[Event "XIII USSR Championship"]

[Site "Moscu"]
[Date "1944.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Alexandr Tolush"]
[Black "David Bronstein"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 e5
{A normal Old Indian Defense, or as Bronstein later made it, a King's
Indian Defense with a not so exact move order, as it allowed some
early exchanges, with dxe5 and Qxd8.}
4.e3 Nbd7 5.Nf3 g6 6.Be2 Bg7 7.b3
{As seen against Belavnets in 1941, White when adopting modest setups
usually developed his bishop via b2 or a3. The only difference in
Tolush's setup is the bishop on e2 which Belavnets fianchettoed.}
7...O-O 8.Bb2 Re8 9.Qc2 c6 10.O-O Qa5
{And also as always, Bronstein goes for the solid c6-Qa5 setup.}
11.Rfd1 Nf8 12.a3 e4 13.Nd2 Bf5
{Bronstein's strategy is the same as the one he used against
Belavnets, he cuts the board in half with e4, deploys his bishop to f5
and later brings his queen to the kingside with Qc7-Qd7-Qf5. The
f8-knight as we will see will go to g5, but in a different way.}
14.b4 Qc7 15.Nf1
{Heading to g3 where the knight will exchange on f5, taking one of the
crucial attackers from Bronstein, in fact this piece will turn out to
be crucial for Bronstein's strategy to suceed. Still I dont like the
knight being there, exchanging on f5 may not be that bad for Black as
the g-file will be opened and Black will fortify the e4 pawn, this
also turns out to make Bronstein's attack smoother as the e2 bishop
would love to be placed on f1.}
15...d5 16.cxd5 cxd5 17.Qb3!
{A fine move every chess master should find. White gets a threatening
rook to the c-file with a tempo at the same time he moves the queen
away so discoveries with Nxd5 work.}
17...Red8 18.Rdc1 Qe7 19.a4
{White's approach is the correct one, altough he does not have any
pawn majority to try and create a passed pawn he will try to force the
opening of the a-file or Black to make a concession. For example,
visualize White a and b pawns one rank up. Lets say White plays b6,
after axb6 axb6 White opened the a-file with the possibility of now
challenging the a-file and if won to attack the b7-pawn via Ra7.
Appart from that White has now won the c5 quare and the possibly the
c7 square for a rook or knight to invade, a winning position.}
( 19.Nb5 {The move I first looked at isnt that threatening. In fact
the Rc7 or Nc7 moves arent a thread at all, if Black wishes he can
play the straight forward a6.} 19...a6 20.Rc7 Qe6 21.Nc3 Qd6 {And
White is losing, Rxb7 Bc8.} )
19...h5
{Bronstein strategy will be based on a light square attack, just as in
the game against Belavnets he will try to attack on the light squares,
manouvering his knighs to the f3 and h3 squares, together with a light
square bishop exchange. Appart from trying to play h5-h4-h3 weakening
the light squares h5 allows the f8 knight to enter into the game with
Nh7-Ng5 instead of Ne6-Ng5 which as we will see will be occupied by
the queen (the e6 square).}
20.a5 h4 21.Ba3?!
{Probably the first mistake or innacuracy of the game, as Belavnets
White ultimately brings the bishop to a3, but as I said, I think the
bishop is misplaced there. Way better was b5 with the idea of playing

b6, keeping the game equal and not handling the initiative to White.
Appart from b5 White had another move which was h3, not afraid of any
sacrifices on h3, of course this would require more precision in the
defense by White, so I would preffer b5. After Ba3 Black is now
granted the initiative and White will have to now play for a draw.}
( 21.b5 h3 22.g3 {And the main difference now being that White will
have the possibility of playing b6 in the future, getting ready to
invade.} 22...Qe6 23.b6 axb6 24.axb6 {With an equal position in which
White has already stricked on the queenside.} )
21...h3 22.g3 N8h7 23.Nd2
{As I first said, the knight was misplaced there, away from the
kingside and taking away the f1 square from the e2 bishop, White does
good in bringing it to the queenside.}
23...Ng5 24.b5 Qe6 25.Na4
{b6 was also a possibility and it was probably slightly better. Still
the position is at the moment equal with chances for both sides, White
surely improved compared to what Belavnets did on 1941}
25...Bg4 26.Qd1 Qf5 27.Be7 Bxe2 28.Qxe2 Rdc8 29.Bxf6
{I dont understand this move, giving up the bishop like that doesnt
seem like a good idea, probably better was to keep them, after this it
is Black who is fighting for the win in the endgame that will arise
some moves later.}
29...Bxf6 30.Nc5 b6 31.axb6 axb6 32.Rxa8 Rxa8 33.Na6 Be7 34.Kf1?
{Surely a mistake, the King had to stay protecting the h1 square, not
scared of any mates on g2. At this point Bronstein says both times
were on time pressure. The fact that the king won't be protecting the
h2 and h1 squares will pay later.}
34...Rc8 35.Qd1 Rxc1 36.Qxc1 Kg7 37.Qc7 Bf6 38.Nb4??
{This was the totally losing move. White's queen had to return to c2,
safeguarding his king.}
( 38.Qc2 {A very hard line to find OTB when in time pressure even this
looked dead lost because of the "deadly" Qh1+} 38...Nf3 39.Nxf3 Qxf3
40.Nc7 Qh1+ 41.Ke2 Qxh2 42.Ne8+ Kf8 43.Nxf6 Kg7 44.Nd7 {And altough a
piece down Black will have perpetual with Qh1 and Qf3. If he tries to
play for a win Qc8 would be a killer.} 44...Qh1
( 44...Qg1 45.Qc8 )
45.Ne5 Qa1 )
38...Nf3 39.Nxf3 Qxf3 40.Ke1 Qh1+ 41.Kd2
{And the game was adjourned but White didn't continue it, this was of
course dead lost, after Qxh2 the h3-pawn would quickly promote.}
0-1