Intertesting position: White has some pressurethanks to better coordinated pieces. Black has the opportunity to initiateimbalances, or to defend a somewhat inferior endgame. What would be yourchoice?17....Nxe3It's very easy to guess what was the choice of MikhailTal. When I was showing this position to my students, many actually preferrednot to play 17...Nxe3 but rather choose the solid Rfd8.17...Rfd8looksvery solid. However, White retains a pleasant pull after the very surprising18.h4with the following idea(18.Nc7Rac8(18...Nxc719.Bxb7and White is significantly betterthanks to his Bishop pair.)19.Nxd5Bxd520.Bxd5exd5and Black's plan is to play f6, following up by Kf7-e6 and it should be easilyholdable.)a619.Nc7Rac820.Nxd5Bxd521.Bxd5exd522.h5now Black cannot play 22...f6 in view of 23.h6 breaking Black kingside pawnstructure. Otherwise, Black's position is unpleasant.18.Bxb7...Hardly agood idea for White to play18.fxe3Bxe3+19.Kf1Bxf320.gxf3Bxc121.Rxc1Rac8important move to eliminate White's initiaitve and offer afavourable Rook exchange. Rule: The side with a rook and pawn/pawns isinterested to trade the opponent's Rook in order to worsen coordination (TheRook very nicely supports active minor pieces) of his pieces and of course, tobe able to invade into the opponent's camp.18....Nxd119.Rxd1Rad8following our first rule, trading pair of rooks is definitely favourable forBlack. Not only Black's second Rook gets active, but it's also ready to invadethe second or first rank with a lot of damage.Black has no time for19...Rab8in this case White is able to prevent rooks trade by means of20.Nc3...Obviously20.Rxd8would be a terrible mistake, since afterRxd8the Black Rook decisively invades to d2-square.20....Rxd1+21.Nxd1Rd822.Bf3...after a logical sequence of moves, we reached the position where Blackhas a choice22....Rd2the most natural continuation, although this time withoutdecisive effect.A worthy alternative would be22...Bd4Another rule:Playing with the Rook and pawn/pawns, we should be interested to tradeopponent's Bishop pair. The other side should strive for maintaining theirpair.23.Ba3Be5threatening 24...Rd224.Bb4a525.Be1Rc8[%calGc8c2] Black rook will penetrate along c-file , although White has enoughresources to retain balanced position.23.Kf1...only move, otherwise Whiteis clearly worse.23....a5Not the best choice for Black, since it makes hisqueenside pawns vulnerable.First of all, it appears Black could have played23...Bxf2the problem here is to see the following idea24.Bc3Rc225.Be4Rc126.Ke2Black Rook will be trapped if notBh4and now 27.Kd2 iswell met by 27...Bg5. I believe this position is easier to play for Black, butobjectively it's equal.Another option for Black is23...f524.Be2Bd425.Bxd4Rxd426.Ke1Kf7with an equal endgame.24.Be2e5onlymakes things worse for Black.24...Bd425.Bxd4Rxd426.a4is alreadyproblematic for Black due to the weakness of b6-pawn.Relatively the bestsolution for Black would have been24...b5with the following idea25.a4...now White's advantage hascrystallized: Black Rook is more or less neutralized. Meanwhile the b6-pawn isfixed and supposed to become a clear target in the long run.25....Bd426.Bxd4...In my opinion, White underestimated the recapture with the pawn on d4.White should have played26.Bc1Ra2(26...Rc227.Be3White is fine totrade dark-squared bishops, due to the fact that Black Bishop is an importantdefender of the b6-pawn.Bxe328.Nxe3Rc1+29.Bd1)27.Ke1f528.Bc4+Kf829.Bd2and in both lines, White's clearly better due to Black'svulnerable queenside pawn structure.26....exd4certainly this is muchbetter than Rd4.26...Rxd427.Ne3and the wekaness of b6-pawn is adecisive factor. White should prevail easily.27.Ke1Ra2Now the game isequal.28.g4...An important line here is28.Bd3Kf829.Bb1Ra328....Kf829.f4Ke730.Nf2Ra1+31.Kd2Ra2+32.Ke1Ra1+33.Bd1...Petrosian decides to play on. Unfortunately forhim, Tal was very accurate and didn't allow any chances for White.33....Ra2