Monday 6 July 2009

Early Rook Moves

In most chess openings it is normally the rooks that are the last to move (castling excepted). Sometimes the kingside rook gets into action early, but the queens rook is usually the last guy to join the party.
There are plenty of sensible reasons why this is so, but here is a warning if you try and buck the trend. In the 1953 Candidates tournament, Paul Keres plays Rb8 as early as move 5, in an attempt to counter David Bronstein's Closed Sicilian. However this rebounds pretty quickly as the rook proves to be misplaced, and Bronstein gathers the point (although it takes it 58 moves).

Bronstein,D - Keres,P [B25]
Candidats Tournament Zuerich (12), 19.09.1953

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.d3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Rb8 (D)
6.f4 d6 7.Nf3 e6 8.0-0 Nge7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nxe5 11.Bf4 Nxf3+ 12.Qxf3 Ra8 13.Be3 0-0 14.Bxc5 Bd4+ 15.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 16.Kh1 Rb8 17.Ne4 f5 18.Qf4 Bd7 19.c3 Qb6 20.Nf6+ Rxf6 21.Qxb8+ Bc8 22.d4 Rf8 23.Rf2 Nc6 24.Qf4 Bd7 25.Re1 Nd8 26.d5 Nf7 27.dxe6 Bxe6 28.b3 Bd7 29.Qd4 Bc6 30.Qxb6 axb6 31.Bxc6 bxc6 32.Re6 Rc8 33.Rfe2 Kf8 34.h4 b5 35.a4 bxa4 36.bxa4 Ra8 37.Rxc6 Rxa4 38.Rc7 Ra6 39.Rb2 h6 40.c4 f4 41.c5 f3 42.Kg1 Ra8 43.Rcb7 Ra1+ 44.Rb1 Ra6 45.Rd7 Ra8 46.Re1 Ra2 47.Re3 Ra1+ 48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Kxf3 Rc2 50.Rc7 h5 51.Ke4 Nh6 52.Ra3 Re2+ 53.Kf4 Re8 54.Rh7 Kg8 55.Rxh6 Kg7 56.c6 Kxh6 57.Rc3 g5+ 58.hxg5+ 1-0

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