A Lasker repertoire is more suitable than Steinitz's, in my opinion, for club players who want a less-tactical, arguably more positional, way of playing.
White
Open 1.e4 with the aim of playing a mainline Spanish: 1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 (Lasker is famous for playing the Exchange Variation: 4.Bxc6 but he played other moves, including 4.Bc4!? once, three times as often.) After the standard moves 4...Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 (he generally met 6...d6, another popular continuation in his day, with 7.c3) 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 he liked immediate central play with 9.d4. Lasker's opponents often played 8...Na5 9.Bc2 c5 whereupon Lasker again preferred immediate central play with 10.d4.
Against the Open Variation: 5...Nxe4 Lasker had most success, scoring 60% (all percentages are taken from ChessBase's 2020 Mega database), with 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.a4!? while scoring just 33% with the mainline 8.dxe5. The main reply to 8.a4!? today is 8...Rb8, which Lasker met with 9.axb5 axb5 10.dxe5 Be6 11.c3, reaching a position similar to main lines in the Open Variation but with White having control of the a file.
Against 3...Nf6 Lasker overwhelmingly chose 4.0-0, meeting 4...d6 and 4...Nxe4 with 5.d4, but against 4...Be7 he went 5.Nc3 d6 6.d4.
The other popular Spanish line in Lasker's day was the Steinitz Defence: 3...d6, which Lasker met with 4.d4 Bd7 5.Nc3.
Against the Petrov: 2...Nf6 Lasker was happy transposing to a Spanish Four Knights by 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5, the games usually continuing down the main line with 4...Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 d6 7.Bg5.
Against the Philidor: 2...d6 he played both 3.d4 and 3.Nc3, scoring much better with the former, albeit from a small sample size.
After 1.e4 the second-most popular continuation of Lasker's opponents was the French Defence: 1...e6 2.d4 d5. Lasker usually met the Classical: 3.Nc3 Nf6 with 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Nb5!? This is still played by grandmasters and is quite liked by some analysis engines and should come as a surprise as today 7.f4 and 7.Qd2 are more popular.
Against the McCutcheon: 4...Bb4 Lasker scored 78% with 5.exd5.
Against the Winawer: 3...Bb4 Lasker generally played 4.e5, meeting 4...c5 with both the quiet 5.Bd2 or the sharper 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qc7 7.Qg4.
Lasker overwhelmingly played 2.Nf3 and 3.d4 against the Sicilian, scoring 64% against the move he faced more than three-quarters of the time, 2...Nc6.
Against the Caro-Kann: 1...c6 he generally played 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3.
Lasker varied his lines against the Scandinavian: 1...d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5/d8 to such an extent that is not really possible to give a recommendation based on his play, and this is also the case for Scandinavian lines with 2...Nf6.
Against Alekhine's Defence: 1...Nf6, the only other reply to 1.e4 he met more than twice, Lasker liked the Four Pawns Attack: 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.d4 d6 5.f4.
Black v 1.e4
Lasker usually played 1...e5, meeting the Spanish: 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 with 3...Nf6. After 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 he liked 5...Be7, avoiding the Berlin Wall: 5...d6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+. The main line after 5...Be7 goes 6.Qe2 Nd6 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.dxe5 Nb7, at which point Lasker's opponents generally diverged. The main continuation today is 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Re1, which Lasker usually met with 10...Nc5.
Against 4.d3 Lasker played what became Kasparov's choice, 4...d6 rather than 4...Bc5.
When opponents transposed to the Spanish Four Knights with 4.Nc3, games normally followed the mainline 4...Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 d6 7.Bg5 Bxc3 8.bxc3 at which point Lasker liked to switch his queen's knight to the kingside, starting with 8...Ne7.
Against the Italian Game: 3.Bc4 Lasker played 3...Bc5 and 3...Nf6 with equal frequency and success. Often his games would reach the same position after 3...Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 or 3...Nf6 4.d3 Bc5. They typically continued 4.Nc3 d6 5.Be3 Bb6 with Lasker often delaying castling in favour of piece manoeuvres.
Against the Scotch: 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 he had most success with 4...Bc5, winning all seven games.
The King's Gambit: 2.f4 was out-of-favour at the highest levels in Lasker's day but he won both his games in Mega20 with 2...d5.
Black v 1.d4 and Others
Lasker was happy playing mainlines of the Queen's Gambit Declined: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6, meeting 4.Bg5 (no one played the Exchange Variation: 4.cxd5 against him) Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.Rc1 c6 8.Bd3 with 8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 Nd5, which is still the main line today. Against 4.Nf3, games generally transposed to 4.Bg5 lines.
