NIC: Sadler on books and Botvinnik

by New In Chess
3/8/2019 – Courtesy our friends at New in Chess: GM MATTHEW SADLER gives his assessment of ChessBase's tenth volume in the Master Class series on the sixth World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Sadler annotates Botvinnik's win in an English Opening over Bent Larsen and concludes this Master Class makes for "a very interesting and entertaining DVD!"
Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion

Not a bad time to be reading chess books

As I was watching Magnus ­Carlsen’s adventures during the first two days of the World Rapid in St. Petersburg, I realized once again how nice and safe normal life is! While the best player in the world was losing his first two games and venturing 1.e4 e5 2.♕h5, work was finished for me for the year, and my most challenging puzzle was working out how many kilometres I needed to run in order to work off the calories from my mum’s Christmas cooking (52, in case you’re wondering!). However, since the exercise regime would have to wait until I could physically move again, it was not a bad time to be reading chess books, with a glass of port and a mince pie or two of course.

Master Class 10I’d like to start with the ChessBase DVD Master Class Vol.10: Mikhail Botvinnik by Dr. Karsten Müller, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Yannick Pelletier. I’ve reviewed DVDs from this series very positively over the past couple of years and this DVD keeps up the high standard. Four authors examine different facets of Botvinnik’s play: the opening is covered by Yannick Pelletier, Mihail Marin analyses the distinguishing features of Botvinnik’s middlegame play, while — as always in this series — Dr. Karsten Müller takes care of the endgames and Oliver Reeh presents the best tactics. I can’t think of an easier way to get a feel for the play of a great player than these DVDs: ideal training material for both young and old alike.

From my perspective, the most interesting part of the DVD is the middlegame part, which, as always, is excellently presented by Mihail Marin. Marin typifies Botvinnik’s style as ‘positional-aggressive’: a player who conducted the game primarily according to strategical considerations but who was able to act with great power once he felt that all the necessary conditions for realising his advantage were present. ‘All the necessary conditions’ is the key part of that last sentence. Marin demonstrates some examples in which Botvinnik preferred to maintain or increase his advantage by strategic means rather than exploit a tactical opportunity that seemed uncertain to him (even if the tactical solution was objectively better and even if he saw quite a few elements of the tactical solution).

Take a look at this example:

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,190,34853%2421---
1.d4962,82655%2433---
1.Nf3287,81656%2440---
1.c4185,72556%2442---
1.g319,93156%2427---
1.b314,66154%2429---
1.f45,97748%2376---
1.Nc33,94350%2383---
1.b41,79648%2378---
1.a31,25854%2406---
1.e31,08449%2409---
1.d396950%2378---
1.g467046%2361---
1.h446954%2381---
1.c344251%2424---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a412060%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39366%2506---
1.Na34762%2476---
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.b3 c5 7.Bb2 Nc6 8.e3 b6 9.Nc3 Bb7 10.d3 Rc8 11.Rc1 Rc7 12.Qe2 Rd7 13.Rfd1 Re8 Here Botvinnik spotted a method to change the pawn structure in his favour, exploiting Black's temporarily awkward major pieces, particularly the queen on d8 and the rook on d7. 14.cxd5 Nxd5 14...exd5 15.Bh3 Rc7 16.Nb5 wins the exchange. 15.Nxd5 Rxd5 15...exd5 16.d4 leads to a pleasant hanging pawns structure for White. Larsen avoids changing the pawn structure radically, but the awkward position of the rook on d5 gives White a large number of attacking tempi. 16.d4 Qa8 17.dxc5 Seemingly the prelude to dull exchanges, but this is anything but the case! Rxd1+ 18.Rxd1 Bxc5 19.Ng5 Threatening 20.Qh5 or 20.Qc2. h6 20.Ne4 As Marin points out, this is the first time that Botvinnik rejects a tactical solution to the position, preferring a very strong positional idea instead. He could have played 20.Nxf7 Kxf7 21.Qg4 Bf8 , and now the very strong idea 22.Be4 threatening 23. Qg6+. The key point is that Black cannot bring the knight closer to the kingside: Ne7 22...Qc8 23.Qg6+ Kg8 24.Qh7+ Kf7 25.Bg6+ Ke7 26.Bxg7 and wins 23.Qf3+ picks up the bishop on b7. 20...Bf8 21.Rd7 The second time that Botvinnik could have calculated a tactical solution to the position. However, the move played is again an extremely strong positional move, establishing the rook on the seventh rank and asking Black to take ever more desperate measures to counter White's renewed threat of 21.Nf6+ . Here the tactical solution was 21.Nf6+ gxf6 22.Qg4+ Kh7 23.Be4+ f5 24.Bxf5+ exf5 25.Qxf5+ Kg8 26.Qg4+ 26.Qf6 Ne5 26...Kh7 27.Rd7 , with the key idea Ne7 28.Rxe7 Rxe7 29.Qf5+ Kg8 30.Qf6 Kh7 31.g4 followed by 32.Qh8+ and 33.Qg8 mate. 21...f5 22.Nd6 Bxd6 23.Rxd6 Marin shows that this is the third moment that Botvinnik eschews a tactical win, preferring a simple positional move that increases White's control over the dark squares. 23.Rxg7+ Kf8 24.Rh7 was the win that Botvinnik found after the game - 25. Qh5 is threatened and Black cannot defend the seventh rank with Re7 , due to 25.Rh8+ . 23...Nd4 24.Rxd4 Bxg2 25.Rd7 Bh3 As Marin shows, 25...Bh1 would have given Black some (shaky) chances to grovel on after 26.f4 26.f3 Qxf3 27.Rxg7+ Kf8 28.Qd2 e5 29.Rxa7 Qc6 is, amazingly, still not over for Black! 26...e5 27.Bxe5 Rc8 28.Rxg7+ Kf8 29.Rc7 Rxc7 30.Bxc7 Qd5 . This is not easy for White to win, as Marin points out. 26.f3 Rd8 27.Rxg7+ Kf8 28.Rh7 Qd5 29.Kf2 Qd1 30.Rh8+ Kf7 31.Rxd8 Qxd8 32.Qc2 Qd5 33.Qc7+ Ke8 34.Qb8+ Kd7 35.Qxa7+ Kc8 36.Qa6+ Kc7 37.Qc4+ Qxc4 38.bxc4 Kc6 39.Bd4 h5 40.a4 Kc7 41.c5 bxc5 42.Bxc5 Kc6 43.Bb4 Kb6 44.g4 hxg4 45.Kg3 e5 46.e4 fxe4 47.fxg4 Black resigned. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Botvinnik,M-Larsen,B-1–0 A14

