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Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Ding Liren
World Championship Candidates (2020/21), Yekaterinburg RUS, rd 2, Mar-18
Spanish Game: Closed Variations (C84)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Mar-18-20  ndg2: What a desaster for Ding. Looks like 15..f5 was the start of blacks troubles, exacerbated by the further pawn advances ..g5 and ..f4 later on.
Mar-18-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Afternoon: And good heavens--did I accidentally curse Ding Liren when I picked him to win?! Notice that after 30...Bb8, both players have Horwitz (Harrwitz?) Bishops, but somehow Black's don't seem quite as effective. 15.a4 proved more dangerous than it first appeared; 15...f5 fell into a trap losing the b5 pawn (18...b4??; 19.Ba4).
Mar-18-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Ding Liren lost in rounds 1 & 2 of this Candidates'.
That could mean that he <will> be a future world champion.
Mar-18-20  Ulhumbrus: If after 13...Nxd5 Black's queen's bishop will not get into play one alternative is 13...c6

If after 14...c5 Black's queen's bishop will not get into play one alternative is 14...c6

Mar-18-20  tonim: If it was my game I would never consider either of this moves 22. g4 --23. Qf3 --24. Qg2 but this moves won this game. MVL is my favorite to win this event.
Mar-18-20  ex0duz: What's the idea behind whites Qf3/Qg2?

I think the first loss must have rattled ding.. else I don't think he would play f5/g5 pawn storm and be that aggressive with black.

Mar-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Richard Taylor: <ex0duz: What's the idea behind whites Qf3/Qg2?> Without using a computer I think he wanted to force Ding Liren to play f4 as he did, giving him the e4 square. On g2 he pressures on the g file so if Black anticipates gxf5 then:

24...Rg8 25. Nf3 Nf7 26. gxf5+
Qxf5 27. Nh4+ wins and also

24...Rg8 25. Nf3 Kf7 26. Rxe5 fxg4
27. Nxg5+ Bxg5 28. Rxg5 Rxg5 29. Bxg5
gxh3 30. Qf3+ Kg6 31. Qf6+ wins.

Liren may have some other way of keeping the pawn where it is, but it seems he didn't find it.

This is all I can think of without firing up my computer which someone will no doubt do...

Mar-19-20  Eyal: 15...f5 might look very reasonable in the abstract - Black trying to take advantage of his pawn majority on the K-side, following the change in pawn structure created by the exchange on d5 (Like Carlsen has been doing in some of his recent Sveshnikov games). But it just doesn't work tactically, as MVL demonstrated by the forcing sequence on moves 16-18.

After 18.c4! White is threatening cxb5 when a recapture with the queen is met by Ba4, and there's surprisingly little Black can do about it. Moving the rook away from the a4-e8 diagonal by 18...Rf8 allows another tactical blow - 19.cxb5 Qxb5 20.Nxe5! dxe5 21.d6+ (and now, unlike in previous moves, ...c4 doesn't work in response; this idea of c4 is probably why 14...c5 was played prior to f5 in the first place. Also, dxe7 becomes deadly.) After the game MVL pointed out another line/idea important for the refutation of Black's play - 18...Bf6 (instead of Nf7)19.cxb5 Qf7 (in order to take on d5) 20.Bg5! with big advantage to White - e.g. 20...Bxd5 21.Bxd5 Qxd5 22.Bxf6 gxf6 23.Nh4 and White has a winning attack, since Black can't defend f5 (23...Qe6 24.Qh5).

So 15...f5? led by force to a lousy position for Black where he's an important pawn down without any real compensation. The hurried play on the K-side that followed was probably just panic/desperation mode.

Mar-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Bishoprick: An Englishman, I believe they are Horowitz bishops, but I could be wrong.
Mar-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: It seems the term is named after the German player/writer <Bernhard Horwitz>. See the discussion on his page: Bernhard Horwitz

* Coach Clark's Collection: Game Collection: Raking Bishops Mate Examples

Mar-21-20  JackobG: My thinking is that he wanted to prepare f5 with his c5 (so that white cannot take on f5 with discovered checks due to c4)... but this didnt work that way propably... here c4 was just crushing

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