First catch your rabbit!

Preparatory steps

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.

Nearing the end of the video, GM Speelman announces that his next column will be published on October 9 — in fact, it will be published, as usual, in two weeks’ time, on October 2.]

Since I’m a vegetarian, this advice, proffered, apparently apocryphally, by the 19th century English cooking writer Isabella Beeton (prior to stewing the said creature) is even more irrelevant to me today than the general public. But the point, that you should prepare yourself before undertaking an operation, is highly germane both to chess and “real life”. 

Happily, we are sticking here to the former, and in particular when in a game of chess it makes sense to launch an attack. If the preconditions are met, then it ought to bring gains, but if not, to rebound. And as has been reiterated many times over the years, to overcome good defence, you need both some significant advantages in the sector — more space perhaps, or a preponderance of units — and a clear target. 

We start today with a lovely game in which Black made a single mistake, but one that proved fatal. After this fairly innocuous looking move, White was able, with a more or less forced sequence, to drive a defensive bishop from its post and then a stock sacrifice led to a very pretty finish.

 

Wojtaszek, Radoslaw2716

1–0

Naiditsch, Arkadij2706

Trzcianka 13.04.2014[Speelman,Jonathan]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 Thought for many years to be a little off colour if not dubious, this, like the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez, was re-popularised throguh the efforts of Vladimir Kramnik. White esily gets a pawn centre, but Black has two pawns to one on the queenside and real cahcnes too, often in the endgame if he can eventually take control of the dark sqaures on the kingside. 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 c5

7.Rb1 By playing this White avoids the main line in which Black is able to exchange off the black squared bishops as well. Four years later, Wojtaszek played the main line, Nf3, against Kramnik and eventually ended up defending a most unpleasant endgame: 7.Nf3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0-0 11.Bc4 Nd7 12.0-0 b6 13.a4 Bb7 14.Bd3 Nf6 15.Rfe1 h6 16.a5 bxa5 17.Rxa5 Qc7 18.Rc1 Qd8 19.Re1 Qc7 20.Qb4 Rfb8 21.Rc5 Qf4 22.Qd2 Qxd2 23.Nxd2 Rd8 24.Nb3 a5 25.Rxa5 Rxa5 26.Nxa5 Rxd4 27.Nxb7 Rxd3

You might imagine that this was simply equal, but the pawn is slightly weak on e4, the f4 square is weakened and the white knight takes time to get back into the game. An engine could defend this as White without difficulty, but it's far from pleasant for a human, and Kramnik soon got a real advantage forcing Wojtaszek to defend himself for many moves before he finally survived. 28.f3 Nh5 29.Nc5 Rc3 30.Na4 Rc2 31.g3 Nf6 32.Re3 Nd7 33.Rc3 Re2 34.Nc5 Ne5 35.h4 g5 36.hxg5 hxg5 37.Kf1 Ra2 38.f4 Ng4 39.fxg5 Kg7 40.Rd3 Kg6 41.Nb3 Ne5 42.Rc3 Kxg5 43.Rc5 Kf6 44.Nd4 Ra4 45.Nc6 Ng4 46.e5+ Kf5 47.Nd8 Kg6 48.Nc6 Ra2 49.Rc3 Kg5 50.Ke1 Ra8 51.Ke2 Ra6 52.Kd2 Rb6 53.Rc4 Rb2+ 54.Ke1 Ne3 55.Rc3 Rb1+ 56.Ke2 Ng4 57.Rf3 Rb2+ 58.Ke1 Rb7 59.Rc3 Rb5 60.Ke2 Rd5 61.Rc4 Nh6 62.Ra4 Rc5 63.Ra6 Kg4 64.Kf2 Rc2+ 65.Ke1 Rc5 66.Kf2 Kh3 67.Kf3 Rc3+ 68.Kf4 Rxg3 69.Nd8 Rg4+ 70.Kf3 Rg3+ 71.Kf4 Rg6 72.Ra7 Rg4+ 73.Kf3 Rg8 74.Rd7 Kh4 75.Ke2 Rf8 76.Rd6 Re8 77.Rd7 Rf8 78.Rd6 Nf5 79.Rd7 Kg4 80.Nxf7 Kf4 81.Ra7 Nd4+ 82.Kd3 Nc6 83.Rc7 1/2-1/2 (83) Wojtaszek,R (2745)-Kramnik,V (2811) Shamkir AZE 2017 7...Be7 8.Bb5+ Nd7 9.a4 0-0 10.Nf3 Nf6 11.Bd3 Qa5 To persuade the bishop to go to d2, which is presumably a worse square than b2. Over the next few moves, Naiditsch probably played a little inaccurately, but it was still well within bounds before 14...Rad8? 12.Bd2 Qc7 13.0-0 Bd7 14.Re1

