ChessNinja012 (1445) vs SenseiDanya (1763)

1750Episode 16 · 0-1

During the gameIn the review

  1. Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, Opocensky Variation, Traditional Line
  2. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3
  3. 5... a6 What the Najdorf move is for Opening With the knight on c3, Black has a choice: g6 is the Dragon, the knight to c6 the classical lines, and e6 and e5 exist too. The Najdorf move holds a special place for Sicilian players, and its most immediate idea is to cover b5 so that neither a bishop nor a knight can land there.
  4. 6. Be2 Why Be2 counts as quiet Opening One of White's most popular replies, and considered among the quietest. Quiet does not mean dull - the position is still very interesting. It is called quiet because White means to castle short, whereas after the bishop goes to g5 or e3 White often castles long and the kings end up on opposite sides. In the review: Karpov, one of the strongest positional players ever, championed this move because it strikes a balance - still a Najdorf, still tactical, but more positional than the sharper bishop moves. It is a vast line with whole books on it.
  5. 6... e5 Earn the right to break a rule Opening Najdorf players divide into two camps, those who push the e-pawn one square and those who push it two, and he has always been in the second. To anyone who does not play the Najdorf the move ought to look strange: it weakens d6 and with it the d5 square. That is exactly why he does not recommend the Najdorf to beginners. The basic positional rules have to be earned before they can be broken, and someone who practises breaking them first never learns to apply them, which builds a rotten foundation. There is no single reason Black gets away with it; it is a network of reasons, and he will explain them by degrees. In the review he shows why he gave up the other set-up, through a loss at the 2006 Pan-American Championship against Jorge Cori. With the pawn on e6 d5 is not weakened, but there are drawbacks: the light-squared bishop is shut in, the e6 pawn becomes a target for White's f4-f5 plan, and Black is cramped, so certain kingside attacks are very hard to meet. In that game White's pawn reached e5, which would have been impossible with Black's pawn on e5, and then a knight was simply sacrificed on d5 with the king too weak to cope. He calls the e6 set-up a 'come to papa' system - it waits for White to come at it - and he would rather be the one doing the coming, with a little more space. After that game he switched to the two-square push for good.
  6. 7.Nb3
  7. 7... Be7 Enough pieces to contest d5 Pawn structure Whatever the opening, the pieces have to come out, and above all the king has to leave the centre, so castling is prepared as early as possible; the bishop to e6 is possible too, but this is the main move. The first reason the d5 square is not the end of the world: Black has plenty of pieces to contest it. The bishop can go to e6 and the knight on f6 can be backed up by the other knight from d7, so a white knight on d5 is very hard to establish in practice.
  8. 8.O-O
  9. 8... O-O Counterplay on both wings Strategy Castle and keep the light-squared bishop back for now. The second set of reasons: Black has counterplay on both sides of the board, and one source of it is the b-pawn's advance, so a weak d5 is often balanced by play elsewhere. Which is not to say games have never been lost to a knight sitting on d5 - he has lost one himself.
  10. 9. Qd3 Bad pawns defend good squares Pawn structure A legitimate move and a line of its own. The review gives its point: it overprotects e4, which frees the knight on c3 from defending the pawn so that it can go to d5. Here a knight on d5 can be taken, though, and that leads to sharp play with White pushing on the queenside and Black on the kingside. For White, if he wants to keep playing this line, he mentions the f-pawn push as another option, though it is less effective than against the e6 set-up: Black takes on f4, and after the bishop recaptures it may look as if d6 is weak. Bad bishops defend good pawns, and in the same way bad pawns defend good squares: the d6 pawn supports a knight on e5, reached via c6. Taking on f4 and planting a knight on e5 is as old as the hills, and he shows one of his own games from 2008 where he did exactly that.
  11. 9...Be6 10.Bg5
  12. 10... Nbd7 All four minor pieces in the centre Piece play The knight goes to d7, which makes the knight on f6 very hard to dislodge; if the bishop takes on f6, Black simply recaptures. All four minor pieces are now clustered in the centre, which is a good thing, and Black is ready to start on the queenside.
  13. 11. Na5 A typical move that does not work here Opening He had to be careful of this square, and the knight simply drops - he will take it. In the review: this was the blunder, after White had played the first part of the opening well. It is a typical move in these positions; here it just does not work because of the queen. A rook to d1 or something calm like h3 was better, and best of all was a4, another typical Najdorf move that stops b5.
  14. 11... Qxa5 Unfamiliar positions produce blunders General He could decline it, but he does not believe in that. There is a lesson here: part of the benefit of playing something most people at this level do not meet is that they land in unfamiliar positions, and unfamiliar positions produce blunders. A piece up, it is still right to keep making Najdorf moves.
  15. 12.a3 Rac8 13.Bd2
  16. 13... Qc7 What pressure means Strategy Several squares are fine, but with the rook already on c8, the c-file is a comfortable home for queen and rook together - very common in the Najdorf. It may look pointless, since the knight is not hanging and the pawn defends it. This is where pressure comes in, a much misunderstood idea: a more abstract state in which a piece cannot move because something behind it would fall. Here the knight cannot move without dropping c2.
  17. 14.Rac1
  18. 14... b5 Expand to make an outpost Strategy Many moves are good; trading bishops from c4 is possible but not needed. He would rather keep playing typical Najdorf moves. Expanding on the queenside creates almost an outpost on c4, for a knight, the bishop or even the queen, and gives the queen the b7 square, from where she can press on e4. There are about ten good ways to play the position, so a suggestion is not bad just because he chose something else. The ultimate goal is the d-pawn's advance.
  19. 15.b3
  20. 15... Qb7 Prepare a plan with a move that is good anyway General How best to prepare the d-pawn push? The knight to b6 has been suggested, but with White's pawn on b3 that knight would have no future on c4 and would only be supporting the push. This is more flexible: it prepares the push and is a good move on its own, pressing on e4 and threatening the knight jump to c5. Choose the most flexible way of carrying out an idea - the move that would still be healthy if the plan turned out to be rubbish. It is not always possible, but try to.
  21. 16.Rfd1 Nc5 17.Qf3 Ncxe4 18.Nxe4
  22. 18... Qxe4 A piece up, take the trade that costs nothing Strategy Both captures are fine. When to trade while ahead in material is a judgement, but put simply: a piece up, if a trade costs nothing, take it - and this forces the queens off, because the white queen cannot step away without leaving the bishop hanging. Taking with the knight was possible too; it would be pinned with the queen undefended, but White could not exploit it, as the d-pawn would come up to support the knight and cut the pin. Taking with the queen simply wins the pawn without needing that.
  23. 19.Qg3 Qxe2
  24. White resigned
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