Wednesday, August 2, 2017

牛角面包 (Croissant)

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Étienne Bacrot
50th International Chess Festival; Biel/Bienne, July 31, 2017
Spanish Game C65

Notes by 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán).

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 0-0 6. 0-0 d6 7. h3 Ne7 8. Re1 c6 9. Ba4 Ng6 10. d4 Bb6 11. Nbd2 Re8 12. Bc2 h6. Checking the database after the game I just realised Étienne had faced exactly the same position against Ponomariov in the 2013 GP, but that game came from an Italian Game.
13. a4 Bc7 14. Nf1! Right decision and I was hoping for ... d6-d5 here as any other moves will give White a typical comfortable position when the Knight goes to g3, so normally Black should be alert to catch the right moment to make some counterplay in the centre before White stabilises.
14. ... d5?! The most practical decision as any other moves will allow Nf1-g3 with comfortable play although still the position is still far from clear.
RR 14. ... Nh7 15. Ng3 Ng5 16. dxe5 Nxf3+ 17. Qxf3 Rxe5 18. Be3 Bb6 19. Rad1 Be6 20. Qe2 h5 21. Bxb6 ½ : ½ Kobalia – Alekseev, 17th Russian Team Chess Championship, Dagomys 2010.
15. Nxe5! 15. exd5 e4; 15. dxe5 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 dxe4 17. Qxd8 Bxd8 18. Rxe4 Bc7 both lines are making no difficulties for Black.
15. ... Nxe5. The most natural option but leads to a forced line which allows White great attacking chances. Here it is difficult for humans to accept an ugly Pawn chain: 15. ... dxe4 16. Nxg6 fxg6 but somehow things turns out to be quite different as the e4-Pawn is limiting White’s piece flexibility; in the meantime Black’s own development is coming: ... Bc8-f5, ... Qd8-d6, ... Ra8-d8 etc.
16. dxe5 Bxe5 17. f4 Bc7 18. e5 Ne4! Important! Otherwise White will easily exert pressure with the strong e5-Pawn. The position firstly looks pretty fine for Black to me as the light squares have been blocked; even after White wins an extra Pawn the weakness inside the White position will secure enough compensation for Black. So the only way to keep an advantage is to maintain the attack towards the King, but how can that be done without the light-squared Bishop?
19. Bxe4 dxe4


20. Qh5! This is the main idea of the whole plan, while exchanging on e5. Strangely enough the pair of Bishops simply cannot be powerful while the “obstacle” e4-Pawn is hanging here. The g3-square is an important square for both the Knight and the Rook. White should always be alert to some ... f7-f5/f7-f6 breakthrough which would solve Black’s problems at once.
RR 20. Qxd8 Bxd8 21. Rxe4 f6! is nothing special for White.
20. ... Be6 21. Ng3. The key point is to understand that preventing ... f7-f5/f7-f6 became crucial. 21. Be3 looks the most natural but will refuted by 21. ... f5! 22. Rad1 Qc8 no continuous attacks. 21. Rxe4 I did not consider this too much, but noticed a nice trick: 21. ... f6! successfully opens the position which activates the Bishop pair. (21. ... g6 22. Qxh6 Qd1 seems attractive but... 23. f5! Δ Re4-h4 White wins) 22. Ng3 Bd5 23. Re1 fxe5 24. fxe5 Qd7⯹.
21. ... Bb6+. 21. ... f6 now doesn’t work because of 22. Nxe4 fxe5 23. f5.
22. Be3. Another possibility that drew my attention is 22. Kh1?! Bf2 23. Rd1 Bxg3! the most direct way to refute the line: 24. Rxd8 Raxd8 25. Be3 Rd3⯹.
22. ... Qd3. Obviously the idea of the ... Bc7-b6 check is to break White’s attacking plan and make the game more concrete. 22. ... Qd2!? 23. Bxb6 (During the game I was planning to play 23. Qe2 converting into an endgame with an extra Pawn which is solid and better for White. The concrete line goes 23. ... Bxe3+ 24. Qxe3 Qxb2 25. Rab1 Qc2 26. f5 Bd5 27. e6!→) 23. ... axb6 24. Nxe4 Qxf4?! (somehow I missed the nice little trap, of course 24. ... Qxb2 is very dangerous for Black) 25. g3! (the Queen has been trapped!) 25. ... Qf5 26. Qxf5 Bxf5 27. Nd6 Material up, with accuracy White should win this but this is not relevant to us here.
23. Nf1! Another key move which I found when playing Nf1-g3 earlier. If 23. Qe2 tranposed to the variation of 22. ... Qd2, but here I already hoped for more then a better endgame!
23. ... Rad8 24. f5. Here I spent for quite some time trying to find the most accurate way as I felt it was the crucial moment. At first 24. Bxb6!? looked attractive to me, but later on I realised there was 24. ... axb6 25. Ne3 Kh7! — I gave this exclamatory mark during the game from my point of view (25. ... Bc8 the position will be vulnerable for Black as I slowly retreat the Queen by Ra1-d1, then f4-f5, Ne3-g4, Re1-e3-g3 and all the pieces are going to join the fight while there’s simply no counterplay for Black except taking the useless a4-Pawn) 26. Rad1 g6! 27. Qh4 Qxe3+ 28. Rxe3 Rxd1+ Although it might be theoretically winning, somehow I decided to avoid this technical position and went for another path.
24. ... Bb3 25. f6? A much tronger move is 25. e6! fxe6 26. f6 with a better version of the breakthrough Black’s Kingside compared to the game.
25. ... Qd5! Étienne calmly found the precise defensive way to come back to the fight.
26. Bxb6 axb6 27. fxg7. I was aming to go for 27. Qg4 g6 28. Rxe4 but just realised later that Black simply takes on e5: (28. Qxe4 will lead to a slightly better endgame but obviously not the thing I wanted when pushing f4-f5) 28. ... Rxe5 and in this position White is everywhere a short of being able to utilise the f6-Pawn to make threats.
27. ... Qxe5 28. Qxh6 Qxg7 29. Qh4


