Chicago Chess | Key Position within the Slav Structure

Niko was playing against fellow clubmate.

A few weeks prior to my journey to Wisconsin, I had a choice to participate in an Illinois or a Missouri tournament. I chose neither as I was heavily focused on hitting up the St. Louis Chess Club. My hypothetical tournaments were the same weekend Fabiano Caruana was participating in that Open tournament in Charlotte (US Masters). I totally forgot about the Missouri event (to be honest) but I did get some good banter at the chess club. There was a man who was capable of beating me a in a few blitz games.

Niko (top photo left) participated in the Chicago tournament that weekend and showed us one of his games the following weekend. It came from a London and was complicated. I tossed a few ideas, but we never came to a clear agreement to the best play for white.

This position came from the London System and Niko was playing white.

Positional Breakdown:

I’m not sure who has the edge at this point. Material is even but a bishop is typically the preferred minor piece in the endgame. The knight targets a key pawn weakness on b6 (backwards pawn) that Niko secured with his a4- advance. White went on to win this game by neutralizing the bishop when it rerouted the a8- to h1 diagonal. He neutralized the diagonal by positioning his pawns on f3 and e4 and won the b-pawn on an oversight.

I guess that is the drawback to pawn weaknesses. You are required to defend it or you lost it and your position collapses.

It does not take many mistakes before a position is beyond help.