MINEFIELD THEORY
OR
The Caro-Kann defense with 2. Nf3, Part 3
We continue consideration of the variation from the previous part that is:
1. e4 c6
2. N f3 d5
3. d3 B g4
4. h3 B h5
5. N bd2 e6
6. B e2 N f6
7. N e5 …
The previous part teaches us that the best option for Black is the bishop exchange:
7. … B x e2
8. Q x e2 B e7
Now we discuss the idea of the “7. N e5” move as I promise before. Every chess player may put his/her own idea to this move. I will share my thoughts towards this move. My idea is based on the “Minefield” theory invented by your humble servant.
Firstly, I notice that the white-square bishops leaved the board. This is an important fact for the new strategy. Let's remember this one and imagine how events on the board could develop now:
9. 0-0 0-0
10. a4 c5
11. Ndf3 Nbd7 =>
And we come to the position where the White’s knight makes a move for which it moved to the e5 square:
12. N g4 …
What for? The reason is that White wants to change its pawn structure after the knight exchange in the edition: N x g4 hg and White’s pawn goes to the g4 square what is important for White’s plan too (it’s not necessary that the exchange happens right now). Now White begins building the pawn structure required for the minefield strategy:
12. … a6
13. B f4 R e8
14. e5 N x g4
15. hg b5
16. g3 R b8
17. R fb1 N f8
18. B d2 Q b6
19. K g2 R ec8
20. g5 ... =>
And we come to the key position of the minefield strategy:
I’d like to focus your attention to the following features of this position that are important for the considered strategy.
First of all, White placed its pawn to the g3, g5 and e5 squares. That is a classical pawn arrangement for the minefield strategy. What is special about these pawns? All of them are defined with other White’s pieces. Morever, each of them has the two defenders. So, White controls the squares where these pawns are placed. These pawns itself control the h6, f6, h4 and f4 squares (see the red arrows in the picture).
The second feature is that other White’s pieces control all the black squares inside the area bounded by the violet frame (see the red arrows in the picture). Therefore, Black can’t play moving its pieces to these squares. These squares are like mines on which Black pieces can be blown up. And the area bounded by violet frame is like the minefield in the king side. That’s why the new strategy calls “The minefield strategy”. For the sake of brevity, we will simply call the mentioned area “the minefield”. And we call the g3, g5 and e5 pawns (see the squares in the orange frame in the picture above) “the mines”.
The third feature is that Black's pawns lined up along the green line (see the picture above) are a barrier that blocks Black's pieces from penetrating the kingside into the minefield area.
Let us think if Black has the pieces that can play in the minefield. The white squares are week in the minefield, but the white-square bishop leaved the board and can’t play there. Obviously, the black – square bishop can’t play there. Can a knight play there? A knight changes its square color every its move. So, a knight can’t play there too. What about a rook? If a rook plays walking through the white squares only it is more of a victim than a threat. Morever, how many tempos Black should spend to transfer its rook over the pawn barrier? Black can’t allow itself to spend so many tempos as Black loses in this case. The queen may play in the minefield walking through the white-squares. But what will the queen do there alone? The queen is useless being alone there. Again, Black should spend many tempos for the queen to overcome the pawn barrier. Therefore, Black has no the pieces that can play in the minefield.
So, Black can’t play in the king side due to having the minefield there. Is it an achievement for White? If White intends to hold the position no worse than drawish and to catch its chance using Black’s mistake then White achieves its aim. Why? The nature of the chess is that who gets a success whose main activity happens the side where an opponent's king is located. Thus, Black loses a success as Black loses the ability to play in White’s king side. However White is not going to play in Black’s king side too because White wants to leave the minefield undestroyed. White suggests to Black to play in the queen side for a while and after we know who is stronger.
