As a fan of the royal game who has limited time and energy, I follow only a small percentage of high level chess tournaments. I tend to watch classical chess over rapid and blitz. I watch the big American round-robin championships: the open, the women’s, the senior, the two juniors. The name Magnus Carlsen is the kind of shiny object that grabs my attention. I watch live commentary of the super-GM tournaments when I have the time. And I play through the games of Northern California friends and acquaintances whenever possible.
The following game doesn’t fit into any of these categories. I was just surfing around the current events on chess.com and through some kind of happy accident decided to play through last weekend’s deciding game in the New York Centennial Super Swiss. I’m going to go through it in two chunks, the fun part first, and the build-up to the attack second. If you’re the sort of person who eats their dessert after dinner (or just prefers the solid footing provided by starting at move one and finishing with resignation or mate), feel free to skip down to part two and then return to part one.
Part 1: Demolition Man
It’s move thirty, board one, final round. American GM Andrew Tang has the white pieces against GM Raja Harshit of India. Black’s position is rather shaky. Before we move on, try a bit of calculation from the diagram below. How should white make use of his advantages in structure and activity?
Tang found the best way to make use of his excellent position: 30 Nxf5! gxf5 31 Rxe6 Qf8. This is a good place to pause—maybe black has something better than retreating to the back rank. I considered 31 … Rxe6 32 Rxe6 Qb4 33 Qh5 Qf8 and perhaps the attack has been stopped in its tracks? 34 Nxh7 Kxh7 35 Qg6+ Kh8 36 Rxc6 Rxc6 37 Qxc6 doesn’t seem to lead anywhere special. But wait: the computer tells me that I missed the spectacular 34 Rg6+!:
That’s a pretty shot. Mate is coming soon: 34 … hxg6 35 Qxg6+ Kh8 36 Qh7# or 34 … Kh8 35 Rg7 Nf6 36 Qf7! Qxf7 37 Nxf7#.
Let’s return to the game, where Tang continued to rain blows upon his opponent: 32 Qb3 Nf6 33 Rxf6! Wait a second, I can see where this is going. Let’s backtrack and try a different method of defending the d5 pawn: 32 … Rxe6 33 Rxe6 Ne7 34 Qb4 Ng6 35 Qb5 Rc7 (35 … Rd8 36 Qc6 — the creeping action of the white queen is decisive) 36 Rxd5 Kh8 37 Re8!:
Oh, that’s very nice indeed. Now 37 … Qxe8 38 Nf7+ Kg8 39 Nd6+ picks up the black queen. The game was no better: 33 … Qxf6 34 Qxd5+:
For the moment black is up a rook, but queen and knight are a powerful attacking duo. Black’s next few moves are forced: 34 … Kh8 35 Nf7+ Kg8 (35 … Qxf7 36 Qxf7 Rxe1 reduces white’s attacking forces, but 37 Qg7# is a problem) 36 Nd6+ Kf8 37 Qxc6!:
The only winning move for white, and one that ranks highly on my list of the most aesthetically pleasing moves of 2024. Black can’t take the queen because of mate on e8; he can’t take the rook because of mate via Qxc8. By process of elimination, he played 37 … Red8, hoping for a miracle. 38 Qb7 Rc2 (I appreciate black’s willingness to allow one more pretty move rather than go down to a more conventional defeat after 38 …Rxd6 39 Qxc8+ Rd8 40 Qc7 Qxd4 41 Re5) 39 Re6!:
A final rook sacrifice, more efficient than the mirror deflection 39 Qd7, when black can play 39 … Rcc8 and force white to repeat the position. Black can get in three spite checks if he desires, 39 … Rxf2+ 40 Kxf2 Qxd4+ 41 Kg2 Qxb2+ 42 Kh3, but Harshit had seen enough and resigned. A really impressive finish by Andrew Tang, who either did some deep calculation or saw far enough that he could intuit that black would be defenseless.
That was the fun part, but now it’s time to eat our vegetables and learn something: how did we get here, and how could black have avoided the worst?
Part 2: Building the Attack
This game started as so many violent attacks do, from the placid waters of the London System1. 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bf4 d5 4 e3 Bd6 5 Nbd2 00 6 c3 b6 7 h4:
An attack on the wing should be met by counterplay in the center. This is sound advice but difficult to execute for the diagrammed position. It’s in the nature of the London System to limit what black can do in the center, particularly in the variations where he’s committed to d5. The c3-d4-e3 shell is rock solid; the e5-square is under lock and key. That leaves 7 … c5 8 h5 Bxf4 9 exf4 Qd6. This is black’s most common move in the position, but I would generally be unwilling to allow the white pawn to h6. It’s true that 9 … h6 10 Ne5 with g4-g5 coming also feels quite dangerous, but it’s not terminal. 10 … cxd4 11 cxd4 Ne4 has been played before and appears quite logical:
The Ne4 mucks things up considerably. If it’s ever removed, there’s counterplay down the d-file. If it’s allowed to stay, white will have to reconsider the planned g4-g5 attack.
