Understanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenUnderstanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenFirst edition 2019 by Thinkers Publishing Copyright © 2019 Herman Grooten All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re- trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. All sales or enquiries should be directed to Thinkers Publishing, 9850 Landegem, Belgium. Email: info@thinkerspublishing.com Website: www.thinkerspublishing.com Managing Editor: Herman Grooten Assistant Editor: Zyon Kollen Proofreading: Daniel Fernandez Software: Hub van de Laar Graphic Artist: Philippe Tonnard Cover Design: Mieke Mertens Photo Cover: Ab Scheel + Photos: Jos Sutmuller and Frans Peeters Production: BESTinGraphics ISBN: 9789492510426 D/2018/13730/23Understanding before Moving 2 Queen’s Gambit Structures Herman GrootenThinkers Publishing 2019 Tehran www.thinkerspublishing.comExplanation of symbols: ! good move + White has a clear advantage ? weak move + — Black has a clear advantage | excellent move +~ White is winning 2? blunder —+ Black is winning !2 interesting move > with an attack 21 dubious move + initiative a onlymove 4 lead in development = balanced position 5S counterplay ee unclear position 4 with the idea & with compensation for the © betteris sacrificed material N novelty £ White is slightly better # checkmate = Black is slightly better + check Next to most diagrams you'll see a small square on the right. If it’s white, it means it’s White’s move; if it’s black, it means it’s Black’s move. Bibliography Fundamental Chess Openings — Paul van der Sterren Queen’s Gambit Declined — Matthew Sadler Queens’s Gambit Exchange Variation — Kevin Wicker Die Kunst der Baurenfiihrung = Hans Kmoch Pawn Structure Chess — Andrew Soltis My Great Predecessors — Garry Kasparov Mega Database —ChessbaseVisual aids In this book, we'll regularly use different kinds of visual aids. As a chess coach, I’ve found that the very act of making strategic or tactical ideas accessible in visual form can be pedagogically useful. When, for instance, | use a projector in my classes, | use highlighting and colourful arrows to show people weak squares, piece paths and other features. Since this book isn’t published in color ~ unlike the first part in Dutch — our software devel- oper Hub van de Laar has put together the pal- ette of annotation features needed to never- theless enable the reader to focus on the position’s essence ata single glance. In the ad- jacent diagram, we can immediately see what white is threatening and ‘what other arrow he may have left in his quiver’. This position is taken from the splendid attacking game Dreev-Kishney, Chalkidiki 2002, in which white sacrifices his queen in exchange for two minor pieces, more activity and a large number of threats. To indicate moves in this book we won't use the letters of the piece in question, but instead the so-called figurines. These are: Piece __| Letter | Figurine King Queen Rook Bishop Knight _ Pawn = z\a|alo|x 1 |S} eo} be a ceContents Explanation of symbols and bibliography Visual aids -~ Contents Preface - Chapter 1 Studying of Openings-— Chapter 2 Background of Openings Chapter 3 Pawn Structures and Practical Examples Chapter 4 Discussing Variations Chapter5 — Model Game: Chapter6 Exercises Chapter 7 Solutions Appendix instructive Game: Preface Things that start out very small can sometimes turn out to be big. It’s kinda the same with this new series of chess books. From material that started as a simple series of two-page articles (appearing six times per year in the Dutch chess journal Schaakmagazine) it has ultimately been possible to formulate a thorough and ro- bust structure which club players can use to improve their game. It all started when | met up over coffee with Minze bij de Weg, chief editor of Schaakmagazine, to discuss setting up a new instructional column in the journal. He noted that the average Elo-rating of the club players who formed our readership was in fact between 1500-1600. This is a lot lower, | think, than most coaches or titled players would guess if given the question ‘cold’. Furthermore, he thought there was a paucity of instructional material available for club players — in general, but also specifically within the publication. Minze asked me how | thought we could aid this group in improving their play. Since | already had developed and given some courses to club players, | was well placed to identify the broad needs of the group. For instance, | had looked at numerous games handed in by students, and found that often they struggled with the late opening and the transition to the middle-game. The rote learning of early moves didn’t necessarily result in sound treatment of the ensuing middlegames, it seemed; rather the contrary. This series of books deals with the central question: how does one identify the es- sence of opening positions? Furthermore, without resorting to complex trees of var- iations, how could | best explain the plans and underlying concepts of positions arising after a few initial moves? These were questions | had to work through while writing my series of articles, and | believe | have found good answers. In my opinion, the average club player can derive great benefit from an opening book in which a profusion of ideas is offered. One which does not merely teach the correct answers to specific questions (of which opening