Szabo Gives A Lesson On Connected Passed Pawns

     Ever since I saw the following game that was played between Gligoric and Szabo in the 10th Olympiad at Helsinki in 1952, it has been a source of fascination. 
     Most players learn early on about the might of united passed Pawns.  Although they also can have their disadvantages, for the one possessing the united passed Pawns it is important to be sure that they cannot be blockaded, so as a rule, the Ps should advance together. i.e. before advancing one of them the advance of the second Pawn needs to be assured. 
     In the following game Gligoric came out of the opening with two connected passed Pawns and his position looked extremely promising, but they were blockaded and never advanced. 
     Pachman’s analysis in Modern Chess Strategy always lead me to believe that it was due to Szabo’s great positional understanding and that Gligoric was positionally lost coming out of the opening. But, as is often the case, when you let modern chess engines take a nice long look at the game, you get a different picture. 
     Stockfish’s analysis indicates that white was not strategically lost from the beginning as suggested by Pachman. In fact, in 1985 the Argentine-Italian GM Carlos Garcia Palermo (born December 2, 1953) repeated the whole line up to move 18 where he found an improvement and went on to win. A year later Polish IM Krzysztof Panczyk also played the same line and he, too, managed to win. 
     Does this mean Pachman’s analysis was worthless. Absolutely not! Pachman was illustrating ideas and that’s what’s important in a book on strategy. 
     See the brief discussion on two united passed Pawns on pages 106-108 in The Logical Approach to Chess by Euwe, Blaine and Rumble HERE. 
     Everybody knows about Gligoric, but Hungary’s Laszlo Szabo (March 19, 1917 – August 8, 1998), a banker by profession, is under-appreciated today. Noted for his aggressive style of play, he startled everyone when he won the 1935 Hungarian Championship at the age of 18, which at that time was considered a remarkable feat; he would go one to win it a total of 9 times. 

Szabo

     At the outbreak of WW2 he was attached to a Forced Labor Unit and later captured by Russian troops who held him as a Prisoner of War. After the war, he returned to chess and played in many major international events and in the post-WW2 era he was also one of the best players in the world. 
     In 1986 Pergamon published My Best Games of Chess by Szabo, but it’ a rare. Szabo himself thought his best agme was against Vasja Pirc at Hastings 1938-39. GM Matthew Sadler analyzed the game HERE.  
     Helsinki was organized by the FIDE as an open team tournament designed to promote chess and took place between August 9 and August 31, 1952. The Olympiad was especially notable for the debut of the Soviet team, who won their first gold medal and went on to completely dominate the Olympiads for the next four decades. In the finals they scored +5 -0 =3 as a team.
     After the tournament, it was generally agreed that the small preliminary and final groups of only 8–9 teams left too much open to chance, since a single blunder would have too big an impact on the final standings. Consequently, FIDE decided that in the future, no final should have less than 12 participants.
     Twenty-five teams entered and were divided into three preliminary groups of eight or nine teams. The top three from each group advanced to Final A. 

Finals: 
1) Soviet Union (Keres, Smyslov, Bronstein, Geller, Boleslavsky, Kotov) 21.0 
2) Argentina (Najdorf, Julio Bolbochán, Eliskases, Pilnik, Rossetto) 19.5 
3) Yugoslavia (Gligoric, Rabar, Trifunovic, Pirc, Fuderer, Milic) 19.0 
4) Czechoslovakia (Filip, Pachman, Šajtar, Kottnauer, Zíta, Pithart) 18.0 
5) United States (Reshevsky, Evans, Robert Byrne, Bisguier, Koltanowski, Berliner) 17.0
6) Hungary (Szabo, Barcza, Szily, Florian, Pogats, Molnar) 16.0 
7) Sweden Stahberg, Stoltz, Lundin, Skold, Johansson, Danielsson) 
8) West Germany (eschner, Schmid, Pfeiffer, Heinicke, Lange, Rellstab) 10.5 
9) Finland (Book, Ojanen, Kaila, Salo, Fred, Niemela) 10.0 

