Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

158 THE BOTVINNIK SEMI-SLA V
Black has weakened his queens ide
with ... b4 in order to grab the e-pawn,
thus isolating White's d-pawn. Black
would indeed be doing quite well if he
were allowed a few 'free' moves.
However, White's lead in development
enables him to launch an immediate
offensive.
12 ttJc5!
There is no real rush to capture the
c-pawn and hence White first activates
his badly placed knight.
12 ... .i.g7
12 ... .i.xcS 13 dxcS ttJbd7 is perhaps
a better defence but I think White
keeps an advantage with 14 .i.d6, intending
'ikd4.
13 .i.xc4 0-0 14 'tli'c2 ttJbd7 15 h4
It is obvious that White has more
than adequate compensation for the
pawn. Now IS ... g4!? could be met by
16 ttJgS! .l:!.e8 17 0-0-0 with a great attack.
The game continuation was no
better:
15 ... gxh4 16 ttJxd7 .i.xd7 17 .l:!.xh4
ttJdS 18 .i.xg7 rlitxg7 19 .l:!.g4+ ~h8 20
'tli'd2 'ir'f6 21 ttJe5 .i.e8 22 0-0-0
White won in a few more moves.
Pawn-breaks
Looking at the pawn-structure in the
following diagram, it is obvious that
Black's structure is more vulnerable
to attack. Typical pawn-breaks from
White include a4, dS and b4, with the
most common being the two latter
moves. Both aim to disrupt Black's
structure and both require extremely
accurate defence from Black. Here is
an example of a rapid black catastrophe:
w
Beliavsky - Bacrat
Albert (2) 1999
10d5!
This is now regarded as the most
dangerous move in this position.
10 ... b4
Although Black has attempted to
improve later in this game I think this
is already too risky. 1O ... cxdS 11 exdS
ttJb6 is probably Black's best try but
as a whole this particular line looks