I found this interesting and spent some time thinking about it. Botvinnik aimed for positions in which he stood well strategically: he controlled the centre, his pieces were more active, the opponent’s pieces were misplaced. From this basis, there are many good types of moves in the realisation of the advantage: not only tactical ones, but also positional ones. It’s tempting just to focus on the missed tactical wins, but each successive strong positional move that Botvinnik played (20.♘e4, 21.♖d7, 22.♘d6 and 23.♖xd6) forced an additional weakness and made Black’s position look increasingly cheerless.

Although it may not be enough to defeat a defensive monster like an engine, from a human point of view Botvinnik’s re-strained play was just as difficult to defend against as a direct attack, and the impression we have of the game is that a strong player as Larsen was squeezed off the board by very simple means. Bear in mind also that Botvinnik’s continued strong positional play gave him multiple chances of finishing off the game tactically due to the difficulties Larsen experienced in defending the position.

A very interesting and entertaining DVD!

Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion

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In issue 2019#1

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The first issue of 2019 covers the Rapid World Championship, the Grand Chess Tour, AlphaZero's magic and of course masterclasses by elite players from all over the world:

Valley of the Kings
Visit Egypt and play a game of chess against a backdrop of age-old pyramids.

NIC’S Café
Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II loves the silence of chess in Union Square Park.  Norwegian rapper Mr. Pimp Lotion discovered that the real MC he was looking for was Magnus Carlsen.

Your Move
The World Champion’s draw offer in Game 12, lambasted by Kasparov and Kramnik, is praised by more than one reader.

Double Fun in St. Petersburg
Daniil Dubov delighted the Russian fans with a brilliant victory in the World Rapid, finishing ahead of Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian showed his grit as he hit back in the Blitz.

Fair & Square
What happened when Alexander Grischuk got his first smartphone and downloaded the PlayMagnus app?

Game Changer
An uplifting excerpt from the ground-breaking new book on AlphaZero.

Profile of a Prodigy?
Bruce Monson takes a fresh look at the most famous chess ‘Boy Wonder’ of all time and provides compelling evidence that Sammy Reshevsky was at least two years older than his ‘official’ birth date... 

Judit Polgar
Advanced enemy pawns can be menacing, but they may also serve as an umbrella, offering your king unexpected safety.

Nakamura claims GCT
With the new format, classical chess took a back seat at the London Classic, as all games were drawn. A win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the fourth blitz game of the final brought Hikaru Nakamura first place and overall victory in the Grand Chess Tour.

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