Annotated chess game: Rublevsky Game #1 Dark Square Holes

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ANNOTATED GAME

Rublevsky Game #1 Dark Square Holes
Rublevsky (2680) vs. Volkov (2640)
Annotated by: raskerino (1841)
Chess opening: French (C06), Tarrasch, closed variation, main line

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18... Rac8 19. Rac1

Both sides bring rooks the ever important c file.

19... a6

And black's pawns are now ALL on light squares.

20. Bxc6 Bxc6 21. Qa3

! As I've pointed out, the important squares for white to attack are the dark squares, with this move, white gets good control of the third rank and threatens infiltration to e7.

21... Bb5

Black tries to get his bishop into the game.

22. Rfe1 Rxc1

Black has an interesting plan. It doesn't actually work, but he tries to either trade his bishop for the knight, or at least win one of the two weak pawns (b2 and d4). This move wins a tempo, and draws the rook away from the e file, where it attacks the backward e6 pawn and covers the e2 square where black wants to put his bishop.

23. Rxc1 Be2

How does white defend the pawn without allowing his strong knight to be traded off? He utilizes his advantages, the weak black e pawn and the pressure on dark squares.

24. Ng5

! The knight pops into and aggresive (dark) square, hits e6 and indirectly defends the d pawn due to the pretty tactic 24... Qxd4 25.Qxf8 ! Kxf8 26.Nxe6 forking and queen and winning a rook overall. Also the infiltration of Qe7 is looking VERY strong.

24... Re8

Black defends e6 and covers the e7 square.

25. Qe3

Another strong move, it attack e2, piles on the e6 square and prepares the following combination. Where's the bishop going to go?

25... Qxb2

Instead of retreating the bishop black grabs a pawn, so what does white have in compensation? Black is STILL filled with holes, he has three pieces that easily enter the attack to black's one on defense, how does he utilize this...

26. Rc8

White's going to win e6 and the black is going to be ripped apart. Until now white has had a solid advantage and he's played for solid positional game, now it culminates in a powerful attack.

26... Rxc8 27. Qxe6+ Kg7 28. Qe7+

Until now, it looked like white was going to regain material, but this move starts an attack that leads to mate 8 moves later, it's amazing what GMs can see! Note that this check is on a dark square, the dark weakness is still very important to this attack, and white utilizes the h4-d8 diagonal.

28... Kh6 29. Nf7+ Kg7 30. Ng5+ Kh6

This kind of repetition is common in GM play, it tests the waters to see if somone'll screw up (29... Kh5? 30.Qg5#) and gains a little time. Now white plays the right move.

31. Ne6

! It's very difficult to spot this type of move, when you sacrifice a rook it's very risky (and scary) to play moves that aren't checks, this threatens mate on g5 and locks the black king on the edge.

31... Qc1+

The check covers the g5 square with win of tempo.

32. Kh2 Rc6

This is the one time when black gets time for a move in the defense, so I'm tempted to think there must be better than this move, but I see no defense to the following attack. Black hopes to play ...Rxe6 ending the attack up a piece.

33. Qg7+

It's too bad that Qh4 is blocked by ...Bh5 and Qg5 is covered by the black queen. However with this move the black king is driven farther into the open.

33... Kh5 34. f4

! Another excellent quiet move in the attack! This locks out the queen's defense of h6 and white now threatens to take on h7 without black being able to block, here's a sample line: 34... Rxe6 35.Qxh7 Kg4 36.Qh3#.

34... h6

The only move to cover h6, but the dark squares (as always) prove a weakness for black.

35. Qf6

! A third quiet move that white had to see when he sacked the rook. The threat of Qh4# is ALMOST unstoppable.

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