THE following position was reached in my game from round one of the Bodensee Senioren.
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| How should Black respond to White's build-up on the kingside? |
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White's threat to capture three times on g6 cannot be defended directly as the bishop is pinned and 30...Qf7?? loses the exchange.
Black therefore has a choice between a) ...gxh5, which prevents Ng6 and threatens the white queen, and b) ...g5, which keeps lines closed but allows a white knight to plant itself on g6.
In the game 30...gxh5? was played, but after 31.Qh3 White's advantage was worth almost a rook, according to Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1.
After the further moves 31...h4 32.Nh5 Rgf8 33.Nf6+ Kh8 34.Nxh4, Black was more-or-less forced to give up the exchange, and was still under attack.
The alternative continuation, 30...g5 allows 31.Ng6, which looks scary for Black, at least at first, but after 31...Qd8 (keeping a guard on the g5 square) White has no way to support the knight.
It turns out that both the threat to the white queen in line a), and the threat of a white knight landing on g6, were illusory in as much as the former did not help Black and the latter posed Black no real danger at all.
The real threat was White getting a knight to f6, something that was not possible as long as a white pawn remained on h5.
LESSON: general principles are useful for directing players' thought, but they must be followed by concrete analysis.
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