move-orders are a particu- larly bad example) but also processes by which genuine insight can be reached. One which explores ideas thoroughly, but retains enough structure and order that the student gains an understanding of the patterns rather than just being over- whelmed. My articles were written with significant attention paid to these balanc- ing acts and to my readers’ needs. Now, in collaboration with my Belgian chess pal Daniel Vanheirzeele, the owner of Thinkers Publishing, | present you with an even more detailed work on the backgrounds and underlying ideas of openings, which has expanded from a column into a series of books! We will take the reader on a journey from everyday openings and into the subtle, nuanced world of grandmaster chess. When we get there, I'll try to explain in eve- ryday words the many plans, ideas, and concepts that often remain hidden below the surface. These explorations should give the club player something to hold onto, as his opponents inevitably deviate from theory and force him to seek his practical success in an unmapped battlefield. Many thanks are due to Zyon Kollen who painstakingly translated this book from the original Dutch and Daniel Fernandez for the proofreading. | also want to thank Jos Sutmuller and Frans Peeters who allowed me to use their photography therein. We wish you a lot of joy and support in working through the second book of this new series. IM Herman Grooten, November 2018.Studying of Chess Openings Introduction It is clear that opening books are very popular among chess players. Furthermore, since the advent of modern chess engines, most serious players have been spend- ing increasing amounts of time working on openings with those too. Almost every tournament player nowadays goes to a tournament armed with a laptop, and thereby has at their disposal an updated database and at least a few strong engines to use for preparation The tendency of club players to invest energy thus in opening study has not devel- oped for no reason, of course. In the blink of an eye it’s possible to look up oppo- nents’ games and therefore it’s natural to look up which opening variations the op- ponent likes to play. Since so much material is available, it’s possible to prepare oneself in a very concrete manner. Many club players have begun just flicking through their opponent's games on the screen, noting the opinions of their silicon friends and leaving the old-fashioned boards and books lying on the table. By spending hours in this way, it is assumed, improvement is virtually guaranteed. Tournament players have developed religious zeal regarding this matter, thinking that their hard work will result in a higher rating before long. Unfortunately this frequently just turns out to be an illusion...10 Queen's Gambit Structures During my many years’ work as a chess coach | have worked with many talented youth players, but also with ambitious adults who wanted to “ramp up” their level Typically, | would ask about the breakdown of the hours they spent on chess study at home. Increasingly with the passing of time, | would receive the answer that they spent considerable numbers of hours on openings, but that returns on that study were becoming limited. | wondered to myself-What gives? When playing my pupils’ games, | noticed they — in spite of having good basic knowledge — had a lot of difficulty as soon as the opponent deviated from theory. Suddenly they were left to their own devices! And then it appeared that in many cases they weren’t so good at improvising. They were also making lots of errors, both “forced” and “unforced”, in the resulting complicated middlegames. Of course, players of all levels sometimes find themselves out of their depth in unfa- miliar situations. Nevertheless, there are some courses of action which make it less likely a player will end up ‘lost’ and which increase the efficiency of opening study. In particular, we should pay attention to the late opening, when play is moving into a middlegame and players must be aware of the possibility that their opponent will deviate from, or not be familiar with, the opening books. The correct, sound meth- ods by which recreational players could stufy openings and improve their results became clear to me over several years When | was first developing these ideas, | started testing them on pupils whom I tu- tored. | also shared my thoughts with inter- ested club players in several courses | gave. The cornerstone: understanding! | got busy categorising different positions (regardless of the original opening) by their pawn structure, and thus keeping to the Wilhelm Steinitz spirit of a dictum of the first world cham- pion, Wilhelm Steinitz: “the pawn structure is the position’s skeleton”. On this skel- eton everything else must hang; it determines where the pieces can or can’t go to. Steinitz showed that a given position’s possible plans can almost always be deduced from pawn structure.Chapter 1 - Studying of Chess Openings " Concretely, then, can we determine the best way to develop pieces in a given struc- ture? This question is not easy to answer, but rather than reinvent the wheel or philosophise too much, it’s better to look at the games of (strong) grandmasters, i.e. people who have developed a nearly infallible instinct of where the pieces should go. There are numerous ideas behind a grandmaster’s moves, but by the same token, each time