There’s a small chance, I suppose, that black was hoping to meet 10 h6 with 10 … Qxf4 11 hxg7 Kxg7, but to play this way is to invite your opponent to defeat you in a miniature. The computer says that white is already +2 after 12 Rh4, so it’s no surprise that 10 … g6 11 g3 was played next:
This is an important position because black is at a crossroads and must decide how to develop his queenside. There are a lot of questions to answer, including:
Should black’s development prioritize counterplay in the center and queenside?
Should the remaining pair of bishops be traded?
When white occupies the powerful e5 outpost with a knight, should it be kicked by a pawn, exchanged, or ignored?
Where do the rooks belong?
Can black turn the h6-pawn into a target?
The next bunch of moves were 11 … Ba6 12 Bxa6 Nxa6 13 Qe2 Nb8 14 Kf1 Nc6 15 Kg2 Nd7 16 Rhe1 Rfe8 17 Qe3 Qf8 18 Ne5 Ndb8 19 Ndf3 f6 20 Ng4:
Black has answered the questions posed in the previous note:
No, development will be slow; there will not be rapid counterplay in the center or queenside.
Yes, the bishops will be traded immediately.
The knight will be kicked, not exchanged or ignored.
The rooks are to be left passive for the time being; they don’t seem to have many prospects.
The h6-pawn was targeted, but it turns out that it was poisoned. Had black played 19 … Qxh6 (instead of 19 … f6), 20 Nxf7! Kxf7 21 Rh1 Qg7 22 Rxh7! Qxh7 23 Ng5+ Kg7 24 Nxh7 Kxh7 25 Rh1+ Kg7 26 f5! would have been decisive.
I disagree with many of the choices black made, but mainly with the benefit of hindsight; I doubt I would have come up with anything better at the board. My main criticism is his decision to prioritize the exchange of bishops. It’s a trade of bad bishop for good, but once black has committed to the f7-g6-h7 structure white’s bishop doesn’t have anything obvious to do in the coming attack, other than sacrifice itself someday on g6. Black’s bishop might be useful on b7 to support a future Ne4 or on d7 to support the weak e-pawn. It’s also possible to return to Ba6 ideas by playing Nc6 followed by a5, with the dual purpose of expanding on the queenside.
The time invested in the bishop trade ultimately wasn’t worth it, as shown by the next stage of the game, in which black’s attempts to stir up play are easily rebuffed by white: 20 … Nd7 21 Re2 Kf7. The computer suggests 21 … f5 instead to stop the slow buildup of white’s position. White has to decide how many trades to allow on e5. 22 Nge5 Ndxe5 23 Nxe5 Nxe5 24 fxe5 isn’t ideal; it’s harder to attack without at least one knight on the board, and black might even be able to play 24 … f4!? 25 Qxf4 Qxf4 26 gxf4 Rf8. On the other hand, 22 Nge5 Ndxe5 23 fxe5 Qe7 (23 … f4 is not so good when white can sink a knight on g5 forever) is optically bad but quite locked up. So perhaps best is the pawn sacrifice 22 Nge5 Ndxe5 23 Nxe5 Nxe5 24 Qxe5 Qxh6, when white’s heavy pieces are active and black is still suffering:
The game continued 22 Rae1 Rac8 23 Qd2 cxd4 24 cxd4 Qb4 25 Qd1 (without the queens white has no advantage) 25 … Na5 26 Ne3 Qd6 (having said … Na5, it’s surprising that black didn’t continue 26 … Nc4 27 Nxc4 Qxc4, but white can play in similar style to the game: a3, Nh4, f5, if the opportunity is right) 27 Nh4 (27 f5 was playable as well) 27 … f5 28 Nf3 Nc6 (the position is bad, but not immediately lost, after 28 … Kg8 29 Ng5 Nf6) 29 Ng5+ Kg8, and voila, we’re back to the first diagram and the start of the tactics.
Some final thoughts: it’s very difficult to play a position where you have no active possibilities. Based on his development between moves 12 and 20, it seems like black was hoping to get in an e6-e5 break or round up the h6-pawn. When neither were possible, he was stuck, constantly forced to choose between bad positional options, and it’s no surprise that he found himself caught off guard by the eventual wave of tactics.
White played admirably throughout: he didn’t rush anything, but rather kept improving the placement of his pieces while restricting black’s activity. And when the time for tactics came, he was ready— a well deserved victory for the winner of the tournament.
Sarcasm, of course, but it is interesting to see how the modern iterations of the London can be far more aggressive than the opening’s reputation would have you believe.