14...Rad8? At first glance, this looks entirely natural but it runs into a ferocious sequence. 14...Bc6 15.Qc2 15.e5 Nd7 16.Ng5 Bxg5 17.Bxg5 cxd4 18.cxd4 Rfe8 15...h6 was reasonable. 15...Nd7? 16.d5 14...cxd4 15.cxd4 Bc6 16.e5 16.Qc2 h6 16...Nd5 15.e5! Seizing the moment. (Initiating the rabbit hunt.) It happens that due to the specific placing of Black's pieces, White can cause deadly disruption. Nd5?! Of course this is what Black wants to play, but it simply doesn't work. He had to try Ne8. 15...Ne8 16.c4! Nb4 16...Nb6 17.a5 Nc8 18.d5 is even worse. The attempt to sacrifice a piece with exd5 19.cxd5 Be6 20.d6 Nxd6 21.exd6 Bxd6 is hopeless. 17.Bxb4 cxb4 18.d5! Bc5

Black now has a very decent game positionally speaking, but Wojtaszek's previous moves have been designed precisely to drive the bishop from its defensive post on e7 and he now opened fire. 18...exd5 This opens the d7 bishop's diagonal, preventing the sacrifice in the game. 19.cxd5 Bc5 20.Qc2 g6 21.Qd2 Bg4 22.d6 19.Bxh7+! Kxh7 20.Ng5+ Kh6 when playing the Greek gift Bxh7+, you have to be ready to replay to Kg8, Kg6 and as here Kh6. In this case if 20...Kg8 is simple 21.Qh5 Rfe8 22.Qxf7+ Kh8 23.Qh5+ Kg8 24.Qh7+ Kf8 25.Qh8+ Ke7 26.Qxg7# - a typical variation. 20...Kg6 21.Qg4 f5 21...Bxf2+ 22.Kh1 f5 23.exf6 22.exf6! Normally you reply to f5 with Qg3, but here this is stronger due to the attack on e6 22.Qg3 Bxf2+ 23.Kxf2 Qc5+ 24.Kf1 Qxc4+ 25.Kg1 Qd4+ 26.Kh1 Qg4 22...Bxf2+ 23.Kh1! Kxf6 24.Rxe6+ Bxe6 25.Ne4+ Ke5 26.Qxe6+ Kd4 27.Rd1+ Kxc4 27...Ke3 28.Ng5+ Kf4 29.Nh3# 28.d6#

I thought what happens since the pawn is pinned, before it suddenly dawned on me - or rather I looked at the notation and saw a # sign - that it's checkmate! 21.Qg4 exd5 22.Qh4+ Kg6 23.Qh7+! Kxg5 24.Qxg7+ Kh5

This still loks complicated since Black is two bishops up with Bxf2+ in the air, but an inspired blow finishes matters off since the black king loses a crucial escape square. ] 25.g4+! Bxg4 25...Kh4 26.Qh6+ Kxg4 27.h3+ is no better 26.Qh7+ Kg5 27.h4+ Kf4 28.Qh6+ And Naiditsch resigned. A beautiful attacking game in which the spadework before the main action was done by the central powns' advance. 28.Qh6+ Kf3 28...Kf5 29.Qf6# 29.Re3+ Bxe3 30.Qxe3# 1–0

