Errors In The Opening - Part 3

Hello and welcome to the third and final part of the Errors In The Opening series.

As you might recall from the first two articles, we saw an English Opening where White's error in the opening was what he did with the King's Knight. Black had a dominating Kingside attack, but it was apparently complicated enough to where Black made a number of subsequent errors, giving White the opportunity to get off the hook after clearly showing a lack of understanding of the opening. The primary problem for Black was that White's error was one that required rapid play to take advantage of it, and Black gave White time to come back by executing moves on the wrong side of the board. Even so, Black still won.

In the second article, we saw a Petroff where White's error came in the form of allowing Black to do precisely what he wanted to do, and to make matters worse, his error was a Bishop move that allowed Black to do all of it with tempo. After that, the same pretty much played itself, and Black had a stress-free attack.

What we will be seeing in this third article is a King's Indian Defense where once again it is White that makes the opening error, and this one is probably the worst of the three mainly because it was irrepairable. Why? Because the error was that of a Pawn move. When you place a piece somewhere that it doesn't belong, you can always bring it back. Sometimes at a major cost, like in the second game where Black was able to respond to White's error with tempo, but either way, the piece can be retreated. Once a bad pawn move is made, it's not coming back! Pawn move errors also typically come from a complete lack of understanding of the opening because the pawns often mean everything in the position. Let's see what we have here.


Tuesday Night Action 51, Round 1
W: Sulia Mason (1957)
B: Patrick McCartney (2049)
King's Indian Defense, Saemisch Variation

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 O-O 6.Be3 e5 7.d4 Nh5 8.Nge2

Not a blunder by any means, but not the best move. Better is 8.Qd2, answering 8...Qh4+ with 9.g3 Nxg3 10.Qf2 Nxf1 11.Qxh4 Nxe3 with a slight advantage for White and answering most other moves with 9.O-O-O. That said, White still has the chance to transpose into a side line.

8...f5

Now 9.Qd2 a6 10.O-O-O b5 would transpose to 8.Qd2 f5 9.O-O-O a6 10.Nge2 (10.Kb1 is favored here) b5.

9.exf5?

This move is completely unexplainable! There are two instances where exf5 is a good move in the King's Indian Defense. The first scenario is that Black is forced to take with a piece. This gives White the e4-square as a launch pad for his Knights, and any time White succeeds in achieving this motif, Black usually struggles mightily, and is often, thought not always, positionally lost already. The second scenario is when ...gxf5 can be answered by an immediate f4 and that advancement of the f-pawn forces Black to play ...e4. If he can force that issue, then an undermine with g4 by White will severely weaken the e4-pawn and Black will often lose the pawn, being forced to play a Pawn down. That said, here that is not the case as 9.exf5 gxf5 10.f4 can easily be answered by 10...Nd7! and Black already has the advantage. Of course, advancing the e-pawn with 10...e4 would be a huge positional mistake.

Another thing to note is that if White was fearing 9...f4, it just further explains his lack of knowledge of the opening. White has not committed his King. Advancing ...f4 is meaningless for Black unless White's King is already stuck on g1. Here, closing the position makes no sense as all it does is block Black's pieces, especially his Bishop. White can simply run to the Queenside and would have an advantage. Instead, Black's idea is to remain flexible until White commits. As will be seen in the game, in this line, the moves ...a6 and ...Nd7 often act as waiting moves as these two moves are pretty much always played in this ...e5 line of the Saemisch King's Indian. After finding out what White does, particularly with his King, only then does Black decide what to do with the f-pawn and the center in general. If he castles Kingside, only then might Black advance ...f4. Against a Queenside castle, Black's main idea is actually to open up his Bishop, even at the cost of a Pawn. Black will put his Knight on f4, which White is not forced to take but leaving it there can be annoying for White. If White does take, he wins a pawn, but Black's Bishop opens up, pointed directly at White's Queenside, and advances the Queenside Pawns for an attack on the White King. So the fact that Black is likely to put a Knight on f4 should remove all fears of Black advancing the Pawn, and unless White castles Kingside, White should actually want Black to make such an inferior move.

Therefore, since White can't achieve domination of the e4 square, he can't force Black to advance e4, and Black has no intention of advancing ...f4 or capturing ...fxe4 anyway, this capture of the f-pawn is outright bad.

9...gxf5 10.Qd2 a6 11.O-O-O Nd7

Notice right after the recapture, Black plays the waiting moves indicated in the notes to White's 9th move. He is waiting to see what White intends to do.

12.Bh6

So now White's plan is starting to show. He wants to eliminate Black's fianchettoed Bishop. I would be more inclined to get that Knight out of the way on e2, get the rest of his pieces rolling, and start advancing the Pawns on the Kingside. This move looks like that type of move where you send one soldier to execute a war rather than getting the entire army together first.

12...b5

Until White does something that forces Black to react, there is no reason not to continue expansion on the Queenside.

13.g4 fxg4 14.Bxg7

It might be wiser to play 14.fxg4, forcing a decision from Black. Does he take the Bishop on h6, giving the g7-square to his Knight, or does he move the Knight? Turns out, he should play 14...Nf4, and White is best off trading Bishops and not trying to capture on f4. The reason for Black's idea will be obvious in the note to Black's next move.

