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Classical Exchange [E92]

My first thought was to consider how difficult it would be to force a draw against a strong engine, not least because engines have been beating Grandmasters in classical time limits and with odds games. Probably not easy, and maybe close to impossible in some of the lines which lead to slightly richer positions. In search of a human answer, I looked up the games and writings of King’s Indian players I know to see how they handled this issue.

The approaches varied slightly but seemed to converge on a strategy to keep the game going and set problems for the opponent. Mark Hebden has consistently used this approach, recently via 9...Re8, and I was particularly struck by how actively he plays many of the endgames he reaches. John Nunn originally played the sharp 9...c6, but in the most recent game of his I could find on the database, he switched to 9...Nbd7. I also checked Joe Gallagher’s book, Play the King’s Indian, largely because it is full of useful practical advice on such matters. He had no magic formula to offer, just 9...Re8 and then keep playing.

Are there other valid approaches? Well both John Nunn and Gawain Jones started out by playing 6...Nbd7 instead of 6...e5, and Black might also consider 6...Na6, 6...c5, 6....Bg4 or even Dubov’s 6...Re8. Yet I think we should get used to the idea of grinding on level positions and trying to provoke mistakes. This is what you do in openings such as the Exchange Slav, where Ivan Sokolov has won a lot of games as Black. Or the Exchange French, where Viktor Korchnoi and Wolfgang Uhlmann positively relished the idea of beating their draw-hungry opponents.

The games I’ve selected this time illustrate different practical scenarios that can arise, rather than being novelty based. There are numerous games in the archives in the Classical Exchange, but what seems to matter is reaching the most complex possible queen-less middle game.

Classical Exchange with 9...c6 [E92]

This has been the recommendation of many theoretical works, Black temporarily gives up a pawn but then obtains good counter-play. The problem is that if White knows what he’s doing and plays 10.Nxe5 Re8 11.f4 Na6 12.0-0-0 h6 13.Bh4 g5 and now 14.Bg3:

the game will soon fizzle out. John Nunn won a game in this line (Hoeksma, P - Nunn, J), but White played the inferior 14.Bf2.

Classical Exchange with 9...Nbd7 [E92]

I was fond of this move myself, after seeing Garry Kasparov win convincingly against Silvio Danailov. It’s one way for Black to get a fighting game, rather than a long, forced sequence, and this may be why Nunn chose it in his game with Jackelen (Jackelen, T - Nunn, J). Yet White played far better than Danailov with 10.0-0-0 Rf8 11.Nd5 c6 12.Ne7+ Kh8 13.Be3:

when Black was struggling to free his position.

Classical Exchange with 9...Re8 [E92]

This does seem to be way to go if Black wants the possibility to outplay his opponent, and it’s no accident that practical players like Hebden choose to go this way, and with remarkable results. After 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.cxd5 c6 12.Bc4 cxd5 13.Nxd5 Nd7 14.Nd2 Nc5:

there are three main moves for White, 15.0-0-0, 15.0-0 and 15.Nd2 which are covered in the games Brunner, N - Hebden, M, Chuchelov, V - Hebden, M and Markov, J - Hebden, M respectively.

Black has another possibility in 14...h6 (Pelletier, Y - Gallagher, J ), which aims to put the knight on f6 after driving White’s bishop from g5.

White also has 10.0-0-0:

when White was slightly better in Moor, O - Ekstroem, R before losing there too. Overall I was struck by the remarkable results certain players have made in this line, but the will to win has to be there.

Classical Variation with 6...Nbd7 [E95]

As I mentioned above, this has been used by several strong players to rule out the exchange of queens, at least in the short term. After 7.0-0, Gawain Jones’s recommendation in his books and Chessable course is 7...e5 8.Re1 Re8 9.Bf1 and now 9...a6:

There’s a tedious option for White here too in 10.dxe5, when objectively speaking Black should recapture with the knight. In practice strong players who are looking to win recapture with the pawn, for example in Turner, M - Oratovsky, M. This and other games show that it’s very much game on.

That's all for now! Nigel

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