[Event "K11 rapid"] [Date "2025.03.08"] [Round "8"] [White "Zvirblis, Andrius"] [Black "Vardanyan, Aras"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "2076"] [BlackElo "2361"] [Annotator "Aras"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "D02"] [Opening "Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation"] [StudyName "benkonian's Study"] [ChapterName "Zvirblis, Andrius - Vardanyan, Aras"] [ChapterURL "https://lichess.org/study/BQKiqjww/iZ5mWKjM"] [Orientation "black"] { This was a rapid game at a local tournament. Winning this game was surprisingly easy due to the knowledge of what is called unofficially "the Capablanca position". This refers to a position in the Carslbad structure with a knight on d6 for black. It is considered to be very good for black, virtually unlosable and with good chances to win. More on this later } 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Qc2 c6 6. Bg5 g6 7. e3 Bf5 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 { I had decided on a strategy quite early in this game. Exchange 3 minor pieces and put the knight on d6. From there it should be rather simple } 9... Nbd7 10. Nc3 Be7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rab1 a5 13. Rfc1 Ne4 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Nd2 Nxd2 16. Qxd2 Nb6 17. Qd3 Nc8 18. Na4 Nd6 { The goal has been reached. The point is that from d6 the knight protects the b7 pawn and importantly the b5 square to guard against the minor attack. Also it can at any point jump to e4 or the c4 square if it becomes weakened. Although the computer judges this position to be equal, I believe in practice black should win about 70-80% of the time if he knows how to play this. It's important to emphasize that such things can not be learned by memorising, it is important to study instructive games of top players to be able to replicate their ideas similarly, while also having a good foundation upon which to formulate your own original ideas. This position is quite famous, one very nice game was Portisch - Kasparov 1997. The basic idea for black is to slowly but surely expand on the kingside, while white doesn't really have an effective plan. Best would be for black to keep the queens, but in the endgame the same plan can be applied } 19. Nc5 Kg7 20. Qb3 h5 21. Nd3 Rfe8 22. Ne5 h4 23. h3 Qe6 24. Qd3 Ne4 25. Rc2 Qf5 26. Rd1 f6 27. Ng4 g5 28. f3 { White loses his patience. Objectively he could sit still while black improves his position with an eventual nd6-nf7-f5 push, but humans don't tend to like to play this way } 28... Nd6 29. Qxf5 Nxf5 { The queens were exchanged, but at the cost of weakening the f3 pawn } 30. Kf2 Nd6 31. g3 hxg3+ 32. Kxg3 a4 33. Rd3 Re7 34. b3 axb3 35. Rxb3 Ra4 36. Rd3 Nc4 37. h4 f5 38. Ne5 gxh4+ 39. Kh3 Nxe5 40. dxe5 Rxe5 41. Rb3 Re7 42. Rg2+ Kf6 43. f4 Rae4 44. Kxh4 Rxe3 0-1