SC Week 7/3: Karpov - Westerinen, Nice Olympiad 1974 (Space)
"Undoubtedly the most difficult game in the book to understand."
Michael Stean
Notes and Observations
15 d5 As with his game with Unzicker (Space/2), but unlike Tal - Bronstein (Outposts/1), Karpov is willing to block the outpost square in the centre of the board because depriving Westerinen of space for his knight is even more important in this position.
15 … Nh7 Westerinen would get the Grandmaster title the following year. Here Karpov makes him look very ordinary. Look at the state of Black’s knights already.
17 Nf5 Semi-Outpost (Outposts/7). Avoid exchanges if you’ve got more space … unless its giving your opponent the chance to trade his best piece.
28 … Rd7 The ultimate cramped position. Black’s entire army - queen, both rooks and all four minor pieces - are squeezed into a 2 x 5 rectangle of squares at the back of the board.
Outposts, Open files (with a 7th rank entry point), Black squares and White squares. If you could dense the entire text of Simple Chess into a single game it would be this one.
It is beautiful how all concepts of the book go hand in hand and culminate as you sum up in your last alinea. In this game I love the 'outpost' on a7 and how black is so cramped that After Qa4! he has to trade.
ReplyDeleteI am curious though. Why would he call this 'undoubtedly the most difficult game'? Because of all the subtleties of the Ruy Lopeze combined with the space versus trading into other (structural) advantages?
Almost finished the book! ;)