No.
14, April 8, 2009
OPENINGS
what’s hot and what’s not?
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Black’s bold way of 9r+lwqkvl-tr0
9zpp+-+pzpp0
9-+n+psn-+0
meeting the Catalan 9+-zp-+-+-0
9-+pzP-+-+0
9+-+-+NzP-0
By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris 9PzP-+PzPLzP0
9tRNvLQ+RmK-0
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This week we have a look at the Russian Team Cup Frequency
which currently takes place in Dagomys and which
already provided a bunch of interesting games.
what’s hot?
This week’s opening expert Alexei Shirov did good business with
the Najdorf in Dagomys: winning with White, drawing with Black. Score
In Alekseev-Movsesian, a classical Scheveningen, White missed
several ways to crown his direct attack on the enemy king. Timofeev-
Shirov featured a Ruy Lopez Archangelsk with the tricky 10.a5!?.
In Svidler-Belov, Black kept the balance (again) in the Advance
Caro-Kann. In Shaposhnikov-Ovetchkin the Kotronias idea in the
main line Caro-Kann got some more testing and this time around
Black was all right. (For these games see the PGN file.)
Svidler beat Grischuk’s Anti-Grünfeld and gave the Grünfeld the
boost it needed after its mediocre results lately. Grischuk himself
keeps on getting good results with the King’s Indian. Ivanchuk
successfully withstood the currently popular position pawn sacrifice
in the Queen’s Indian against Moiseenko, but White might have had
an edge there anyway.
In our Game of the Week we have a closer look at the Catalan.
In the diagram position White chose 7.¤e5, whereas 7.£a4 is the
other critical move. Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only
The Sicilian was a popular opening at top level this week. White better sticks to the Open Sicilian, since his results with the Alapin have
been a terrible 1 out of 4 with Rublevsky drawing twice as Black and Caruana beating both
his opponents (including Rublevsky!). Ni Hua-Zvjaginsev features a nice way of playing
against the 3.¥b5+ line.
what’s Not?
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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 14, April 8, 2009
Countering the Catalan in Carlsen style
Following the example of Carlsen, Gasanov played a positional exchange sacrifice to battle
the popular Catalan. At some point it was Black who controlled the h1-a8 diagonal instead of
White, and his imaginative play deserved a better fate.
complications not unfavourable for Black.
game of the week 21...¤xe3 22.fxe3
22.£xe3 ¦xd5 23.f3 ¦xd1+ 24.¦xd1 ¥xf3 25.¦d7
Zontakh,A (2581) - Gasanov, E (2551) seem less threatening. and again 25...¥h1! gives Black good play.
Russian Team Cup, Dagomys, 3 April 2009 7...¥d7 8.¤a3 cxd4 9.¤axc4 ¥e7 22...¦xd5 23.¦d2 ¦d3 24.£c2 £e4
E04 Open Catalan, 5...c5, 7.¤e5 9...¥c5 10.£b3 0–0 is the more common After the strong 24...£d5! White doesn’t have
alternative. 25.¥d4 because of 25...e5.
1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.¤f3 d5 4.g3!? 10.£b3 £c8 25.¥d4 h5
The Catalan is a multi-functional weapon Leko preferred 10...£c7 in his rapid match This plan is too slow. 25...e5! 26.¥xa7 £d5 still
against both 1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 and the Queen’s against Ivanchuk (see CVO 1), with the point gives good control of the position.
Gambit Declined. One of the main themes is the that 11.¥f4 can be answered by 11...¤h5!. 26.¦f2 h4?
strong ¥g2 paralysing the black queenside. 11.¥f4 0–0 12.¦fd1 ¦d8 13.¦ac1 ¥e8N Better was 26...¥g5.
