Alexander Beliavsky

A flank attack g7-g5

It is happend during last round of the match
Expirience against Young Stars in
Amsterdam last year. Peter Heine was in an
excellent form there and scored best result in
our team.

Hou Yifan (2584) : Nielsen, PH (2680)
[C53]
3rd NH Chess Tournament Amsterdam NED
(10), 2009
1.e4 e5 2.Sf3 Sc6 3.Lc4 Lc5 4.c3 Sf6 5.d3
d6 6.Lb3 a6 7.h3 La7 8.0–0 h6 9.Te1

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9...g5
I watch the moment when Peter moved his
pawn on g5. His intentions is pretty clear:
open "g" file for the rook and launch an
attack using both bishops, knight f6, queen
and even other rook after eventual long
castle. But what a precondition should be
met for a such diversion in the early stage of
the game was succesful? First, the pawn
structure in the center should be strong
enough to withstand a counterstrike in the
center. Second, black king should have a
safe haven and do not to be obstacle for
remaining pieces to coordinate each other.
The reason why we rarely witness such a
succesful attack is that it is not easy to met
both preconditions in majority instances.
10.Sh2

First question: why not d4? 10.d4 g4 11.hg4
Lg4 12.Le3 (may be even better then Be3 is
12.Ld5) 12...ed4 13.cd4 Lf3 14.Df3 Sd4
15.Ld4 Ld4 16.e5 Le5 17.Sd2 0–0 18.Sc4
Sd7 19.Se5 Se5 20.Db7 Dg5 21.Te3 and
white has a solid compensation for the pawn.
Her chances is not worse. However, move
made by black is not bad at all.
10...Tg8 11.Le3 g4
It is not the best choice for black. Though
black is opening "g" file, he has not enough
resourses to launch the mate attack. If white
succeed to secure her king, black will suffer
because of bad pawn structure. Better was
11..Be3 12. Re3 h5, aiming takes on g4 by a
pawn, follow by Bd7, Qe7, long castle.
Black chances is not worse at all. And it is
an argument that strike in the center 10.d4
was objectively better option for white.
12.La7?
Only this tactical blunder gives black upper
hand. 12.hg4 Sg4 13.Df3 De7 (The endgame
is favorable for white: 13...Df6 14.La7 Sa7
15.Sd2 Sc6 16.Sg4 Df3 17.Sf3 Lg4 18.Sh2
Lh3 19.g3 Ke7 20.Sf3 h5 21.Kh2 Lg4
22.Kg2 Th8 23.Sh4 Taf8 24.Ld1 and black
will suffer because of pawn structure.)
14.La7 Sa7 15.Sd2 Sh2 16.Kh2 Le6 17.Le6
fe6 18.Dh5 Kd7 19.Te3 and white has upper
hand.

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12...gh3!
White probably overlooked this move.
13.g3
13.Le3 Tg2 14.Kh1 Sg4 15.Sg4 Lg4 16.Dc1
(16.f3 Dh4 17.fg4 Dg3 18.Lg1 Th2 19.Lh2
Dg2) 16...Df6 17.Sd2 0–0–0 18.Ld1 Tg8

19.Lg4 T8g4 20.Dd1 h2 21.f3 Tg8 22.Te2
Tg1 23.Lg1 hg1D 24.Dg1 Tg1 25.Tg1 Sd8
26.Tg8 Kd7 and black bring his knight on f4
with a big advantage.
13...Sa7 14.Sd2 h5 15.Kh1 De7 16.La4 c6
17.d4 h4 18.de5 de5 19.Sc4 hg3 20.fg3 Sb5
21.Lb5 ab5 22.Sd6 Kf8 23.Dd2 Tg6 24.Sf5
Lf5
24..Qd7 25.Qe3 Ne4 26.Qe4 Qf5 was
stronger.
25.ef5 Tg3 26.Dh6 Ke8 27.Dh4 Tg8 28.Sf3
Sg4 29.Dg3
29.De7 Ke7 30.Se5 Sf2 31.Kh2 Tg2.

