This week's GOTW shows very interesting openings ideas by Black in a modern defense that quickly lead him to a good position. However, finding a plan was not easy and Black unfortunately failed to find the necessary counterplay.
[Event "Aurora Spring op"]
[Site "Aurora CAN"]
[Date "2015.03.15"]
[Round "4.6"]
[White "Chen, Richard"]
[Black "Yao, Sammy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "2032"]
[BlackElo "1943"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "2015.03.14"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
1. e4 g6 {The modern defense, often called Robatsch defense, is very popular
among King's Indian players. The main difference between the modern and the
Pirc defense is that Black does not play Nf6 right away and thus White does
not have to defend the pawn by playing Nc3. So, White will often play c4 at
some point and transpose in a KID.} 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 {And it seems like White
prefer the Pirc setup to the KID setup.} a6 $5 {This move may seem strange at
first, but it was played by very strong players such as Kramnik, Bacrot and
Larsen. The idea is obviously to play a quick b5, but White can play a4 to
prevent this.} 4. a4 (4. Be3 b5 5. Qd2 Bb7 6. f3 d6 {Will lead to a very
tactical position. Black traditionnally does pretty well here, but White also
has strong attacking possibilities on the King's side.}) 4... d6 5. Be3 b6 {
This is quite different from most Pirc setups, and in fact might often end up
being more similar to a Benoni.} (5... Nf6 6. h3 O-O 7. Nf3 {Is also seen
quite often}) 6. g3 Bb7 7. Bg2 Nf6 8. h3 {It's not clear to me that this move
is necessary. Black probably doesn't have much to gain by playing Ng4 :} (8.
Nge2 Ng4 9. Bg5 h6 10. Bd2 {And the knight is not doing anything useful in g4.}
) 8... Nbd7 9. Nge2 c5 10. d5 {By all means Black seems to be doing fine.
Obviously, Black will have to be very careful as White could have quick
attacking plans on the King's side.} O-O 11. O-O Re8 {Not a bad move, although
it is not easy to find a plan. My favourite move in this position would be
Qb8!, as it provides Black with an easy plan.} (11... Qb8 12. Qd2 b5 13. axb5
axb5 14. Rxa8 (14. Nxb5 Bxd5) 14... Bxa8) 12. Qd2 Rb8 {It seems like Black has
realized that playing b5 would be a good plan, but failed to see how to
correctly support this push. Playing Rb8 followed by Bc8 or Ba8 will be very
slow and Black's rook will not be on the open file after both players exchange
the a pawn.} 13. g4 Bc8 {This move looks wrong, and there's a good reason for
it. Black lost a few tempi and still has unconnected rooks and a bishop in c8
not doing much. This is much worse than the Qb8 variation showed earlier.} 14.
Ng3 b5 15. axb5 axb5 16. g5 $1 {Oops! Did Black overlook the fact that his
knight has no proper square? This is unfortunately what happens when one has
no clear plan and loses too much tempi in a critical position.} b4 17. Nd1 Nh5
18. Nxh5 gxh5 19. Qe2 h4 20. Qh5 {Black's position is pretty helpless at this
point. Not only will he lose a pawn, but his king will be at risk for the rest
of the game.} Ne5 21. f4 Nc4 22. f5 {Again, precise play by White. The f and g
pawns are just way too strong for Black.} Nxe3 23. Nxe3 Rf8 24. e5 {A nice
move by White, which shows some accurate calculation. However, this was
probably not the easiest continuation :} ({Way simpler was simply} 24. Rf4 $1
Qb6 25. Rxh4 Re8 26. Qxh7+ Kf8 27. f6 exf6 28. gxf6 Bxf6 29. Rf4) 24... dxe5
25. f6 exf6 26. gxf6 Bxf6 27. Be4 Re8 28. Qxh7+ Kf8 29. Qh6+ Bg7 30. Rxf7+ $1 {
Much stronger than anything else.} Kxf7 31. Bg6+ Ke7 32. Qxg7+ Kd6 33. Bxe8 ({
Nc4 lead to some nice checkmates, although pretty much wins at this point :}
33. Nc4+ Kxd5 34. Qf7+ Kc6 (34... Re6 35. Rd1+ Kc6) 35. Be4+ Kb5 36. Nd6+ Qxd6
37. c4+ bxc3 38. Qb3#) 33... Qxe8 34. Ra7 1-0