29. ... Rd3?! Such a weird position! All the White pieces except the Queen are on the back rank, but in the meantime if the Knight and Rooks join the game via the 3rd rank smoothly then the exposed Black King will be difficult to defend. Another important factor is the inactive b3-Bishop; if we look at it more deeply it’s doing nothing there if White tries to keep the e4-Pawn on the board.
29. ... Rd6 can be considered to be more accurate as it turns out later that defending along the 6th rank is the right path. 30. Re3 Rg6 31. Ng3 Re5 32. Rf1 White still keeps attacking chances according to the comparison of Knight vs. Bishop, but it’s far from a clear judgement.
30. Re3. 30. Ne3 is even stronger but the move I played is also practical.
30. ... Re6 31. Rae1!? Maintain the pressure again and not get lured to take the e4-Pawn. 31. Rxd3 exd3 32. Qd8+ Qf8 33. Qxd3 Qc5+ without the e4-Pawn Rook and Bishop have lines; even more is the wasted tempi let the Black Queen become powerful.
31. ... Rh6. It is difficult to suggest the best defence for Black. Clearly the main target will be exchanging Queens, so probably the first step is to bring the Bishop back to the centre which could avoid some tempi/checks via e4 in specific positions. 31. ... Bd5.
32. Qf4. RR White must not hurry to grab the Pawn, for after 32. Qxe4 Bd5! 33. Qg4 Qxg4 34. hxg4 Re6! Black, despite the minus Pawn, puts up a solid defence.
32. ... Rxh3? It is actually the last crucial moment where my opponent needs to search out more tasks for White by 32. ... Rf6 33. Qxe4! (33. Qb8+ Kh7 successfully depriving the Queen of coordination) 33. ... Bd5 34. Qe8+ Kh7 35. g4! White needs to find this move before 33. Qxe4 in order to keep a clear advantage.
33. Rxd3 Rxd3 34. Rxe4 Be6 35. Ne3. Finally this Knight comes back to a key role after 12 moves. It cuts the route of the d3-Rook and the connection of three pieces is unstoppable now.
35. ... Rd8? Finally the mistake under time pressue. A more stubborn try is 35. ... Rd7 but will run into a brilliant idea: 36. a5! (opening the a-file, at the same time making the c5-square available for White’s Queen whenever needed) 36. ... bxa5 37. Re5 Qh7 38. Rxa5+−.
36. Re5 1 : 0.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) milked the cow without any trouble. Photo © Biel Chess Festival.

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