Big Pawn: White played an excellent and instructive game. Particularly instructive is the position after 23...Be7 with White to move. Up until this point Black has been successful in steering the game toward a draw in this French Exchange kind of position that arises from the Petroff.
It's difficult as White to find a way to active your pieces because there's nothing to really attack. The way that Wesley So transforms the position over the next few moves is very interesting and instructive. He finds a way to activate his pieces.
24.h4
White takes advantage of the fact that the Ng6 needs to protect the Be7, so Black must capture with the pawn. If he plays ...h6 to defend the g5 pawn, then the king is a bit too drafty and play could be directed toward that aim.
24...g4
25.Nf4
The point. Now White won the f4 square for his pieces while weakening Blacks pawn structure.
25...Rf7
26.Qe6 Qxe6
27.Rxe6 Nxf4
28.Bxf4 Bd8
29.a4
Suddenly it's a brand new kind of position! White's pieces are very active and Black is reduced to purely defensive measures. With 29.a4, White aims to create a weak black pawn on a5, or, if Black captures axb then after cxb, White can push the a-pawn and create a passer. With the passer on the a-file and the weak pawns on the king side, Black will be hard pressed to defend against the alternating threats
29...Kg7
30.ba ba
31.Ra6 c6
32.Rxc6 Kg6
33.Rc5
White's pieces are well places and Black has to try to defend everything. From this point on until the end of the game, White uses zugzwang and threats of zugzwang to win the game.
60.Ba3
White is planning to place is bishop in the most active way possible, while transferring is king to the center threating c4.
After 68.c4, White has his pieces and pawns optimally placed. The bishop in e1 attacks the a5 and h4 pawns while the king threatens to invade on e4 should black allow an unfavorable exchange of pawns on d5. Now White is playing for zugzwang with impeccable technique.
White plays waiting moves with his bishop and Black has to be careful where he retreats his bishop, because if he goes to the wrong square, he will be unable to defend either f4, a5 or h4. The black king can't really help defend a5 because it needs to guard the d5 pawn and prevent entry by the white king.
Black runs out of moves.
Kibitzing