So, we understood White’s plan. Let us look if it works. According my analysis, the best way (at least no worse all others) to play for Black is:
20. g5 Q c6
21. ab ab
22. b4 cb
23. N d4 Q c7
24. B x b4 B x b4
25. R x b4 N g6
26. R x b5 R x b5
27. N x b5 Q x e5
28. Q x e5 N x e5 =>
And we come to the endgame:
As we see, in the best case for Black, the game proceeds according to the following scenario. All the actions are going on in the queen side. Little by little, the material leaks from the board. The pieces disappear from the queen side until the game comes to the endgame as it is in the picture above. And White gets the equal endgame. We can say White’s plan works.
It’s time to detect the main conception of the minefield strategy. Assuming White applies this strategy and White’s king is located in the king side, these conceptions are:
White forces the white-square bishop exchange.
White builds the minefield in the king side. White’s king hides behind the minefield. The minefield prevents the penetration of Black's pieces to its area and so to the king side.
The key components of the mine field are the pawns located in the g3, g5 and e5 squares. These pawns call the mines.
The minefield prevents that the game actions happen in the king side. All the actions are going on in the queen side.
As the game progresses in the queen side, the material disappears from the board little by little until the very endgame.
Finally, the game comes to the equal endgame.
According my idea, the minefield strategy might be preferred not only because the game proceeds according to the pattern mentioned above that makes White’s game reliable (at least I think so ). Also, it’s preferred because the player needs to know the familiar theory and to have the chess basis skills only. The knowledge needed are the opening variations and the endgame theory. The calculation of the variations in the middlegame is not so difficult as the game is going on in the one part of the board – in the queen side.
We considered three-mines variation where the mines are placed to the g3, g5 and e5 squares. There might be the four-mines variation when an additional mine is placed to the f4 square. Here is example how White can build the minefield with the four mines:
10. N g4 N x g4
11. hg c5
12. e5 N c6
13. N f3 N d4
14. N x d4 cd
15. c3 Q b6
16. g3 R ac8
17. c4 dc
18. dc R fd8
19. R d1 R c5
20. b3 Q a5
21. B d2 Q c7
22. f4 a5
23. g5 … =>
However, White should be very accurate building the minefield and put the mines to their squares in the good time. Let us understand why like that. To do this we come back to the position before 15-th move:
Now Black threats to invade to the second line after moving the rooks and the queen to the c line (see the red arrows in the picture above). This invasion might be fatal for White. If White does not take measures to eliminate this threat and puts the mines to the f4 and g3 squares instead then White loses: 15. f4 R c8 16. g3 R c6 17. R f2 Q c7 18. b3 R c8 19. B b2 R x c2 20. Q x c2 Q x c2 21. R x c2 R x c2 22. B x d4 b6 23. g5 B a3 24. B e3 h5 25. gh gh 26. d4 R e2 27. B f2 R d2 28. B e3 B b2 29. R e1 B x d4 30. B x d4 R x d4 31. R e2 R d3 32. K h2 K g7 33. R c2 K g6 34. K h3 d4 35. R c7 a5 36. R d7 h5 37. R b7 R d1 38. R d7 d3 39. R d4 d2 40. K h2 K f5 41. a4 K g4 42. K g2 R b1 43. f5+ K x f5 44. R x d2 K x e5 45. R f2 f5 46. R f3 K d4 47. K h3 e5 48. R x f5 e4 49. R f8 e3 50. R e8 K d3 51. R d8 + K c3 52. R c8 + K d2 53. R d8 + K e1 54. R e8 e2 55. K g2 K d2 56. R d8 + K c3 57. R e8 e1=Q 58. R x e1 R x e1 and Black wins. => It is therefore, White plays 15. c3.
If White is in hurry to build the minefield and ignores the threat appearing after 13. … N d4 White may get the troubles too: 14. Q d1 Q c7 15. g3 N x f3 + 16. Q x f3 Q x e5 and Black wins a pawn => or 14. Q d1 Q c7 15. g5 N x f3 + 16. Q x f3 Q x e5 and Black wins a pawn again => . That’s why it’s better for White to exchange the knight: 14. N x d4 cd.
