Understanding before Moving 53: Space advantage (2)

by ChessBase
11/14/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 52rd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to talk about the advantages of having a space advantage. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

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In this episode, I would like to talk about ways to convert a space advantage into other advantages. Siegbert Tarrasch once claimed that if a player has little space his position carries the seed of loss.

Today, we know that this is not always true, but there are of course many examples where a space advantage can be converted into a win. A nice example is the game Smyslov-Gudmudsson, Reykjavik 1974, in which Smysov had a huge space advantage that reduced his opponent to almost complete passivity.

The diagram position is from game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Beliavsky, Lvov 2000. Ivanchuk won a prize for his fine performance in this game.

In the diagram position his magnificent knight on e6 allowed him to launch the final offensive. Do you see what brilliant continuation he came up with?

 

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