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ANNOTATED GAME
Shirov #3: "Two Queens beat a Full House"
Alexey Shirov (2700?) vs. Arnaud Hauchard (2500?)
Annotated by: raskerino (1841)
Chess opening: Benko gambit half accepted (A57)
Alexey Shirov (2700?) vs. Arnaud Hauchard (2500?)
Annotated by: raskerino (1841)
Chess opening: Benko gambit half accepted (A57)
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The title comes from chessgames. In an attack a pawn can do great things when it snakes it's way towards the enemy king, it can support key squares to help mate, it can even sneak through and queen: it can also do both. That's one half of Shirov's attack, but there's another part: pieces that flow towards the enemies king, heedless of losses. | |||||
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1. d4 |
in an attack a pawn can do great things when it snakes it's way towards the enemy king, it can support key squares to help mate, it can even sneak through and queen: it can also do both. That's one half of Shirov's attack, but there's another part: pieces that flow towards the enemies king, heedless of losses. | ||||
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1... Nf6 |
I'm going to skim over the opening, black offers a gambit, white declines. Both sides develop, but white gets a space advantage on BOTH sides of the board. | ||||
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2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 |
Black had no desire to get blown out in this game, he plays the active and dangerous Benko Gambit. Black sacrifices his wing pawns to open files for his rooks to pressure white's game. It's one of the very few gambits where the pawn is not sacrificed for an immediate attack, but for long term positional pressure. | ||||
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4. cxb5 a6 |
The natural continuation, white wants a great square on a6 for his bishop and to use the a & b files. | ||||
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5. b6 |
White declines the gambit. | ||||
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5... d6 |
No need to regain the pawn immediately. | ||||
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6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. a4 |
White threatens to secure the pawn on b6 forcing black to take back. The other point is to place the pawn on a5 and cramp black's game. | ||||
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7... Qxb6 8. a5 Qc7 9. e4 g6 10. f4 Bg7 11. Bc4 O-O 12. Nf3 Re8 |
Black has basically concluded development and he's getting mighty scared of that e5 pawn push, where the e and d pawns will storm forward. Black prepares to play his own e5 pawn push. | ||||
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13. O-O e5 14. dxe6 e.p. fxe6 15. Ng5 |
Now the middlgame has started, white sees a target on the e6 square. White goes for that target as he brings his pieces to the kingside. | ||||
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15... Nf8 |
The best move, both the bishop and the knight now cover e6 and the knight controls the targets on g6 and h7. | ||||
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16. f5 |
Black's e pawn is pinned to his king, white sees the and sends his f pawn marching forward, attacking the pinned pawn. | ||||
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16... h6 |
Black gets afraid and kicks the knight out, this is a natural response, but look at black's pawns. There's the thing people always say about how pawns can't move backwards so you shouldn't advance them when you don't have to. It's true, black's pawns are all advanced which creates all kind of weak squares, it also means that none of his kingside pawns defend each other. Also black's development to the back rank is quite miserable. White has all the play, all the activity, all the hopes for a win. This is definitely not what black wanted when he played the Benko Gambit. And all his advantages lead up to the following flow of combinations. | ||||
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17. e5 |
White plays to open lines. Lets take a step back from the kingside, and look at the center, the centers his knights and bishops control. White's key squares are e4 and d5. White is opening up the game, and opening up squares for his pieces. | ||||
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17... dxe5 |
Black must take the pawn giving Shirov access to the d file as 17... hxg5 18.exf6 where black's g pawn falls next will be awful for black. | ||||
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18. fxg6 |
An excellent move, white is willing to to part with his knight to get an incredible pawn on g6. The pawn cramps black and gives Shirov access to the perfect square... h7. | ||||
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18... hxg5 19. Bxg5 |
The knight's on f6 and f8 are black's best defensive pieces so white threatens to get rid of one. | ||||
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19... Nf8d7 |
Black must defend his knight, but this moves the knight away from the defense. With a set of pawn sacrifices (especially the e pawn sac on move 17) white now has the d and f files open, and they just happen to be the files where all black's defensive pieces are. Also, white has the only pawn next to black's king. The question is how to bring the queen to the h file (and also off the d file so a rook can go there), and the answer comes back to the squares that the e pawn sacrifice opened up. | ||||
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20. Qf3 |
The perfect answer, 17.e5! opened up the a8-h1 diagonal, and white wins a tempo there against the rook before heading over to h3. | ||||
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20... Qa7 |
Black defends the rook, but surely 20...Rb8 counterattacking the b pawn is better? However white has a stunning sacrifice coming up that attacks the c7 square, so maybe he should move the queen, but in that case I think b7 must be a better square for the queen (as it offers a queen trade). | ||||
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21. Rad1 |
White grabs the file with the threat of 22.Rxd7! Bxd7 23.Bxf6 or 22... Nxd7 23.Qf7 where white picks off the rook and will probably mate in a few moves. Not only is h7 covered by the pawn, but f7 is another important square that the g6 pawn covers. | ||||
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