Memorization: Ivanchuk-Yusupov 1991
Later dubbed "Brussels Rout," Ivanchuk-Yusupov 1991 is notable for the profound effect a Black pawn advanced to the e3-square early in the game had on the game's later stages. It is also notable for each player's steadfast commitment to his game plan, almost to the point of executing it in blind disregard for the plan of his opponent. Throughout Brussels Rout there are sequences whose complexity could not have been appreciated without the YouTube commentaries of Yasser Seirawan and Jozarov.
1. Opening: KID by transposition from the English
White opens a-la the English with 1.c4, and Black replies 1...e5. White continues 2.g3, prepping a kingside fianchetto, and Black constructs a dark-square pawn chain with 2...d6. White proceeds to fianchetto with 3.Bg2, commanding the semiopen light-square diag; and Black makes a third pawn move with 3...g6, prepping his own kingside fianchetto. White's 4.d4 attacks Black's d5-pawn, so Black reinforces with 4...Nd7. White also develops a knight with 5.Nc3, and now Black fianchettoes with 5...Bg7. White and Black develop their kingside knights with 6.Nf3 Ngf6, and then they each castle with 7.0-0 0-0. Lichess calls this position a King's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Classical Fianchetto.
2. White on the diags, Black on the e-file
8.Qc2 gives White control of another light-square diag, namely b1-h7, and with 8...Re8 Black begins playing for control of the e-file. White's 9.Rd1 lines a rook up with Black's queen and puts pressure on Black's d6-pawn -- which makes Black's reply of 9...c6 all the more puzzling, as it renders the pawn on d6 backward. Black's move prompts 10.b3, facilitating the dark-square bish's development to a3, where it will bring still more pressure to bear on d6, and Black intensifies his control of the e-file with 10...Qe7 but in so doing appears to be overlooking White's threat. To wit, after 11.Ba3, Black's d6-pawn is pinned to the queen, which means 12.dxe5 Nxe5 would allow White to win a pawn with 13.Bxd6.
3. e-pawn infiltration
But Black has his own plan. With the support of three pieces, Black pushes 11...e4, relieving the central pawn tension and attacking White's knight on f3. The knight moves with 12.Ng5, and now Black's pawn on e4 is attacked by four White pieces and can't be defended by 12...d5 on account of White's pin on d6. Per his plan, Black pushes deeper with 12...e3, and suddenly it's Black who's creating tension, this time with White's f-pawn. What is White to do? Capturing with 13.fxe3 would lose the knight on g5 to 13...Qxf3+, allowing 13...exf2 would give Black tactics with 14...c5 and 15...Ng4, and 13...f3 would block the light-square bish and take away an escape square for the knight on g5. That leaves 13.f4, which has the advantage of supporting the g5-knight and effectively isolating the e3-pawn by preventing Black's d- and f-pawns from connecting with it.
4. White pushes queenside, Black attacks kingside
Black's pawn is overextended, and White can win it after 14.Nge4 and 15.Rd3. Black undertakes to prevent this with 13...Nf8, clearing a path for the light-square bish to the f5-square. White decides the e3-pawn isn't a top priority at the moment and, shifting his attention to the queenside, pushes 14.b4, intending 15.b5 and a queenside breakthrough. Black proceeds with 14...Bf5, developing the light-square bish, attacking White's queen on c2, and denying White's rook the d3-square; so White's queen repositions with 15.Qb3, adding support to the b-pawn and targeting Black's king on the a2-g8 diag. Black attacks again with 15...h6, the target this time being White's knight on g5, so White retreats the knight with 16.Nf3.
5. Off with their heads
Excepting the rook on a8, all of Black's forces are on the kingside, and it is on that half of the board that Black seeks to erode White's position. One way to erode a position is to damage the pawn structure there. White's pawn structure on the kingside consists of an immobilized and detached e2-pawn and an h2-f4 pawn chain. Therefore, what Black would like to target is the f4-pawn, i.e. the head of White's pawn chain guarding the king. To that end, Black plays 16...Ng4, allowing the g6-pawn to advance to g5 protected by the pawn on h6 and the queen. White adopts a similar approach on the queenside with 17.b5, targeting the c6-pawn, i.e. the head of Black's b7-c6 pawn chain. Black proceeds with 17...g5, but White is a tempo ahead and is the first to capture: 18.bxc6 bxc6. The exchange of b-pawns means Black's pawn on c6 isn't defended anymore, and White double-attacks it with 19.Ne5. Black cannot capture with the d-pawn, and an exchange on e5 would give White a semiopen d-file with Black's c6- and d6-pawns in grave peril. Ignoring the kingside goings-on, Black replies 19...gxf4, making good on his threat to chop off the head of White's pawn chain.
