Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

182 THE B01VINNIK SEMI-SLAV
experience of this opening he knows
the ins and outs, and he seems to prefer
his dark-squared bishop in the centre
rather than hiding it away on the
kingside. However, the ... eS break is
not that easy to carry out since with
White moving his knight to e4, controlling
the d6-square and placing the
rook on the semi-open c-file, White
can usually meet ... eS with dS. Therefore,
to find suitable places for his
pieces Black will have to engage in
rather slow manoeuvring as illustrated
with arrows in the diagram above.
With the limited space available this
almost seems to cause a traffic-jam,
but it all fits nicely together with one
piece freeing just the square needed
for another all the time. Of course,
Black must be careful not to doze off
and allow White too much space.
B
Savchenko - Kuczynski
Groningen 1992
Here are first a few examples where
White in the first place seems to enjoy
a nice controlled space advantage, but
following Black's patient defensive
manoeuvring, he is gradually pushed
back.
In the diagram above, White has
grabbed as much space as he could,
and soon might be threatening to start
an attack. However, Black's position
is rock-solid and he now seized the
initiative with ...
19 ... f6 20 ltJc4?!
20 ltJf3 is probably better, but even
so 20 ... i.g6 21 'li'f2 :ta8 maintains a
flexible and very solid position.
20 ... i.g6 21 'ii'c3 i.h5 22 :te1:ta8
23ltJc5 :ta7 24 .:tf1 i.f7 25 .:tn b6 26
ltJe4 .:taa8 27 ltJcd2 :ac8 28 b4?
A mistake but it is not easy to suggest
a plan for White. On the other
hand, Black's position seems much
easier to handle, with ideas such as
...i.b8 and ... fS followed by ... cS on
the agenda.
28 ... f5 29 ltJg3 i.d6!
Black has a clear advantage.
White's play in the above example
was far from perfect, although very
natural. It is the kind of position where
Black can easily eject the white knights
from their rather unstable outposts on
eS and cS. A much better strategy for
White, which was initially developed
by Artur Yusupov, is to try to get in the
advance e4-eS, and that means White
has to refrain from playing ltJeS. However,
White must be careful that he advances
e4 in a position where Black is
not able to reply with ... eS. Here is