Jan-27-12
 | | Fusilli: Not to take away merit from Gelfand, but it looks like Ivanchuk defeated himself here. Position after 8.Qb3:
click for larger view
Can someone explain to me the positional rationale behind the move 8...Qb6? That's a move we often see against Qb3 in similar set ups. Gelfand obviously went for an entire different choice of positional play. Was something wrong with 8...Qb6? What are the positional factors to take into account before playing that move? |
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| Jan-27-12 | | Penguincw: The good news for Ivanchuk is that Aronian failed to take advantage (more like Navara took advantage). |
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| Jan-27-12 | | The Rocket: It's a matter of taste there is no drawback with qb6 you might avoid simply if you don't feel like trading queens so early.. and nb7 as played is another solid line. I am not sure what you mean that ivanchuk self defeated himself by playing the perfectly natural Qb3 Or what your point was... since he was white. In any event the game was not decided at this point. |
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Jan-27-12
| | Fusilli: <The Rocket> Oh, no, I didn't mean he defeated himself with Qb3, but in general. For most of the game, it looked to me that Black was just holding the position, so I feel that Ivanchuk lost more than Gelfand won, so to speak. |
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Jan-27-12
 | | wordfunph: "After move 20 I thought it would be a draw after a couple of moves because I equalised. He has very little advantage, very little. But OK basically nothing to do but he tried to go on playing and he didn't find the best plan." - GM Boris Gelfand
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessne... |
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| Jan-27-12 | | roninmb: Happy that Houdini and Critter agree with me./ doesn't happen very often./
26.a4?? was a terrible blunder. Right move is 26. c4. |
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Jan-28-12
 | | rannewman: 26.a4 was hardly a terrible blunder..simpely an over ambitous move that gave black a minimal edge. The blunder was 33.h3 |
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| Jan-28-12 | | roninmb: @rannewman
Can't agree.True 33.h3 was bad move weakening black fields, though 26.a4 was much worse.
Before that white pawns a2 and c3 were equal opponents to black pawns a6b5. If white played 26.c4 it would lead to exchange and white would have a2 pawn against pawn a6 which gives equilibrium on the Queen side.
26.a4 was a great gift to Gelfand who got 2 free pawns which decided the game.
Furthermore the c3 pawn instead of being exchanged for the black b5 pawn was given up, later in the game. |
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