◄ Halftime recap ►
Vasyl Ivanchuk's game against Artur Yusupov ended with the former resigning after move 39. Move 19 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 English 1.c4, to which Black replies 1...e5. White preps a kingside fianchetto with 2.g3, and Black connects pawns with 2...d6. White fianchettoes with 3.Bg2, and Black preps his own kingside fianchetto with 3...g6. White attacks e5 with 4.d4, and Black defends with 4...Nd7.
✗ Partial success, confusion re Black's b- and c-pawns
White opens a-la the English with 1.c4, and Black replies 1...e5. Next White preps a kingside fianchetto with 2.g3, to which Black replies 2...d6. White fianchettoes with 3.Bg2, and Black preps a kingside fianchetto with 3...g6. White strikes at Black's center with 4.d4, and Black replies with the defensive 4...Nd7. White develops with 5.Nc3, and Black fianchettoes with 5...Bg7. White and Black develop their other knights with 6.Nf3 Ngf6, and then they castle with 7.0-0 0-0. White plays 8.Qc2 to control the b1-h7 light-square diag, and Black plays 8...Re8 to control the e-file. White centralizes a rook across from Black's queen with 9.Rd1, and Black replies 9...c6. Black has pawns on a7, b7, c6, d6, e5, and the fianchetto formation f7, g6, h7. White identifies that Black's d-pawn is backward, and plays 10.b3 to prep 11.Ba3. Black appears to play into White's hands with 10...Qe7, but Black wants more control over the e-file. White continues 11.Ba3, pinning Black's backward d6-pawn to the queen and thereby weakening the e5-pawn, so Black pushes 11...e4. White's knight is attacked, and it counterattacks with 12.Ng5. Black pushes 12...e3, prompting 13.f4 from White. Black want to activate the light-square bish, so 13...Nf8 is played. White pushes 14.b4, and Black attacks White's queen on c2 with 14...Bf5. White transfers the queen to the b-file with 15.Qb3, which targets the Black's king, and Black attacks again with 15...h6. White retreats the knight on g5 with 16.Nf3. Black wants to push 17...g5, so 16...Ng4 is played. White and Black attack each other's pawn chain heads with 17.b5 g5, and White is first to capture with 18.bxc6. Black replies 18...bxc6, and White plays 19.Ne5. Black avenges White's aggression against the b7-c6 pawn chain by chopping the head off of White's pawn chain with 19...gxf4.
✓ Success
6. Connected passers and f4-hotspot
White continues 20.Nxc6, attacking Black's queen on e7 and prompting 20...Qg5. After 21.Bxd6, White has two connected passed pawns and is threatening 22.Bxf4. Black replies 21...Ng6 to double-defend, but White brings a third attacker from c3 in the form of 22.Nd5.
7. Hotspot: h4
Black cannot adequately defend his f4-pawn, but with 22...Qh5 he is threatening 23...Qxh2+. White holds the queen back with 23.h4, but only momentarily as Black sacs a knight for two pawns with 23...Nxh4 24.gxh4 Qxh4. Now Black's queen has unobstructed access to h2.
8. OTB misclick
White has three pieces aiming at the e7-square, which Black only defends twice. What White wants to play here is 25.Nce7+, maintaining a double-attack on Black's f4-pawn, but the game is a Rapid tie-break and in the heat of the moment White's fingers lift the wrong knight off the board and 25.Nde7+ is played. After 25...Kh8, White can't continue 26.Bxf4 because it would leave the knight on e7 underdefended. Instead, White captures Black's light-square bish with 26.Nxf5 -- but this gives Black a tempo for 26...Qh2+, forcing 27.Kf1.
9. R.I.P. rooks
Having sacrificed a knight and lost the light-square bish, Black needs more firepower in his attack on White's king. To that end, he rook-lifts with 27...Re6, intending 28...Rg6 with pressure on White's g2-bish. White attacks Black's a8-rook with 28.Qb7, and Black ignores with 28...Rg6. White captures with 29.Qxa8+, prompting 29...Kh7, and proceeds to sac the queen with 30.Qg8+. 30...Kxg8 is forced, but this allows White to fork with 31.Ne7; and after 31...Kh7, White captures Black's remaining rook with 32.Nxg6.