the ideas must all be distilled down to one move, which necessarily means that most of the detail remains hidden under the surface. This all raises several questions © Where do we want to place our pawns in the opening? © Which plans carry over when the structure is the same but the piece de- ployments are totally different? © How does a top-class player identify the positions salient features and use them to generate a plan? What pieces should be exchanged, and which ones not? ¢ How could we start an attack? How to thwart the opponent's play? In the end, we make opening study more efficient by means of improving strategic insight. Therefore, in some sense, this book aims to kill two birds with one stone. We'll start studying an opening by looking at model games to try to understand why certain moves are played. Hence the name of this series: “Understanding before Moving”. It must be said that sharp opening variations don’t go well together with this stra- tegic approach. There the main focus lies on becoming well acquainted with all the tactics in the different variations. An unusually great premium is placed on accuracy and timing within the move sequences. Here concrete knowledge is indispensable, but nevertheless, even here a profound understanding of structure forms the basis for success. While formulating my approach I had a number of informative conversations with the Ukrainian grandmaster and famous chess trainer Adrain Mikhalchishin. One of his basic suggestions was that for the development of real progress and insight it is indispensable to play through classic games from great masters, accompanied by illustrative variations and text notes. He noted that this was compulsory in the East- ern bloc, and went on to describe the ‘model game’, i.e. the type of game which is most useful to play through. Quite what this means will be elaborated upon more concretely at the end of the chapter.12 Queen's Gambit Structures Briefly, according to Adrian (who now lives in Slovenia), players should pay atten- tion to those annotated games in which the latent plans of the position are carried to fruition by the winner. If a stronger player beats a player of a lower Elo and the basic ideas are displayed in a clear manner, this could mark the spectator’s begin- ning to understand the game better. He often used the slogan “Follow the leader”. By this he meant that if you want to study an opening, it would be sensible to track an expert in this variation. A strong player, who has familiarized himself with this type of position, could learn you a lot about (for example) where to put your pieces. He gave as an example that games of former world champion Mikhail Tal are excel- lent subject material in order to learn to understand the Benoni. Preparing during a tournament Earlier we discussed the role of computers. They play an especially large part in the preparation of top-class players, although of course their own creativity is not to be underestimated. Ultimately, by combining the two, top professionals manage to make optimal use of the computer, synthesizing the best of both carbon and silicon to accomplish that which either alone might not manage. The question, though, is how us mere mortals should tackle it... From experience | know that during a tournament, one of the favourite uses of a computer is to prepare some special ‘trick’ variation, where the opponent is utterly busted if they happen to play into the preparation. At times this might even work! Nevertheless, the liberal use of the right-arrow key (at least, not the spacebar...) is a bad habit when doing these prepara- tions. Especially when the player is a youth player, one often sees the games of 2700+ grandmasters flash by on the screen- with extremely little attention paid to them. The preparing player might then make some remark, prompted by the engine somewhere on the screen: for instance, “I don’t like this at all for White.” To tell the truth, at such moments | find it hard not to burst out laughing. In the 20 seconds he spent playing through the game, | wonder what he was able to understand about it. Two strong players had spent about 5 or 6 hours thinking about their moves, and we are flicking through them in 20 seconds, hoping to come to a verdict about a line. Surely, | say, this is madness. But the player is already merrily flicking through theChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings B next game. Then, of course, that which unfolds in the tournament hall later is com- pletely and utterly unrelated to this ‘preparation’. A second aspect shouldn't be neglected as well. Games of others are usually down- loaded from the Internet and examined with the aid of a strong chess engine. We all know of course the famous Fritz, but nowadays Houdini, Komodo and Stockfish call the shots. On the basis of the evaluation the computer gives within a few sec- onds, the position’s evaluation is determined. If the computer indicates +0.66, the player thinks White should have won this game. If it was his own, he may even shout “I was winning!” he'll shout, forgetting to add the requisite pinch of salt to the computer's opinion. These evaluations often depend heavily on specific parameter choices made by the programmer, which can be subjective. Furthermore, depending on the type of po- sition, +0.66 may reflect a totally unwinnable position — or at least one which re- quires