why not simply 21... dxc3 or perhaps 21... Nc6!? Later on 23... Ne3? also looks too adventurous. 25... Rf6?? is obviously a loosing mistake but even after the superior 25... Ng4 26. Rxd6 white's extra pawn and black's queenside weaknesses should quarantee white a significant advantage.

well thanks a lot for the thorough analysis, that was very helpful! Only, I don't think I see your point about losing a tempo - since black's move is essentially forced having his queen under attack. Though you are correct about the queen coming to e7, we should also factor in the gain for white by clearing out the queenside.

The reason I did not play Nxd4 in the game right away is because I was thinking about the classic fork on the e4 check (after having defended with g3, thereby creating a diagonal to my rook) - but I neglected my protecting knight on c3!!

Clearly a solid choice, therefore, was Nxd4.

Also you did confirm what I suspected about black's castling choice - he was on shaky ground.

But one last thing, am I to gather from your comments that, in your opinion, black was ahead absolutely, and thus I had no compensation for the material deficit?

10. Bg5 (white develops a bishop) Be7 (black also) 11. Bxe7 (white moves already developped piece second time) Qxe7 (black develops the Queen) - so technically speaking the whole operation costs white one tempo. Of course such tempo losses can sometimes be justified if for example you think that exchanging darksquared bishops is to your advantage but I would skip this operation here.

White might have some compensation for the pawn but I don't believe it's enough.  Black has a good control of the centre so it's not that easy to attack his weaknesses. Of course it's not decisive or anything like that but I would rather have black after 12... e5.

I don't think so either. Pesonaly I would still prefer 7... fxe6 if playing with relatively short timecontrols just for it's simplicity. Objectively 7... bxc4 must be even stronger though.

10... Qa5! is very nice find.

hi again -

Got another fresh game, this time a turned based one, which I found interesting, particularly from a tactics perspective.

It came down to a precipitated rook/knight endgame, after many strategical positional plays featuring good motifs (barricading pawns, outposting, restriction, etc).

I was happy with this win against a higher rated player, as I clearly outplayed him,  but I had hoped to gain some insights as to the soundness of the play in this game, also a Grand Prix attack :

There were some moves that I indicated doubt about, but overall I thought it was an interesting battle, highlighting the constant struggle between material vs position.

Analysis/comments would be appreciated.

Second game: to be honest, I think black is winning circa move 19.  Black is up two pawns and, to be honest, I don't buy too much into your notion of pawn weaknesses.  Yes, they exist but only as a side effect of black's material edge.  With this in mind, if the pressure were to get too hot, black could always just liquidate them and try to incite weaknesses in your own pawn structure. (For example, don't forget that you've got a sitting target yourself in the C2 pawn, restrained by black's D4.  Given enough time, black could easilly have tried to work up pressure agaisnt that pawn as well...)  Furthermore, I don't like your twenty first move at all: black responded by retreating the queen, a waste of time, but, instead, black could have pursued a safe advantage with Qd2!, trading off queens, taking away much of your attacking potential, and entering into an advantageous endgame (black has more material and better centralization).  In short, by that point, with accurate play, I think black wins this game.

I think your annotations are not very objective. You are far too optimistic in your evaluation of white position in first 20 moves or so. I would say that black held the advantage for most of the early part of the game until he threw it away on moves 25-32.

In particular, let's look at your comment on move 14. Black has no major pawn weaknesses: 1) b-pawn cannot be defined as bakward as it has not been fixed but can be moved forward at any moment if necessary; 2) d-pawn is isolated but apart from being an extra pawn it's not particulary weak and also helps black control some important central squares; 3) the doubled f-pawns are actually quite usefull here controlling centre and better protecting the king (also f5-pawn is an extra pawn). Your "commanding" e-file precence can be neutralized by Re8 when your Queen soon have to leave e-file. In short, white has no compensation whatsoever of his two pawn deficit.

If your are going to play Grand Prix with 2.f4, 2... d5 is the move you will probably most often meet. 3... Qxd5 and 4... Qd8 is playable but more often black will sac a pawn with Tal's 3... Nf6!? Actually white usually wants to avoid this possibility by playing first 2. Nc3 and only then 3. f4. I give an example line how play might proceed after Nf6:

Shakaali: on the variation you posted, I think that, to a certain extent, it is a bit misleading, at the end of that line, to speak in terms of compensation for the pawn.  White's advanced E Pawn will fall; it is completely untenable.  With this in mind, I think black is completely dominating at this point (material will shortly be even, but black has a much, much better pawn structure and better development).

That last post was most interesting... I'll have to explore that a bit I think..

I do have a few comments/questions more to ask after having quickly read through your helpful commnents, but I just wanted to say : Thanks! I find these discussions most insightful, and the criticism/analysis helps me to curb my otherwise "too optimistic"/too subjective nature :) 

Basically makes for more logical chess, but also to more, and new, inspired chess - which is the greatest of its varieties!

.. and which I endeavour to, with much, much help.

Thanks again, and please, don't hold back!

Gambitknight: even after the e-pawn falls white has an extra pawn. However, I tend to agree with you that black is better here. I only used that variation to illustrate blacks possibilities. I am sure white can play better but my general impression is that black has all the fun in this variation with 3... Nf6.

Fiveofswords: Nf3 seems to be very rare for some reason (maybe the white players want to actually try and win the game and thus keep the extra pawn). However, here is a game from database:

1-0 is by no means impossible. In fact, I could as easily have posted a game with such a result. Still, I doubt if white has any real hopes of an opening advantage here.