How I "Celebrated" the 94th Anniversary of "The October Revolution" in Russia 1917

If you put the entry "Russian Revolution 1917" into Wikipedia  - my favourite encyclopedia - you will get following answer:

"The October Revolution (Russian: Октябрьская революция, Oktyabr'skaya revolyutsiya), also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (Russian: Великая Октябрьская социалистическая революция, Velikaya Oktyabr'skaya sotsialisticheskaya revolyutsiya), Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Old Style Julian Calendar (O.S.), which corresponds with 7 November 1917 New Style (N.S.). Gregorian Calendar."


And I remember the days when behind the "Iron Curtains" when November 7th would be heavily celebrated. But what was common some 30 years ago is now just a dark history.
I have completely forgotten that day we would celebrated in the past and so yesterday, 7th November 2011, I went to Worksop to play for Worksop B-team as a guest in the match with Wombwell. They put me kindly on the top board and  I had to faced, with the Black pieces, to Keith Thompson, a good player, rated 160 ECF.

Fischer-Petrosian, Belgrade, 1970

I met his 1.e4 with 1...c6 and I was very curious to know what set-up against Caro-Kann Defence he would choose. As it is more than common at this level of competitions he opted for positional "Exchange Variation". 
This line became very popular when in 1970 was employed by late Bobby Fischer against Petrosian in match USSR against the rest of the World played in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Why Fischer liked this not very ambitious line is not clear, but truth is that Fischer used to struggle with Caro-Kann Defence. But why is this line so popular among the lower rated players I have no idea. Perhaps they try to avoid the long theoretical lines. Another explanaition is that this line is recommended in the textbook "Chess Openings for White Explained" (authors: Alburt, Dzindzichashvili & Perelshteyn).

Well, how to introduce this line? White has a small but certain positional advantage, however, one must be very patient and slowly step up the pressure because it is not easy to launch any flank attack. Black pawn structure is very solid, centre is rather static and White has got only one pawn-lever and it is f-pawn a possibly c-pawn. So he should sort the problem of queenside where Black has chance to launch a minority attack (i.e. ...b5, ...a5 and ...b4), then he can employ the e5-square as a forepost for his Knight. The game can be rather complicated with long manoeuvring on both sides. My personal opinion is that it is not easy to find the right plan.

So in my game I chose for modern set-up developing early the Queen on c7 preventing the early development of dark-squared Bishop on f4-sqare. This was answered by Ne2 - White wants - come what may - develop his Bishop on f4. But then White quickly lost the plot. Obviously he had some difficulties to find correct plan. Black launched standard "minority attack" creating some weaknesses and after some tactical clash in the centre the game went on into the Rook & Knight Ending where Black had  small edge but the way to victory was not quite obvious. However, under the time pressure and positional pressure White made a final mistake. Now you can have a look at the game in full.





Despite that Worksop B finaly lost to Wombwell 2.5 to 3.5, I felt epic! Commrades, it was the best celebration of your national holiday ever!