By Karel van der Weide

At this moment, the Panno variation against the Financhetto King's Indian is in a crises. Extensive analyses by Mihail Marin and Igor Stohl marked this line with an clear plus for White. A couple of years ago, there was a glimmer of hope, when Alexander Morozevitsch launched his ...h5-plan. He crushed his victim, Burmakin, in great style. However, analyses by Marin showed improvements for White. The reader should not be surprised that yours truly was a casualty of these improvements.

First, what line of the Panno are we talking about? 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 a6 8.d5 Na5 9.Nd2 c5 10.Qc2 Rb8 11.b3 b5 12.Bb2 h5!?

A modern approach by Morozevitch. It looks completely bizarre; wasn't Black playing on the queenside? Nevertheless, Black secures the g4-square as an outpost and White has to take ...h4 into account. But the most important reason is that after a future e4 by White and ...e5 by Black, the manoeuvres ...Nh7/f5 and ...h4/Nh5 are available for Black.

Initially this idea caused quite some enthusiasm in the world of chess. John Watson applauded the idea and commented on it in his excellent SECRETS OF CHESS STRATEGY. Hence, the idea impressed me as well and, sick of the usual Boleslavsky structures I used to play against the KI-fianchetto, I adopted it in my repertoire. One of my games with this new approach was against Dana Reizniece. It was a privilege meeting this sympathetic, eloquent, beautiful young girl from Latvia in the city of Augsburg. Here we were both invited to play a closed tournament organized by chess maecenas Johannes Pitl. Dana and I enjoyed the cultural and gastronomic hospitality of the city, moreover we experienced intriguing conversations about the essence of life. We both felt obliged to show our host true fighting spirit in our games.

Dana chose not to follow the main line, but to divert with 13.Rae1. Immediately, I mixed up move-orders, by playing 13...Bd7?!. The Morosevitsch/Watson analyses goes 13...h4 and now:
a. 14.Nce4? Nxe4 15.Bxg7 Nxd2.
b. 14.Nd1 hxg3 15.hxg3 e5 16.Bc3 Ng4.
c. 14.e4 e5 15.Ne2 h3 16.Bh1 Ng4 17.Nc1 Bh6 18.f4 bxc4 19.Nxc4 Nxc4 20.Qxc4 Rb4 with every line perfectly playable for Black.

Back to my game and 13...Bd7: 14.e4 bxc4 15.bxc4 Ng4 16.Nd1 Ba4

To be honest, I considered the outcome of these complications as favorable for Black, but I was wrong.

17.Qxa4 Bxb2 18.f4!? Bc1

The hard way, because after 18...Bd4+ 19.Kh1 Rb4 20.Qc2 Black will be struck by the tsunami in the center.

19.Nb3

19.Nf3? Rb4 20.Qc2 Rxc4 wins a pawn.

19...Nxb3 20.axb3 Bd2 21.Re2 Qa5

Black for the moment is saved by the exchange of Queens. A sortie to d7 looks to dangerous for White.

22.h3 Nh6 23.Qxa5 Bxa5 24.Ra2 Bc7 25.Rxa6 Rxb3 26.Ra7 Rc8 27.Kf2

27...f5?

Misjudgement again! Black has no right at all to fight for an advantage. I should have taken care of the troublesome rook on the seventh rank.

28.Re1!

Cold-blooded play by Dana. How could I have expected that she would fall for 28.Ne3? Rb2+ 29.Kf3 Ng4-+?

28...Kf8

28...Kf7 29.e5!

29.Ne3! Bb6 30.Rb7 Ra8 31.exf5 gxf5 32.Bf3 Raa3 33.Re2?

Dana lets me off the hook. Of course 33.Bxh5 fails to the cheap trick ...Ba5 but 33.Bd1! would have won the pawn on h5.

33...h4 34.gxh4

Now a draw was agreed after some moves though I still feared 34.g4!?.

However, the main line (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 a6 8.d5 Na5 9.Nd2 c5 10.Qc2 Rb8 11.b3 b5 12.Bb2 h5!?) is:

13.Rab1 Bf5 14.e4

Now 14.Nce4 is bad because of 14...bxc4 15.Nxf6+ (15.bxc4 Nxe4 16.Nxe4 Rxb2 17.Rxb2 Bxb2 18.Qxb2 Nxc4) 15...Bxf6 16.e4 cxb3.

