Vintage Alekhine

     Playing over Alekhine's games is still an enjoyable experience because he played exceptional fighting games and conjured up attacks seemingly out of thin air. 

      His annotations frequently contain glaring errors and his attacks weren't always sound, but who cares? Humans can't calculate like Stockfish; they make mistakes in their calculations, they suffer from fatigue, etc. 

      When reading old chess books, which often have mistakes in analysis, the important thing to remember is that the general principles they contain can be of great value to the practical player. 

     The following game was played in a 1st category tournament in Moscow in October. In December Alekhine scored another triumph when he cleaned house in the Moscow City Championship with a score of 11.5-0.5!    

 

     This game demonstrates the importance of the Pawn center and how an attack can develop from it. In the complications Alekhine reached a position where his superiority was evident: he controlled the center and his opponent's pieces were all huddled together trying to defend his King. Then he made a tactical error! Not one that lost the game, but one that should have allowed Zubarev to at least equalize...but he, also, missed the correct continuation and Alekhine finished him off with a couple of crushing blows.

 

[Event "1st Category tournament. Moscow"] [Site "?"] [Date "1915.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Alexander Alekhine"] [Black "Nikolay Zubarev"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1915.??.??"] {Nimzo-Indian: Classical} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 {This is the Classical Variation. The idea is that in the event of ...Bxc3 white can recapture Qxc3 avoiding doubled Ps and the Q keeps an eye on e4.} b6 {This game was played pre-Nimzovich and this move is a major concession because it allows white to push e2-e4. Good moves are 4...O-O and 4...d5} 5. e4 Bb7 6. Bd3 (6. e5 {is also good. After} Bxc3+ 7. Qxc3 Ne4 8. Qe3 f5 9. Bd3 (9. f3 Qh4+ { black is better}) (9. exf6 Qxf6 {favors black}) 9... O-O 10. Ne2 {white has a favorable position.}) 6... Bxc3+ {In this line white can't avoid the doubled Ps because recapturing with the Q koses the e-Pawn.} 7. bxc3 d6 8. Ne2 { Not 8.Nf3 blocking f-Pawn.} (8. f4 {This bold move was also playable!} e5 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. fxe5 dxe5 11. Bg5 {with an excellent position.}) 8... Nbd7 { Hoping that at some point he can play ...e5} 9. O-O O-O (9... Qe7 10. f4 e5 ( 10... O-O-O {in Virkud,A (2027)-Amrayeva,A (2191) Porto Carras GRE 2015 black got away with this risky move.} 11. a4 {Correct was 11...e5!} a5 12. Ng3 g6 13. Rf3 h5 {and black succeeded in launching a decisive K-side attack.}) 11. Ng3 g6 12. c5 exd4 13. c6 Bxc6 14. cxd4 Nb8 15. f5 Nfd7 16. d5 Bb7 17. Qxc7 Ba6 18. Bxa6 Nxa6 19. Qb7 {Black resigned. Horvath,J (2525)-Fokin,S (2365) Budapest 1990}) (9... e5 {It's too soon to play this because after} 10. f4 O-O 11. Ng3 { white has the better prospects as any capture by black with the f-Pawn has disadvantages.