14...Nxg7

This position requires some explanation. Black is better here. Obviously White is going to recapture on g4, which creates an equal material position, but the position is not equal at all. However, that might be hard to see here, and might even be harder to believe that it's Black, not White, that's better. The Knight on g7 looks a little oddly placed in that rarely do you see a Knight on a square like b2, g2, b7, or g7, but adjacent to the King, it covers many squares, including those often used to check the Black King, including e6 and e8. The only slight weakness in Black's position is the h7-square. This explains why Black did not want to play 14...Bxh6 in response to 14.fxg4 earlier as it would bring the White Queen to h6, eyeing Black's one sore spot, h7. White can play Qh6 himself in the near future if he wants to, but that requires an extra tempo compared to trading on h6 for him. Other than h7, along with covering the g7-Knight if White ever puts two heavy pieces on the g-file, Black has nothing to worry about, and he will continue his attack at the White King. Now you might say that it appears as though White's pieces cover the King well, but with the center being undermined by Black's b-pawn, stability is an issue, and Black will bring in his pieces into White's territory. The other thing to keep in mind is that White's Knight still sits on e2, passively placed, and partially impedes the scope of his Bishop on f1.

15.fxg4 Nc5

15...Nf6 is possibly stronger.

16.Ng3 Bxg4

Black's defensive theme indicated in the note to Black's 14th move combined with White's complete lack of coordination indicates that taking the pawn is safe, despite being on the same file as his own King. Black is going to take his positional advantage and convert it to a material advantage.

17.Be2 Bxe2 18.Qxe2 bxc4 19.Qxc4 Rf4 20.Qe2 Qg5 21.Kb1 Qg4 22.Qe1?

Black wins material here. Do you see how?

22...Qg6+

Black gains a tempo by giving a check that White is unable to interpose, and after the King moves, the Black Knight is given the path to the forking of the two White rooks.

23.Ka1 Nd3 24.Qe2 Nf2 25.Rhg1 Nxd1 26.Qxd1 Rd4 27.Qb3

Black has been and still is completely winning here, but it requires knowing what Black has to do. Before you go any further, try to explain in words what Black's plan should be.

27...Rf8

Black is up an exchange and a pawn. The last thing that Black wants to do is try to hold on to all of the material. Black's plan should be to resolve the g-file issue by bringing the d4-Rook to g4 once White moves the Knight. But doing this, the Queen won't get pinned on the g-file, which allows Black to move the Knight. Since a number of pieces have now been traded, the Knight on g7 should switch from a defensive role to an offensive role. Therefore, Black's two most passive pieces are the Rook on a8 and the Knight on g7, and getting them active is the most important factor in the position, even if it means returning a pawn to White, whether that be a6 or c7, in return for Black's most important factor here, time!

28.Nge2 Rg4 29.Rc1

Of course White doesn't want to trade Rooks being down material.

29...Rg2 30.Qb7 Nf5

Remember what we talked about at Black's 27th move. He is willing to give up a Pawn on the Queenside if it means getting all of his pieces in the game.

31.Qxa6 Nd4

Now what? If White takes the Knight, he loses a tempo as the Pawn will attack his other Knight. If he doesn't take the Knight, he's going to have problems with ...Nc2+.

32.Nxd4

The tempo loss is the lesser evil, but it's still losing for White.

32...exd4 33.Nb1 Rg1

Forcing yet another set of pieces off the board.

34.Rxg1 Qxg1 35.a4

White's passed a-pawn is too slow to mean anything for White, and all it really does is weaken the King even more.

35...Qxh2 36.a5 Rb8

Threatening mate on b2.

37.b4

Opening the King even more, and trying to entice Black to take on b4 and open up possibilities of harassing the Black King. Black doesn't bite, and keeps the Rook on the back rank to cover the King, and gets his other heavy piece closer to the White King.

37...Qc2

Threatening 38...Qa4+, allowing Black to play ...Rxb4 with check! White does nothing to stop it.

38.Qf1 Qa4+ 0-1


So we saw a game here where White was just completely outplayed, and he really did it to himself by playing the anti-positional 9.exf5?, which did nothing to help White's cause. Black, on the other hand, understood precisely what he was doing, and other than playing 15...Nf6 instead of 15...Nc5, I don't see anywhere that Black's play can be faulted. He recognized that the Knight on g7 was an excellent shield for the Black King. He knew that he did not want to force White to play moves that would lead to the White pieces directly attacking the h7-pawn, Black's only real weakness in the position, and he also understood that while the Knight on g7 covered the King in the early middle game, and the Rook that stayed back most of the game was guarding the back rank, he needed to get them active after a few pieces were eliminated, and understood that the Queenside Pawns meant nothing, and that what was more important was his attack with the heavy pieces on the b-file, f-file, and 2nd rank.


The one thing that all three games have in common is that the errors made were not tactical errors that lead to the immediate win of material. They were all of a positional nature, which show signs of the fact that White did not understand the position in each of the three games. Whether you are talking in person with a higher rated player at an over the board tournament, or reading the forums on chess.com, the higher rated players continue to say that to play an opening successfully, you have to truly understand it, not just memorize it. The reason for the need to understand the ideas is two-fold. First off, if your opponent happens to know the opening deeper than you do, you need to understand the position to have any idea what to do next. Otherwise, you are probably lost. Secondly, what happens if your opponent deviates early? Do you understand why other moves are bad? If all you do is memorize, you probably don't understand it, and will be very likely to end up on the losing side when all is said and done. If you are playing an opening where you can't explain in words what you are doing, you are playing the wrong opening!


This concludes the coverage of Errors In The Opening. The next time you try to decide what opening you want to play, ask yourself the all important question. Do I understand it? Or do I just know reams of lines with no real true understanding of the position? If the answer is the latter, you are playing the wrong opening!

Til next time, good luck in your games.