Dorobanov,S (2215 US) - GM Fedorowicz,J (2605) [A48]
World Open, Philadelphia 1995
[Dorobanov, 1999]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3. Having just purchased The Complete Benko Gambit by GM John Fedorowicz, I had very little ambition to play 2.c4. In fact, I was prepared for a quiet and tactics free game in hopes to hold a draw against my 2600+ rated opponent. Well, it didn't go without any tactical complications, but fortunately the plan held up. 2...g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.e4 d6. Black refused to play d7-d5 earlier and now we end up with a Pirc-like opening. 6.Be2 Nc6 7.c3 h6 8.Bh4 e5 9.dxe5! Hardly a power move but under the circumstances (White is playing for a draw) the best one in simplifying to a symmetry. 9...dxe5 10.0-0 Qe8 11.Bxf6. Unless the position is very closed or you are forced to, giving up the bishop pair is always a responsible decision and deserves a moment of consideration. In this position there is only one way to create tension in the center (and therefore opening up of lines), namely f7-f5 which is associated with long term risks (weakening e5 and the kingside overall). Therefore, White can expect little change in the position's status of a closed one. In addition, having stepped away from the f6-pin, Black is ready to play 11...Nh5-(f4) which is practically sure to win the bishop pair down the road anyway. Also to be considered is the status of Black's KB - until maneuvered to a better diagonal this piece remains to work at half capacity. 11...Bxf6 12.Qc2 Bg7 13.Rfe1 Nd8. The black KN failed in its maneuver to f4 (I assume John had Nh5-f4 planned for it) but now the QN comes around to get the job done (Nd8-e6-f4). Such temporary decentralization and loss of time is always justified in this type of positions. 14.Nc4 f6. Played in order not to leave e5 hanging after Nd8-e6, while the KB was already shooting in the friendly structure and will have little complaints about having its range reduced; Fedorowicz also has better plans for this temporarily "dead" bishop. 15.Rad1 Ne6 16.g3. Guarding the square f4 at the price of weakening the light squares around the king. This common weakness wouldn't at all be worth stopping Ne6-f4 if White's light-squared bishop wasn't ready to quickly take care of the "hole". 16...Kh7 17.Bf1. No worries, "the dentist" is here! 17...Bd7 18.Ne3 Rd8 19.Nd5 c6 20.Ne3 Qe7 21.Nc4. If you guessed that White isn't doing anything with this knight, you guessed right! Sometimes it is better to do nothing than self-inflict structural weaknesses or pursue a plan which simply isn't there. White has no weaknesses but also no advantage. No advantage means no right to attack! Says so in Think Like A Grandmaster, so I believe I had Kotov's stamp of approval. Of course, "doing nothing" is a dangerous concept of positional play, and when applied in the wrong position it can cause you to lose precious time and quickly find yourself on the losing team. Another of Kotov's ideas and a rather self-explanatory one, is that if you like calculating better than evaluating and using judgmental play, you should play tactically rather than positionally (your choice of openings has much to do with that). 21...Bc8 22.b4. Played to prevent a future landing of Black's queen on c5, plus also hoping to maneuver a knight to c5 one day. The weakening of c3 is rather irrelevant given Black's inability to access it. As for Black's plan, I was expecting 22...h5, followed by 23...Bh6 and only then 24...Ng5. I had little fear of the immediate 22...Ng5 since 23.Nxg5 hxg5 is hardly and improvement for Black's maneuverability. 22...Ng5! 23.Nxg5+ fxg5!

Capablanca, turn your eyes away; Fisher, watch this! Only after John played 22...Ng5 did it occur to me that 23...hxg5 was not what he had in mind! The capture with the f-pawn is far stronger, since it opens Black's f-file against the backward f2-pawn, whose weakness can be emphasized by the advance g5-g4. This gives Black something to work with and a very good chance of obtaining an attacking advantage. But if you look deeper you will notice that by taking on g5 with the f-pawn Black makes a commitment for one of his bishops: after the obvious advances g5-g4 and h6-h5 the KB can crawl out of his hole via h6 and take command of the c1-h6 diagonal; but namely the advance g4-g5 tempers his other bishop and renders him harmless to White's weak light squares around the king. Thus things aren't so bad and as long as White trades down some of Black's firepower there is no reason why he won't hold his defense. 24.Rxd8 Rxd8 25.Rd1 Rf8. Fedorowicz says "No way, I need this one for the f-file!". 26.Ne3 g4 27.Rd2 h5 28.Bc4 Bh6 29.Qd3 Bg5 30.Qd6. Black is done maximizing his piece activity on the kingside while White took on the d-file in a quest to trade queens. Black can't afford the trade if he wants to succeed in his attack, in fact he would be on the defensive if he winds up in an endgame without control of the central file. 30...Qg7 31.Qc5 a6 32.Bb3! Clearing c4 for the queen, who must absolutely have access to this square. 32...Rf3 33.Rd3 Qf6 34.Qc4! It has come to the point where Black's initiative is too strong to hold with passive defense and the availability of this counterattack down the a2-g8 diagonal was of critical importance. Now the game takes on a wicked twist as Black has to make a big decision between attack and defense.

34...Qf8! The right choice. Awfully tempting was 34...Rxf2? planning to answer 35.Qg8+? with 35...Kh6 and move on. The following analysis deal with a queen sacrificing mess which took me long enough to calculate to make 34.Qc4 stand. [34...Rxf2? A) 35.Qg8+? Kh6 36.Rd6 Bxe3! 37.Rxf6 Rxf6+ 38.Kg2 Rf2+ 39.Kg1 (39.Kh1? Rf1+ 40.Kg2 Rg1#) 39...Rf8+-+ and Black wins! However, B) 35.Rd6! 35...Qf8 (35...Bxe3 36.Rxf6 Rxf6+ 37.Kh1± because f1 is covered by the queen!) 36.Qg8+! Qxg8 37.Bxg8+ Kxg8 38.Kxf2± and Black is in trouble again.] 35.Nd1 Rf6 36.Qc5™ Qxc5 37.bxc5 Rf8 38.Nb2 Be7 39.Na4=. Just in time! The position is equal now, as Black has no way of exploiting c5. 39...Kg7 40.Kf1 Kf6 41.Ke2 Kg5 and Black offered a draw. 1/2-1/2