De Seroux vs Romany

Black had played sensibly for twelve moves, and then came 12...h6. The move solves no problem that exists on the board: neither the king on h8 nor the knight on h5 needs luft. What the structure asks for is 12...Qe8 with the plan of ...f5, and then Black stands only a little worse. After 12...h6 a good pawn belongs to White.

The move that cashes that advantage in is 15.g4. It sends the knight back, 15.g4 Nf6 16.Ng3, and White owns the whole kingside; the g4 pawn can later run on to g5, where it hits the pawn on h6 exactly. The game went 15.Qe2, a faultless move in almost any other position, and here it costs a good three quarters of a pawn. Black handed the gift straight back with 15...Qe8, since the freeing move was 15...exd4, and on move 16 g4 was available again. After 16.Rad1 the advantage was gone.

When your opponent plays h6 while your own kingside pawns are still at home, you have been given a target. The move that uses a target is almost always a pawn move and almost never one more piece move.

The a4 pawn is already lost in this position, and a battery is to blame: the bishop on d7 stands in front of the queen on e8, both aim at a4 along the same diagonal, and only the bishop on c2 guards the square. Two attackers against one defender means 18...Bxa4 is coming, and after 19.Bxa4 Qxa4 the piece comes back.

So the question is not whether the pawn falls but what White keeps for it. 18.Bxd4 Bxa4 19.Bxa4 Qxa4 20.Ne3 brings the f1 knight into the game and puts the d4 bishop up against the fianchettoed bishop on g7; White has the pleasanter side despite the missing pawn. The game went 18.cxd4, which leaves a pawn on d4 with the g7 bishop staring at it down an empty long diagonal. On c3 that pawn supported the centre; on d4 it needs support itself. The difference is a good half pawn, and from here on it belongs to Black.

When three men can recapture on the same square, do not count which one is cheapest, count what each of them leaves behind on the square it currently occupies. One move later White had to shut the g7 bishop out herself with 19.e5, and that is exactly the work 18.Bxd4 would have saved.

Black is a pawn up and the e5 pawn stands free: the queen on e8 and the bishop on g7 attack it, no white man defends it. 21...Qxe5 was the move. It is not free, after 22.Bc5 Qxb2 23.Qxb2 Bxb2 24.Bxf8 Rxf8 Black gives back the exchange, has three extra pawns for it, and the game is roughly in balance.

The game went 21...Bh8, and that move removes the very piece that was attacking e5. White was allowed to nail the pawn down with 22.f4, and the extra black pawn lost its value: it sits far away on a5, while the white pawn on e5 takes the long diagonal from the h8 bishop and the f6 square from the knight. From here White was clearly better again, even though the material still spoke for Black.

An extra pawn is a claim about the endgame; until you get there, what counts is which pieces are working. And if you are not going to take an undefended pawn, at least do not retreat the piece that was attacking it.

31...Rcd8 looks like the most natural move in the world, because rooks belong on the open file. Only this rook was standing on c8 to guard the c7 pawn, and after the move nobody guards it: the queen on a6, the knight on e7 and the bishop on h8 all fail to see the square. 32.Rxc7 would have put White a good two pawns ahead and decided the game.

The game went 32.Bh4, and the bitter part is that this very move was the best one a move earlier: on move 31 it was 31.Bh4 that kept the pressure, and there White chose 31.Rd1. One move later the position had changed, and the bishop walked straight past c7. After 32...Rxd1+ 33.Qxd1 a two pawn lead had shrunk back to a small edge. Both players had less than a minute on the clock at this point.

Before you move a rook, ask what it is doing right now. And when you have been carrying a plan around for two moves, check it once more against the position actually on the board: your opponent’s last move may have made it unnecessary, or it may have put something better on offer.

Up to move 35 the position was unpleasant for Black but holdable; White stood about three quarters of a pawn better, and 35...b6 or 35...Qb6 would have left it at that. The game went 35...a4, a passed pawn setting off, and with it the pawn left the one square where it was needed.

On a5 the pawn was defended by the queen on a6, and that is exactly why the white rook never arrived there. After 35...a4 the square is empty, and 36.Ra5 attacks the queen, defended by the queen on d2 along c3 and b4. 36...Qxa5 37.Qxa5 is queen for rook, and even the toughest try 36...Nd6 37.exd6 Qxa5 38.Qxa5 hands over a knight on top.

In the game the passed pawn ran on: 36...axb3 37.Rxa6 bxa6 38.Qb4. White has the queen for the rook, the b3 pawn drops next, and Black resigned. So before you push a pawn, always look at the square it is leaving. A pawn also defends by simply staying where it is.