5. e4 this signifies the English opening Bremen system Smyslov variation. White indicates that he wants to control the center, and then attack on the kingside.

5. ...Bxc3 6. bxc3 This allows white still to maintain control of the center, but white loses some of the flexibility that the knight provided on c3.

11. Qc2. We still see the fight for the center. There is a lot of pressure on e4 and d4. This position arose in the game: Zhuravlev, Grigory Ivanovich -- Sokolov, Sergey Mironovich Corr corr
1976 1-0 A22. There are only 14 other games in my database that have reached this position with white winning 64.5% of the time. 11. ... Be6 is played just as much as Qa5.

13. d3 This is a very quiet move. The two games I have in my database that are the same until this point differ at this point. Both games play 13. Bxc5, doubling black's pawns, then following up with 14. d3 putting black's queen in an awkward situation. However, white choses a little quieter position.

13. Nxc4!? Now white has a choice to take back with either the bishop or the pawn. If white takes with the bishop he greatly reduces the safety of his king because black still has his lights squared bishop. So white takes back with the pawn.

Black realizes the weakness of the white bishop, and this is a positional sacrifice to disrupt white's pawn center, and leaves nothing for white to do with his bishop. This is a critical moment in the game.

14. c5 makes white's black bishop in a horrible position and allows black to get back the piece and go a pawn up in the combination.

I will continue this analysis later. It is very late.

shr0p