However, White is able to build the minefield without exchanging the knight, but, in this variation, White should be very accurate: 14. Q d1 Q c7 15. B f4 Q b6 16. R b1 N x f3 + 17. Q x f3 Q a6 18. a3 Q a4 19. b3 Q x a3 20. g5 Q a5 21. g3 g6 22. Kg2: =>
Here is the role of the mine in the f4 square plays the bishop.
The main line of the four – mine variation continues: 23. g5 b5 24. R ac1 bc 25. bc g6 26. Q d3 R c6 27. K h2 K g7 28. R c2 B b4 29. K h3. =>
Here White’s king escape deep inside the minefield (see the red arrows) from the possible checks. This is yet another conception of the minefield strategy:
White’s king escapes deep inside the minefield in the case when there is a threat for White from the checks that Black pieces playing in the queen side may make in the middlegame.
The game may continue: 29. K h3 Q b6 30. R dc1 Q a6 31. R b2 R b6 32. R cb1 Q a8 33. a3 B c5 34. R x b6 B x b6 35. Q f1 B c5 36. Q g2 B x a3 37. Q x a8 R x a8 38. c5 B x c5 39. R b5 B b4 40. B x b4 ab 41. R x b4 R d8 42. R b2 d3 43. R d2 h6 44. K g4 hg 45. K x g5 R d4 46. K g4 R d747. K g5 K g8 48. K h4 K h7 49. g4 R d4 50. K g3 g5 51. fg R d5 52. K h4 K g8 53. K h5 K h7 54. K h4 K h8 55. K h5 K g7 56. K h4 K h8 57. K h5 K g7 58. K h4 R d7 59. K g3 R d4 60. K h4 K f8 61. K h5 K g7 62. K h4 R d8 63. K h3 K f8 64. K h4 R d7 65. K h5 K g7 66. K h4 K f867. K h5 K g7 68. K h4 K h8 69. K h3 R d8 70. K g3 K h7 71. K h4 R d5 72. K h5 R d4 73. K h4 R d5 74. K h5 R d8 75. K h4 K g7 76. K h3 K g8 77. K h4 R d7 78. K g3 K h8 79. K h4 K g7 80. K h5 R d8 81. K h4 R d5 82. K h5 R x e5 83. R x d3 R d5 84. R f3 R d8 85. K h4 R e8 86. K g3 R b8 87. R f1 K g6 88. R f6 + K g7 89. R f1 K g6 90. R f6 + K g7 91. Rf1 ½ - ½. =>
The player must understand that Black may prevent the game from developing according the minefield strategy pattern. In this case, the game may go in a completely different scenario which the player should be ready to play in.
In order to prevent the game from developing according the minefield strategy pattern Black does a sapper work destroying the pawn structure of White. The following game demonstrate this tactic: 1. e4 c6 2. N f3 d5 3. d3 B g4 4. h3 B h5 5. N bd2 e6 6. B e2 N f6 7. N e5 B x e2 8. Q x e2 B e7 9. 0-0 0-0 10. N g4 N x g4 11. hg c5 12. f4 Q d7 13. e5 N c6 14. N f3 f6 15. ef B x f6 16. c3 g6 17. g5 B g7 18. g3 R fe8 19. B d2 e5 20. fe N x e5 21. N x e5 R x e5 22. Q f2 R f8 23. Q g2 R d8 24. R ae1 R x e1 25. R x e1 b5 26. K h2 a5 27. Re2: =>
Though this is a drawish position White’s king is weak here. In this variation, it’s more reliable for White to play 17. B e3 instead g5. If so the game may continue: 17. B e3 d4 18. B d2 dc 19. B x c3 R ad8 20. Q e3 N d4 21. Q e4 Q d5 22. R ae1 N c2 23. Q x d5 R x d5 24. R e2 B d4 + 25. N x d4 N x d4 26. R e3 b6 27. R e4 e528. fe N b5 29. R d1 R e8 30. K f2 N x c3 31. bc R d x e5 32. R x e5 R x e5 33. K f3 K g7 34. a4: =>
That was the new strategy. Study, apply and enjoy :-)
