But I got my challenge in first by persuading the engine's creators, ChessBase, to let me fly to their headquarters in Hamburg and be first to take on Deep Fritz 7.
This happened in the late summer or early autumn of 2002 - I cannot recall when, but know it was after July's Politiken Cup and before September's Isle of Man.
Deep Fritz 7 did not have a Fide grandmaster title, but it had an estimated elo of 2650 and was to draw its match with Kramnik 4-4, so I think this game deserves a place in Learn From The Greats.
Deep Fritz 7 - Spanton
Maróczy Bind
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4!? Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0
This is the most-popular move today, but the first known Maróczy Bind, which occurred in Rudolf Swiderski - Géza Maróczy (yes, Maróczy was Black), Monte Carlo, 1904, saw 7...d6 8.Be2 Bd7 9.0-0, and only now did Maróczy castle.
8.Be2 b6!?
This is much-less popular than 8...d6, but has been played by grandmasters.
Andrew Greet in Starting Out: The Accelerated Dragon (Everyman Chess 2008) writes: "A solid and reliable choice … but [Black] can sometimes struggle to create meaningful counterplay."
9.0-0 Bb7 10.f3 e6!?
Strong players have tried lots of other moves at this point, but the text is most popular in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database. Back in 1998, John Donaldson & Jeremy Silman in Accelerated Dragons (Cadogan) and Peter Heine Nielsen & Carsten Hansen in The Sicilian Accelerated Dragon (Batsford) label the move dubious. However, Greet calls it a "principled reaction [that] at least forces White to deal with some concrete problems."
11.Qd2
Nielsen & Hansen give this an exclamation mark, calling it "simple [but] best."
11...d5 12.Nxc6 Bxc6 13.cxd5 exd5 14.e5
 |
| How should Black proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
14...Nd7?!
The only move mentioned in the older books, but Greet gives "14...Ne8!" He explains: "...Nd7 may seem more natural, but the text has been almost a universal choice amongst grandmasters with Black. One advantage of the e8 square is that the knight can come to c7 to provide a solid support of the d5 pawn."
15.f4 f6?
Donaldson & Silman are the only ones to properly mention this try (although it is misprinted as 15...f5 in Nielsen & Hansen), and they call it bad. However, they also said other moves had given Black "uniformly miserable results."
The modern analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10 suggest 15...g5!?, but reckon White is much better.
16.e6!?
16.Bb5 was played in Maia Chiburdanidze (2400) - Nelson Borges Pinal (2405), Havana 1985. That game continued 16...Bb7 17.e6 Nc5 18.f5 a6 19.Bxc5 bxc5 20.Bd7 with a winning positional advantage for White, according to Stockfish10 and Komodo10, although the game finished unduly early when Black blundered just three moves later.
16...Nc5 17.f5 gxf5 18.Bxc5 bxc5 19.Bf3
Black is a pawn up (for the time-being) and has the bishop-pair, but Black's many weaknesses far outweigh the pluses.
19...Re8 20.Rae1 Qd6 21.Bxd5 Bxd5 22.Nxd5 Rad8
If 22...Rxe6 then 23.Rxe6 Qxe6 24.Nc7.
23.e7 Rd7 24.Rxf5 Kh8
This is the engines' choice, but the position is hopeless.
25.Qe2 Qc6 26.Qh5 Rb7 27.Nxf6! Bxf6 28.Rxf6 Qxf6 29.Qxe8+ Kg7 30.Qd8 1-0
LESSONS FROM THIS GAME
The Maróczy Bind used to be thought of as virtually a refutation of the Accelerated and Hyper-Accelerated Dragons. The theoretical consensus today is that it is a lot less dangerous than that, but nevertheless White maintains a small plus for a long time thanks to having a space advantage. This game shows how easily a small plus can turn into a large one if Black fails to create counterplay.
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