Strategic Plans 75 Modern Battles Maxim Chetverik Strategic Plans: 75 Modern Battles Author: Maxim Chetverik Translated from the Russian by Ilan Rubin Chess editor: Grigory Baranov Typesetting by Andrei Elkov (www.elkov.ru) Front cover artwork: Anna Fokina © LLC Elk and Ruby Publishing House, 2019. All rights reserved Follow us on Twitter: @ilan_ruby www.elkandruby.com ISBN 978-5-6041769-2-4 3 About the author Maxim Chetverik, born in Voronezh in 1963, is one of Russia’s biggest chess writers. He has written books published in Russian, English, French and German on the Queen’s Indian Defense, Catalan Opening, English Opening, Benoni System, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Sicilian Defense, Petroff Defense, Dutch Defense, Alekhine Defense and Albin Counter Gambit, as well as more general opening books and books on the games of Alekhine, Tal and Spassky. He became an International Master in 2003 and is a regular tournament player to this day, as well as being a coach in his native Voronezh. His best tournament results include Budapest Open, 1st place, 1996, Open championship of Slovan Club, Bratislava, 1st place, 1998, Prague Open, 2nd equal, 2002, Kecskemet (Hungary) round robin tournament, 1st place, 2003, Stuttgart Open, 2nd place, 2009, Yaroslavl Open, 3rd place, 2015, and Olomouc (Czech Republic), 2nd place, 2017. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 6 PART I. A one-sided game ........................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1. Chronicle of a black day .....................................................................9 Chapter 2. When luck runs out...........................................................................24 Chapter 3. The pawn is the target ......................................................................39 Chapter 4. Positional sacrifice ............................................................................55 Chapter 5. Multi-faceted advantage ..................................................................62 Openly aiming for a draw ...............................................................................62 Pretending to attack the king .......................................................................64 When indecision proves fatal ........................................................................66 Opening up the game too early .....................................................................69 Pointless sacrifices ...........................................................................................71 When prophylaxis triumphs ..........................................................................73 Sabotage – in reality and behind the scenes..............................................75 Stubborn avoidance of exchanges ................................................................79 I play against pieces .........................................................................................82 Switching play from one flank to the other ...............................................85 A MAGICAL INTERLUDE. Watch out, it’s Fabiano! ..................................89 PART II. A two-sided game ....................................................................................98 Chapter 6. Defending like a hero ........................................................................99 Chapter 7. When equal forces collide ..............................................................106 Chapter 8. Reaching a draw through spilt blood ..........................................116 Chapter 9. One step from saving the day .......................................................125 Chapter 10. The battle of macroplans .............................................................138 Chapter 11. The priority of piece coordination ............................................156 Chapter 12. Macroplans and microplans ........................................................170 Triumph of the macroplan over local threats ..........................................170 Triumph on the “opponent’s” flank ............................................................175 Disaster on the “opponent’s” flank ...........................................................184 Pawns don’t move backwards .....................................................................186 Failed sabotage of the enemy king .............................................................190 Activating the pawn chain ...........................................................................193 The center takes priority ..............................................................................197 Triumph of a central bind .............................................................................204 Endgame dynamics ........................................................................................208 5 Thoughtless reshaping of the structure. ...................................................210 Risk strategy ....................................................................................................213 Strategy gives way to tactics .......................................................................216 Varying defensive plans ................................................................................224 Ignoring the main threat ..............................................................................227 The art of consolidation ................................................................................230 A HISTORICAL REFLECTION .........................................................................234 Players Index ................................................................................................................235 Openings Index ............................................................................................................237 INTRODUCTION In chess, we know that creating a strategic plan is when you devise a path to take advantage of your own position’s strengthens and your opponent’s position’s weaknesses. In 75 full games drawn from recent play, mostly by elite grandmasters, this book focuses not on the plan of one player (which is what you will find in the vast majority of text books on positional play), but on the battle between the strategies pursued by each player. As a rule, grandmasters take a pragmatic approach over the board. It’s not their aim to win with a brilliant combination or to carry out a perfect strategic plan from start to finish. Their aim is to win the point in the tournament and increase their cash reward as a result. When a grandmaster plays a clearly weaker opponent he will often resort to trickery. The stronger the player, the larger his arsenal of tricks and traps. If his opponent successfully negotiates the mine field laid out for him then it’s time to agree a draw. In a nervous battle with reciprocal errors the winner is the player who blunders second- to-last. If, however, you are not a grandmaster, you should learn how to set your priorities, in which trickery should be quite far down on the list. Playing without a plan, and preferring to set traps, you will eventually get stuck. A smart chess player has a good idea about how he can trick a weaker one. However, success in a tactical battle requires an ability to calculate variations deeply and precisely, to find surprise moves and remain calm and cool under pressure. In a positional battle, a player requires knowledge of typical positions, standard plans, and how to execute them in a smart way. Moreover, it is highly likely that the opponent will not remain a passive observer and will push his own plan. Various strategic battle models followed by each party are analyzed in this book, entirely on the basis of 21st century games. Many wonderful games of the 20th century have already been included in other strategy books. Modern trends in the positional struggle should, however, be observed in modern duels. Further, given the growing importance of the opening in chess, games should be considered in the context of the latest opening theory. In any positional play text book, strategy is viewed as one of the key concepts and you are provided with a standard set of strategic elements with examples. This book is written for students of the game who are already familiar with the key strategic elements and so I have avoided repeating those lessons here. Such lessons can be found, for example, in Peter Romanovsky’s excellent book on middlegame strategy. Naturally, as plans are executed, such elements appear throughout the games in my book, but they are only the key component in chapter three of Part I of this book (pawn weaknesses). Introduction 7 In this book, aside from the overall plan, which in any game is to win or draw against a stronger opponent and or achieve a result which is consistent with your tournament or match requirements, I refer to the following concepts, which are specific to the scale of the plan under discussion. The macroplan is the specific way to achieve the overall plan, for example, the successful exploitation of a queenside pawn majority. The microplan is a way of solving a local problem that involves several moves, such as transferring a knight from a bad square to a good one. Ideally, a macroplan is a chain of sequential and carefully calculated microplans. A diagram with a problem is posed before each game. This is not so much a test with a precise solution as much as a prompt to devise a working