Memorization: Atalik-Bagakis 1994
The first game in the book is between Suat Atalik of Turkey and Emanouel Bagakis of Greece. They faced off in a chess tournament in Chania on the Greek island of Crete in 1994, and the game is illustrative of the Tartakower Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Relative to other variations, the Tartakower is rarely encountered at the beginner/intermediate level -- but the game is nonetheless instructive, and its brevity makes it an easy one to memorize.
1. Opening: Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower Defense
White opens with 1.d4, Black replies 1...d5, White plays the Queen's Gambit with 2.c4, and Black replies a-la Queen's Gambit Declined with 2...e6. White, rather than continuing 3.Nc3, plays 3.Nf3, but Black continues normally with 3...Nf6. Now White develops his queenside knight with 4.Nc3, and Black, even though there is no pin on his knight yet, plays the usual 4...Be7. White continues 5.Bg5 to put pressure on Black's f6-knight and indirectly on the d5- and e4-squares, and Black castles with 5...0-0. Having developed his bish to the kingside, White advances 6.e3 to connect the f- and d-pawns, and Black replies 6...h5, prompting 7.Bh4. With 7...b6, Black signals to White that the Tartakower is coming.
2. Hotspot: d5
With 8.Qb3, White introduces a third attacker on Black's d5-pawn. Black replies 8...Bb7, quadruple-defending d5. White surrenders his dark-square bish with 9.Bxf6, eliminating one of Black's d5 defenders, and Black recaptures with 9...Bxf6. White resolves the central tension with 10.cxd5, and Black recaptures with 10...exd5, semiopening the e-file. In the Queen's Gambit, White's queenside rook often develops to c1; but in this game White develops it with 11.Rd1. The reason for this is to discourage 11...c5, where Black tries to break in the center and give his fianchettoed bish an open diagonal. If 11...c5 and White continues 12.dxc5, Black has only two d5-defenders to White's three attackers.
3. Bye-bye bad bish
Having been dissuaded from breaking in the center with 11...c5, Black plays 11...c6. But this, while it does add a defender to d5, makes Black's already bad bish worse and takes away the b8-knight's natural development square. White develops his light-square bish with 12.Bd3, and Black invites White to rid Black of his bad bish with 12...Ba6. White obliges with 13.Bxa6, and Black recaptures with 13...Nxa6.
4. c6 and e-file heat
White forks Black's knight on a6 and the pawn on c6 with 14.Qa4, forcing the knight back to a defensive position vis-a-vis the c-pawn with 14...Nb8. White castles with 15.0-0, Black centralizes a rook with 15...Re8, and White does the same with 16.Rfe1. John Shaw explains: "If White can quickly open the centre he will be playing with an extra rook."
◄ Halftime recap ►
Suat Atalik's game against Emanouel Bagakis ended with the latter resigning on move 29. Move 16 is therefore a convenient point in the game to check if the first half has been accurately absorbed into memory.
The game opens with the Queen's Gambit Declined, so 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6. White developed the kingside knight with 3.Nf3, and Black replied 3...Nf6. White developed his other knight with 4.Nc3, and Black replied 4...Be7. White developed the dark-square bish with 5.Bg5, and Black castled with 5...0-0. White connected f- and d-pawns with 6.e3, and Black poked White's bish with 6...h6. White retreated his bish with 7.Bh4, and Black announced the Tartakower with 7...b6. Of the various lines available to him, White went with 8.Qb3, putting pressure on d5, and Black fianchettoed with 8...Bb7. White eliminated a defender of d5 with 9.Bxf6, and Black recaptured with 9...Bxf6. White captured again with 10.cxd5, and Black recaptured with 10...exd5. The c-file is now semiopen for White, and the e-file is semiopen for Black. Black centralizes the queenside rook with 11.Rd1 to discourage 11...c5, so Black settles for 11...c6. White develops the light-square bish with 12.Bd3, and Black offers an exchange of bishes with 12...Ba6. White accepts the offer with 13.Bxa6, and Black recaptures with 13...Nxa6. White forks the knight and the c6-pawn with 14.Qa4, and Black retreats the knight with 14...Nb8. White castles with 15.0-0, and Black centralizes a rook with 15...Re8. White does the same with 16.Rfe1. The situation is that Black has yet to develop the queen, a knight and a rook, while White is fully developed.
