Immortal Bishop

The Richter-Rauzer Variation, similarly to the Najdorf Variation leads to very aggresive and dynamic positions, but is a quite rare choice for Black. The result of that, is that I have very little experience in theese positions, and know only one plan - Nf3, e5. And somehow it's usually enough to win me most of the games in this variation.

However, recently I've played a game, where my opponent played a move - Qa5, which defends against my idea very easily. And they played it with such speed and confidence, after the game I had to explore this variation deeper.

Right after the game, I immidietaly opened the explorer to see, how the best players handle Qa5. And amazingly I stumbled upon an absolute gem of a game.

Played in 2012, during the 36th edition of World Correspondence Chess Championship, between Miroslav Würschner (rated 2423 ICCF at the time) and Ejvind Jensen (rated 2507 ICCF at the time). Both our protagonists had an International Correspondence Chess Master (IM) title, the third highest title awarded by ICCF.

This is the start of our hero's story. Black challenges the annoying pin forcing White to fall back to h4, blocking the h pawn, or take the knight, relieving some pressure on the kingside. However White can keek the pin, and not block the h pawn, with the Fish Hook tactic - h4!!. The Bishop can never be captured, so White has lots of time to build up behind it.

Every White piece is set up perfectly, and Black is ready with b4. So it's time for another phase of White's attack - the pawn storm. White can prepare for b4 by removing one of the defenders of d5, and progress further, by breaking through with g5.

What a game! White perfectly prepared for f5, and struck at the right moment. Black wasn't nearly fast enough with the queenside counterplay, leading to them having to play passive defence. But with so many weaknesses, this task proved to be impossible.

I hope you enjoyed this correspondence game, and my analysis, and I hope even more, that you learned something from this post. Other than beautiful, I find this game very instructive, on how to use the Fish Hook tactic, prepare a breakthrough (f5), respect, and neutralize counterplay (b5 - b4), and convert the game, not forgetting about king safety.

I was meant to focus on reviewing the London System, and how to beat it, but this game caught my eye, and I had to share it with you! Thank you so much for reading, and for massive engagment with my last post. I wish you a peaceful night (it's past 1 A.M. rn here).

Game link: https://lichess.org/tB30IKr8
ICCF website link: https://www.iccf.com
Event, that the game is from link: https://www.iccf.com/event?id=30593