10. Just the two of us
Black recaptures with 32...fxg6; but after 33.Nxg7, the only pieces Black has left are the queen and a knight. Rather than recapturing with 33...Kxg7, Black replies 33...Nf2. On the surface, it looks like all the knight is doing is attacking White's d1-rook, but a more lethal threat is behind the move. After 34...Nh3 and 35...Qg1#, the game is over; or if 34...Nh3 and 35.Bxh3, then 35...Qf2# is game over. White's only continuation that keeps the king alive is 34.Bxf4. Black replies 34...Qxf4; and after 35.Ne6, attacking the queen, Black renews the checkmate threat with 35...Qh3. White will not survive by playing defense, so 36.Rdb1 preps an attack on Black's king. After 36...Nh3, Black is one move from delivering checkmate, and White's 37.Rb7+ only delays the inevitable. Black's king runs to the corner with 37...Kh8, White checks again with 38.Rb8+, and Black's capture with 38...Qxb8 is the end of White's attack. White does continue 39.Bxh3 but resigns after 39...Qg3 because there is no stopping 40...Qf2#.
◄ Blind recap ►
Here is an attempt to replay Ivanchuk-Yusupov 1991 from start to finish without looking at the board:
White opens in English spirit with 1.c4, and Black replies 1...e5 White preps a kingside fianchetto with 2.g3, and Black connects pawns with 2...d6. White fianchettoes with 3.Bg2, and Black preps his own fianchetto with 3...g6. White strikes at Black's center with 4.d4, and Black defends with 4...Nd7. White develops a knight with 5.Nc3, and Black fianchettoes with 5...Bg7. White and Black develop their other knights with 6.Nf3 Ngf6, and they both castle with 7.0-0 0-0. White plays on the diags, so 8.Qc2, and Black plays on the e-file, so 8...Re8. White centralizes a rook across from Black's queen with 9.Rd1, and Black replies 9...c6. Black preps development of his dark-square bish with 10.b3, and Black intensifies his e-file control with 10...Qe7. White develops the dark-square bish with 11.Ba3, pinning Black's d6-pawn to the queen and weakening the e5-pawn, so Black pushes 11...e4 with an attack on White's f3-knight. After 12.Ng5, Black pushes again with 12...e3. There is tension between e3 and White's f2-pawn, so White pushes 13.f4. Black wants to attack with his light-square bish, and 13...Nf8 allows the bish to develop. White wants to break through on the queenside, and pushing 14.b4 serves that aim. Black attacks White's queen on c2 with 14...Bf5, and the queen repositions with 15.Qb3, targeting Black's king on the light-square b2-g8 diag. Black attacks again with 15...h6, prompting 16.Nf3. Black wants to attack the head of White's h2-f4 pawn chain, and preps a pawn push with 16...Ng4. White wants to attack the head of Black's b7-c6 pawn chain pushes 17.b5. Black pushes 17...g5, but White is first to capture with 18.bxc6. After Black recaptures with 18...bxc6, White centralizes the f3-knight with 19.Ne5 -- which he can do because of the pin on Black's d6 pawn and the f4-pawn's defense. Black captures with 19...gxf4, and White captures with 20.Nxc6. Black's queen is attacked, and she takes up a new position across from White's king with 20...Qg5. White's dark-square bish captures another pawn with 21.Bxd6, and now White has two connected passers on c4 and d4. Black's f4-pawn is now attacked from White's pawn on g3 and the dark-square bish on d6 and is only defended by the queen on g5, so Black adds a second defender with 21...Ng6. The g-file now looks like this: g1 White's king, g2 White's light-square bish, g3 a White pawn, g4 a Black knight, g5 Black's queen, g6 Black's other knight, g7 Black's dark-square bish, and g8 Black's king. White continues 22.Nd5, which is a third attacker on Black's f4-pawn, and now White's c6-knight and d5-knight are eyeing the e7 square in front of Black's rook. Black abandons the f4-pawn with 22...Qh5, threatening 23...Qxh2+, so White plays 23.h4. Black sacs the g6-knight with 23...Nxh4; and after 24.gxh4 Qxh4, Black's queen has an unobstructed path to the h2-square. White goes on the offensive with 25.Nde7+, attacking both Black's king and the light-square bish on f5 -- but he meant to move the knight on c6. The king moves to the corner with 25...Kh8, and White chops the bish with 26.Nxf5. The knight attacks Black's queen on h4, prompting 26...Qh2+, which in turn prompts 27.Kf1. Black wants to involve a rook in his attack on White's king and begins doing so with 27...Re6. White want to involve his queen in the attack on Black's king and begins doing so with 28.Qb7. Black moves the rook again with 28...Rg6, and White moves the queen again with 29.Qxa8+. Black's king runs with 29...Kh7, and White sacs the queen with 30.Qg8+. 30...Kxg8 is forced, and White checks again with
✓ Success
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