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29...e4
Endgame after 29...Kf8 30.Se5 Se5 31.De5
De5 32.Te5 Kg7 (32...Tg2 33.f6!) 33.Te7
Kf6 34.Tb7 Tg2 35.Tb6 Td8 36.Tc6 Kg5
37.Tg1 Tg1 38.Kg1 Kf4 is winning for
black.
30.Te4 De4 31.Te1 De1 32.De1 Kd7
33.Dd2 Kc7 34.Sg5 Tad8 35.Df4 Kc8
36.Dg4 f6 37.De2 Tg5 38.De6 Kc7 39.Df6
Tg2 40.De7 Kc8 41.De1 Tdd2 42.De8 Kc7
43.De5 Kb6 44.De3 Ka6
Now black king met the second precondition
– it is in a safe place while remaining pieces
ideally coordinated against the white king.
The curtain is dropping.
45.Dh3 Tge2 46.Df1 Tf2 47.Dg1 Tf5
48.De1 Tff2 49.Kg1 Tg2 50.Kf1 Th2 0–1

Seirawan, Yasser (2595) : Beliavsky,
Alexander (2645) [D14]
Brussels, 1988

The game Hou Yifan – P.H. Nielsen
reminded me my game played 20 years
earlier. It was most innocent opening you
can imagine - slav exchange. I succeeded to
win in 20 moves, thanks to the flank attack.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Sc3 Sf6 4.cd5 cd5 5.Lf4
Sc6 6.e3 Lf5 7.Sf3 e6 8.Lb5 Sd7 9.0–0 Le7
10.Lc6 bc6 11.Tc1 Tc8 12.Sa4

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White believes that all events will happen on
the queen side of the board. Better was
12.Se5 Se5 13.Le5 f6 14.Lg3 c5=.
12...g5
Black starts to push pawns aiming to open
"h"file for the rook and bring his queen on
the kingside to launch mate attack. Here
necessary preconditions which we discussed
in annotations to the move g5 in HouYifan –
P.H. Nielsen perfectly exist: first black has a
very solid pawn structure in the center.
White even cannot challenge it, because his
knight on a4 does not support central strike
e4. Second, he is planning bring his king on
f7, where it placed safe and does not mess
coordination of remaining pieces with the
rook h8.
13.Lg3 h5 14.h3 g4
14...h4 15.Lh2 g4 16.Se5! (16.hg4 Lg4
17.De2 h3) 16...Se5 17.Le5 Tg8 18.hg4 Lg4
19.f3 Lh3 20.Tf2=.
15.hg4 hg4 16.Se5
Also 16.Sh2 Sf6! 17.Le5 (17.Sc5 Lc5 18.dc5
Se4 19.Sg4 Dg5) 17...Ld6 18.Sc5 Le5

19.de5 Se4 20.Se4 Dh4 21.Sd6 Kf8 22.Te1
Dh2 23.Kf1 Tb8 24.Sf5 ef5 25.Dd4 Dh1
26.Ke2 Dg2 was favorable for black.
16...Se5 17.Le5
17.de5 c5.
17...f6 18.Lg3 Kf7
Now black is ready bring his queen on h file.
19.Te1 Th5
19...Dg8 20.Kf1! and the king escaping to
queen side. Black keep option to bring his
queen on a6 if white king will go on e2.
20.Dd2
20.Kf1 Da5! 21.Ke2? Db5 22.Kd2 Dd3.

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20...Le4!–+ 21.Kf1
21.Sc3 Dh8 22.Kf1 Th1 23.Ke2 Lg2–+-
21...Lf3
Black cuts the only way for the white king to
escape. Mate on h1 is enevitable. Moral of
those experience: if you castled first, keep
the option for the strike in the center to avoid
surprise flank attack. 0–1