HedgeHog

Hedgehog positions

CM thechesscorner64

Updated: Jul 15, 2020, 9:52 PM | 0

Today I will go through hedgehog key themes with a few games.

I'll define hedgehog type position as the Black set-up here

It is Important to see that Black puts the queen on c7, knights on d7 and f6, and Bishop on e7 and b7. Rook could go on e and c files but sometimes on the d-file to protect d6.

Lets see a full typical position

Typically White has a strong center e4 and c4 and develops pieces from a sicilian or english 1c4 position.

THEME 1 : The Fischer attack. Black prepares Qb8,Bb8-c7 , and Kh8 followed by Rg8 and g7-g5!

Sounds slows but White cannot break through the compact structure and needs to prepare a3-b4-c5 or any type of pawn break-through on the kingside. Fischer used it with white pieces, but this attack is also common with Black.

Yusupov played g5-g4! in the position at the end of the variation and won convincingly. Clearly Taimanov with White shuffled too much his pieces even though he was a seasoned grandmaster.

If you think that's old stuff, Anand with Black used a similar idea in 2006 against a canadian GM.

THEME 2: Black prepares d6-d5! by placing rooks on e8 and c8. Kasparov famously played this against Karpov but here's a good example

And here's a second example with Be7 where the d6-d5 breakthrough brings a great game for Black. Please note that g3 and pieces on e-file are often a target.

Theme 3: Black plays h5-h4!? to weaken kingside, and then opens up the play with d6-d5 at the right time

Theme 4: Defending against e4-f4 plan. Sometimes white pushes f2-f4 with the goal to attack on the kingside. Here's how Black could defend, putting his bishop on g7

and sometimes Black manages to get d6-d5 against such a plan , as White's king becomes vulnerable.

Theme 5: Against double fianchetto for White (b3,Bb2 and g3,Bg2) in english or even sicilian defense, Black can prepare b6-b5! like Alphazero ( DeepMind-Google AI) did against Stockfish here

and of course Artemiev did the same against Nakamura on chess.com

if you want to have a full analysis of this brilliant game from Artemiev, the details are provided here : https://www.chess.com/blog/thechesscorner64/vlad-artemiev-blitz-skills

Hedgehog positions

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