Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Csaba Balogh
Positional
masterpieces of 2012–2015
Chess
Evolution
Cover designer
Piotr Pielach
Typesetting
Piotr Pielach ‹www.i-press.pl›
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978-83-944290-3-4
e-mail: info@chess-evolution.com
website: www.chess-evolution.com
Printed in Poland
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key to symbols 5
Introduction 7
Editorial preface 9
N novelty
! a good move
!! an excellent move
? a weak move
?? a blunder
!? an interesing move
?! a dubious move
+ check
# mate
INTRODUCTION
››› The book contains the 50 positional masterpieces from 2012 to 2015.
››› The games were selected and analyzed by the authors GM Arkadij Naid-
itsch and GM Csaba Balogh.
››› Most of the games are taken from the highest-level tournaments, such
as Wijk aan Zee, FIDE Grand Prix series, Olympiads etc.
››› Most of the games are played by top Grandmasters: Carlsen, Anand,
Kramnik, Aronian, Caruana and many, many more of the world’s best
chess-players.
››› The games are sorted in chronological order, from 2012 through to 2015.
EDITORIAL PREFACE
It was very interesting work trying to select and analyse the 50 positional
masterpieces from the past 4 years: the choice was so wide! We were aiming
to find the most exciting, spectacular and, of course, useful attacking ideas
which might also occur in our own practical games.
The main idea behind this book stands out clearly: We try to reduce the im-
portance of opening theory, and rather get inside the workings of the best
chess-playing brains on the planet in an attempt to explain the most complex
attacking ideas in a simple and understandable way to any chess lover.
Another very important point of the book which we are proud of is, we have
not used much ’engine’ assistance during our commentary on the games. We
try to see the game the way we would do in a practical game, which makes
the commentaries very special — which in practice puts the reader fully in
the shoes of the world-class players; this is exactly the best way to improve
our own chess level.
We would advise all our readers to take out a real chessboard and enjoy these
beautiful masterpieces. This is how we learned to play chess and this is why
we still enjoy every wonderful game, even after almost 20 years of being pro-
fessional chess players!
Yours,
6.a3 cxd4 7.cxd4 f5 8.c2 b6 15. g5? a big mistake, he already has
9. d3 a big advantage 15... xg5 16. xg5
There are still many games for the f4!! the bishop comes to f5 and the
given position, but now Black devi- d4-pawn won’t be around for much
ates from the mainline with a logical longer 17.gxf4 e7! g6 threatens to
move. win one of the knights 18.e3 and at
this moment Black missed the win
9... d7 in the Short-Vaganian, Montpellier
Preparing to bring the rook to c8. 1985 game with 18...h6! 19.f3 g6+
One of the biggest experts in the 20.f1 b5+ 21.e1 e4 Black is
French Defense, the Armenian GM completely winning.
Rafael Vaganian, played an instruc-
tive game against Nigel Short: 9... 10.0–0 a5
b4+!? 10.f1 in this opening, it is A strong move, as Black should or-
not such a big problem for White to ganize his play on queenside. 10...
move his king, since the position is cxd4? just as in the previous line,
closed and in a few moves he can un- the d4-pawn is indirectly protected:
dertake artificial castling with g3 and 11.fxd4 xd4 12. e3! c5 13.b4!
g2 (10.xb4 would lose a pawn 10... xc2 14. xc5+-
12 POSITIONAL MASTERPIECES OF 2012–2015
positional idea is to push g5, disturb- 28... g7 29. h1 c2 White only
ing Black’s king. gives up his strong knight for the
bad bishop, when it is winning on
24... d7 the spot. 30.xe6! fxe6 31. xc2 xc2
24...d7 was more logical, but the 32.f4 e8 33.h3+-
position is bad anyway 25.g5! hxg5
26.hxg5 g6 27.g2 White prepares to 29. h1 c7 30. dd1!
bring the rooks to the h-fi le, just as Rea l ly nice ma neuver i ng!
in the game and 27...e7 would drop Dominguez prepares for doubling.
a pawn 28.xe6 fxe6 29.xa4
30... g7 31. h4 d7
25.g5! hxg5 31...f8 The king has no chance
Black did not want to open the h-file, to run away from the danger-zone
but to accept gxh6 is not much fun 32. h7! say stop to the king! 32...e8
either. 25...g6 26.f3 e6 27.gxh6+- 33.xe6+ fxe6 34.f4+-
27... xh6 loses to xe6
32. dh1 d8 33.g3!
