1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 d6 5. Be3 Nf6 6. Qd2 Bg4 7. h3!? This move was introduced seven years ago by Jeroen Piket. His game against Minasian had started with 1.d4.
7... Bxf3 8. gxf3 d5 Worse is 8... Nbd7 because then White can play 9. f4 which Hou Yifan did against Krasenkow in January at Corus. Despite the fact that he had won that game, Krasenkow wasn't satisfied about 8...Nbd7.
9. O-O-O 9. h4 dxe4 10. fxe4 Ng4 11. O-O-O Nxe3 12. Qxe3 (12. fxe3 e5)
12... h5 13. f4 Piket, J.
9... e6 Till here I knew the theory. White is slightly better.
10. Kb1 This seemed useful in many lines. In this type of positions a tempo more or less isn't extremely important.
The Piket game continued with 10. h4 Nh5 (10... Nbd7 11. Be2 b5 (11... Bf8!? 12. e5 Nh5 13. f4 Ng7 14. h5 Nf5 15. hxg6 fxg6 16. Rdg1
)
12. e5 Nh5 13. f4 Qa5 14. a3 (14. Rdg1)
14... Bf8 Piket, J.)
11. Ne2 Nd7 12. Ng3 Nxg3 13. fxg3 h5 14. Kb1 Qc7 15. Bf4 Qb6 16. c3 Rd8 (16... O-O-O 17. exd5 cxd5 18. Bd3 Piket, J.)
17. exd5 (17. Bd3 dxe4 18. fxe4 e5 19. Bg5 Rc8
(19... f6 20. Be3)
)
17... cxd5 18. Bd3 Bf6 19. g4 Kf8 20. Bh6+ Bg7 21. Bg5 Rc8 22. Ka1 Qd6 23. Rde1 a6 24. Re2 b5 25. Rhe1 Re8 26. a3 Bf6 27. Bf4 Qb6 28. Bh6+ Bg7 29. Bg5 Qd6?! 30. Qc2 Bf6 31. Bxf6 Nxf6 32. g5 Ng8 33. Bxg6 fxg6 34. Qxg6 Qd7 35. Rxe6 Rxe6 36. Rxe6 Qf7 37. f4 Ne7 38. Qxf7+ Kxf7 39. Rxa6 Kg7? 40. Ra7 Kf8 41. b3 Rg8 42. Ra8+ Kf7 43. Rxg8 Nxg8 44. a4 Ne7 45. a5 Nc6 46. a6 Kg6 47. Kb2 Kf5 48. c4 and Black resigned in Piket-Minasian, Montecatini Terme 2000 because of 48... bxc4 49. bxc4 dxc4 50. d5
10... Nbd7 11. h4 Nb6 An important alternative was 11... b5 but Krasenkow wanted to play as solid as possible, he said afterwards.
12. Bd3! A good move, according to Krasenkow.
12... Qd7 13. Ne2! The correct plan.
13... Nh5 Not 13... O-O-O? 14. Bf4 followed by 15.Qa5.
14. c3 About this one I wasn't sure during the game, because it deprives me of any Qa5 and I somehow loose the "rhythm of the game."
I also looked at the pawn sacrifice 14. Ng3!? Nxg3 15. fxg3 dxe4 but I didn't trust it too much. However, it's quite interesting: 16. fxe4 Bxd4 17. Bf4 e5 (17... O-O?! 18. h5)
(17... O-O-O?! 18. Qa5)
18. Bh6 O-O-O 19. Bg5 Rde8 20. Rhf1 with compensation. We didn't look at this during the post-mortem by the way; I found this line with Rybka.
14... O-O-O 15. Ng3 Nxg3 16. fxg3 h5 The last two moves were played very quickly by Krasenkow and I was already negatively influenced by that. I suddenly got the idea that my pawn structure was sort of weak, or at least instable (any pawn move is weakening) and I remembered a rule of thumb: "don't allow a pawn tension when you can't solve it yourself". Here taking on d5 or pushing e5 both didn't seem attractive and I got the idea that I was almost worse here. Those thoughts were all too negative.
17. Bf4 This seemed to be the ideal square for the bishop and besides, I didn't know where to put the h1 rook yet.
But perhaps the natural 17. Rhe1 is best here.
17... dxe4 18. fxe4 18. Bxe4 is about equal according to my opponent.
18... e5! Here I got the strong feeling I was being outplayed positionally. I immediately understood what Black had in mind: isolate pawn e4, exchange the black-squared bishops and cement the knight on e5. I couldn't prevent all this and got frustrated even more.
19. Bxe5?! After this it's indeed quite easy for Black to achieve his goals.
Stronger is 19. dxe5 Qe6 20. Qf2! (longing for a7 as well) 20... Bxe5 (during the post-mortem, for a while Krasenkow had forgotten that he was planning this, and we first looked at 20... Rd7 21. Bc2 Rhd8 22. Rxd7 Rxd7 but then 23. Bb3 Qe7 24. e6! fxe6 25. a4! is suddenly winning for White.)
and now White should just go for 21. Bxe5 Qxe5 22. Qxf7 because after 22... Qxg3 23. Rhg1 he's OK.
19... Bxe5 20. dxe5 Qe7 21. Rhf1?! Involves a miscalculation.
21. Qf4 Nd7 (21... Rhe8 22. g4! hxg4 23. Qxg4+ Kb8 24. Qf4 is an important finesse I had missed.)
22. e6! Qxe6 23. Bf1! Rhe8 24. Rd4! and the position is almost balanced. I thought White would be clearly worse with Black's knight on e5 but it's not that bad. As Krasenkow put it, very instructively: "It's only a minimal advantage for Black because your pawns on the kingside are ideally placed. Any bishop against knight ending is drawn so I have to keep some pieces if I want to win."
21... Nc4 22. Qf2 Nxe5 23. Qxa7? Only this is really bad.
I should have played simply 23. Be2 but as I said, I evaluated the position far too negatively.
23... Nxd3 24. Rxd3 Rxd3 25. Qa8+ Kc7 26. Qxh8 Qxe4 In my calculations I hadn't considered this one, because f7 is hanging with check. But White cannot take that pawn at all.
Amongst others GM Daniël Stellwagen asked me why I resigned. The reason was that I didn't feel like defending the position after 26... Qxe4 27. Ka1 Qe2 28. Rb1 Rxg3 29. a3 Qe7 against someone with 430 points more than me. I was already quite tired (my second round game, played earlier on the same day, had been a long and hectic affair) and decided that I'd better spare some energy for the rest of the tournament. I admit this isn't a very good attitude, but hey, not everybody is like Korchnoi. I'm simply lacking that indefinite fighting spirit. By the way, I was looking forward to the post-mortem and some lessons by a top player. Which I got!
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