Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

74 THE BOTVINNIK SEMI-SLAV
usually quite playable for Black; he
easily centralizes with ...'1fr>d7-d6 and
....!DdS, when his queens ide majority
is just as dangerous as White's passed
h-pawn) 20 ...'1fr>f8 21 'iWxcS+ 'iWd6 22
ii'xd6+ l:thxd6 23 i.e2 c3! 24 l:td 1 (24
bxc3? .!Da4 2S 'udl .!Dxc3 26 l:txd6
'uxd6 gives Black an edge) 24 ... cxb2+,
Gofshtein-Kacheishvili, Groningen
open 1993, 2S ~xb2 .!Da4+ 26 ~b3
a6! 27 l:txd6 l:txd6 28 'uc 1 'uh6! 29
l:tc2 (29 h4 'ue6) 29 ... 'uxh2 30 i.g4
l:txc2! 31 ~xc2 and now 31...b4, followed
by ... .!Dc3, draws according to
Kacheishvili, but this is only true if
Black holds the coming endgame with
.!D + /::, versus i. + 2/::': 32 '1fr>b3.!Dc3 33
i.f3 as 34 a3 .!DbS 3S axb4 axb4
(3S ... .!Dd4+? 36 '1fr>c4 .!Dxf3 37 bxaS
and Black is not able to catch up with
the a-pawn) 36 '1fr>xb4.!Dd4 37 i.dl. 1
presume this is a draw but White can
try for some time. Much simpler is
31....!DcS!, and only then ... as and ... b4,
which keeps the pawn on the queenside.
c2) 18 i.g2! .!Db6 19 i.xdS (19
'iWe3+? ~f8 20 ii'xcS+ '1fr>gS 21 'iWd4
l:teS! and Black is taking over the initiative,
Yusupov-Shirov, Linares 1993)
19 ... 0-0-0 (19 ... 'ucS 20 i.b7 l:tc7 21
i.a6 ±) 20 i.b7+ '1fr>c7 21 'iWxdS+
li'xdS 22 lIxdS ~xdS 23 i.a6 and in
this case the ending is better for White
since he is able to provoke a weakness
on the queenside.
Now we return to the position after
16 ... '1fr>fS (D):
17 f3!?
w
The main virtue of this strangelooking
move is to block the as-hI diagonal,
thus making IS dxe6 a threat,
and practically forcing the following
liquidation. Whether this is anything
worth striving for is an open question
since it seems that Black's knight will
playa greater role than White's bishop,
which is hampered by enemy pawns at
bS and c4 and the 'friendly' f3-pawn.
White has a large number of other
candidate moves:
a) 17 dxe6?! should be answered
by 17 ... i.xhl IS exd7 l:tdS, intending
... i.c6, rather than the apparently
clever 17 ... .!DeS, which fails in view of
IS e7+ ~g7 19 .!DdS li'f3 (I am not
sure whether there is a better square
available) 20 .!Dc7 with a large advantage
for White.
b) 17.!De4?! li'g618 dxe6i.xe419
f3 i.bl! 20 exd7 'udS =+= Robertsson­
H.Jensen, Copenhagen 1994.
c) 17 i. g2 .!DeS IS .!De4 .!Dd3+ 19
'iWxd3 cxd3 20 .!Dxf6 l:txf6 21 l:txd3
l:txf2 gives Black much the better
game according to Ftacnik.