Saraci vs Federer

The delayed Alapin is an invitation to fall asleep: 3.c3 and 4.h3 are a series of small, healthy moves preparing d2-d4. Sit and wait here and ten moves later you are a little cramped with nothing to do. Colin does not wait. 5...g5 looks like a typing error and is not one: the pawn is heading for g4, where it hits the f3 knight, the piece that holds the whole white centre together.

After 6.Bc2 g4 7.hxg4 Bxg4 8.d4 cxd4 9.cxd4 d5 10.exd5 Qxd5 Black has an active bishop, the central counter-strike and an isolated white pawn on d4. The price is real: the h-file opens, and the white rook on h1 already sits on it without paying a move for it. That same rook turns up again on move 26. The solid choice was 5...e5 6.Bc2 d5. If you pick a pawn storm like this, pick it deliberately and not on a whim.

This is the position the opening was about. White has an isolated pawn on d4, Black points queen, bishop and knights at it, and neither king is safe yet. The natural move is castling long: 12...O-O-O 13.Qd3 Nd5 takes the king out of the centre and puts the d8 rook straight opposite the weak pawn.

What was played is 12...e6, healthy and sensible, but it costs the moment. After 13.a3 Nd5 White could have untangled with 14.Be4 Nxc3 15.bxc3 Qxc3+. The difference is about half a pawn, and above all it is the difference between a position with a plan and a position where you wait for the opponent to go wrong. Remember: when your opponent has an isolated pawn and your king is still in the middle, castle to the side where your rook faces that pawn.

14.b4 looks strong: the pawn attacks the queen on a5, takes space and seems to gain a tempo. It has one invisible flaw. The pawn that stood on b2 a moment ago was the only defender of the knight on c3. Send it away and the knight is left alone on a square that two black pieces already eye.

Colin counts and strikes: 14...Bxb4 15.axb4 Qxb4. Black gives a bishop for two pawns, and in return queen and knight both bear down on c3 while the white king still waits on e1. This is not yet a win, but from here on White is allowed nothing but accurate moves. Before every pawn move, ask what that pawn was covering. 14.b4 is an active move that abandons a job nobody else can do.

The decisive error is 16.Qd2, and it only shows up two moves later: 16...Bxf3 17.gxf3 Qxc3 18.Qxc3 Nxc3 19.Kd2 Nd5. The black knight stood on c3 completely undefended and nobody could take it, because the pawn that would have done the job had marched to b4 on move 14. Tougher was 17.Nxd5, but even then Black is clearly on top.

The result is the diagram: two extra pawns, two knights against two bishops, and the white pawns on f2 and f3 sharing a file. What matters most is where those pawns stand: a7 and b7, with not a single white pawn facing them. 20...O-O-O finally castles the king on move 20, and 21.Be4 f5 22.Bxd5 Rxd5 trades off the last active white bishop. Liquidate once your extra pawns sit on the wing where they can actually run.

Along the way White won a pawn back with 26.Rxh7 Nd5+ 27.Kd3 Rxh7 28.Rxh7 Re7, and his position still gets worse every move. The reason is in the diagram: the pawns on f2 and f3 share a file and will never create a passed pawn, while a4 and b6 face nobody at all.

Colin turns it into textbook technique. 31...a5 and 33...b6 get the majority rolling, 34...Rc3+ 35.Ke2 a4 gains space with tempo, and then the king walks in himself: 36.Rh7+ Kc6 37.Ra7 Kb5. The finish is consistent: 39...Rc7 40.Rxc7 Nxc7 41.d5 Nxd5 42.Kd3 Kb4, and White resigned. The bishop on g7 does guard the queening square a1, but the knight simply steps to c3 and takes the long diagonal away from it. In an endgame with extra pawns, trade the rooks exactly when your king stands in front of your own pawns.