He met the Colle System: 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 10 times, generally playing 3...e6 4.Bd3 c5, following up with 5...Nc6 whether White played 5.Bd3, 5.b3 or 5.0-0.
After 1.Nf3 d5 opponents generally played 2.d4. Lasker met the Réti continuation 2.c4 too infrequently to give a repertoire recommendation.
He most commonly met the Bird: 1.f4 with 1...d5, and the English: 1.c4 with 1...e6 or 1...e5, scoring better, from a small sample, with the latter.
One of Lasker's greatest tournament successes was winning New York 1924 one-and-a-half points clear of a field that included reigning world champion Capablanca and future world champion Alexander Alekhine.
Alekhine - Lasker
Queen's Gambit Declined
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7!?
This is still a popular option today although 4...Be7, 4...c6 and 4...Bb4 are commoner in Mega20.
5.cxd5!?
Alekhine transposes into an Exchange Variation in which White has played Nf3 rather than reserving the option of Nge2. True Black has played ...Nbd7 but this is normal in the Exchange.
5...exd5 6.Bf4!?
This scores four percentage points better in Mega20 than the more popular 6.Bg5.
6....c6 7.e3 Nh5 8.Bd3!?
Alekhine gave this a question mark, claiming White is for choice after 8.Be5! (Alekhine's punctuation) f6 9.Bg3 but Black seems to have at least a comfortable game after winning the bishop-pair with 8...Nxe5.
8.Bg5!? has been seen at high levels in modern play.
8...Nxf4 9.exf4 Bd6 10.g3 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 12.Qc2
There is no mate after 12.Bxh7+? Kxh7 13.Qh5+.
12...Nf8
A typical deployment for the black queen's knight in the Exchange Variation. Lasker has a typical QGD Exchange position for Black but White's kingside formation is somewhat unusual.
13.Nd1?!
Alekhine strongly criticised this, suggesting 13.Rfe1, which was played in Vladimir Fedoseev (2674) - David Howell (2686), Dubai 2015. That game continued 13...Rxe1+ 14.Rxe1 Bd7 15.f5!? Qf6 16.Ne5 Re8 17.f4 with a roughly level position (½–½, 55 moves).
13...f6!?
Alekhine gave this an exclamation mark but the analysis engines Stockfish11 and Komodo11.01 much prefer 13...Bg4.
14.Ne3 Be6 15.Nh4
Many commentators suggested alternatives here, with Tarrasch's natural-looking 15.Rfe1 being perhaps the engines' choice (but their evaluations fluctuate quite a bit).
15...Bc7
Partly to line up against the isolani on d4 but also ensuring a white knight landing on f5 does not biff Black's dark-square bishop.
16.b4!?
White starts a Minority Attack, although this does not seem to fit in with playing on the kingside with Nh4.
16...Bb6 17.Nf3
 |
| How should Black proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
17...Bf7!
Preparing to attack the defender of the weak-pawn d4.
18.b5?!
Continuing the Minority Attack but the engines suggest 18.h3!?, the idea being to meet 18...Bh5 with 19.Ng4.
18...Bh5 19.g4 Bf7 20.bxc6 Rc8 21.Qb2 bxc6 22.f5?
Played to prevent ...Ne6 but Black is left very weak on the dark squares, especially on the kingside. The engines prefer 22.Ng2 and if 22...Ne6 then one idea is 23.Qc2!? h6 24.Rae1 Nxd4 25.Nxd4 Bxd4 26.Rxe8+ Qxe8 27.Re1 when White has some activity for the pawn, but it is hard to believe it is enough.
22...Qd6 23.Ng2 Bc7 24.Rfe1 h5
Clearing the h7 square for the black knight to join the kingside attack.
25.h3
This further weakens the dark squares. The engines reckon a lesser evil was to give up a pawn by 25.g5!?
25...Nh7 26.Rxe8+ Rxe8 27.Re1 Rb8 28.Qc1 Ng5! 29.Ne5
As Alekhine pointed out, no improvement is 29.Nxg5 Qh2+ 30.Kf1 fxg5 31.Ne3 Qxh3+ and ...hxg4.
29...fxe5 30.Qxg5 e4 31.f6 g6 32.f4!
Moving the light-square bishop is met by ...Qh2+.
32...hxg4!
Stronger than 32...exd3 33.gxh5.
33.Be2 gxh3 34.Bh5 Rb2
Also winning is 34...hxg2 35.Bxg6 Qxf4.
35.Nh4 Qxf4 36.Qxf4 Bxf4 0-1
No comments:
Post a Comment