Leonid Stein--
Having recently run across a fascinating game of Stein's in Garry Kasparov's excellent book On My Great Predecessors, Part III, namely his game with Paul Keres in the twelfth round of the 1967 Moscow international tournament, which is at this moment my favorite game of all time, I have decided to take a look at some of Stein's games and see what other enjoyable moments he has provided those who care to look for them. I began this inquiry simply by searching for Stein in the Fritz 10 database, and I found the following game to be of interest--it demonstrates a truly profound understanding of the game--with great precision Stein obtained a dominating position in which white sought salvation in vain by exchanging his queen for two minor pieces.
I apologize for the presentation of my annotations, until I figure out a better way to do this I am simply going to cut and paste in a pgn file, in the hope that the readers with a pgn viewer can simply cut and paste it into a text file, and then save it with a .pgn extension, and that those with a board and pieces can follow along on the webpage as the pgn format is rather human readable, with the exception of the punctuation after the moves (!, !?, etc.), but moves with these marks usually have descriptions after them. In any event, I will try to fix this, and if any one has any ideas on how to make this easier to use for people trying to read it please let me know.
[Event "URS-ch28"][Site "Moscow"][Date "1961.??.??"][Round "?"][White "Lutikov, Anatoly S"][Black "Stein, Leonid"][Result "0-1"][ECO "B27"][Annotator "Douglas,Malcolm"][PlyCount "90"][EventDate "1961.??.??"][EventType "tourn"][EventRounds "19"][EventCountry "URS"][Source "ChessBase"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 $5 {a sideline, which develops the bishop a little earlywithout creating any real threats, thus having the drawback of giving white abroad choice of opening setups.} 3. Bc4 {not bad, but hardly critical. Without trying to be exhaustive, some other options for white at this pointare:} (3. d4 Bg7 $5 (3... cxd4 {safer than Bg7, but white gets an easy edge.}4. Qxd4 (4. Nxd4 Nc6 {transposes into the accelerated dragon, which is quiteplayable for black, e.g.:} 5. c4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Ng4 8. Qxg4 Nxd4 9. Qd1{when black can play e5, Nc6, or Ne6--in the later two cases with slightly theinferior game, but a solid position. Stein seems to have preferred e5, whichis more active but leaves black with few squares that cannot be classified asweak.}) 4... Nf6 5. Bb5 $1 {preserving the queens post for a little while,allowing white to gain a significant space advantage.} Nc6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 (6...bxc6 7. e5 Nd5 8. O-O Bg7 9. Qh4 {when h6, awaiting developments (black's kingappears safe in the center for the moment) may be soundest. But in any eventwhite has a free, aggressive game.} h6 (9... f6 10. Bh6) (9... O-O $6 {castling into the attack} 10. Bh6)) 7. Qxd8+ Kxd8 $14) 4. dxc5 {the most critical test of black's move order, other moves transpose to other lines. e.g.:} (4. c4 {is a position from the english opening}) (4. d5 d6 {could arise from aqueens pawn game or the modern defense , white can play c4 with a modernbenoni in the making, or else go in for Nc3 and get a position more akin to amodern defense (1. e4, g6). My preference would be for the later of theseoptions which is probably the best way to impose a hard positional game onblack while allowing the least amount of counterplay.}) 4... Qa5+ 5. Nc3 $1 (5.c3 {is also good} Qxc5 6. Be3 Qc7 7. Bd4 Nf6 8. e5 Ng4 9. e6 f6 10. h3 Nh6 11.Na3 dxe6 12. Nb5 Qa5 13. b4 Qd8 14. Bxa7 Bd7 15. Bc4 $14) 5... Bxc3+ $1 {of course white gets excellent compensation for the pawn, but nothing elsegives black a fighting chance.} (5... Qxc5 6. Nd5 $1 {and black is already in trouble.}) (5... Nf6 $6 6. e5 Ne4 7. Qd4 Nxc3 8. Bd2Nb5 9. Qh4 (9. Qf4 {is also strong.} Qc7 10. Bxb5 Qxc5 11. Bc4 O-O {and black is just trying to hold on.