Weekly Quiz No.1 – Find the Plan (and Move)!

Over the summer, on each Saturday we will be providing a Weekly Quiz Question on Find the Plan (and Move)! This will be taken from an actual game position and you will be provided with a number of possible options but only one might be best! These will be different to the Puzzles as they do not lead to an immediate win or draw but will focus more on the right plan, so we recommend that you spend 5 to 10 minutes considering the position.

There will be one correct plan (and move) and at least one weak plan (and move) with other plans (and moves) assessed as being somewhere in between.

Please feel free to take part or alternatively just enjoy the game.

These questions replace the Daily Quiz Questions.  We look forward to your feedback.

Good luck!

Martin Simons
12th June 2021

In today’s position you have White alongside the Soviet Grandmaster Rafael Vaganyan and your opponent is the German Grandmaster Robert Hübner. The game was played in round one of the Tilburg super tournament in 1983 and you are about to play your 20th move.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nc3 e5 4.e3 exd4 5.exd4 Nf6 6.Bxc4 Be7 7.Nf3 O-O 8.O-O Nbd7 9.Re1 Nb6 10.Bb3 c6 11.Bg5 Bg4 12.Qd3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Nfd5 14.Bxe7 Nxe7 15.Re5 Ng6 16.Re4 Nd7 17.Rd1 Qa5 18.Re3 Rad8 19.Ne4 Qc7

Your options are:
A) Attack on the kingside by preparing Rg3 and/or h4 with 20.Qg4.
B) Attack on the kingside with piece play by playing 20.Ng5 with the immediate threat against f7.
C) Eliminate the weak d-pawn first by playing 20.d5.
D) Attack on the kingside immediately with 20.h4.
E) Attack on the kingside by preparing h4 with 20.g3, which also provides an escape square for the king.

Solution

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