Winning Without Castling

Last updated 2 May 2002

Azmaiparashvily,Z - Lerner,K [D20]
49th USSR Championship, 1981
[Notes by Nickolai Gurtovoi]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.Nc3 e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 Bb4 8.f3 a6 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Be2 c5 11.Nc2 Ba5 12.Kf2 Be6 13.Be3 Nbd7 14.Rhd1 0-0?? [Capitulation! Oddly enough, no-one noticed Black's blunder: even GM Yuri Razuvaev who annotated this game in Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie-64 (1981), No. 16. So, instead of 14... 0-0?? why not 14... Bc7! 15.g3 Ke7! After the K enters the play, Black has quite a defensible position, eg 16.a4 (or 16.Rd2 Rhc8 17.Rad1 Be5! unclear) 16... b4 17.Nd5+ Bxd5 18.exd5 a5! 19.Rd2 Bd6! unclear.]

15.g4 Rfd8 16.g5 Ne8 17.Nd5 Bxd5 18.Rxd5 Nc7 19.Rd6! [With Black's K offside, GM Azmaiparashvily took advantage of the opportunity to penetrate his R into the home front of his opponent!]

19...Ne8 20.Rc6 c4 21.a4! Ne5 22.axb5! Nxc6 23.bxc6 Bd2 24.Bxc4 Bxe3+ 25.Kxe3 Rab8 26.Rxa6 Rxb2 27.Nd4 Rc8 28.Nf5 Kf8 29.Ra7 Rc7 30.Ra8 Rxc6 31.Bd5 Rcb6 32.Ra7 Nd6 33.Nxd6 Rxd6 34.Rxf7+ Ke8 35.Rxg7 1-0