}) 10. f4 h6 11. Ng3 {Good, but Euwe's 11.e5 dislodging the N first was even better.} (11. e5 Ne8 12. Ng3 c5 13. Qe2 Qh4 14. f5 cxd4 15. Rf4 Qd8 16. cxd4 dxe5 17. dxe5 Nc7 18. Rg4 Qe7 19. Rxg7+ {Black resigned. Euwe, M-Colle,E Amsterdam 1928}) 11... Qe7 12. Qe2 Rae8 {Black is in a very difficult situation here. The two games in the notes, Horvath-Fokin and Euwe-Colle, already hint at the truth of the statement.} (12... e5 {The move black hoped to play meets with disaster.} 13. Nf5 Qd8 14. fxe5 dxe5 15. Qe3 { Threatening to sacrifice the N and there is nothing black can do about it!} Kh8 (15... Kh7 16. Nxg7) 16. Nxg7 Ng8 17. Nf5 Qg5 18. Qh3 Qg6 19. Bxh6 Nxh6 20. Nxh6 {and white is winning.}) 13. Ba3 {An excellent place for the B.} c5 { Blocking the Bs diagonal.} 14. Rae1 {This centralizing move brings his last piece into play. The immediate 14.e5 was also playable.} Kh8 {As good a move as any.} (14... cxd4 {Only opens up the diagonal for white's B.} 15. e5 dxc3 16. Bxd6) 15. d5 {Not the best, but it's good enough.} (15. e5 Ng8 {Shoring up h6.} 16. Bc1 f5 17. exf6 Ndxf6 18. Bg6 Rd8 19. d5 e5 20. Nf5 {White has a winning attack. Just one example...} Qc7 21. Nh4 Ne7 22. g4 Qd7 23. g5 Qg4+ 24. Qxg4 Nxg4 25. h3 hxg5 26. fxg5 {the N is trapped.}) 15... Ng8 16. e5 {This is a serious tactical mistake that loses a little material and should have allowed black to equalize.. It was necessary to first bring the B on a3 back into play with 16.Bc1} g6 {[%mdl 8192] Zubarev returns the favor. While this move may preclude the possibility of white playing f4-f5 it further weakens the K's position.} (16... dxe5 {equalizes} 17. fxe5 exd5 18. cxd5 Bxd5 { and in the ensuing complications black can hold his own.} 19. Bc1 (19. Bb1 Nxe5 20. Qc2 f5 21. Nxf5 Qg5 22. Ng3 {with equal chances.}) 19... Nxe5 20. Qh5 { does not lead to any things and black is two Ps u}) 17. Qd2 {A positional move that gets the Q out of the way of the R on e1 and so makes dxe6 a real threat.} exd5 (17... a6 {This is a pass to demonstrate the dxe6 threat.} 18. dxe6 Qxe6 19. f5 {Crushing!} (19. exd6 Qxd6 {is good for black.}) 19... gxf5 20. Bxf5 Qe7 21. exd6 Qd8 22. Bc1 Rxe1 23. Qxe1 Re8 24. Qd1 Ndf6 25. Bf4 {white is winning.} Bc8 26. Bxh6 Nxh6 27. Bxc8 Qxc8 28. Rxf6) (17... dxe5 18. fxe5 f5 19. exf6 Rxf6 20. Rxf6 Qxf6 21. Ne4 {White is clearly better.}) 18. cxd5 dxe5 (18... Bxd5 19. Bb5 Bb7 20. exd6 {and white is winning.}) 19. c4 Kh7 {With nothing much to do, black gets his K off the dangerous long diagonal.} 20. Bb2 Ngf6 21. fxe5 { [%mdl 32]} Ng4 22. e6 Qh4 {White has a mate in 14!} 23. Rxf7+ {Very characteristic of the vintage Alekhine.} Rxf7 (23... Kg8 {also leads to his getting mated in a pretty way.} 24. Rg7+ Kh8 25. Rxg6+ Ndf6 26. Rxg4 Qxg4 27. Qxh6+ Kg8 28. Bxf6 Rxf6 29. Bh7+ Kh8 30. Bg6+ Kg8 31. Qh7+ Kf8 32. e7+ Rxe7 33. Qh8#) 24. Bxg6+ {[%mdl 512]} Kxg6 25. Qd3+ Kg5 26. Bc1+ {Black resigned as mate follows.} (26. Bc1+ Kf6 27. Qf5+ Kg7 28. Qxf7+ Kh8 29. Qxe8+ Kh7 30. Qxd7+ Kh8 31. Bb2+ Nf6 32. e7 Qd4+ 33. Bxd4 cxd4 34. e8=Q+ Ng8 35. Qxg8+ Kxg8 36. Re8#) 1-0