}) 9... Qc7 (9... Qa6 10. a4) 10. Bxb5 Nc6(10... Qxc5 $2 11. Bb4 g5 12. Bxc5 gxh4 13. O-O-O {and black doesn't have much to hang his hat on.}) (10... Bxe5 11. O-O-O {and black is going to have a hard time making it through the middlegame, Nxe5and Bc3 are currently threatened.}) 11. O-O-O {and it's doubtful whether black can survive the middlegame.}) 6. bxc3 Qxc3+ 7.Bd2 Qxc5 8. Bd3 d6 (8... Nf6 9. O-O d6 {transposes, an earlier Nc6 doesn't change things too much.}) 9. O-O Nf6 10. Bh6$5 (10. Rb1 O-O {and black has a playable middlegame, though his king positiondoesn't inspire the greatest confidence. He is up a pawn, so he has some longterm winning chances if he can avoid mate in the middlegame.}) 10... Nc6 (10...Qh5 11. Bg7 Rg8 12. Bxf6 exf6 $14) 11. Bg7 Rg8 12. Bxf6 exf6 13. Qd2 (13. Rb1Kf8 $1 14. Qd2 Kg7 {and the black king is much happier here than on the queenside.}) 13... Be6 (13... Bg4 14. Qf4 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Qe5 16. Rab1) (13... g5) 14. Rab1 (14. Qf4 f5)14... O-O-O 15. Rb5 Qa3 {and black may be holding on for dear life, but he has a decent grip!}) 3... Bg74. O-O Nc6 5. c3 e6 6. d3 Nge7 7. a4 {insuring against the exchange of thebishop from Na5 and inhibiting to some degree black's queenside expansion witha6 and b5.} O-O {black has nothing to complain about--white might still have aslight edge (which one of his moves was incorrect?) but nothing that is likelyto translate into a win.} 8. Nbd2 {but this natural looking move is a mistake.}(8. Bf4 d5 9. Ba2 d4 {is not all that promising:} 10. Qd2 e5 11. Bh6 Bg4 12.Bxg7 Kxg7 13. Ng5 {with a complicated game but there just isn't enough on theattack for black to be worried.}) (8. Bb3 $5 {a move which challenges black to find something better than d5.} f5 (8... d5 {even so this isn't bad.} 9. Re1 (9. Qe2) 9... d4 10. e5 {with a tense game, inwhich white has no weaknesses, indicating that his chances are slightly to bepreferred. White should probably over protect the e5 pawn, and try to get theb1 knight to e4. Since black's counterplay does not have any obvious targets,he should probably decide on moves which promote counterplay and hinderwhite's chances of exploiting the holes in his kingside (e4, and thedarksquares around the king.}) 9. Na3 $5 {get the pieces out!} fxe4 10. dxe4 d511. Be3 b6 12. Qd2 {and white's rapid development may bring dividends butblack's weaknesses are not all that hard to defend.}) (8. Re1 {simple, aggressive, and strong. The knight may come into play via a3, the rooks only way intothe fight is e1. But more importantly white pushes the pace by threatening toplay e5.} d5 9. Bb3 d4 (9... dxe4 10. dxe4 Qc7 {is also playable.}) 10. e5 {transposing into a line given in the note to 8. Bb3}) 8... d5 9. Ba2 {I still prefer Bb3 here on general grounds (a likely scenario would seem to bethe bishop moving from a2 to b1 to c2, in which case Bb3 would have saved atempo) If white is looking to maintain the a2 to g8 diaganal for as long aspossible this move is slightly preferable, since it can't be hit by Na5.} (9.Bb3 b6 10. Re1 Ba6 11. Bc2 (11. Nf1 d4) (11. exd5 exd5 12. Nf1 d4 (12... Qd713. d4 cxd4 14. cxd4) 13. cxd4 Nxd4 14. Nxd4 cxd4 15. Bg5)) 9... b6 10. Re1 Ba611. Nf1 {better to eat crow and play exd5, with a somewhat inferior game butat least the rook would stand on an open file where it could hopefully tradeoff one of black's rooks.} d4 {black's last few moves have deftly exploitedwhite's slight inaccuracies with Nd2 and his failure to trade off a pair ofpawns in the hopes of trading off a pair of rooks. Had the knight notretreated to f1 it could now hop to c4.