Dolmatov Dominates Larsen

     Sergey Dolmatov (born February 20, 1959), a Soviet GM and Senior Trainer, had his first major success in 1978 when he won the World Junior Championship in Graz, Austria. 

     A number of major successes followed and his rating was over 2600 for a decade, but there was a nagging feeling that he never reached his full potential. That may have been because, according to Dolmatov, "...I had a ... stable life in which I was satisfied with everything. I strived...to achieve the best possible results...but I didn’t set myself super-objectives." 

     Born in Kiselevsk in western Siberia, he learned to play from his father, a mining engineer, and by the time he finished high school he already possessed the Soviet Master title. In 1975 he entered the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University. While there he came to the attention of super trainer Mark Dvoretsky.

     Dolmatov had a solid yet enterprising style and was awarded the IM title the same year he became a GM, in 1982. By the time the early 2000s rolled around he had become pretty much inactive and had become a chess writer and trainer. 

     In the following game Dolmatov crushes Bent Larsen after Larsen moves his Q six consecutive times and finally has to resign because his B is going to be trapped. 

 

     The game was played in a tournament sponsored by IBM in Amsterdam in June of 1980. World Champion Anatoly Karpov dominated the event. 

[Event "Amsterdam IBM"] [Site ""] [Date "1980.07.05"] [Round "?"] [White "Sergey Dolmatov"] [Black "Bent Larsen"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E54"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "1980.06.27"] {Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein Variation} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd3 {What started out as a Panov Attack in the Caro-Kann has transposed into the Nimzo-Indian.} dxc4 8. Bxc4 O-O 9. O-O a6 { At the time this move had little theory available and the usual reply was either 9...Nc6 or 9...b6. Today the latter move is seen most often, but in any case, all variations seem to lead to a high percentage of draws.} 10. a3 Be7 11. Ba2 b5 {Dolamtov was of the opinion that black should have continued with 11...Nc6, although 12.Re1 would have retained an advantage for white. Actually, engines prefer 11...b5} (11... Nc6 12. Bg5 Nd5 13. Bxd5 exd5 14. Bxe7 Nxe7 { and the gane was soon drawn. Bajarani,U (2515)-Matsenko,S (2521) Irving, California 2019}) 12. d5 exd5 (12... Nxd5 13. Nxd5 exd5 14. Bxd5 Ra7 {with equal chances. Muir,A (2303)-Paschall,W (2401) Budapest 2004}) 13. Nxd5 Bb7 { This logical looking continuation allows white to gain the upper hand.} (13... Nxd5 14. Qxd5 Qxd5 15. Bxd5 Ra7 {with equality.}) 14. Nxe7+ Qxe7 15. Bg5 Nbd7 16. Re1 {To the untrained eye this position may look quite equal, but GMs and engines understand what's going on! As Dolmatov pointed out, a struggle is developing around the d5-square and if black manages an exchange of Bs with ... Bd5, then white's advantage will be reduced to a minimum. Therefore the idea behind 16.Re1 was to drive the Q back to d8 thereby preventing ...Rad8} Qc5 { Dolmatov gave this move a ? stating that 16...Qd8 was better because after four further moves the Q has to return to d8 anyway and probably Larsen had not anticipated the forced return of the Q to d8 and was leaving this square for the R. Curiously, both Stockfish and Komodo like Larsen's move better.} ( 16... Qd8 {Engines think this move is twice as bad as the text.} 17. Nd4 b4 18. axb4 Qb6 19. Nf5 Qb5 20. Ne7+ Kh8 21. Bf4 a5 (21... Qxb4 22. Bd6) 22. Qd4 axb4 23. Bc4 Qc5 24. Qxc5 Nxc5 25. Nf5 {This position may look drawish, but white won all 5 Shootouts. His pieces are more active and black was unable to defend his b-Pawn and eventually lost it.}) 17. Be3 Qf5 {After this black does, indeed, land in trouble; the Q should have continued its journey two more squares.} (17... Qh5 18. Ng5 Qxd1 19. Raxd1 Ne5 20. Bd4 Nc4 21. Bxc4 bxc4 22. Bxf6 gxf6 23. Nh3 {White has all the play, but black may be able to successfully defend his position.}) (17... Qh5 18. Nd4 Qg6 {Threatening mate.} 19. f3 Rfe8 20. Rc1 Nd5 {White has the more active position, but black is far from lost.}) 18. Nh4 Qe4 {This move is the move that Stockfish pinpoints as being the one that quickly loses the game.} (18... Qe5 {at least has the advantage of not making his position any worse. There is no immediate way for white to capitalize on the position of black's Q opposite the R.} 19. f4 Qc7 20. Rc1 Qa5 21. Nf5 b4 22. Nd6 Bd5 {As mentioned in the note way back on move 16, this is an important exchange for black.} 23. Bxd5 Qxd5 24. axb4 Qxd1 25. Rexd1 Rfb8 {White is clearly better, but black can fight on.}) 19. Bg5 Qc6 20. Rc1 Qb6 21. Be3 Qd8 22. Nf5 Be4 23. Nd6 Bg6 24. Qd4 {White completely dominates the position.} Qb8 {Black is lost and this is a reasonable plan: his idea is to play ...Rd8 and ...Nf8. Against this white must act energetically.} 25. f4 Rd8 (25... h6 {In view of the fact that black's B is going to get trapped, this move making an escape square might look reasonable, but it will also lose.} 26. f5 Bh7 27. Bf2 a5 28. Nxf7 Rxf7 29. Re7 Bxf5 30. Bxf7+ Kh8 ( 30... Kf8 31. Rce1 Qd8 32. Qd6 Qb8 33. Bc5 Qxd6 34. Bxd6) (30... Kh7 31. Bd5 { wins}) 31. Rce1 {White is winning.}) 26. f5 Bh5 27. h3 Nb6 28. Qxb6 Qxb6 29. Bxb6 Rxd6 30. Be3 {Black resigned. He has no satisfactory defense against 31.g4 } 1-0