Radoslaw Wojtaszek | Photo: Polish Chess Federation

A classic

Next, one of the most famous games in chess history. When I picked it up from MegaBase, it had copious notes by Garry Kasparov himself. I thought it was a bit much to steal them as such, so I’ve retained the variations and added a few more in consultation with my silicon lords and masters, but used my own words. Readers who have MegaBase can find Kasparov’s notes there, which are in English with a parallel German translation.

 

Reti, Richard

0–1

Alekhine, Alexander

Baden-Baden 25.04.1925[Speelman Jonathan]

1.g3 e5 2.Nf3 Pretty unusual. Simply Bg2 is normal, or sometimes c4 transposing directly into an English. e4 3.Nd4 d5 Here and on the following move Alekhine played fairly conservatively, not trying to do more than to get a very decent game. There are lots of alternatives, including ...c5-4. 3...c5 4.Nb3 c4 4.d3 exd3 5.Qxd3 Nf6 6.Bg2 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nxd2 0-0 9.c4 Na6 10.cxd5 Nb4 11.Qc4 Nbxd5 12.N2b3 c6 13.0-0

With good control of the queenside and the e pawn potentially mobile, White looks a little better to me - some sort of += - and my learned friends agree, with Stockfish giving just under 0.5 and Houdini, which is normally much less gung-ho, just under 0.4. 13...Re8 14.Rfd1 Bg4 15.Rd2 Qc8 16.Nc5 Bh3 17.Bf3 Bg4 18.Bg2 Bh3 19.Bf3 Bg4 20.Bh1

Playing for the win. White still seems to have a safe position with some positional advantage on the queenside, but with his following couple of moves, Alekhine arranges to "catch his rabbit" before the stewing process proper begins on move 26. 20...h5 21.b4 a6 22.Rc1 h4 23.a4 hxg3 24.hxg3 Qc7 Consequent but running into tactics. 25.b5 25.e4 Ne7 The engines prefer 25...Nb6 26.Qc2 Nbd7 claiming it's not too much for White 25...Ne3 ? can be met by 26.Qd3! 26.a5 25...axb5 26.axb5

26...Re3! This beautiful move, incidentally to an empty square as in the theme of the column a fortnight ago, builds on the preliminary work done by ...h5-4xg3. It can't be taken and leads to a firestorm in which there were ways for White to get a perfectly decent position, but a single misstep now proved fatal. 26...Ne3 hits air. White can retreat the queen and keep some advantage e.g.: 27.Qb4 27.Nf3? Together with Bf3, one of the two main moves you'd look at, but the wrong choice. 27.fxe3?? Qxg3+ 28.Bg2 Bh3 27.Bg2 Rxg3! 28.fxg3? 28.e3! Here Kasaprov gave Nxe3 28...Rxg2+ 29.Kxg2 Re8 Obviously Black has enough for the exchange here, but I was very surprised by the assessment of the engines, which can analyse all possible defences : -5.3! For instance if 30.Kg1 or 30.Nd3 Rxe3 30.bxc6 Rxe3 31.cxb7 Rh3 32.Rh1 Ne3+! 33.Kg1 Rg3+! 30...Re5 31.Qf1 Rg5 29.fxe3 Nd5 which is certainly okay, but in fact my engines scream that 28...Ne3 29.Qd3 Qxg3 27.Bf3! is surely the only alternative you'd really consider in a game. And it should lead to approximate equality. Bxf3 28.exf3! 28.Nxf3 cxb5 29.Qxb5 Nc3 30.Qxb7 Qxb7 31.Nxb7 Nxe2+ 32.Kg2 Nxc1 33.fxe3 Ng4 34.Rd8+ Rxd8 35.Nxd8 Nxe3+ This is not at all pleasant for White, but should preumably be drawn since White can jettison his pawn and both knights for Black's two pawns. 28...cxb5 29.Nxb5 Qa5 30.Rdd1 30.Rxd5 Re1+ 31.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 32.Kg2 Nxd5 33.Qxd5 Ra1 34.Qd8+ with perpetual check. 27.Kh2 Raa3! 27...Rae8! 28.fxe3? 28.Nd3 ! defends. 28...Nxe3 29.Qb4 Nf1+! 30.Kg1 Qxg3+ 31.Bg2 31.Kxf1 Bh3+ 31...Ne3 27...cxb5! 28.Qxb5 Nc3 29.Qxb7 29.Qc4 b5! 29...Qxb7 30.Nxb7 Nxe2+ 31.Kh2

