When a Blocked Position is Not Really Blocked!

"Experience is the greatest Teacher."

And I would have to add that good Teachers are those who are able to transmit the wisdom of their experience! In this regard, certain chess authors stand out as great Teachers: Chigorin, Steinitz, Tarrasch, Alekhine, Tartakower, Bronstein, Keres......they are all able to transmit their knowledge.

There is a book called "200 Open Games", by David Bronstein:

It is a fantastic collection of Bronstein games in which the moves 1.e4 e5 were played. It goes through the King's Gambit, Scotch Game, Italian, Ruy Lopez, and is full of great chess lessons and stories.

This game is offered by Bronstein with a story that actually illustrates the main ideas in the game. Let us read as Bronstein tells his story:

Black: L. Winiwarter- Krems 1967, International Tournament

"The International tournament at the Austrian town of Krems coincided with an international congress of correspondence chess-players also taking place there.

The day of my encounter with Dr. Winiwarter was a free day for the congress and the correspondence-players hurried across to the tournament. For them a game where more than one move a day is played is a wonder. As is for a mathematician-programmer friend of mine 'the crocodile pear' (a perfectly edible fruit, something like a coconut which grows in some region of South America) which he read about somewhere and now secretly dreams of.....

Sometimes I would tear myself away from the play and, contrary to normal competition rules, would go into the rows set out for the public to gt to know the correspondence grandmasters' opinions. We, the practical players, calculate to a considerable degree on swiftness of reaction and the opponent's fear, whilst everything with them is based on a scientific assessment of the position. The controller did not object.

And then when I played d5

...our vice-president of the Institute of Geological Research, Yakov Stanislavovich Eventov asked shyly:

'Are you sure you won't want d5 for a piece?'

I did not have time to reply as I had to go back to my board.I came back again and then he asked me, this time anxiously:

'Why did you play a5? Are you really counting only on breaking through on the K-side?'

'How do you mean, Yakov Stanislavovich? I don't want to break through on the K-side at all! Oh, excuse me, it's my move.'

I went away, played h5, and came back to the vice-president- I felt that I had not answered all his questions yet. And I was not mistaken.

'I can't understand. What, have you decided to play for a draw as White?!'

'Why for a draw? I'm beginning to win now.....'

'Would you kindly stop pulling my leg?' said Professor Eventov angrily as he was about to walk off.

'Forgive me, but you, I remember, have said that you have already looked seven kilometers below the earth's surface and you can see everything there?'

'Yes, I can, but what are you looking for in this blocked position?'

'I am not looking for anything! It is there to be seen. Listen now. I played a5 to take away b6 from the Black Knight, and then h5 so that this same Knight should not leap onto g6.

That means its fate is clear: to travel the route from f8-h7-f8-d7 and back again, just like an express taxi.

But since I have played d5 even earlier, life is not too easy for Black's second Knight either: his destiny is the walk from b7-d8-f7 and back to b7. The pawn on d5 keeps both Knights in.'

'Interesting!' said the Professor in a conciliatory tone. 'But what then?'

'Then? If Black has two Knights out of action, White has only to open up the position a little bit, and...'

'You're not going to sacrifice, surely; besides, your opponent won't allow you to. He's probably already guessed what you're planning.'

'Therein lies the secret of the plan with a5, d5 and h5, that my opponent is incapable of preventing the breakthrough I'm preparing! I shall sacrifice on c4, and I have rather more means of breaking through than Black has of defending this pawn. But besides that.....are you quite sure my opponent has guessed my plan? Look how serenely his bishops are shuffling about. He is clearly waiting for the beginning of negotiations for a draw!'

When the game was over, Yakov Stalisnavovich looked with pride at the chain of White pawns, associating them, obviously, with some geological deposits of various mysterious rocks- and finally he brought himself to offer a word of praise:

'If you, grandmaster, were working in my Institute, I would entrust the exploration of the riches of the mountains to you. I think in chess you can see deeper than seven kilometers down!'

'Thank you, but I do not deserve this myself: knowledge helped me, and previous games....For how many times I have sacrificed in exactly the same way and lost!'

BRONSTEIN- One of the great Teachers!

Peace.