Transpo Tricks in Chess Finesse your Chess Moves and Win Andrew Soltis BATSFORD First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Batsford 10 Southcombe Street London Wl4 ORA An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd Copyright © Batsford 2007 Text copyright © Andrew Soltis The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ISBN 9780713490510 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 15 1413 1211 10 09 08 07 10987654321 Reproduction by Spectrum Colour Ltd, Ipswich Printed and bound by Creative Print & Design, Ebbw Vale, Wales This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at the website www.anovabooks.com. or try your local bookshop. Distributed in the United States and Canada by Sterling Publishing Co., 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA Contents Page Introduction 5 Chapter One: Double KP Openings 14 Chapter Two: Ruy Lopez 34 Chapter Three: Sicilian Defense 54 Chapter Four: Semi-Open Games 94 Chapter Five: Double QP Openings 120 Chapter Six: Indians 153 Chapter Seven: Dutch Defense and Flank Openings 191 Index of Opening Variations 213 3 4 Introduction Openings have become so complex and convoluted that we've forgotten our basic goal in them. The reason we pick, say, 1 e4 over 1 d4 - or 11 h3 rather than 11 .te3, for that matter - is simply to reach a middlegame we want to play. Unfortunately, our opponents are making choices too, in order to In 99 of 100 games Black reach the middlegame they want continues 5 ... ttJd6 or 5 ... .te7 and to play. It's rarely the same life goes on. middlegame. But lurking in the warren of footnotes of 'book' is 5. .. a6!? It's How do you get the one you usually followed by the comment want? Unfair as it may be, you can't 'If 6 .ta4, then 6 ... b5 7 .tb3 d5 rely on your legendary positional transposes to the Open Defense. ' skill, your better-than-Fritz calcul- Since it's a footnote we take little ating ability or your iridescent notice. After all, 5 ... a6 'just personal charm. What you can use transposes.' That tells us it doesn't is trickery - the trickery of really matter because it only leads transposition. to some other opening, something irrelevant on that page. Consider this opening: 1 e4 e5 But 5 ... a6 has been a valuable 2 ttJO ttJc6 3 .tb5 ttJf6 4 0-0 ttJxe4 weapon for players from Paul 5 d4, the main line of the Ruy Morphy to Vasily Ivanchuk. Its Lopez's Berlin Defense. power lies in how it gets Black 5 Introduction where he wants to go - to the Open We don't judge transpositions by Defense - and avoids what he wants the same standard as we do other to avoid - the Exchange Variation moves. An original opening idea, a (3 ... a6 4 .txc6). TN as they're called, is evaluated by the new position it creates. But a Finesses like that are rarely transposition by definition reaches appreciated except when they make an old position, as 5 a3! brilliantly new 'book'. That was the case in did. Instead, you should judge it by Botvinnik-Capablanca, A.Y.R.O. its effects, especially: 1938, an instantly famous game that s How it degrades your opponent began 1 d4 ttJf6 2 c4 e6 3 ttJc3 .tb4 choices or improves your own 4 e3 dS. A basic strategy in any opening is to increase the options at your disposal. Take this familiar position. White's S a3 .txc3+ 6 bxc3 seems obvious today. But in 1938 it was a masterstroke. 'The idea of the move is typically modem - to This is a 'tabia,' that is, a standard transpose into a favorable variation starting point in a major opening. In which would not be reached in any this case it's a tabia that has served normal manner,' Reuben Fine as the launching pad for thousands wrote. of Dragon Sicilians, which often continue 10 ... ttJe5 and .. J:tc8/ In truth, there is a normal ... ttJc4. manner, the discredited 4 a3 .txc3+ 5 bxc3 d5?!, which allows White to But in a 1997 game, Anand rid himself of a doubled pawn. Ki.Georgiev, Black tried 10 ... Botvinnik used 5 a3! to trick ttJaS!? White quickly appreciated Capablanca into that favorable the difference: After the natural version of 4 a3. 