Is the move really that bad? Just to be fair I wanted to look at a game that white won and found several in my database. I wanted the players to be GMs and found a couple games in which former World Champion Anatoly Karpov played 10.f5 and won. I also found the following game in which Najdoff was playing black again.
A casual look at some of the games seem to show some commonality. Unless black played badly, white’s wins were lengthy and they were not obtained by direct K-side attacks. Bronstein’s notes to this instructive game explain the real purpose of 10.f5
[Event "Candidates Tournament, Zurich"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1953.09.22"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Efim Geller"]
[Black "Miguel Najdorf"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B92"]
[Annotator "Bronstein/Stockfish"]
[PlyCount "113"]
[EventDate "1953.08.30"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "30"]
[EventCountry "SUI"]
[SourceTitle "Candidates"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceVersion "2"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
{B92: Sicilian Najdorf} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6.
Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. O-O Nbd7 9. f4 Qc7 10. f5 {Once again, engines find no
fault with this move which was so harshly criticized by Reinfeld. One claim
that he made was that this move leaves white with a bad B, but that argument
is wrong for reasons explained by Bromdtein in the note to the next move.} Bc4
11. a4 {Bronstein gives this a "!" His explanation: Against this system, a
frequently used one by Najdorf, Geller has prepared a plan to occupy the light
squares in the center and on the (K-side). By (playing 10.f5) he has driven
the B to c4, where it will shortly be traded off. Now he plays 11 a4 in order
to restrict black's Q-side play.It should be added that 10.f5 forces the trafe
of white's bad B for black's good B.} (11. Bd3 {Thus was played in the game
featured in the previous post.} b5 12. Be3 Be7 13. Qe2 Rc8 14. Rac1 O-O 15. Nd2
d5 16. Bxc4 dxc4 17. a3 {Black is slightly bette. Antoniq Ric-Najdorf, Radio
Match Spain vs. Argentina, 1948}) 11... Rc8 {11...d5 was worth considering.}
12. Be3 (12. Bxc4 Qb6+ 13. Kh1 Rxc4 14. Qe2) (12. a5 Be7 13. Bxc4 Qxc4 14. Ra4
{was soo drawn. Schmid,L-Evans,L Varna 1962}) 12... Be7 13. a5 h5 {Thus is not
easpecially good, but as Bronstein observed, Najdorf wass one who was
satisfied to play passively; he wanyed counterplay. So, seeing that his Q-se
pieces have been hemmed in, he undertakes a K-side diversion against the
possibility of white playing g4 and g5. Bronstein also noted that later
Nafdorf castles into the wekened K-side, but managed to survive thanks to his
tactical skill.} (13... d5 {For whatever reason this counter in the center was
not mentioned by any annotators.} 14. Bxc4 d4 15. Bd3 dxc3 16. bxc3 Qxc3 {
with complete equality.}) 14. Bxc4 $16 Qxc4 15. Ra4 Qc7 16. h3 h4 17. Rf2 {
Najdorf's next move gets the OK from Stockfish.} b5 {Brinstein wrote: Najdorf
confidently sacrifices P for a little initiative. His position after the 18th
move would indeed have been promising, had Geller taken the a-Pawn; but Geller
finds a steadier solution to the problem, as we shall see. Denying himself the
material, he acquires a great positional advantage instead by a series of fine
moves. And although Najdorf gave his 17.. b5 an exclamation mark, it is
possible that 17..Qc6 was better.} (17... Qc6 {attacks the e-Pawn, but it is
definitely not better than Nardorf's move!} 18. Nd2 Qc7 19. Qf3 b5 20. axb6
Nxb6 21. Rxa6 {White is better.}) 18. axb6 Nxb6 19. Bxb6 {Bronstein: This
exchange is aimed at sub jugating the light squares, especially d5, since
white removes one of the pieces which could defend that square. The next links
of his plan will be to bring the R from f2 to a1, assail the a- Pawn with his
heavy pieces, tie down black's Rs and Q to its defense, and finally to bring
his N on b3 to e3, and then to d5. The first part of this plan takes until
move 24, the second part from move 25 to move 27, and the third part is
concluded with White's 31st move.} Qxb6 20. Qe2 Ra8 21. Kh2 O-O 22. Rf1 {
[%mdl 2048]} Ra7 23. Rfa1 Rfa8 24. R1a2 {Geller is playing an orthodox game to
a fault. Here, he protects the b-Pawn, in order to free his N on b3, although
he could also have played 24.Qd3, followed by 25.Nd2, when the b-Pawn could
not have been taken, in view of 26.Rbl. Now white enters the second part of
his plan.} (24. Qd3 {does not work out s Bronstein suggested...} Rc7 25. Rxa6
Rxa6 26. Rxa6 Qf2 27. Ra8+ Kh7 28. Qf3 {is only equal afyer black exchanges Qs.
} Qxc2 {This loses.} 29. Nd5 Rc8 30. Rxc8 Qxc8 31. Nxe7) 24... Bd8 {The fact
that the equalizing advance ...d5 escpaed everynody's attention is because the
followup is something that is beyond what a human can see,} (24... d5 25. exd5
e4 26. Nxe4 Rd8 27. Rxa6 Qb8+ 28. Kh1 Rxa6 29. Rxa6 Rxd5 {White is two
connected passed Ps up, but both Stockfish and Dragon by Komodo evaluate the
position at 0.00.}) 25. Na5 Rc8 26. Nc4 Qc6 27. Ne3 a5 28. Rc4 Qa6 29. b3 Bb6
$2 30. Rxc8+ Qxc8 31. Ned5 Nxd5 32. Nxd5 {The highlight of white's strategy:
Geller now has what amounts to a won position.} Qc5 33. Ra1 {One must always
br alert. ...Qg1# was threatened.} Qf2 34. Qxf2 {Keeping the Qs on might have
been quicker, but Geller wanted to avoio complications and preferred to win
the came in positional style.} Bxf2 {[%mdl 4096]} 35. Rf1 Bd4 36. c3 Bc5 37. g4
hxg3+ 38. Kxg3 Rb7 39. Rb1 f6 {Bronstein pointed out that this is a classic
endgame, with in-structional value. The Ps are on squares of their own B's
color, the N occupies a powerful position in the center and the light squares
are accessible to the K. There remains only to create an outside passed P..}
40. Kf3 Kf7 41. Ke2 Rb8 42. b4 g6 43. Kd3 {Bronstein commented that Geller
carries his avoidance of tatical play play to extremes and reommended 43.fxg3+
pointing out that it would win in a few moves.} (43. fxg6+ Kxg6 44. bxc5 Rxb1
45. c6 Rb8 (45... Rb5 46. Ne7+ Kf7 47. c7) 46. c7 Rc8 47. Ne7+) 43... gxf5 44.
exf5 axb4 45. cxb4 Bd4 46. Rc1 Kg7 47. Rc7+ Kh6 48. Ke4 Kg5 49. Rh7 Bf2 50.
Rg7+ Kh4 51. Kf3 Be1 52. Kg2 {Intending Rg4+ and mate.} Rf8 53. b5 Ba5 54. b6
Bxb6 55. Nxb6 Rb8 56. Rg4+ Kh5 57. Nd5 {Black resigned, An instructive game.} (
57. Nd5 Rf8 58. Kg3 Kh6 59. Rg6+ Kh7 60. Nxf6+ Rxf6 61. Rxf6) 1-0
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