26.hxg5 g6 27.f3 White has time for everything. First
Developing with tempo. he defends the g5-pawn and wants to
play h7, h4. Black can do nothing
27... e6 against this...
8 +r+ vlk+ 33...b5 34. h7 xd4 35.h4
7 +ptr +p+ Black resigned! A very nice game
6 n+
by Dominguez... It is really enjoyable
+l+p+ to watch his games because all his
5 +q+pzPpzP moves are very easy to understand.
4 p+ zP sN + 1–0
3 zP +NvLQ+
2 zP tR zP +
1 tR + + mK
a b c d e f g h
28.g2!
Preparing for h1. You should note
that the Black rooks on the c-file still
don’t do anything.
28... c4
GAME 2 15
GAME 2 8 r+ wq trk+
7 zpp+lzppvlp
▷ R. Wojtaszek (2706)
▶ A. Fedorov (2609)
6 + zp snp+
Czech league 5 sn zpP+ +
23.04.2012, [E62] 4 +P+P+ +
Annotated by Csaba Balogh
3 + sN + zP
Radoslaw Wojtaszek, one of Anand’s 2 PzP sN zPLzP
seconds, won a very nice game in the
1 tR vLQ+RmK
Czech League. We will study the typ-
ical maneuvers of the King’s Indian a b c d e f g h
8 r+ + +r+ 27.xg4
7 zp +l+k+p 27.g5+ was even easier 27...f8
28.f5 +-
6 zp zp snqvl
5 sn zpP+p+ 27... xg4 28.hxg4
4 +P+pzP + and g5 is coming, Black is helpless.
3 +P+ sN zPP 28...h4+ 29. h3 xg4 30.g5+!
2 PvLQsN tR mK xg5 31.xh7+
A very instructive game. We learned
1 + + + tRL many ideas of how to play with this
a b c d e f g h pawn structure.
23.g4!!
This seems like committing suicide,
but in reality it leads to winning the
e4-pawn — and is why the bishop has
to be on h1 now — which means the
collapse of Black’s position!
24... ae8
24...h5 25. xe4 xe4 26. xe4
gxh3 27. f3! +- opens the diagonal
for the queen to take on h7! 24...h5
does not work, because of 25. xe4 +-
25. xf6!
White wins huge material now in
all lines.
GAME 3 8 rsnl+k+ tr
7 zppzp vlpzpp
▷ I. Nepomniachtchi (2716)
▶ Y. Quesada Perez (2625)
6 + +q+ +
47th Capablanca Mem Elite 5 + + + vL
Havana CUB (6) 4 +Pzp + +
10.05.2012, [A18]
3 + zP +N+
Annotated by Csaba Balogh
2 P+ +LzPPzP
A highly impressive performance by
1 tR +QmK +R
Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is known
for his fast playing style, spending a b c d e f g h
clock. Black has to find only moves 26. d3! xd7 27. xd7 f8 28.b7!
to avoid losing immediately. The first pawn falls. Black is lost.
20... e7! 28... b8 29. xc7 e8 30. a6 d8
20...d6 would not solve the dan- 31. xa7 b2 32. b5!
ger on the 8th rank 21. xc6 xc6 The f2-pawn does not play an im-
22.xf8+ xf8 23. b8+ +- portant role with queens off the
board. Black cannot create any
21. xe7 xe7 22.d7! threats around the king, while the a-
Black cannot keep the material and c-pawns start to run.
balance for long. White’s pieces are
dominating the board, while the c7- 32... xf2+ 33.g1 e2 34.c5 e5
and a7-pawns are just falling. 35.a4!
Black resigned since he can’t take
22...a1+ 23.h2 e5+ 24.g3 c8 on c5 due to d7! I am pretty sure,
that after this convincing victory by
8 +r+ +k+ White, we will see the move 11. xe7
7 zpRzpQsnpzpp more often in practice.
6 + + + + 1–0
5 + + wq +
4 +P+ + +
3 + + +LzPP
2 P+ + zP mK
1 + + + +
a b c d e f g h
25. b3!
Not the only winning move, but the
best practical one for sure. Black is
forced to exchange queens due to the
e3 threat, transposing into a losing
endgame.
25...d6
25...e6 26.xe6 fxe6 27. b7 +-