A Group of Pieces on the King Side

    In 1956, Congress passed the Interstate Highway Bill. Before that if you drove anywhere you traveled country roads and navigated through city streets to get wherever it was you were going. While driving you could listen to Elvis Presley crooning Don’t Be Cruel and wail Hound Dog. 

    Minimum wage was $1.00 per hour...almost $12 today and a movie cost 50 cents. Life expectancy for en was a scant 66.7 years, but women did a lot better...72.9 years. Today it’s almost 79 for men and 86 for women.

    Meanwhile, in, Dresden, East Germany they were still grappling with the aftermath of the devastating World War II bombings and grappling with life under communist rule. 

    That was the backdrop fir the chess tournament that was held in Dresden in 1956, but the big chess news stories that year were The Game of the Century when13-year-old Bobby Fischer beat Donald Byrne in the Rosenwald Memorial tournament in New York City and Vasily Smyslov’s victory in the Amsterdam Candidates tournament. 

    In the following game from Dresden, Soviet GM Yuri Averbakh (1922-2022, 100 (!) years old) defeats East Berman Master (later IM) Reinhart Fuchs (1934 – 2017).

 

 

    Averbakh may not be a familiar name to amny readers, but he played in the 1953 Zurich Candidates tournament and won the USSR Championship in 1954 and tied for first in 1956, but lost in the playoff. He was a a highly respected theoretician, author and chess historian. He was also renowned as an opening and endgame theorist. 

    The game is instructive because, as everyone knows, Pawn Majorities make a flank attack possible; however, a piece concentration can do the same thing if they are directed towards a particular area. An important requirement for the use of piece superiority in a particular area is the opening of lines and the goal will always be the the attainment of such superiority in piece strength that the opponent is left powerless to defend himself. 

 

[Event "Dresden"] [Site ""] [Date "1956.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Yuri Averbakh"] [Black "Reinhart Fuchs"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E75"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1956.??.??"] {E75: King's Indian: Averbakh Variation} 1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. d4 Nf6 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Bg5 {This came to be known as the Averbakh Variation; it prevents the immediate 6...e5. Black can challenge the B with 6...h6 with the option of a later ...g5, though in practice this is a weakening move.} c5 (6... e5 {is not recommended.} 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Qxd8 Rxd8 9. Nd5 {with a good position.}) 7. d5 a6 8. a4 e6 9. Qd2 Qa5 {So far the game has proceeded along what could be considered the Main Line. White's most popular move is now 10. Nf3, but Averbakh's next move is a sly one.} 10. Ra3 {This move is more than a defense to the threat 10...b5 which can now be answered by 11 11.axb5. The clever thing is that the move also serves another purpose in that white, who cannot launch a successful attack in the center or on the Q-sid will eventually play this R to the K-side and obtain superiority there.} exd5 11. exd5 Nbd7 {This move interferes with black's development and so better would have been 11...Re8 followed by ...Bg4} (11... Re8 12. Nf3 Bg4 13. O-O Nbd7 14. h3 Bxf3 15. Bxf3 Qb4 {equals. Kachiani Gersinska,K (2374)-Seps,M (2265) Dresden 2007}) 12. Nf3 Nb6 13. O-O Bg4 {Black's previous maneuvering was probably intended as the prelude to 13...Qb4, but now he realizes it could be answered in a way that would force him to find a way to extricate his Queen from a dangerous situation.} (13... Qb4 14. Qc1 Nbd7 15. a5 Ne4 16. Bh4 Nxc3 ( 16... b5 17. Nxe4 Bxb2 18. Qh6 Bg7 19. Qe3 Re8 20. Rb3 Qxa5 21. Qf4 {Black is facing some serious difficulties.}) 17. bxc3 {Black has trapped jis Q.}) 14. Qf4 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Nfd7 {It was necessary to play the other N to d7 so as to let the Q have an escape route and allow to the potential advance of the b-Pawn. Instead black persists with his ill conceived version of a Q-side attack and as a result weakens his K-side.} 16. Ne4 {[%mdl 32] All of a sudden White has two threats: 17.Bd2 trapping the Q and 17.Nxd6. Black's reply is forced, but white already has a decisive advantage.} Nc8 {This defends the d-Pawn and gives the Q an escape route, but white quickly builds upo a crushing attack.} 17. Qh3 Qc7 18. Qh4 Re8 19. Rh3 {Very pleasing! Note that all of white's pieces, apart from the B on e2, are poised for the decisive attack on black's insufficiently defended K. Even the B on e2 is ready to join the attack by sacrificing itself on h5. All Averbakh has to do is figure out the details of the attack.} h5 20. Ng3 {The B sacrifice at once was possible, but he prefers to add an extra piece before doing so.} (20. Bxh5 Rxe4 (20... gxh5 21. Qxh5 Rxe4 22. Qh7+ {wins}) 21. Qxe4 Nf8 22. Bd1 {White}) 20... Nf8 21. Bxh5 {[%mdl 512]} Bxb2 (21... gxh5 22. Nxh5 f5 23. Bf6 {is copletely hopeless for black.}) 22. Nf5 {[%mdl 512]} gxh5 (22... gxf5 23. Bf6 {and a fatal Q check on the g-file can't be prevented.}) (22... Nh7 {is his best defense. but he is still lost after} 23. Bc1 Bf6 24. Qg3 Ne7 25. Nxd6 Red8 26. Bf4 b5 27. Nxf7 Kxf7 28. Bxg6+ Nxg6 29. Rxh7+ Bg7 30. Bxc7) 23. Bf6 Ng6 24. Qg5 Nce7 25. Nh6+ Kf8 26. Bxb2 {Black resigned.} 1-0