} 12. c4 $1 {the worse move imaginable,except for all the other moves. there was no other way to save both the d3and c3 pawns. maybe white should have sacrificed one, however, since now heappears to be practically down a piece--but it would be awfully depressing toaccept the loss of a pawn--and with it an invasion of black's pieces, early inthe game and from the white side of the board and then hope for salvation inthe ending. The bishop may be freed someday by bringing it to d1, but it isthree moves away, since the queen will have to vacate the square, so blackwill be essentially a piece up for quite some time. The bishop may also dosome menial work by defending the d3 pawn from b1 or c2, should it come underattack while white's queen is away, and the closed nature of the game meansthat the loss of a few moves may not be devestating, so white was probablycorrect on both a logical and psychological level to prefer the temporaryimprisonment of the piece to the permanent loss of a pawn.} e5 13. Bd2 Bc8 14.Ng3 a5 $5 {not bad but very commital. for the foreseeable future breakingopen the queens wing would probably help black, but apparently he is planningon throwing everything into a kingside attack, which is justified by the factthat he is essentially up a piece, especially on that part of the board. Thethreat of b4 is more or less neutralized forever, and the black rook gains thea7 square (which might help it swing into the attack more quickly, though thisisn't used in the game), at the cost of any hope of developing an initiativeon both wings.} 15. Bb3 Bg4 16. h3 Bxf3 $5 {this move is rather surprising tome, The bishop seems to be a dangerous attacking piece, especially consideringthe weakness on h3. The queen was going to have to vacate d1 at some pointanyway, since that is the only way white can get his king's bishop back intothe game, so this move does not even really gain time. It is true that thisis something of a necessary link in the ingenious maneuver which follows. Thereal justification is that the additional knight on the kingside has givenwhite additional defensive resources when compared to a king's indian. Merelybeing a good attacking piece is not enough when white can challenge black onthe kingside, in particular the h5 square being under attack from the knightis surprisingly significant. e.g.} (16... Bd7 17. Qe2 Qe8 (17... f5 $6 18.exf5 gxf5 19. Nh5 $1) 18. h4 (18. Nh2 {and white can still meet f5 exf5 and Na5.}) (18. Nh2 Nb4 $5 {this computermove, tying up white's pieces a bit, maintains the advantage. But it must besaid that the attack is no clearer here than in the game.} (18... Kh8 19. h4Ng8 20. h5 Bh6 {with some advantage to black, but it is hard to say it is morethan in the game.})) 18... f5) (16... Bc8 {doesn't really change anything, only now the rook on a8 comes into play via a7.} 17. Qe2 Qe8 18. Nh2 f5) 17. Qxf3 Kh8 $5 {this is an interesting maneuver! Stein want's to exchange off the dark square bishops, when his knights shouldbe able to outplay white's bad bishop and knight in either an endgame or amiddlegame.} 18. Bd1 Ng8 19. Rf1 Bh6 20. Be1 $6 {the previous notnotwithstanding, now black's "bad" bishop is a stronger piece than white'sgood one.} (20. Qe2 {seems stronger--white prepares Bxh6 and Qd2, finallyfreeing his light square bishop.}) 20... Qd7 21. Qg4 $6 {why force lose atempo to f5? isn't black going to play this anyway? the immediate b3, inorder to play Ra2 and let the queen's rook get into the game seems preferable.}f5 22. exf5 gxf5 23. Qh5 Rf6 24. b3 $5 {the easiest way to get the queens rook off of the sideline.} Re8 25. Bf3 Nce7$1 {of course not allowing Bxc6--the knights are aiming at the white king.} 26.Ra2 Ng6 27. Bd1 Nf4 28. Qf3 Qe7 29. Nh5 $4 {loses. Bc2 restraining thecentral pawns was preferable. Black's attack at this point is simply toostrong for white to hold out. e.g.:} (29. Bc2 Qf7 30. Kh1 Ne7 31. Qb7 Qe6 32.Bb1 Neg6 33. Rg1 Nh4 34. Ne2 Rf7 35. Nxf4 Bxf4 36. Qa6 (36. Qd5 Qf6 37. g3 Rd8)36... Rg7 37. Qb5 (37. g3 Qc6+) 37... Reg8 38. g3 Qc8 39. Qxb6 Qa8+ 40. Kh2Nf3+ 41. Kg2 Nxe1+ 42. Kf1 Nf3) 29... e4 30. Qxf4 Bxf4 31. Nxf4 {and white islost, he is down material and he still has not stopped black's attack.} Qd6 32.Nd5 Rff8 33. Bd2 Nf6 34. Bf4 Qc6 35. Nc7 Re7 36. Nb5 Rg8 37. Kh2 Qe8 38. g3exd3 39. Bf3 Re2 40. Raa1 h5 41. Rad1 Ne4 42. Nc7 Qg6 43. Kg1 h4 44. g4 fxg445. hxg4 Qf5 {white has been lost for a while now.} 0-1