superhuman effort. However, equally confounding is the area in which com- puters have undisputed supremacy:making accurate calculations in a complex tactical position. Every modern player has experienced the frustration of a com- puter revealing to them some missed combination, which cost them points. At such points it is important to not let one’s confidence take a hit, because if it does, then the tournament won’t go according to plan anymore. One brief anecdote about the quirks of computers. There once was a Dutch ma- jor league player who in games against chess computers always opened 1. d3. After 1... d5 2. e4 the engine inevitably replied 2.. dxe4 3, dxed fxdi+ 4. xd1. The engine had been pro- grammed to favour Black, because cas- tling was still possible. However, now that the queens have been exchanged, the practical chances for a human had actually increased considerably!14 Queen's Gambit Structures Asked about this approach, the player gave the laconic but revealing response: “1 wouldn’t take on a cash register at arithmetic.”- and there is an element of wisdom in this. Summarizing, we may say that to im- prove, it is necessary to make some de- cisions about the use, strengths and weaknesses of computers. The best ad- Position after: 4. 2x1 vice is: use common sense! Tabiya In some books we encounter sometimes the term tabiya. I'll try to explain below what this term means and what one is basically trying to say with it. ie DEFINITION OF “TABIYA” A tabiya is @ position that has arisen after 10-20 moves, in which the pawn structure is showing a number of typical features. On the basis of this pawn formation we can derive plans and concepts that are typical for this structure. The term tabiya occurs frequently in study books or training lessons that nowadays can be found on the Internet in the form of videos. | encountered it myself when reading the book the Queen’s Indian Defence, The Kasparov System of 1991 by GM Mikhail Gurevich. | purchased that book because | played the variation myself and was especially interested by Kasparov's play in the eighties. Also around that time, | was a member of the club team De Variant in Breda, which played in (and won) the top division of the Dutch league under various sponsor names for several years. Mikhail Gurevich, who lived in Brussels at that time, wasChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings 15 one of my teammates. Oftentimes the whole team would eat dinner together after a game and so, naturally, one time | got talking to him and was able to ask just what he meant by the word “tabiya”. What | dimly recollect from his answer was that the pawn structure plays a decisive role in determing a plan. In his book on the Queen's Indian this also comes to the fore very clearly. There are variations that for example give a Benoni structure — such an opening in which specific plans play a role for both players. Gurevich also pointed out that it is beneficial to study these structures not only in the abstract, but also with reference to real middlegames that could occur featuring them. By listing the plans and concepts you'll understand better how you should develop your pieces in the opening. By studying grandmaster games, you'll find out what plans could be formulated with the pawn structure in question. Gurevich showed that one can work backwards from the middlegame to the opening: first under- standing a particular structure and then seeing how to get there from move 1. Like Mikhalchishin Gurevich bets on developing understanding and insight. Let us have a look at a couple of examples to see how these could be implemented in practice. a majority on the queenside that could be of huge importance in the endgame. A typical way of playing here is with some sort of breakthrough: 1. d4-d5 Af- ter 1... e6xd5 White has two possibi ties: © Taking back the pawn with 2, exdS and in this way creating a passed pawn that in the middlegame could This typical pawn structure is in litera- stir up trouble in Black’s territory. ture also called the ‘small center’. White has a pawn majority on the kingside, © Choosing to sacrifice the pawn with Black on the queenside. This means 2. e4-e5 and going for an attack on White is basically able to create a Black's king. This is shown in the fol- passed pawn in the short term. He also lowing schematic diagram: has more space, meaning his pieces have more space to manoeuvre behind the pawns. Black on the other hand hasQueen's Gambit Structures Because of the pawn sacrifice, White has gained an important pawn on e5 and he can manoeuvre his pieces be- hind this pawn in such a way they could be mobilized for an attack. These ma- neuvers go as follows: We'll list a couple of these manoeuvres: id The knight on f3 could be played to £5 via da. '\ This frees up the queen to go to g4 or hS, eyeing the black king. In addition to this, White also has the option to play rook lifts along the third rank, starting with Be3. & Sacrifices on h7 are lurking if Black’s oo defenders can’t immediately defend against the mates. & The push e6 is common, unleashing the £2 on the game. In short: white has numerous attacking ideas which can be tested in practice. The young Kasparov liked playing posi- tions with a ‘small center’, so he coordi- nated his opening choice around this. There follow two nice examples from the eighties: & Kasparov A Najdorf @® Bugojno 1982 Position after: 16... Wd6 17.5! This thematic break underlies much of White's play in this type of position. 