[Event "European Championship"]
[Site "Ohrid"]
[Date "2001.06.01"]
[Round "1.41"]
[White "Nisipeanu, Liviu Dieter"]
[Black "Halkias, Stelios"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Hartwig,Th"]
[BlackElo "2491"]
[ECO "B33"]
[EventDate "2001.06.01"]
[PlyCount "79"]
[WhiteElo "2596"]

{ The following recent game by Nisipeanu, who made an amazing run in the World Championship in Vegas a couple of years ago, shows, at the same time, some good solid chess, and the ability to break out of normal patterns when it is advantageous to. } 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 Ne7 $5 { I have to admit that I'm not well-versed in the theory of this variation with 9.Nd5 instead of 9.Bxf6, but I know enough that this move causes me to sit up and pay attention. The idea of the 9.Nd5 line, as I understand it, is that black cannot get away with challenging the knight this easily. Presumably the kingside weaknesses are too much if black is also without his dark-squared bishop. But black says: "show me". } 12. Nxf6+ gxf6 13. Bd3 { The bishop often stays put for a long time in these lines, so this isn't an obvious case of "finish development, get castled",... especially if you see how white continues! Regarding development of the bishop to d3 in general - it is meant to be prophylactic, I think, against ...d5 and ...f5, but white has to show some care in that the bishop can find itself misplaced if black gets an opportunity to play ...f5 as a sac and then start rolling the center. } ( 13. Nc2 { seemed more flexible, but white will still have to decide what to do at some point. } ) 13... Bb7 14. Qe2 { Keeping his castling options open, but soon he will have to choose and he will certainly go kingside... } 14... d5 15. O-O-O $5 { Well I'll be damned! Actually, looking over this game a second time around, this seems very logical. If you read my notes to last week's game, you might even agree that this is a "reaction" move agaist 14...d5, the possibility of which white has cleverly kept open, but, but... the Na3 is supposed to go to the center, white is supposed to play a4 to activate the a1-rook, etc. Patterns can be useful, but they can be limiting as well. Apparently Nisipeanu is less susceptible to being limited by patterns than I am. } 15... Qc7 16. Nc2 O-O-O 17. exd5 { Opening the center and preparing some exchanges. In general, white's advantage can be expected to grow as more pieces are exchanged, because his pawn structure is better. One possible modification to note, however, is that if white keeps the knights on the board, this may prove useful to tickle the weak a6 and c6 squares around black's king. } 17... Kb8 18. Be4 f5 19. d6 Rxd6 20. Bxb7 Kxb7 21. Rxd6 Qxd6 22. Rd1 Qe6 23. Nb4 Rc8 ( 23... Nc6 $5 24. Nxc6 Kxc6 { might come into consideration, reasoning along the same lines as we did above, that keeping knights on the board is in white's favor. White is clearly somewhat better here too, but it looks to me that his advantage can be kept within bounds. One complication is that most pure pawn endings are probably winning for white, but I don't see how white can force this. } ) 24. Qd3 e4 { I don't like this move. Black almost forces white to penetrate into the position, which he was probably intending anyway. In black's defense, it takes some calculation to see how bad this actually is. } ( 24... Nc6 { would be my choice again, but it isn't a panacea. } 25. Qd7+ Rc7 26. Qxe6 ( 26. Qd5 $1 { is the machine's (Hiarcs) suggestion, and looks very hard to meet, for example: } 26... Qxd5 27. Nxd5 Rd7 28. Nf6 Rxd1+ 29. Kxd1 h6 30. Ng8 h5 31. Nh6 ) 26... fxe6 27. Nxc6 Kxc6 { and black is OK in this line. } ) 25. Qd7+ Rc7 26. Qxe6 fxe6 27. Rd6 a5 28. Na6 $1 { The second move from white in this game to take me completely by surprise. The a6-square seems remote and unlikely, not least because the knight is nearly trapped there. For these reasons I would be tempted not to look at it at all. But after you see it, it becomes clear that 28. Na6 is the winning move, since in this case white's rook penetrates and becomes unanswerable after the slightly tricky knight exchange. } ( 28. Nc2 { also looks pretty good, however, due to the following line: } 28... Rc6 29. Rd7+ Rc7 30. Rxc7+ Kxc7 31. Nd4 { and white wins a pawn. } ) 28... Rc6 29. Rd7+ Kxa6 30. Rxe7 b4 ( 30... h6 31. Rh7 e5 32. Re7 { proves that black must lose a pawn. } ) 31. Kc2 a4 32. Rxh7 { And now it is merely a "matter of technique". } 32... a3 33. Rh3 f4 34. Kb3 axb2 35. Kxb2 bxc3+ 36. Rxc3 Rd6 37. Kc2 Kb5 38. h4 e5 39. h5 Rd8 { Nothing helped. } ( 39... Rh6 40. Rh3 Kc4 41. g4 $5 { It is regrettable to allow black some counterplay, so maybe white could do something more refined. Nonetheless, this does seem to win easily enough. } 41... fxg3 42. fxg3 Kd4 43. g4 e3 ( 43... Ra6 44. h6 Rxa2+ 45. Kb3 Ra8 46. h7 Rh8 47. g5 e3 48. Kc2 { wins. } ) 44. g5 Ra6 45. h6 Rxa2+ 46. Kb3 e2 ( 46... Ra8 47. g6 e2 48. Rh1 Rf8 49. Re1 { White can afford to sack because his two passers are worth much more than black's rook, so this move calmly awaits ...Kd3-d2. } 49... Kd3 50. g7 Rb8+ 51. Ka4 Kc4 52. Rc1+ { stops the mate and wins. } ) 47. Rh1 e1=Q ( 47... Ra8 48. g6 Rf8 49. Re1 Kd3 50. g7 ) 48. Rxe1 Rh2 49. Rg1 e4 50. g6 Rxh6 51. g7 Rb6+ 52. Kc2 Rb8 53. g8=Q Rxg8 54. Rxg8 { and white is easily stopping the pawn. } ) 40. h6 1-0