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[Event "Helsinki Olympiad Prelim"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1952.8.11"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Svetozar Gligoric"]
[Black "Laszlo Szabo"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{E42: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...c Ne2} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.
e3 {The Rubinstein is the historical main line and the most consistently
popular, but to play it well requires a through positional understanding of
the ideas, structures and plans in the various continuations. Black has three
main moves to choose from: 4...0-0, 4...c5, and 4...b6.} 4... c5 {Black puts
pressure on d4 and leaves open the option of playing ...d5, or ...d6 and
...e5.} 5. Nge2 { This is the Rubinstein Variation proper...white prevents the
doubling of his Ps.} 5... d5 6. a3 {Black can now play to give white an
isolated d-Pawn by 6... Bxc3+ 7.Nxc3 cxd4 8.exd4 dxc4, but at the cost of the
two Bs. Szabo prefers to keep his two Bs.} 6... cxd4 7. exd4 Be7 8. c5
{Gaining space on the Q-side, but this is not without its disadvantages. Safer
was 8.Nf4 intending exchanges on d4 leading to and isolated d-Pawn for both
sides.} 8... O-O 9. b4 b6 10. g3 bxc5 { Which way should white recapture? Not
11.bxc5 because after ... Nc6 and ...Ba6 white's protected passed P is well
blockaded plus black has good piece play.} 11. dxc5 a5 {!! A brilliant
positional move. It gives white two united passed Ps, but they won't be as
dangerous as the look because their advanced position allows them to be easily
blockaded.} 12. Rb1 axb4 13. axb4 {Black himself has a passed P in the center,
but it is going to take a long time to get it moving. His plan is to A)
blockade white's Ps, especially the b-Pawn. So, the N must be brought to b5.
This takes place from moves 13 to 27. B) Black has to advance his own center
Ps which he does from moves 18 to 36).} 13... Nc6 {In analyzing this game
Ludek Pachman says this is playable for tactical reason because white can't
play 14.b5 because black has two good replies: 14... Bxc4 sacrificing the N on
c6 or even better 14...Ne5! and you can't find a good defense for white. Just
one example: 15.Bb2 Bxc5 16.Bg2 Nfg4 with a winning attack. Nevertheless, it
actually allows white to equalize! Correct was 13... Na6! and white still
cannot advance his Ps. After 13...Na6 14.Bg2 Rb8 black has tremendous
pressure.} 14. Bg2 Rb8 {Advancing the b-Pawn is still risky: 15. b5?! Bxc5!
16.bxc5 Rxb1 17.Nxb1 Qb6 with a strong attack, but this may be white's best
option.} 15. Ba3 Bd7 {Better was 15...Ba6 and ...Bc4.} 16. O-O { White can't
play 16.b5 Ne5 17.O-O Qc8 winning a P.} 16... Na7 17. Re1 Ne8 {Both Ns are
joining the fight to control b4. Much weaker was 17...Nb5 18.Nxb5! Bxb5 19.
Nd4 followed by Bb1!! and white overcomes the blockade. Many years later in a
tournament in Luzern in 1985, Garcia Palermo (2520) against Pinter (2540) did
his homework and found the better 18.Nd4 and went on to win.} 18. Bc1 {
Gligoric is following the wrong strategy in trying to lure black into
advancing his center Ps...instead he should be establishing a N on d4.} 18...
Bf6 { Preparing to advance his e-Pawn is the wrong strategy. Correct was
18...Nc7. After this move white should continue 19.Na4! Nc7 20>Nb6 Bb5 21.Nd4
with a monumental struggle centering around white's Ps.} 19. Bf4 e5
{Gligoric's strategy is working. Black should have stuck to his plan of
blockading the b-Pawn with 19...Nd7.} 20. Bd2 d4 21. Nd5 {A better square for
the N was e4.} 21... Bc6 {White can't maintain his N on d4. In addition to his
next move he had two other reasonable tries: 22.Nb6 or what looks even better:
22.Ra1! Bxd5 23. Rxa7! establishing a R on the 7th rank.} 22. Nxf6+ Qxf6 23.
Bxc6 Qxc6 24. f4 f6 25. Qb3+ Kh8 {Obviously white can't play fxe4 giving black
two connected passed Ps in the center, but he can destroy black's P-center by
26.g4!! This move was found by Stockfish. The idea is to make room for the N
to get out of the Rs way: 26...Nb5 27.Ng3 followed by fxe5 and Rxe5. The
outcome of the game turns on white's next mvoe.} 26. Rf1 Nc7 27. Qc4 Nab5 28.
Rbe1 {Having missed the boat on move 26 white's position is now strategically
lost as all hope of advancing his Ps is gone and he now must resort to
regrouping his pieces in an effort to defend against the advance of black's
center Ps.} 28... h6 29. g4 Rbe8 {A tactical error. Correct was 29...e4!
White, for his part, also misses the best reply. After 30.fxe5! fxe5 31.Rxf8+
Rxf8 32.Ng3 (same idea as mentioned in the note to black's 25th move) black
either has to give up the e-Pawn or allow white's Q to reach f7 leaving him
with a huge advantage in either case.} 30. f5 {His final missed chance.}
30... Qd5 31. Qc1 {Trading Qs leaves black with a won ending owing to the
superior position of his pieces.} 31... Kh7 32. Ng3 e4 33. Bf4 e3 34. Qd1 Qc4
{This little move has the point of prevents any possible blockade of his
d-Pawn by Qd3.} 35. h4 {Gligoric has the forlorn hope of a K-side attack, but
it's doomed to failure because black dominates the board.} 35... Nd5 36. g5
d3 37. Qg4 Rg8 {No monkeyshines will be allowed on the g-file!} 38. Nh5 Re4
39. g6+ Kh8 40. Qg3 {Black exceeded the time limit, but he is helpless against
the advance of either black P.} 0-1