11 .tb3 Black could transpose into 6 Introduction more familiar lines with 11..J1c8 slow moves often prove fatal, as in and 12 ... tbc4 13 i.xc4 l:hc4. But this case: 10 ... tba5 gives Black an extra option, ... tbxb3+, that he may employ depending on White's next few moves. In other words, Black gets to choose whether he wants to transpose with ... tbc4 or not. Instead of trying to figure out how dangerous ... tbxb3+ would be White made a practical choice, 11 i.e2!. This is a counter-finesse. It takes away Black's extra option 13 g4! bS 14 h4 e6 1S a3 hS and leaves the knight with nothing 16 i.gS hxg417 hS! gxhS 18l:1xhS better to do than go to c4. l:1cS 19 fxg4 l:1xc3 20 i.xf6 'iixf6 This had a bonus effect because a 21 'ifxc3 tbc4 22 i.xc4 bxc4 move order finesse can also be 23 'ifxc4 and White won. judged by: This shows how transpositions How it unnerves or confuses your play tricks not just with move order opponent but with your opponent's equanim Objectively, 11 i.e2 is no better ity. When he realizes he is being than 11 i.b3. But psychologically dragged into your middle-game, he it was a potent blow - and may lose the nonnal composure that transpositions typically have players enjoy in the opening, when greater psychological power than they confidently rattle off the first objective strength. 15 moves. Players who lose their confidence make mistakes. After 11 .. J1c8 12 ~b1 Black couldn't bring himself to play the Let's go back to 1 e4 eS 2 tbfJ best move, 12 ... tbc4, because it tbc63 i.bS tbf6 4 0-0 tbxe4 S d4 would create the middlegame White a6. Giovanni Vescovi was rated No. wanted to play. Black had more or 60 in the world when he first saw less decided, when he passed up that position from the White side, in 10 ... ~e5, that he didn't want that 2005. He decided not to be tricked middlegame. into the Open Defense. So he chose a very different But that meant choosing policy, 12 ... a6? In the Dragon such 6 i.xc6?!, which turned out to be a 7 Introduction prelude to a worse idea, 6 ... dxc6 7 'Yi'e2 .ltf5 8 g4? .ltg6 9 h4. Anand began calculating furiously, trying to find out what was wrong with White's move. But there's nothing wrong with it. It's Black could have refuted that just unfamiliar. After spending two with 9. .. 'Yi'd7! 10 ~xe5 'Yi'xd4, as of his precious five minutes, he Johannes Zukertort played way played 4 ... d6 5 ~f3 d5 and reached back at London 1883 (!). a book position. Vescovi spent 40 minutes to find This was a case of a move whose that dubious line. That leads to a major benefit was simply to give another criterion of a transposition. the other player something to think It can be measured by: about. Typically, these moves do How it gets your opponent to not reduce his options. Rather they think increase them, giving him more to consider. The real battle of the opening begins when you can force your There really isn't much value, for opponent out of his book know example, to 1 d4 c6 and then ledge. Only then does he risk 2 c4 d5 compared with the normal making errors and spending costly route, 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6. But this minutes. order, employed by Anatoly Karpov among others, gets White debating That was case when Vishy Anand with himself over whether he was Black in a speed playoff game knows more about the Caro-Kann at a big-bucks event in 1994. In the (2 e4) than the Slav. Or what he Petroff Defense, 1 e4 e5 2 ~f3 ~f6 would do about 2 c4 b5!? A strange 3 d4 ~xe4, his opponent failed to move order can do that. play 4 .ltd3, the move considered virtually automatic. He played A 'something to think about' 4 ~xe5!? instead. move can cost your opponent more 8 Introduction than minutes. It can prompt a bad And there's a fourth way of decision. The most drastic recent evaluating a crafty transposition, example of that befell Vladimir by: Kramnik in what was then the most How it preserves your mental important game of his life, the final health game of a 1994 Candidates match. We all have to deal with an ever- His opponent, Boris Gelfand, expanding amount of book analysis. opened with 1 c4 and there Almost as bad as trying to followed 1. .• c5 2 liJc3 liJf6 3 g3. memorize all that at home is trying This pOSItIOn had occured to remember it at the board. This gazillions of times before - but can be maddening. never to Kramnik. As routine as We'd love to cut down the 3 g3 was, it confused him. He amount of book we need to know replied 3 ... d5 4 cxd5 liJxd5 and and still reach the middlegames we then on 5 .i.g2 like. The best ways to save our midnight oil - and our sanity - is through transpositions. Consider the main line of the Winawer French, 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 liJc3 .i.b4 4 e5 . ... he played 5 ... e6?? 'almost without thinking,' according to his opponent. Kramnik was assuming he would transpose, after 6 liJf3 liJc6, to another tabia that is quite The familiar path is 4 ... c5 and good for Black. then 5 a3 .i.xc3+ 6 bxc3 liJe7. But But 6 liJxd5! cxd5 7 'ii'b3 won a White has numerous sidelines such pawn (7 ... c4 8 'iib5+), the game and as 5 dxc5, 5 .i.d2, 5 'iVg4 and 5liJf3. the match. The confusing effect of Theory regards these as not quite as 3 g3 set back Kramnik's world good as 5 a3. But in practice they championship aspirations for are dangerous to an ill-prepared several years. Black. 9