31.Kf1 Nxg3+ 32.fxg3 Bxf3 33.Bxf3 Rxf3+ 34.Kg2 Raa3 31...Ne4‼ This brilliant move - arguably more brilliant than Re3! - cements Black's advantage since the tactics simply don't work for White. 31...Nxc1 32.fxe3 31...Rxf3 32.Rxe2 Rf5 32...Rxg3 33.Kxg3 Bxe2 33.Rb2 32.Rc4 32.Rd8+ Rxd8 33.fxe3 Rd5! 32.fxe3? Nxd2 32...Nxf2! It's more important to attack the bishop than the rooks. 32...Bxf3 33.Rxe4‼ Bxe4 34.fxe3 Bxh1 35.Kxh1 Nxg3+ 36.Kg2 Ne4 37.Rd8+ Rxd8 38.Nxd8 32...Nxd2 33.Nxd2 Rd3 34.Nc5! 33.Bg2 Be6! 34.Rcc2 Ng4+ 35.Kh3 Ne5+ 36.Kh2 Rxf3! 37.Rxe2 Ng4+ 38.Kh3 Ne3+ 39.Kh2 Nxc2 40.Bxf3

40...Nd4 41.Rf2 Nxf3+ 42.Rxf3 Bd5 A truly brilliant attacking game by Alekhine, in which the way he calculated his way through the thicket of lines after Re3 was breathtaking. Great player though he was, I can't possibly believe that he saw more than the outlines of the game and some individual lines when playing Re3, but it was all initially prepared ("the rabbit was caught" by the advance of the h pawn. 0–1

Alexander Alekhine

One of my favourites

In endgame studies, the final idea is generally preceded by a “rabbit hunt”, in which the enemy pieces are chased or lured into very specific squares so that the composer’s vision can be realized. This very famous example is one of my favourites, with several preliminary moves before the shattering finale. 

 

Mitrofanov, L..

1–0

0136.51a5a7

1p tv01 1967[Speelman,Jonathan]

1.b6+ Ka8! 2.Re1! To block the rank, thus preventing the about to be newborn queen from checking on a1. Nxe1 3.g7 h1Q 3...Nc4+ 4.Kb5 h1Q 5.g8Q+ Bb8 6.a7 Na3+ 7.Kc6 Qh2 8.axb8Q+ Qxb8 9.b7+ Ka7 10.Qg1+ Ka6 11.Qb6# # 4.g8Q+ Bb8 5.a7 Nc6+! To open the rank now that the queen can check on h5. 6.dxc6 Qxh5+

7.Qg5‼ The magnificent point. Qxg5+ 8.Ka6 Bxa7 9.c7 Qa5+ 10.Kxa5 Bxb6+ 11.Kxb6 and due to the presence of the knight on e1 it's not stalemate but mate next move. 1–0

Master Class Vol.3: Alexander Alekhine

On this DVD GMs Rogozenco, Marin, Müller, and IM Reeh present outstanding games, stunning combinations and exemplary endgames by Alekhine. And they invite you to improve your knowledge with the help of video lectures, annotated games and interactive tests

Links

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• All Speelman’s Agony columns