17... exd5 18. e5 HWe6 19. Ada 19. Kadi would probably have been better, e.g. 19... cd 20. Act He7 21.Chapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings ‘2d4 and White indeed gets a danger- ous initiative after 21... Wc8 22. Af. Position after: 22. Df5 19... Wxes 20. DS 2f61 So far Black has defended himself in ex- emplary fashion. Note 20... g6? fails to 21, &da! Wxe2 22. AhéH. And on 20... 2cS? White wins after 21. Wh5! Hfes 22. De7+1+. Also, after 20... Ac4t? White had planned 21. Wf1 with the idea of 2.d4. The engine however sug- gests the reply 21... &d6! with a huge advantage for Black. Therefore, on the previous move White should prefer 21. Whs!? g6 22. Ada Wxda 23. gxhd 24. Exe7 and White has enough compen- sation for his pawn. He could also choose to win the pawn back through 21, 2xb6, but now the queens are ex- changed: 21... Wxe2 22. Hxe2 Qfo 23. 2.04 with an equal game 21. Wega Bces? Also not great would have been: 21... Hes?! 22. Ad2 Wxal 23. Bxa1 Bxal 24. h4!s but with 21... Wc3! Black could have held firm: 22, De7+! Bxe7 23. Garri Kasparov in the eithties (photo Jos Sutmuller) Sud4 Gxd4 24. Yxaa 2f6 25. Wea xa1 26. Exa1t and Black has sur- vived. 22. 2d2! Position after: 22. 2d2!Queen's Gambit Structures 22... Wxal? This loses immediately, but Najdorf would also have gone down after 22... We7 23. Bn6+ Cs 24. Exes Hxes 25, WFs! Hea 26. Axed dxe4 27. Het Bch 28. Bg5+ winning. Relatively better is 22... f’b2, but White will also now have a clear advantage after 23. ®h6+ Vhs 24. Whs, after which 24... Hoes is forced. Then 25. &xe4 dxe4 26. &.b4 is no picnic, although Black is still in the game after 26... e3!? 23. Hxal 2xa1 Position after: 23... &xa1 24, Axg7! 2xg7 24... AcB 25. Des+ Lhs 26. thes and mate follows. 25. 2h6 1-0 A Kasparov, Garri & Murey, Jacob @ Moscow 1982 Position after: 12. cxd4 12... a6?! It was about time to complete develop- ing and bring the king to safety. This could be done by 12... 2d6! as Black will answer 13. d5 with 13... exdS 14, exdS We7+ 15. Re2 Aas 16, Wade &d8! and now White’s king will also face trouble in trying to leave the cen- ter. ...e8 is threatened and therefore 17. GfLis forced. 13. Wa2t The queen gets out of the rook’s line of fire and at the same time supports the advance d4-d5. 13... DadChapter 1 ~ Studying of Chess Openings Position after: 13... 2a5 Now 13... 2d6 would be punished by 14. d5 exdS 15. Wxd5! and both Yxa6 and S.xg7 are threatning. After 15... 2f8 follows the strong 16. WhS! and Black’s king can’t get out of the center. 14. d5! Of course White stops waiting. 14... exdS 14... Ac415. Axcd Hxca 16. Wd3 Bes 17. d6+— 15. exd5 2.d6 Hoping to prevent the advance d5-d6, but the king can’t escape the center af- ter White’s next move. In order to elim- inate the option &xg7 Black could play 15... £6, but his chances of survival are still nil after 16. d6! Hc 17. d7+. 16. 2xg7 We7+ 17. 2e2 Bg8is. Whe Position after: 18. Yh6 18... 5?! Too rigorous, but what else could he have done? One attempt would be to run away with the king: 18... @d7 19. 0- 0! Gc7 [Black won't escape after 19... Wrxe2 20. Efet Wbs 21. DeS+ wc7 22. Dxf7 either] but now on 20. Xfe1 bs (20... Was 21. Aes wins directely because of the threat @xf7] , 21. 2xa6 means Black's king won't find peace on the queenside either. 19, 266 Ws 20. Yxh7 We7 21. Hxts, White is already up material and Black's king has no safe shelter. 21... Hg6 22. Wea+ hfs 23. Ags! Kasparov continues at full blast. 23... Kxgs 24. Lxgs Bes 25. Ahe+ gs 26. Year 1020 Queen's Gambit Structures Model Games The importance of studying grandmaster games deeply is stressed by almost all good chess trainers. Apart from the fact that a strong grandmaster not only has deep ‘book’ knowledge of the game, his experience will also help him to find his way in unknown territory. (This is often a major advantage over a weaker player: ability to evaluate a position and choose a sound plan.) Only the very best games should be used in order to get the hang of an opening. Every club player who wants to make progress can access them using today’s modern technological tools. This being said, of course, there is still ‘junk’, the elimination of which is a science in itself. There follow some guidelines on this process: & First determine which ‘tabiya’ you are interested in. Which are the pawn struc- tures of which you want to know the characteristic plans? ‘\ Model games are often not close fights but rather ‘masterclasses’. That is, played between a top GM and a relatively weak player (maybe 100-150 points lower). ‘\ The strategic concept should be emphasized clearly. '&, The game has to be commentated, preferably in the chess student's native lan- guage, with as much text and explanation as possible. Variations should support the story and can’t be dominant. Preferably as few symbols (like +, and the like) as possible since they don’t indicate the position’s essence '\ Analyse the game first alone and then put into words how much you learned from it. Verbalizing a plan/concept will help with understanding the position later, including when you have it in front of you in competition! Pitfalls Some pitfalls and further recommendations: © As indicated above, it would be wise to avoid game analyses from Chessbase or for example Chess Informant that only contain codes. We won't