BtM 31A: Dull safety

 January 1989, Position E

White to play

Geller - Kotronias, Athens 1988

Contributions to the comments box are welcome. I’ll reply with what the Masters have to say about their choice to anybody who suggests a move.

Scroll down to see some commentary from me and the Masters’ feedback.

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As I write I have just reached the 'what day is it?' stage of a set of night shifts at work. As a result, I’m going to keep today’s commentary 

First, if you’re interested in Efim Geller  you could do an awful lot worse than pick up a copy of Nemesis. 135 well annotated games and the usual top-quality translation and production values you’d expect from Douglas Griffin and Quality Chess.

If you're not interested in Geller you could do worse than having a look a the PDF sample which might well change your mind.

Second, whilst today’s position might look pretty straight forward and first glance, it’s got hidden depths.

Tidying-up with a bishop retreat was the most popular move (Levitt, Davies, Norwood, P. Littlewood, Howell) but just as many of the panel favoured alternative plans of natural development (Flear, Plaskett) or pawn storm (Suba, Sue Arkell). It’s notable that the very strongest panel members tended to be in the second camp even if matching the first gets you most BtM points.

That there was a divide amongst the panelist hints at the underlying complexity. Even so, it’s still somewhat of a surprise to read Flear’s opinion that this one was "the most difficult position" of the set.

The English GM, one of the few panelists who had already obtained the title at the time rather than in later years, thought Black was doing very well regardless of what White might try. Perhaps that’s why he thought it was so tricky … and why he went opted for 1 Bf4 which he called "dull but safe."

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POINTS

10: Bb3

7:  Bf4

6:  Bg5

4:  h4

3:  f4

2:  g4

1:  Rac1

MASTERS

Bb3: Levitt, Davies, Norwood, P. Littlewood, Howell

Bf4: Flear, Fidelity 68000

Bg5: Plaskett

h4:  Suba

g4:  S. Arkell

SOURCE

Geller - Kotronias, Athens 1988 12 g4?!