Botvinnik's Rifle

One of the "Hansen Effects" on the Central Florida Chess community is a dramatic shift in opening play on the part of amateur players- to which I was not immune.

In particular, both Lars and Jen Hansen encouraged me to set aside the "safety blanket" of "system openings" and to play "the best moves", which the are the main lines of chess theory.  The idea is that the main lines are what they are because the best players try to play good moves and avoid inferior ones- that's part of why they are the best (players AND moves, that is)!

In my case, it meant moving beyond fianchetto structures to other ideas, and since I have several friends who are French Defense players, so I decided to give it a fling.

In the course of learning the French Defense, I came across a very nice idea in a game by GM Alexander Morozevich, involving the use of his g-pawn.  I was not completely surprised by the idea -GM Hansen has a chapter on "The g4 Revolution" in his book How Chess Games are Won and Lost (which I highly recommend- it's like 5 books crammed into one, where in many cases he uses lessons from his own games [some losses- he is objective to a fault] to illustrate his points.  It is a book to be studied, not just read), but this particular application shocked me a little. It reminded me of "Alekhine's Gun" in that it was like the g-pawn was shot out of a "d8 queen/e7 bishop" rifle barrel right at white's king.

But enough text- let me show you what I mean:

Click here to see GM Morozevich fling his g-pawn at GM Michael Adams

As it turns out, this idea is a main line in the French Tarrasch.  Here is a much "cleaner" example from a game between GM David Howell and GM Hikaru Nakamura, annotated by GM Sergey Erenburg in the Chess Mega Database from Chessbase:

Click here to see Nakamura's application of the idea

It was only several months later, studying a very different opening -from the other side of the board, for that matter- that I recognized the same idea had already been played.  It prompted some further research on my part, and what I learned is what Hansen and Kramnik and other great players say all the time:  study the classics.  It turns out that the idea applied by Morozevich and Nakamura had been played by GM Botvinnik way back in 1934. 

As it turns out, the game in question, Botvinnik-Alatortsev, 1934, is in the Chessbase Mega Database 2014, and annotated by "Kasparov".  Unfortunately, I can't tell if it's Garry or Sergey Kasparov, but the notes are excellent.  Consider this a review of the Mega Database, as Kasparov introduces us to the idea that I now refer to as "Botvinnik's Rifle":

Click here for the first shot from Botvinnik's Rifle

Some further investigation showed that Botvinnik's idea (as we have already seen), can occur in a variety of opening ideas, from the French to the Queen's Gambit, and also the Nimzo- Indian.  Almost 20 years later after his initial debut, we see Botvinnik hunting different game in the form of GM Mark Taimanov and his pet idea in the Nimzo-Indian:

Click here to see Botvinnik aim his rifle at Taimanov's Nimzo

The beauty of Botvinnik's Rifle is that is it more than just a tactic.  It is really a strategic theme with tactical implications, and the kind of maneuver that stands the test of time.  My final example from Botvinnik's praxis is a game from the winter of his career, after he had finished his run as World Champion.  In the game he catches a strong player off-guard right in the opening, and then never lets him recover:

Botvinnik's Rifle, "once more unto the breach"

I learned two lessons from this journey.  One is the idea of Botvinnik's Rifle itself, as an idea that can be applied in my own games.  The second lesson?  A familiar one:  Study the classics, as there is treasure in the attic!