An amazing combination and Ivanchuk's brilliancy
Submitted by
Phobetor on Sun, 03/30/2008 at 2:34pm.
Below is a game I played a long time ago. At the time I surely wasn't a great player, but my opponent was even worse. In the opening I gambited a pawn to quickly get an attack against him (and hopefully crush him in less than 20 moves), and indeed, he didn't play too well and I quickly got a good position. After his 9th move however, I saw a combination that would already win material. The game is given below. (For a game viewer to view the moves, or to view the other game coming up later, scroll down for two game viewers)
Me vs. N.N., Hengelo 2004
The game started 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3, which is the start of a regular Morra Gambit. After that we continued 4... Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bc4 and here my opponent played 6... Na5?, which wastes a valuable opening move on attacking a piece. I continued with 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8. Qa4 Nc6 (note that 8... Bxb5 9. Qxb5+ Nc6 10. Qxb7 also loses a pawn) 9. Be3 and then he played 9... a6? (see diagram below)
Black is attacking white's bishop, so it'll have to move. Taking on c6 only improves black's light-squared bishop after 10. Bxc6 Bxc6, and retreating also doesn't look so appealing. So what else can white do? He has to move his bishop right? No, he doesn't! 10. Nd5! Boom! Can't black simply take the bishop? In the game, black also took the bishop with 10... axb5 but after 11. Qxa8! he was already behind in material. After that the game went 11... Qxa8 12. Nc7+ Kd8 13. Nxa8 and white was just up the exchange. Also, if he instead played something like 10... Rb8, he would soon be dead after 11. Bb6! axb5 12. Qb3 Qc8 13. Nc7+ Kd8 14. Qxf7 and there's no defense against a big loss of material.
At the time of the game, I never saw such a combination before. You can nearly say it was a coincidence that I saw 10. Nd5, since I had never seen that pattern before. But a few years ago, when I started playing the Scandinavian and bought Emms' excellent book The Scandinavian (2nd edition), I ran into the following game in the Anderssen Counter Attack variation:
Ivanchuk vs. Angelov, Varna 1987
After 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 e5 we've arrived at the Scandinavian Defense, Anderssen Counter Attack variation. Ivanchuk played 5. dxe5 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Bg4 8. a3 and we arrive at the position below.
We can easily make a comparison to the previous game. Although colors are reversed, there is again a bishop on the b-file, attacked by the a-pawn, which is pinned to the rook by the queen. This time the rest of the board is different, but that didn't stop black from playing 8... Nd4 which again looks like a strong move. Black threatens 9... Bxf3, damaging white's pawn structure and winning the e5-pawn. 9. Be2 Bxf3 10. Bxf3 Qxe5+ also doesnt make white too happy. So what can white do? Ivanchuk will show you what to do: 9. Bb5+!! It will take you a while to see all variations and see that all variations lead to a win for white, but this move is correct and brilliant! Two examples: 9... Nxb5 10. bxa4 Nxc3 11. Bxc3 leaves white a pawn up, and 9... Nxb5 10. bxa4 Qxb4 11. Ra4 Nxc3 12. Rxb4 Nxd1 13. Rxg4 Nxb2 14. Rb4 will leave white a piece up.
So we get the position on the right, and it's black's turn. Does this mean he will be left with a worse position? Maybe not! Black played 9... c6! and it was Ivanchuk's turn again to find a good move. The simple 10. axb4? still doesn't work with the knight on d4, since 10... Qxa1 11. Qxa1 Nxc2+ again wins material. So what's the best move here? Ivanchuk found it, and even if he found it at home and not at the board, the move is still very pretty: 10. O-O!! Ivanchuk doesn't care the board is filled with hanging pieces and pins, he just brings his king to safety. With this move he threatens to take on b4, since Nxc2 doesn't fork the white king anymore.
So what can black do? Maybe the simple 10... cxb5? No, after 11. axb4 Qxb4 12. Nxb5! Qxb5 (12... Nxf3+ is met by 13. Qxf3!!) 13. Nxd4 Qd7 14. Nf3 Bxf3 15. gxf3 Ne7 16. Bb4 Nd5 17. Bd6 white's king is more secure than black's, which can't castle, giving white the advantage. Black instead played 10... Bxf3, and Ivanchuk accepted the massive exchanges with 11. axb4! Bxd1 12. bxa5 Bxc2 13. Ba4!. The fact that white is more developed, has more space and more active pieces mean that white has a comfortable edge here, and Ivanchuk quite easily converted this middlegame/endgame to a win.
So the combination pattern I got on the board had been seen before, and not in just another game. Ivanchuk faced a similar threat in a Scandinavian game, but refuted black's threats with some amazing moves. White's 9th and 10th move are just fantastic. Even if it's home preparation, would any of us have found those moves at home?
If you want to replay the games, or if you can't follow the annotations without a board, below are game viewers for both games. All variations in the annotations are also in the viewers; just click Move List and select the right variation.