A Shared Truth- The Light Shines for All (Clarity in a Variation)

Sometimes it takes generations to find the truth in a position.

In his book,

Issac Lipnitsky gives the following position:

and writes:

"In the diagram position White's pawn centre is more of a weakness than a strength, as it constantly needs to be looked after. He is unable to use it to organize an attack on his opponent's position. Black already threatens Qe7-e6. His game is obviously promising: he can combine an attack against the centre with active play on the queenside."

Now, compare that position to this one:

There are some similarities between the two positions: the basic structure is similar, but there are also some subtle differences. In the first position, Black has finished his development and White's Queen is still on d1. In the second position, Black has NOT finished his development, and White is fully mobilized. Maybe this has to do with the different evaluation? After all, TIME is one of the elements in chess. The quicker and more efficiently you mobilize your forces, the quicker you can get them into active positions, and have them influence the position.

Lev Polugaevsky, in his book,

gives us a wonderful story:

"Early in 1969, on the outskirts of Moscow in the small town of Dubna, which is justifiably called "The Physicists Capital", I was preparing for my match with grandmaster A. Zaitsev for the title of Champion of the Soviet Union. Boris Spassky was also there, preparing for his match for the World Crown with Tigran Petrosian. Since ethics demanded of each of us that we should remain neutral with regard to each other, we decided not to touch on specific problems of pre-match preparation, but simply to work together on openings which interested us both, and which we both employed. 

Polugaevsky-Tal USSR Championship 1969

Spassky-Petrosian, World Championship Match, 1969

While in the book about Keres,

The following game, #88, appears on game 174, and has echoes to the Polugaevksy and Spassky games! Only it happened 7 years before, in 1962....

Keres-Geller, Match, 1962

I hope these games shed some light on this kind of positions.....

Peace.

Addendum (12-30-23)- Thanks to TDgeek for pointing out this Carlsen-Giri game, from the 2020 Chessable Masters Rapid Tournament. Enjoy!