4...dxc4 13...¤d5 was played in a correspondence 27.£a4
Alternatives: game. 27.£xc4! was possible because after 27...¥g5
a) 4...¥b4+ 5.¥d2 ¥e7 6.¥g2 0–0 7.0–0 c6 8.£c2 14.¤xc6 bxc6 15.¥e5 White has 28.£c8+ ¢h7 29.£c2.
b6 9.¥f4 ¥a6 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.¦c1 £d7 12.¤e5 XIIIIIIIIY XIIIIIIIIY
£b7 13.£c7 £xc7 14.¦xc7 ¥d6 15.¦c2 ¤h5
16.¥e3 f6 17.¤d3 ½–½ Aronian-Topalov, Nice 9r+qtrl+k+0 9-+-+-+k+0
(rapid 2009. White is already better, but needed 9zp-+-vlpzpp0 9zp-+-vlpzp-0
only a draw to win the tournament. 9-+p+psn-+0 9-+-+p+-+0
b) 4...¥e7 5.¥g2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.£c2 a6
8.£xc4 b5 9.£c2 ¥b7 10.¥d2 ¥e4 (Black has to 9+-+-vL-+-0 9+-+-+-+-0
carefully plan his development, for example after 9-+Nzp-+-+0 9Q+pvLq+-zp0
10...¤bd7 White plays 11.¥a5! to hinder the 9+Q+-+-zP-0 9+-+rzP-zP-0
thematic c5 break. After the modern 10...¥d6!?
Avrukh’s preferred line 11.¤g5 ¥xg2 12.¢xg2 is 9PzP-+PzPLzP0 9PzP-+-tR-zP0
not too convincing. Black was fine after 12...£c8 9+-tRR+-mK-0 9+-tR-+-mKl0
13.e4 £b7 14.¦e1 ¤bd7 15.¤f3 e5 in the xiiiiiiiiy xiiiiiiiiy
dramatic last-round encounter Caruana-Short,
Wijk aan Zee 2009.) 11.£c1 ¥b7 12.a3!? (12.¥f4 15...c5!? 27...¢h7?
is the main line) 12...£c8 13.b4 ¤bd7 14.¥c3 This bold move is the reason we selected 27...¦xe3! 28.¥xe3 £xe3 leads to a perpetual.
¤e4 15.¤bd2 ¥d5 16.£c2 ¤xd2 17.¥xd2 this game. Black sacrifices the exchange to 28.£b5?
£b7 18.¦ac1 ¦ac8 19.e4 (This looks strong, unbalance the position. After 28.£xa7! the black pieces are overloaded
but just like in our main game, Black has an 16.¥xa8 and White is winning.
exchange sacrifice in mind.) 19...¥xe4 20.¤g5 White should consider 16.¥b7 £d7 and only 28...f5 29.£e8 ¥g5
¥xc2 21.¥xb7 ¥d3 22.¦fe1 ¥c4 23.¥xc8 ¥xg5 then 17.¥xa8 ¦xa8 18.e3 but the position does Again Black misses 29...¦xe3! which would
24.¥xg5 ¦xc8 and Black had a pawn and some become a bit messy after 18...¤d5 19.exd4 f6. have forced a draw.
squares for the exchange, which was enough in 16...£xa8 17.e3? 30.£h5+ ¥h6 31.£xh4 £xh4?
Aronian-Carlsen, Linares 2009. Now Black takes over the initiative. 17.¥c7! ¦d7 After the exchange of queens Black loses
5.¥g2 c5 (17...¦c8 18.¥d6) 18.£b8 looks critical. control. After 31...f4! still anything can happen.
Black has many alternatives in this position, 17...¥c6 18.exd4 ¥h1! 32.gxh4 ¥d5 33.¥xa7 ¥xe3 34.¥xe3 ¦xe3
of which 5...a6 6.0–0 ¤c6 and the immediate An unusual picture; the bishop will stay here for 35.a4 ¢g6 36.a5 e5 37.a6 f4 38.a7 ¦d3
5...¤c6 are the most popular. From White’s another 13 moves. 39.¦fc2 f3 40.¦xc4 ¢f5 41.¦c8 ¦d2 42.¦1c2
perspective it is a good idea to study Aronian’s 19.¤e3 ¤g4 20.d5 c4 21.£c3 ¦d1+ 43.¢f2 ¦a1 44.¦2c5 ¥b7 45.¦b8 ¥e4
games. 21.¤xc4 ¥xd5 22.¥f4 g5! with huge 46.¦e8 1–0
6.0–0 ¤c6 7.¤e5
Avrukh takes a profound look at 7.£a4 ¥d7
8.£xc4 in his book Grandmaster repertoire:
1.d4, volume 1. The moves 7.dxc5 and 7.¤a3
Zontakh - Gasanov
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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 14, April 8, 2009
this week’s harvest
Ruy Lopez Archangelsk Sicilian Scheveningen Sicilian, 3.¥b5+ ¥d7 Queen’s Indian, 5.£c2
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9-tr-wq-trk+0 9r+l+rvlk+0 9rsn-+kvlntr0 9r+-+ntrk+0