learn from codes like +, % or $. The concept is explained by verbal explanation. © Be critical of annotated games. Oftentimes, they were made using engines or “annotated by result”. If they use evaluation symbols, these might not change often enough to reflect reality. Superficiality and inaccuracy are rampant!Chapter 1 - Studying of Chess Openings a1 © Some books are unsuitable. Lack of verbal explanations is a red flag. Choose opening books (and annotated game collections) which are text-heavy in order to maximize comprehension. @ A lot of analyses were written in international languages like English, German or Russian; and reaching a wide audience may have been prioritized over, well, intelligibility. So, sometimes, confusion reigns. Especially in such cases, you would learn a lot by annotating the game in your own words (and language.) @ In this modern age many chess videos can be consulted on the Internet. A lot of material is available on chessbase.com, chess.com, chess24.com and YouTube. @ With many modern chess programs visual aids (as used in this book!) can be added, which highlight what’s going in a position. Many players already make good use of these! Last points of general advice In order to obtain as great a yield as possible from the (limited) hours a player can spend on chess, it seems sensible to prioritise the understanding of positions, ra- ther than rote knowledge. Try to understand an opening’s background better through studying the plans and concepts of stronger players. Don’t get disap- pointed if you try a new system and lose a couple of times with it. Look up the theory after the game, detect your mistakes and incorporate the improvements in your own opening repertoire. | would wish you luck, but | believe that more often than not, you make your own luck through work,Background of Openings In the journal of the Royal Dutch Chess Federation, Schaakmagazine, a new column was launched in 2007. The journal's then editor, Minze bij de Weg, had approached me to write a technical column, mainly intended for club players. Since | was spend- ing lots of time teaching ambitious chess players at many different levels, | was a good fit for the post. I remember vividly a conversation we had in those early days. Init | told him of my habit of asking for the games of club players in order to discuss these during training sessions. From these | had noticed obvious and common de- ficiencies in many people’s approaches to the opening, at least from my viewpoint. Not that they played bad moves - quite the contrary: they were playing moves they had seen in opening books. Yet | started realizing more and more that the deeper backgrounds of the opening, the how and why of the moves, were wasted on many club players. Minze, a rather strong club player himself (his Elo rating is around 2000), found himself agreeing with the statement... That’s why during training sessions | used to take all the pieces off the board, leav- ing only the pawn structure, and then ask the students: “what information does the pawn structure give to us”? My intention was to give the ambitious amateur a ‘han- dle’ to use to treat openings with more insight and understanding. When | re- counted this method to Minze he understood the shape my column would probably take, and he went away and came up with a ‘working title’ which - in spite of other suggestions that we later brought up in a brainstorm session - ultimately became24 Queen's Gambit Structures the column's title: Understanding before Moving. Our conclusion was that this name perfectly covered the contents. | started working with Chessbase, an advanced database, and various opening books. From the starting position | entered the moves of common openings and from each of those positions typed as much as | felt able to, given my own knowledge. This got sometimes out of hand, because in quite a few variations, the clarifications became bulky and were weighed down by game references. Then | had to reduce the documents to about 1500 words each, i.e. roughly the number that could fit in two pages of Schaakmagazine. Of course | could spread the con- tents of some openings over several issues, but in the end | found | had to cut away lots of material in order to fit my columns to the space. Since | didn’t feel able to say everything | wanted in the column, Minze provided me with a bright idea: “Why don’t you start giving lectures about it?’ he asked. | did as recommended, enlarging the repository of treated openings by making the required analysis files. With some effort these were assembled into ‘class notes’ files, which contained between 40-60 pages each and also included various exer- cises, so that the students could try to apply that which they had learned. In the lecture | could present from these notes, and they allowed me to cover more ma- terial in better detail than in the column: a triumph of Minze’s idea. My first presen- tation was in Eindhoven — my city of residence — and took place during 2.5 hours one evening (with a short break.) My stated mission was to give an introduction to the Sicilian Defence; as it turned out, there was great interest in hearing me speak about this subject! Unexpectedly for me, nearly 50 people signed up, necessitating the booking of a larger hall for the presentation... | gave another such lecture in Eindhoven, and after this ! was contacted by Roer- mond, Arnhem and Leiden