Monday, December 31, 2012

A trap in the Alapin Sicilian

Here's a nice endgame grind by GM Lubomir Ftacnik. He finally captures White's isolated d-pawn on move 32, and White resigns 22 moves later. However, White had a huge improvement on move 8. Do you see it? If not, please consult Vasiukov-Razuvaev, Polanica Zdroj 1972.

3 comments:

Bill Brock said...

It's obvious once you look for it!

Frederick Rhine said...

Sadly, 8.Nc3?? is the most popular move by a tiny margin (9 out of 17 games). http://bit.ly/S2Obsi

Frederick Rhine said...

Note that if White plays the correct move and Black responds with 8...Bg4!, the position is still tricky. Black has even gotten a plus score in four games! http://bit.ly/UFwEFG But White is clearly winning with correct play. See David2009's (doubtless computer-aided) analysis in the comments to Plachetka-Ftacnik. http://bit.ly/U2ZUru