Analysis Game: Four Pawns Attack with 6) .... Nc6 9) Nf3 Qd7 10) Be2 O-O-O 16) Qb3 Bb4: Verdict: Strong Advantage White in the end game.
Black is OK in the middle game, but white seemingly is able to seize the initiative in an unbalanced end game. Specialist minor piece technique was required to win the highly interesting endgame, which involved two knights v rook. The game involving moves 1 to 22 was previously analysed by Markovich and others.
1) e4 Nf6 2) e5 Nd5 3) c4 Nb6 4) d4 d6 5) f4 dxe5 6) fxe5 Nc6 7) Be3 Bf5 8) Nc3 e6 9) Nf3 Qd7 10) Be2 O-O-O (I had previously thought that this dashing long castling move should be better than 10) … Rd8, but unfortunately the converse seems more likely.)
11) O-O Bg4 12) Ng5 Nxc4 13) Rxf7 Qe8 14) Nb5 Nxe3 15) Rxc7+ Kb8
16) Qb3 Bb4 17) Bxg4 Nxg4 18) Nxe6 Qh5 19) h3 Ngxe5
20) dxe5 Qxe5 21) Rxc6 bxc6 22) Nbc7 Rd4 23) a3! (Markovich mentions
23) Na6+ etc.) 23) ….Re4 24) axb4 Re1+ 25) Rxe1 Qxe1+ 26) Kh2 Qe5+
(26...Rc8 27.Na6+ Ka8 {27) … Kb7 28) Nac5+ Kb8 29) Qc3 +-} 28.Nec7+ Kb7 29.Nc5+ Kxc7
(29...Kb8 30.Qc3! Qxc3 31.N7a6+ Ka8 32.bxc3) 30.Qf7+ +-)
27) Qg3 Qxg3 (Forced exchange of queens)
28) Kxg3 Kb7 29) Kf4!± White has a shattered queen side pawn structure, but Black’s position is gloomy due to the following reasons.
1) The black rook has restricted activity. The rook is not able to occupy a square, which would lead to control of a file. 2) White’s pair of knights is very powerful and they control key squares. 3) The white king is a powerful attacking piece and black’s king side pawns cannot be adequately protected. 4) Isolated double pawns are usually very weak, but white’s mangled queen side pawns are relatively safe. The black rook is currently contained and the black king cannot approach the white’s weak pawn structure due to the a5, b5, c5 barrier, which is constructed by the b4 pawn and the knight at c7.
The move 29) Kf4! was overlooked in favour of 29) b5 with my chess program. I guess it is still advantageous to have an understanding of endgame theory!
29) …. Rc8 30) Ke5 Kb6 30) ….Rxc7 31.Nxc7 Kxc7 Unfortunately, white will win the pawn grab and pawn promotion race. 32.Ke6 Kb6 33.g4 Kb5 34.g5 Kxb4 35.Kf7 g6 36.Kg7 c5 37.Kxh7 Kb3 38.h4 Kxb2 39.h5 c4 40.hxg6 c3 41.g7 c2 42.g8Q c1Q 43.Qb8+ Ka2 44.Qxa7+ Kb2 45.Qb7+ Ka1 46.g6 +-)
31) Kd6 g6 32) g4 g5 33) Kd7 Rg8 34) Ne8 h6 35) Nd6 Rh8 36)Ke7 Rh7+ 37) Nf7 h5 38) Nexg5 hxg4 39) hxg4 Rh2 40) Ne5 Re2 41) Ngf3 Kc7 42) g5 Rxb2 (At last, the rook can grab the weak queen side pawns, but it is just too late) 43) g6 Rxb4 44) Ng5 Rc8 45) Nef7 Rb7+ 46) Kd6 Rb6 47.Ne6 c5+ 48.Kd5 Rb8 49.g7 Kb7 50.Nfd8+ +-
However, not every avenue of the variations arising from 10) Be2 O-O-O has been totally analyzed. It would be certainly be fantastic if such a variation could be played with strong winning prospects.
It is peculiar that it is not black, but white who must demonstrate with great virtuosity of handling of the knight pair!
An overextended machine analysis from a winning position is perhaps unnecessary, but it was quite instructive in observing how the knight pair can be used to win with great effect against the rook.
If someone knows about the fundamentals or a literature reference on how to play with two knights, I would be interested to know.
Some general advice was mentioned in the book Winning End Game Strategy by Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin. The game Keres-Szabo 1953 (ie. before the age of computers) was used as a reference.
The advice was a) Get them together b) Get them to co-ordinate.
Referring to an earlier thought in Markovich’s earlier posting: Was Watson’s omission of an evaluation on this line an implication that the line was in trouble? I was going to say that this is a strong possibility, but after being updated by recent posts, things are not so clear?!
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