GM Schwartzman's Internet Chess Academy:

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Lecture 4: Keep Your Eyes Open

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Black to move

Your task was to find the best move for black.

What we are dealing here with is the position after white's 12th move in a famous game, Uhlmann-Fischer, played in the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal tournament of 1970.

Please allow me to dedicate this lecture to maybe the most important aspect of playing chess: keeping the eyes open and paying attention! The reason I want to make this dedication, is that white is a perfect example of not paying attention, while black is the exact opposite.

As you probably realized, white's last move was h2-h3. A fairly standard move of attacking the bishop on g4 in a fairly standard Benoni Indian position. Obviously, GM Uhlmann realized that his pawn on e4 was under pressure from the black rook and knight, so he decided instead of trying to defend the pawn, to attack the black bishop. The reason is quite logical: if black takes the knight on f3, white can take back with the bishop and defend the pawn at the same time, thus gaining a tempo. And if black prefers to move his bishop, he'll have to retreat all the way to f7 or c8, which is an achievement for white as well.

You have to agree that all of the above are true, and I am sure many players, including GMs, might have been tempted to play h2-h3 in that position. Unfortunately, GM Uhlmann was a little superficial in his thinking. Instead of actually calculating black's possibilities, he assumed that by attacking the black bishop he restricts his opponent's alternatives, without realizing what was waiting for him...

Now let's turn to black in the position features in the puzzle. Of course, your opponent having played h2-h3, it looks like the only choice is between taking the knight or going back, since Bh5 is out of the question cause it will end up trapped. And having in view that a bishop on d7 or c8 would be extremely passive and an obstacle in the other pieces' development, it certainly looks like 1...Bf3 is the right choice. Wouldn't this be the most reasonable way of thinking? It would only take a minute and then black can make his move satisfied that this was the only reasonable choice...

Well, as it so happens, that would be very very wrong. After all, the position after 1...Bf3 2.Bf3 is a little better for white, and black will have a long fight ahead of him, just to obtain equality... But what else is there? There are actually a couple of things in white's position that by themselves don't mean very much, but put together can cause a lot of damage. For instance, the fact the bishop on f4 is undefended, and that the e4 pawn is not enough supported, and that the knight on c3 is on the diagonal controlled by the bishop on g7, and that the bishop on e2 is one the e-file, and that the queen and bishop can be forked, and, and, and.... All these things could point to something, let's say fishy, around there... Which should be more than enough cause to waste a few minutes calculating the concrete variations. And nothing is more concrete than 1...Ne4!!

What about the bishop on g4? Well, who cares... There are much more important things going on in the center. Nevertheless, let me emphasize that it is vital for black to calculate all of the ensuing variation before playing Ne4, since this looks like a one-way street: there is no turning back!

So, what can white do? Obviously, he can take the bishop with 2.hg4. Black is not going to just sit there...he will also take something and that something is clearly the white knight on c3. Of course, 2...Nc3 would be a grave error, but 2...Bc3! on the other hand does the job very well. Black is one pawn up, and also has a great position. And white can't even think of taking back with 3.bc3, because of 3...Nc3 4.Qd2 Ne2+ 5.Kh2 Nf4 6.Qf4 and black is two pawns up in a virtually winning position.

So, what other choice does white have after 1...Ne4 ? Well, he can also take the knight back with 2.Ne4, and that is actually the variation chosen by Uhlmann. Fischer replied with the forced 2...Re4, and now white has to deal with the attack of his bishop on f4... The German Grandmaster chose to run away with the bishop and attack the black at the same time with 3.Bg5

This is another interesting position. Black could simply play f7-f6, but that would ruin his entire pawn structure. Instead, Fischer chose a great move: 3...Qe8! The queen moves out of its endangered position, and also doubles forces on the e-file, thus continuing to build the pressure on at least one of the white bishops, in this case the one on e2.

Intent on keeping at least the pair of bishops out of this whole ordeal, white replied with 4.Bd3, and after 4...Bf3 5.Qf3 Rb4 black kept his material advantage and even threatened to make it bigger. Of course, white has some compensation, because of black's lack of development, but as soon as black moves his knight to d7, any threats will be effectfully defended. Needless to say, Fischer won the game in a convincing fashion...

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