about giving talks there too, so that | could also famil- iarise those towns’ club players with my approach to openings. | gave those talks too, and every participant worked through and took home a booklet of notes of around 50 pages The feedback some people gave me was that the evenings were passing too quickly! What better criticism could a speaker wish for? One of the participants even wondered if it weren’t possible to spend a whole weekend day on these work- shops, so that there would be more time available for explanation, and also to make time for processing the new information by means of playing. So| acted on this idea too. The Masterclass was born, and on a Saturday in 2012 the first Masterclass wasChapter 2 - Background of Openings 25 organized, on the subject of creating a ‘hypersharp’ opening repertoire, and with the philosophy of Under- standing before Moving. That Satur- day, all participants recieved no less than 5 hours of training, a lunch and a thick workbook they could take home afterwards. The response was so good that | con- tacted my former pupil, IM Benjamin Bok (now GM), to lenda helping hand with administering the exercises and also later with giving feedback on the mini-games participants played at the end. Benjamin Bok (photo Frans Peeters) This they appreciated very much! In the second Masterclass, which took place a year later, | spoke on the related subject of how strategic skill can be trained. Here,too, participation exceeded my expectations, and again | invited a strong player, once more a former pupil — GM Robin Swinkels ~ to help the participants forward. This second Masterclass also became a success, as did the third in Utrecht. Note: by now almost the original Schaakmagazine articles can be found online on schaaksite.nl, the popular site set up and managed by Kees Schrijvers, of which lam one of the editors. Most model games which | mention in my column in Schaakmag- azine, can also be downloaded here. An overview (in Dutch) is found at: http://www. schaaksite.nl/2013/05/03/overzicht-begrijp-wat-u-doet/. In the meantime | had been busy developing a set of video lessons based on the series Understanding before Moving, in collaboration with chessbase.com. The whole series can be viewed on Chessbase’s video channel. On the portal http://vid- eos.chessbase.com one should scroll down to ‘TV CHESSBASE NETHERLANDS’. By this time it had become clear to me that it would be wise to turn this wealth of instructional material into a series of books. Therefore | and the wider Thinkers Publishing community are working hard on making this a reality. In this second in- stalment of the new book series, we'll be discussing the positions that can arise after the Queen’s Gambit.26 Queen’s Gambit Structures The most important reason we chose these structures is that many players of club level opt for 1. d4 d5. Another fac- tor is that the Queen’s Gambit occurs quite frequently at the top level and nearly all world champions have—or had in the past — various variations of this opening in their repertoire. The reason of this is not as obvious as it seems. But when listing their games it appears many types of positions come forth that are essential to have a deeper insight in chess. For example from vari- ous variations — from both White’s and Black’s perspective — there can arise po- sitions on the board with a central isolated pawn. Treating this type of position, playing with the isolani as well as against it, are crucial to becoming a better player. The same goes for positions with the so-called hanging pawns. The treatment of both the ‘for’ and ‘against’ sides can be extremely difficult. Robin Swinkels (photo Frans Peeters) io io aa aad aa aaa & & A& BAS && && & Many thick books have been written about this type of position with the isolated pawn (or the isolani as Aron Nimzowitsch used to call it and often written as IQP). In trying to improve one’s chess, it’s nearly indispensable to play close attention to how to treat such structures, both playing with and playing against the isolani. The same is true about positions featuring hanging pawns. The considerations that de- termine decisions about whether to play with or against these pawns are very hard to make in practiceChapter 2 - Background of Openings 27 Profound insight is required to play such positions, in which very subtle alterations could swing the evaluation dramatically. Conclusion Studying the plans that pertain to specific pawn structures are essential to devel- ‘oping one’s insight. Discovering different assessments and the subtleties that play apart in them are often particularly interesting and instructive! And this is what the strongest players in the world always want: expanding the frontiers of their under- standing and exposure, alongside the playing of practical games in which the name of the game is, less nobly, simply tripping the opponent up. This is what chess is all about. We need to find our way in all sorts of positions, and balance truth with creativity. The more exposure we have, the better we can improvise. Then concrete opening knowledge is no longer of vital importance. Sometimes, we might even find ourselves playing a completely unfamiliar opening position, but nevertheless be ina position to make “borrowings” from other openings with a similar structure, giving us insight about the position on our boards and helping us make good