I was going over some Alekhine games today and found his interpretation of this position just shocking. His move isn't too flashy but it's really the idea behind it and how Alekhine viewed this position vs my chess world view of this 'obvious' position.
I was hoping for a bit of input on the position first!
To me the position seems fairly simple. White will try to leverage his a and c pawns as well as the b file to generate a queenside attack. The sort of candidates I'd consider are: a4, Bd3 (to free the c pawn), Ne5 and perhaps Rb1. Alekhine took an entirely different view on the position.
Ba3 seems very committal but it's just so powerful. Normally this is a move I wouldn't even consider before playing a4. But in this exact position the attack comes so rapidly. Ba3 forces an eventual weakening of the f7 or e6 pawns which in conjunction with f4 and Ne5 has all the makings for a very dangerous attack.
It's the sort of move I love since it reminds me of how terrible I really am at this game which is always very motivating. It must be amazing to be able to see the board as Alekhine did.
Not to just say "ditto", but my thoughts were pretty much exactly like yours. I'd play a4, Ba3, Rb1, Bd3, and c4 in some order in the next handful of moves. It looks so natural to play that way. I'd feel like I was trying too hard to force something if I tried to do anything else.
Spoiler:
Alekhine's move and the follow up is pretty freakin impressive, and I don't entirely grasp it. Not even close actually haha.
When I first played through the game, my first thought was "wow, black played really poorly, it's like he wanted to get killed". But the more I looked at it (still haven't gone in depth), the more I realized how strong Ba3 is. Not only does it virtually force Re8 weakening f7, but it also prevents c5, which would be black's only source of counterplay as far as I can tell. That move pretty much forces black to sit and wait to get crushed.
Did 12.Rad1 have a direct threat that I'm missing? I don't understand that move, especially considering he moved that same rook to e1 on move 21. Was he maybe planning a d5 breakthrough and switched plans?
The crazy thing about the game is that Alekhine really did just make it seem like his opponent simply played terribly, but he didn't. For instance, I immediately thought 11. .. h6 had to be just a terrible move but once you start looking at variations like 11. .. Re8 12. Bd3 Ng6 13. e5 Nd5 14. c4 Ndf4 15. Be4 f5 16. exf6 gxf6 17. g3 it's quite clear that 11. .. h6 is definitely not a weak move.
I believe 12. Rad1 had two purposes. One was to enable him to bring it into the kingside attack via d3 but another was also to act as a high class waiting move. White has a large number of ways to continue his attack but it's not so clear which is best and rushing towards one could backfire. For instance: 12. Ne5?! Qc7 13. f4 b6 and suddenly with black getting c5 in, the whole attacking scheme is losing a ton of its steam.
The moves like that are what make moves like Ba3 so shocking to me. The balance of timing in playing an incredibly fast paced Ba3 only to be paired with a pseudo-waiting move a couple of moves later. Games like this really make me love this game.
Thanks for the explanation on Rad1, appreciate it. Man, I can't imagine being able to play with this kind of board mastery. Just incredible. IN A SIMUL no less. Wow.
Black's play early on was pretty horrible: omitting c5, giving up the Bf8 makes his dark squares so weak. I was honestly thinking e4/Bg5 etc. I looked at Ba3 but only superficially
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