✓ Success
5. Knight outposts: d5, d6
Black would like to involve his knight in the game, but it is stuck defending the pawn on c3. 16...b5 kicks the White queen, who retreats with 17.Qb3, and now 17...Nd7 is possible. White breaks in the center with 18.e4, and Black captures with 18...dxe4. White recaptures with 19.Nxe4, and Black, who now has the d5-square as a potential outpost for the knight, replies 19...Nb6. White identifies the e5-square as a support point for his knight and continues 20.Ne5, threatening 21.Nxc6. After 20...Bxe5 and 21.dxe5, Black's queen is under attack and White has an outstanding outpost on d6 for his knight. Black attacks the e5-pawn with 21...Qc7; and with 22.Nd6, White establishes his knight on the outpost and attacks Black's rook on e8.
6. Hotspot: f7
Black, possibly in preparation for a future rook stack on the e-file and an attack on e5, executes a rook lift with 22...Re6. After White shores up his e-pawn with 23.f4, Black settles for 23...Rd8 as his last development move. White recognizes that Black's queen is overworked defending the rook on d8 and the pawn on f7. If the Black king can be lured away from f7, a capture on that square with the White knight would double-attack the d8-rook. White pushes 24.f5 and, after 24...Re7, continues 25.f6. Now Black has to choose between capturing with 25...gxf6, leaving the king exposed on the g-file, or moving the rook. Black replies 25...Re6. With 26.Qg3, White threatens 27.Qxg7#, so Black pushes 26...g6 -- but this undefends the pawn on h6 and invites 27.Qe3. The king cannot defend h6 with 27...Kg7 owing to White's pawn on f6, and pushing 27...g5 would allow 28.Qg6, so 27...Kh7 is Black's only recourse. This, however, undefends f7. After 28.Nxf7, threatening 29.Qxg6+ and 30.Qg7#, Black cannot reply 28...Qxf7 because of 29.Rxd8. Black tries 28...Rxd1 but resigns after 29.Qxh6+.
◄ Blind recap ►
Here is an attempt to replay Atalik-Bagakis 1994 from start to finish without looking at the board:
Queen's Gambit Declined opening: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6, and White continues 3.Nf3. Black replies 3...Nf6, White plays 4.Nc3, and Black replies 4...Be7. White develops the dark-square bish with 5.Bg5, and Black castles with 5...0-0. White pushes 6.e3, and Black pushes 6...h6 with an attack on White's g5-bish. White retreats with 7.Bh4. Black goes for the Tartakower Defense with 7...b6, and White goes with the 8.Qb3-line. After 8...Bb7, White captures with 9.Bxf6 and Black recaptures with 9...Bxf6. White captures again with 10.cxd5, and Black recaptures with 10...exd5. White develops a rook with 11.Rd1. Black can't play 11...c5 and so settles for 11...c6. White develops the light-square bish with 12.Bd3, and Black offers a bish exchange with 12...Ba6. White accepts with 13.Bxa6, and Black recaptures with 13...Nxa6. White forks with 14.Qa4, and Black retreats with 14...Nb8. White castles with 15.0-0, Black centralizes a rook with 15...Re8, and White follows suit with 16.Rfe1. Black plays 16...b5 to free up his knight, which also attacks White's queen, and White retreats with 17.Qb3. Black develops the knight with 17...Nd7, and White breaks in the center with 18.e4. Black captures with 18...dxe4, leaving White with an iso pawn on d4, and White recaptures with 19.Nxe4 from c3. Black would like to get to the d5-square with his knight, and 19...Nb6 gets him one move closer. White attacks Black's pawn on c6 with 20.Ne5, and Black captures with 20...Bxe5. White's d4-pawn recaptures with 21.dxe5. When White played 18.e4 and Black captured with 18...dxe4, White recaptured with 19.Nxe4; and now that knight has an outpost available on d6. When White captured with 21.dxe5, it discovered an attack on Black's queen from White's d1-rook, so Black plays 21...Qc7. White establishes his knight on the outpost with 22.Nd6, which crucially also controls f7 and e8. Black rook-lifts with 22...Re6, and White pushes 23.f4. Black centralizes his other rook with 23...Rd8, and White attacks Black's e6-rook with 24.f5. After 24...Re7, White attacks again with 25.f6. Rather than taking with 25...gxf6, Black returns the rook with 25...Re6. White threatens mate with 26.Qg3, and Black replies 26...g6. This undefends the h6-pawn, so White attacks it with 27.Qe3. Black defends the pawn with 27...Kh7. White captures with 28.Nxf7, Black captures with 28...Rxd1; and after 29.Qxh6+, defended by the knight on f7, Black resigns.
✓ Success
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