Friday 21 January 2011

Two bishops versus the rooks

While going over some openings for the upcoming zonal I came across the following interesting game. Although it was only a rapid game it contained a number of important theoretical points, including the tactical reasons why 8 ... Nd7 works for tactical reasons.
However it was the battle between the two black bishops and the white rook that was the most picturesque. The sequence staring on move 26 has the black bishops driving the white rook into the corner, where it eventually gets captured. After that Black has no trouble wining the game.

Gelfand,B (2750) - Ponomariov,R (2737) [D80]
19th Amber Rapid Nice FRA (1), 13.03.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Nf3 Nd7 9.d5 Bg4 10.Qd4 Bxf3 11.Qxh8 Bxd5 12.Qd4 Nb6 13.e4 Bc6 14.f3 Qxd4 15.cxd4 Bg7 16.Rc1 Bxd4 17.Bxc4 Be3 18.Rc2 Nxc4 19.Rxc4 Rd8 20.Rc2 Bb6 21.Bg5 Ba4 22.Rc1 Rd3 23.Rb1 c6 24.Bd2 Bb5 25.Rb3 Rd7 (D)
26.Ra3 Bc5 27.Rc3 Bb4 28.Rc2 Ba4 29.Rb2 Ba3 30.Rb1 Bc2 31.Ra1 Bb2 32.Ke2 Bd3+ 33.Kf2 Bxa1 34.Rxa1 c5 35.Be3 b6 36.Rd1 Bc4 37.Rxd7 Kxd7 38.a3 Kc6 39.Bf4 a5 40.Bd2 Kb5 41.Bf4 Ka4 42.Bc7 b5 43.Ke3 Bf1 44.Kf2 Bd3 45.Ke3 c4 46.Kd4 Kxa3 47.Bxa5 b4 0-1

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