April 8 1978, A dragon to the death
A recent lecture I gave at the Pencarrow Chess Club in Wainuiomata covered the Sicilian Dragon, one of the most violent of all the chess openings. At first it was considered unclear. Then Bobby Fischer became the leading exponent of the lethal White Yugoslav attack (l.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8. Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 l0.h4!?) from which follows a simple but highly effective mating procedure, with White playing the moves 0-0-0, Bh6 and h5 prizing open the h-file for his major pieces.
Devotees of the Black side were forced to speed up Queenside counterplay and dramatic exchange sacrifices on c3 were soon commonplace. Present day opinion again regards the Yugoslav attack against the Dragon as unclear, but of the most active grandmasters only England's Tony Miles plays the opening with any frequency.
World champion Anatoly Karpov has a wide opening repertoire and often produces interesting ideas. Recently he sidestepped the main lines and rehabilitated an old variation with some novel Karpovian ideas.
Karpov, A - Martin, A
Las Palmas 1977
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be2 Karpov follows an old line in which White castles kingside early on and follows up the attack with a later f4 (6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.h4!? is the Yugoslav attack as mentioned in the introduction ) 6...Bg7 7.O-O O-O 8.Bg5! The first Karpov deviation. From here the bishop exerts indirect pressure on the Black e-pawn. Another advantage this move has over the normal 8.Be3 is that at an opportune moment White may suddenly lash out with Bxf6, followed by Nd5 which attacks the capturing bishop on f6 plus the e-pawn if Black moves his bishop from the knight's line of fire. 8...Nc6 9.Nb3 Be6 10.Kh1 Finesse number two. If (10.f4 immediately Black can set his Q-side counterplay rolling with 10...b5 intending 11.Bxb5 Qb6+ 12.Kh1 Nxe4! if White captures on b5. Karpov's tenth move transfers his king to a less vulnerable square ) 10...a6 11.f4 b5 12.Bf3 Martin would dearly like to play 12...Bc4 but this fails to 13.e5, and similarly 12...Nd7 (preventing 13.Nd5) meets the same l3.e5 12...Rc8 13.Nd5! With this move Karpov seizes the advantage. Black dare not ever exchange this knight with ...Bxd5 because then his backward e-pawn sitting on e7 would become vulnerable. In the meantime White threatens to double his pawns by a dual exchange on f6 13...Nd7 14.c3 Nb6 15.Qe2 Nc4 16.Rad1 Qd7 17.Rfe1 Qa7 Karpov was threatening to bring his other knight into the fray by 18.Nd4 18.Bh4 Rfe8 19.Nc1! Qb8 20.Nd3 a5 21.Nf2 Bd7 Through a remarkable knight manoeuvre, Karpov has activated his most poorly placed piece - now he offers an exchange in search of a direct kingside assault. 22.Bg4! Bxg4 23.Nxg4 a4 24.a3 Qb7 25.Rf1 Nd8 Another defensive try was 25...Rf8. 26.f5! f6
Moves are clickable
Martin must prevent 27.f6 by White. Now Karpov uses his aggressively posted pieces and advantage in space to bring the Black king from his shelter. 27.Bxf6! exf6 28.Ngxf6+ Bxf6 29.Nxf6+ Kf8 30.fxg6 hxg6 31.Qg4 With no really useful discovered check at hand Karpov simply brings more pieces into the fray. 31...Nf7 If (31...Ne5 then 32.Nd7+ Kg7 33.Nxe5 Rxe5 34.Rxd6 and against three major pieces Black's king is helpless ) 32.Qxg6 Nce5 33.Nh7+ Black resigns. On 33.Ke7 Karpov had planned a lovely Queen sacrifice ending in mate (33.Nh7+ Ke7 34.Ng5 Nxg6 35.Rxf7+ Kd8 36.Rxd6+ when Black is forced to interpose his Queen but to no avail as 37 R (either) x d7 is checkmate 36...Qd7 37.Rfxd7# ) 1-0