Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

lO ... j.e7 107
his own best defender of the weak
d4-pawn, and often Black attempts to
exploit this by the rook-lift .. J:th4, attacking
the pawn. To be even more
optimistic it would be nice if Black got
a chance to throw the knight forward
with ... lDa6-b4.
To counter this, White can prevent
the rook from coming forward by
playing 13 g3, which simultaneously
prepares a kings ide fianchetto. The
other, more direct, continuation is 13
a4, which allows Black to win the d4-
pawn by 13 .. .l:th4, but in the meantime
Black's queenside pawns are
destroyed. The tactics occurring after
this are of great importance to the
10 ... ~e7 system. If Black cannot hold
this, the whole system can be finally
buried.
It is usually White's king that is the
safer but dangers are luring all the
time. One of my favourite tricks occurred
in the following position:
White now decided to move his king
away from the threatened ... lDd3+ and
into safety with 20 O·O?? - at least that
is what he thought. After 20 ... 'ii'h6!
White resigned. He must have realized
that 21 h4 is simply answered by
21...Wxh4!, and there is no clever way
to escape. In the diagram White should
play 20 lha7+ ~b6 21 Wa4 but Black
has a perpetual after 21...lDd3+ 22
~d2 Wxf2+ 23 ~c3 Wxb2+ 24 ~xc4
l:tc8+ 25 ~xd3 e4+ 26 'iite3 .l:f.c3+ 27
lDxc3 'it'xc3+ 28 ~xe4 f5+ 29 ~f4
'it'd2+ and there is no way out of the
checks. Ehlvest-Ivanchuk, USSR 1986
was agreed drawn in this position.
White's other main continuation,
12 ~e3 (D), is less well investigated.
B
Eingorn - Ivanovic
Bor1986
It feels slightly strange that White's
best move might be to retreat the
bishop, but it is much more difficult
for Black to create counterplay when
the d4-pawn is no real target. Ideally,
White would like to play a4 attacking
the queenside, which is the standard