14...Bd7 15.Nd1 e5

Here we have come to the position that is crucial for the evaluation of the whole set-up with ...h5. White has to make up his mind here:
A. Leaving Black with the typical Kings-Indian backward pawn (d6) by playing 16.dxe6 e.p.
B. Hit the Knight on a5 (16.Bc3)
C. Go for immediate action in the center (16.f4)

A. 16.dxe6 e.p.

This happened in the aforementioned game Burmakin-Morozevitsch. In my opinion, Black has an advantage in these lines.

16...Bxe6 17.f4

My game with Klaus Kesic went 17.Ne3 Nc6 18.f4 and most probably it would have been best now to continue 18...Nd4! 19.Bxd4 cxd4 20.Nd5 Bxd5 21.cxd5 Ng4 22.Qd3 Rc8 23.Rbc1 Rc3 24.Rxc3 dxc3 25.Nb1 Qb6+ with an overwhelming position.

17...Nc6 18.a3 Nd4 19.Qd3 bxc4 20.bxc4 h4 21.Nc3 h3 22.Bf3 Ng4 23.Ba1 Qa5 24.Rxb8 Rxb8 25.Ne2 Nxf3+ 26.Nxf3

Morozevitsch on home ground! Now, by means of an energetic piece sacrifice, the curtains are raised.

26...Bxc4 27.Qxc4 Qxa3 28.Qc1 Qd3 29.Nc3 Bd4+ 30.Kh1 Bxc3 31.Bxc3 Qe2, 0-1.

B. 16.Bc3

It appears that after this move Black can achieve sufficient counterplay in several ways, although not in Bologan's way.

16...h4 17.Ne3 Nh5 18.Bf3 b4 19.Bb2

19...hxg3?!

Now this is dubious. Black had a choice in playing 19...Bh6 20.Rbe1 Ng7 or 19...Qg5 20.Bxh5 Qxh5 21.f4 f5 22.Rbe1 Rbe8.

20.hxg3 Qg5 21.Bxh5 Qxh5 22.f4 Here White has a huge advantage. As Marin indicates in Informator 92, the black Queen and Knight are just offside.

C. 16.f4!

There we have it, the move that might set the score for the whole line with ...h5. I don't see anything better then exchanging some pawns now.

16...exf4 17.gxf4 bxc4 18.bxc4

There also appeared to be a game where White took with his Knight on c4, but this only helps Black exchange the bad Knight on a5.

18...Re8 19.Bc3

This is what Goran Dizdar played against me in Sevilla this year. However, it seems White has another option: after 19.Ne3 Rxb2 20.Rxb2 Ng4 21.Nxg4 hxg4 22.Rbb1 Qh4 23.Qd3 it is doubtful wether Black really manages to organize an attack.

19...Rxb1 20.Qxb1 Bg4

Awarded with an "?" in the bulletin. Quite funny, in my opinion it is Black's only move.

21.e5?!

Now Black is back in the game. There was something to say for the quiet 21.Qb2!?, but the tactics appeared to favor White. My intention, of course, was to sac a piece after 21.Ne3 by means of 21...Nxe4?. However I missed that White can easily accept because of 22.Bxa5! Qxa5 23.Nxe4 Bd4 24.Kh1! and after taking my piece back there is a fork on f6.

21..Nh7??

I am convinced that most of the bad moves are played after a long thought. At least, that was the case here. It was essential to play 21...Bf5 22.Qb2 dxe5 23.fxe5 (23.Bxe5? Bd3) 23...Ng4 with chaos that probably favors Black. After 24.e6 Black has the cunning 24...Qd6. 24.Qa3 on the other hand, runs into dangerous sacrifices started by 24...Bxe5.

22.Nf2!

I was completely blinded by lines like 22.exd6 Be2 23.Re1 Bxd1 24.Rxe8 Qxe8 25. Bxg7 Qe3-+. The computer had a field day with these lines. It threw in d7 at almost every stage, and proved that my thinking-process was miserable.

22...dxe5 23.Nxg4 hxg4 24.f5!

There you are, a typical Benoni pawn-sac. Black might be able just to hang in with 24...e4 or 24...Nf8, but I was already shell-shocked.

24...g5? 25.f6!

Oops.

25...Nxf6 26.Qf5 Nb7 27.Ne4 Nd6 28.Nxf6+ Bxf6 29.Qxf6 Qxf6 30.Rxf6 Nxc4 31.Rc6, 1-0.