9vl-zp-+pzpp0 9+-wqn+pzpp0 9zpp+q+pzpp0 9zp-+-snpzpp0
9p+nzp-sn-+0 9pzpnzpp+-+0 9-+-zp-+-+0 9-zpq+-+-+0
9zPp+-zp-+l0 9+-+-+PzPQ0 9+-zp-zp-+-0 9+-zp-+N+-0
9-+-zPP+-+0 9P+-+P+-+0 9-+P+P+-+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9+LzP-vLN+P0 9+NsN-vL-+-0 9+-+-+N+-0 9zP-sN-+-zP-0
9-zPQsN-zPP+0 9-zPP+-+LzP0 9PzP-zP-zPPzP0 9-zPQ+PzP-zP0
9tR-+-+RmK-0 9tR-+-+RmK-0 9tRNvLQmK-+R0 9tR-+R+-mK-0
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1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 a6 4.¥a4 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.¥b5+ ¥d7 1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.¤f3 b6 4.g3 ¥a6
¤f6 5.0–0 b5 6.¥b3 ¥c5 7.c3 d6 8.a4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 d6 6.¥e2 ¤c6 7.¥e3 ¥d7 4.¥xd7+ £xd7 5.c4 e5 5.£c2 ¥b7 6.¥g2 c5 7.d5 exd5 8.cxd5
¦b8 9.d4 ¥b6 10.a5 ¥a7 11.¥e3 ¥g4 8.f4 ¥e7 9.¤b3 0–0 10.0–0 a6 11.a4 ¤xd5 9.0–0 ¥e7 10.¦d1 £c8 11.a3
12.¤bd2 0–0 13.h3 ¥h5 14.£c2 b6 12.¥f3 £c7 13.g4 ¥c8 14.g5 ¤d7 The 3.¥b5+ line is known for its d6 12.¤d4 ¤f6 13.¥xb7 £xb7 14.¤f5
15.¥g2 ¦e8 16.£h5 ¥f8 17.f5 drawing tendencies and limited 0–0 15.¤c3 ¤c6 16.¥g5 ¤e8 17.¥xe7
In CVO 5 we discussed the main chances for Black to play for a win. ¤xe7 18.¤xd6 £c6 19.¤f5
line 10.¤a3, but 10.a5!? still Movsesian must have been in a Zvjaginsev wouldn't be Zvjaginsev
remains a dangerous alternative provocative mood in his game if he didn't find a way to combat More news in the QI 5.£c2 Gambit!
in the Archangelsk Ruy Lopez, the against Alekseev in Dagomys, anyway with 5...e5!?. Optically the (7.d5 was extensively covered in
point being that 10...¤xa5 fails to since his early ¥d7 gives White the move is a bit ugly because of the CVO 11.) 11...d6 was the first new
11.¦xa5! ¥xa5 12.dxe5. Previously chance to omit ¢h1 and start his white-squared hole on d5, but in move in Moiseenko-Ivanchuk,
Timofeev has been succesfull aggressive play immediately. In an reality the centre is blocked now more or less by force leading to
with 11.h3, but against Shirov he earlier game 17.¦f3 was played, and Black is faster with his f5 pawn the diagram position. Possibly a
played the lesser tried 11.¥e3. but Alekseev got his attack well break than White is with f4. The move like 19.¤c4 keeps Black
After the first new move 14.£c2 the going with the direct 17.f5. After game against Ni Hua was drawn under pressure. In the game White
position still seemed more or less missing several chances (e.g. anyway, but the idea (actually went for 19.¤f5 but this only led to
balanced, but soon got completely 39.¦f4! - see the PGN) the game stemming from 1972) is worth the exchange of all knights, and an
out of control. was drawn. bearing in mind. immediate draw.
opening expert
Who: Alexei Shirov Expertise: Putting the board on fire.
Born: July 4, 1972 Why: Can play all modern openings with
Nationality: Latvian both colours, and is constantly on
Rating: 2745 the cutting edge of theory.
Shirov is one of the most beautiful chess players of all time. His infamous sacrifices have an aesthetic positional
base, no matter how much material has been invested. He is constantly on the cutting edge of theory and has
the rare class to always make his games look fresh.
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