DAY 89 Color Complexes

To overcome problems on squares of one color, you can become weak on both.

Alberic O’Kelly White

Ahlback Black

Correspondence 1941

Sicilian Defense E54

1 e4 c5 2 f3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 xd4 f6 5 f3

The rare move leaves the c-pawn unblocked so that White can play c2-c4.

5...e5 6 b5

The way to test Black is 6 b5+. Then 6...bd7 7 f5 or 6...d7 7 xd7+ xd7 8 f5 d5 9 g5! leads to complex play.

6...a6! 7 5c3 bd7?

Black surrenders in the fight for d5. With 7...e6! he prepares 8...d5.

8 a4! e7 9 a3 0-0 10 c4 e8?

Black disliked 10...c7 because it would add punch to 11 e3 and ed5!. But 10...c5 was better.

11 d5

Black’s last move prepared ...g5, to get rid of his “bad” bishop. But now he sees that 11...g5 12 xg5! xg5 13 d2! xd2+ is a poor endgame because of White’s super knights.

11...f5 12 exf5 xf5 13 d3 f8 14 e3

Illustration

It looks like Black is worse because of the weak dark squares like b6 and d6. For example, 14......b8 15 0-0 ef6 allows 16 xe7+ and 17 xd6 (17...xd6? 18 c4+).

But thanks to 11...f5 he also has problems on light squares, even h7, e.g. 15...b6 16 e4 and d3. Both colors do him in:

14...df6?? 15 b6! d7 16 f5! resigns.

Pavel Polonsky White

Gennadi Faizrakhmanov Black

Salekhard 2003

1 e4 c5 2 f3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 xd4 f6 5 f3 e5 6 b5 a6 7 5c3 e6 8 g5 e7 9 xf6?! xf6 10 d5 xd5 11 xd5 c6 12 c4 0-0 13 c3 g5 14 d1? b4 15 xb7 b8 16 a7 xc2+ 17 f2 xa1 18 d3 a5 White resigns.

Question 98: Why not 14 d1 and xd6 ?