Insights, on the value of a pawn, and prophylaxis

Consider the following position, from yesterday's Anand-Caruana game.

If you played through this game at speed, just going through the moves, you would quickly pass on. You would, or I would, think it not much of a game, with everything coming off fairly quickly, and a dead drawn ending.

However, I think there is more to the game, and the position above is key. Vishy shows a great sense of danger in returning the pawn with a move, d6! that I would never have considered (exclamation mark because of that fact).

I have spent twenty minutes or so since then looking at the game, and plan to spend more time when I have some. This is an 'iceberg' game…a lot more below the surface than can at first be seen.

I downloaded the pgn file to one of my iPad apps: it suggests a3 rather than d6, and I am pretty sure a3 is the move that I would have played. The App assesses it as +0.89, and again, I would have been pretty ok with white, over-assessing the extra pawn. However, when I play a few more possible moves, two things become clear. The d5 pawn blocks both the Ne3 and B; it also provides a lovely shield for the black bishop on d6. Then, the flow or momentum of the game is far easier for black: B on d6, Q say on g5, push forward to f5 and then either or both of e4 and f4….and my app quickly turns to -1 or beyond.

Vishy's d6! accomplishes a lot. Gives some possibilities to his minor pieces, and also allows his R or Q to pressurise the Bd6/Bd7, causing black some difficulties in pursuing his attack.

I have recently bought, but not yet started to read, Jacob Aagaard's latest book on Positional Play, in which he suggests three questions: 'what is your worst placed piece, what is your opponent threatening, where are the weaknesses'…I wonder if these would have helped me find d6 in practice? I think the second question just might…black's advantage of the two bishops and potential to expand on the king side/use the black squares is clear; I wouldn't though have guessed that Ne3 was my worst placed piece [Ra1] but again, it isn't doing much, and will be pushed back by the f pawn's advance.

Finally, on chess vibes.com:

Here in Baden-Baden Vladimir is accompanying Fabiano, and a repetition of the Wijk aan Zee scenario doesn’t seem to be on the cards. For the second day in a row Caruana demonstrated deep preparation and surprised the World Champion with 20…a5!?, a move Vladimir had recommended the night before instead of the previous grandmaster choice of 20…Nxg4. Vishy at first continued to play relatively quickly, but he lived to regret it – lamenting his “careless” 22.Ne3, which allowed Caruana to equalise with 23…d5! (Anand in the press conference: “I should have at least thought about this”)

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/grenke-classic-naiditsch-beats-adams-in-almost-7-hour-battle

 

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