deci- sions under pressure.I. Pawn Structures A lot of books on chess strategy highlight the importance of pawn structures. The unofficial world champion Frangois-André Philidor considered pawns to be “the soul of chess” and his successor, Wilhelm Steinitz, once said — as we had already noticed elsewhere — the pawn structure is like the position’s ‘skeleton’ on which everything is hung. The Queen’s Gambit — and especially the so-called Carlsbad structure, which arises from the Exchange Variation — lends itself remarkably well for mapping out the dif- ferent kind of ideas in a schematic manner. After White at a certain point plays c4xd5 and Black answers this with ...e6xd5, a static (and very common) pawn for- mation arises which will remain unchanged for a long time. The static nature of the position is perfect for creating long, schematic plans for both sides, in which the pieces are placed on pre-defined squares. Obviously, neither side develops their plans in a vacuum. After we have formulated one player’s plan, we'll have to elaborate on how the other player should defend themselves. The defending concepts can sometimes vary quite a lot, therefore the ‘attacker’ will also have to give an explanation for the surprises the defender has waiting for him. The interaction between the player aiming to execute his plan and his opponent trying to prevent this idea will just make the battle more interesting!30 Queen's Gambit Structures It can sometimes be useful to mentally whisk off all the pieces from a middlegame position and just examine the pawn structure. However, while looking at the fol- lowing diagrams, try not to forget we'll be applying the ideas later in a middlegame with (almost) all the pieces still on the board, Carlsbad structure After the exchange on dS takes place, the starting position of the Exchange Variation arises, as above. This is usually called the Carlsbad structure. We can distinguish between three basic plans: Plan A. Minority attack Plan B. Central play Plan C. Opposite-side castling In the first part of this chapter we shall elaborate on these three plans in isola- tion, and in the second we will apply our knowledge to some practical examples. Plan A: Minority attack The standard plan The most usual plan in the Carlsbad structure is the so-called ‘minority at- tack’. Since White is controlling the half- open c-file, it seems logical to transfer a rook thence, but immediately this might not have much effect because of the barricade on c6. Therefore a natural plan is to try and weaken the pawn more. This is called the minority attack be- cause White is starting action on the queenside, despite having fewer pawns there. The aim is to weaken the strong point of c6 by means of b2-b4-b5xc6. Af- ter this plan has succeeded, the c6- pawn will be weaker and easier to be- siege.Chapter 3 ~ Pawn Structures 31 An additional effect of this action is that White's pieces can be instantly placed on good squares. Black will have to re- act to this plan Roughly speaking, there are two main counters: > Taking measures on the queenside > Starting counterplay on the king- side A mix of both ideas is also possible, but because of the complexity involved we'll leave that out of consideration. Below we'll have a close look at the two ideas in isolation. Measures on the queenside 3.2 Prevention: b7-b5 Black can firmly halt White's advance b4-b5. He will do this by playing ...b7-bS. This idea has two disadvantages: the first is that he has voluntarily weakened his c6-pawn again, and the second that he has definitively lost control of the c5- square. On the other hand he has se- cured the c4-square, perhaps for the fu- ture use of a knight If a knight could indeed be stationed here, it would become extremely hard for White to start an attack on c6. So b5 changes the play’s character imme- diately. In many cases White after ...b7- bS immediately answers a2-a4, continu- ing (after Black’s automatic response a7-a6) with a4-a5, the better to prevent Black’s idea of getting a knight to c4, at least via the b6 route. This also has drawbacks, though, as White’s b4-pawn can sometimes become weak, and rela- tively easily targeted by a bishop-queen battery on the f8-a3 diagonal.32 Queen's Gambit Structures An observant reader will also notice that Black can also manoeuvre his knight to c4 via d6. This idea takes lon- ger, giving White more time to pursue other plans. 3.3 The reaction: 2 to dé We note, however, that once Black does succeed in playing his knight to d6, White’s b5-break becomes harder to ex- ecute and White’s minority attack may stall. For this to be a good use of time for Black, though, it is important that the light-square bishops have been ex- changed already, making the knight’s newfound control over bS and c4 more meaningful. Exchanging light-square bishops is in general a sound plan which Black should keep in mind. A frequent reaction is that of answering the advance b4-b5 with ...c6-c5. After d4xc5 we presume Black is capturing back with a piece. The arising position should be re-evaluated. Black has hereby voluntarily accepted playing with an isolated pawn on d5, which could be a potential weakness. On the other hand he does have some advantages: his control of the squares c4 and e4 will help Black to expand the necessary activity for his pieces. In con- siderations of dynamic factors, it is cer- tainly no help for White that he has