CVO_030.pdf

No. 30, July 29, 2009

OPENINGS

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

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Beating the

Semi-Slav

By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

Frequency

Besides numerous summer tournaments we have

another look at Biel, where Vachier-Lagrave is leading

with one round to go after some unnecessary losses by

Morozevich. Negi and Avrukh shared irst at the Politiken

Cup while Wojtaszek won the Najdorf Memorial.

WHAT’S HOT?

Score

Caruana ’ s new try against the Petroff was not enough to unsettle Gelfand,

while Vachier Lagrave did beat Caruana in the Berlin endgame, underlining

the recent problems Black has had in this opening. Morozevich-Vachier

Lagrave was an epic fight in the Sicilian Najdorf (see below). Alekseev-

Caruana was a Dragon ending, in which we still prefer the 22.¦xe6! we

mentioned in CVO 23. Ivanchuk tried to play the French again with 1.d4 e6

but Morozevich replied 2.c4.

In CVO 2 we presented Radek Wojtaszek as an opening expert with a

preference for sharp positions. His victory in the Najdorf Memorial was

based on a very dynamic interpretation of 1.d4 (see PGN file). In line with

this our Game of the Week Sasikiran-Nyback sees White starting the

game in a positional manner with ever more tactics entering the position. In

the diagram position White went for 12.e4.

In Giri-Ernst (Dutch Open) Black found a most unusual square for his

queen and got away with it. Rusev-Ni Hua (Villarrobledo rapid) once more

showed that the Exchange Slav is by no means a forced draw. Golod-

Novikov is an interesting direct try to refute the Benoni.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

Black was suffering in the Caro-Kann this week, especially at the Politiken Cup. Alekseev found an interesting way to battle Morozevich’

4...¤d7. As always Hector has his own interpretation of the position and the Caro-Kann with 4...¥f5 is no exception as he beat Agrest

with his personal 12.¤d2!? line. Rising star Negi first beat Nielsen (19.d5! was very to

the point and gave White a strong initiative) and one day later made Postny suffer for 133

moves before the draw was a fact (see PGN file).

WHAT’S NOT?

1 of 4

ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 30, July 29, 2009

Another positional exchange sacriice

Basically Black was doing ine in a trendy positional line of the Meran Semi-Slav, but the

position was still full of life. As soon as White got the chance he sacriiced the exchange for

an enduring initiative.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Sasikiran, K (2669) - Nyback, T (2627)

Warsaw (Najdorf Memorial), July 23, 2009

D46, Semi-Slav, 6.£c2, 7.¥d3

Black should be able to hold.

22.¦b1 £c7

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23.¦xb7!

A strong and necessary sacrifice, as otherwise

Black would get a perfectly sound position after

23...¦ad8.

23...£xb7 24.¤d6 ¥xd6

24...£c6 25.¤xe8 ¦xe8 26.g3 gives White an

advantage.

25.e5 £c8 26.exd6

Nothing is achieved by 26.¦xd6?! ¦xe5 27.¥xa8

¦e1+ 28.¢h2 £xa8.

26...¦a7 27.£a4 ¦d8 28.¥f4 a5 29.¦b1

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29....¦a6?!

It ’ s hard to explain why Nyback voluntarily gives

up protection of the 7th rank. More stubborn

would have been 29...£e6! though here too

White retains strong pressure with 30.£b5.

30.¦b7 £f5?

Black ’ s last chance was 30...¦axd6 31.¥xd6

¦xd6 32.£xa5 but White keeps good winning

chances.

31.£c4 ¢h8 32.g4 1–0

14.¥d2 (The idea of the previous move is to

meet 14.¥d3 with 14...f5 and the pawn on e6

is protected.) 14...¥b7 15.¦ac1 e5 16.dxe5

¤xe5 17.£h4 c5 18.¤xe5 ¥xe5 19.¥c3 ¥xc3

20.¦xc3 c4 with a slightly better game for Black;

Svetushkin-Kharitonov, Rethymno 2009.

12...e5 13.h3

More common is 13.g3 (to limit the power of

the bishop on d6) 13...¦e8 14.a3 ¥b7 (14...

exd4 15.¤xd4 ¤c5 (15...c5? 16.¤dxb5) 16.¥f3

¥h3 17.¥g5 ¥e5 18.¦ac1 ¥xd4 19.¦xd4 £e5

20.¥e3 ¤g4 21.¥xg4 ¥xg4 22.f4 £e6 gave

Black an easy life in Miton-Smeets, Dresden

2008.) 15.dxe5 ¤xe5 16.¥g5 ¤xf3+ 17.¥xf3

¥e5 18.¥xf6 gxf6 19.¥g4 ¦ad8 and despite his

spoiled kingside, Black didn ’ t have much to fear

in Sasikiran-Van Wely, Cannes 2009.

13...exd4

Of course, Black could wait giving up the central

tension. For example: 13...¦e8 14.a3 ¥b7

15.dxe5 (15.¥e3 exd4 16.¤xd4 g6 17.¢h1?!

¥f8 18.¤f3 c5³ Van Wely-Kramnik, Monaco

rapid 1999) 15...¤xe5 16.¥g5 ¤xf3+ 17.¥xf3

¥e5 18.¥xf6 gxf6 19.¦ac1 ¦ad8 20.¤d5 cxd5

21.£xc7 ¥xc7 22.¦xc7 dxe4 23.¦xd8 ¦xd8

24.¦xb7 exf3 ½–½ Lafuente-Salgado Lopez,

Barcelona 2008.

14.¤xd4 ¦e8

Threatening 15...b4. 14...c5? 15.¤f5 ¥e5

16.¤e7+ ¢h8 17.¤cd5 clearly favours White.

15.a3 ¥e5

Not a bad move, but since White has played

13.h3 it would have been simpler to play

immediately 15...c5 16.¤f5 (Now 16.¤dxb5?

doesn ’ t work in view of 16...axb5 17.¤xb5 ¥h2+

18.¢h1 £b8µ.) 16...¥h2+ 17.¢h1 ¥e5 with

level play.

16.¥f3 c5 17.¤f5 ¤b6 18.a4 b4 19.a5 bxc3

20.axb6 £xb6 21.bxc3 ¥b7?

21...¦b8 22.¥e3 £b3 would have led to a known

position, where White played 13.g3 instead.

White is marginally better, but with correct play

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤f3 ¤f6 4.¤c3 e6 5.e3

¤bd7 6.£c2 ¥d6 7.¥d3

A sharper alternative is 7.g4 which leads to

the Latvian Attack, while the text offers a more

positional battle.

7...0–0 8.0–0 dxc4 9.¥xc4 a6

This seems to be the most reliable possibility. 9...

b5 10.¥e2 ¥b7 11.¦d1 £c7 12.e4 e5 13.¥g5! is

currently very critical for Black as we mentioned

in previous issues of CVO.

10.¦d1

Another line goes 10.a4 c5 which was for

example seen in the 6th game of the rapid

match between Anand and Leko, Miskolc 2009.

Here Black has reasonable chances to equalize

as well.

10...b5 11.¥e2 £c7

Inferior is 11...¥b7?! as after 12.e4 Black is

unable to answer with the standard reply ...e5.

Moreover, the queen is also not comfortable

on e7, because Black can hardly take on d4 as

then the knight will come to f5 with gain of time.

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12.e4

12.¤e4 has been seen more frequently lately.

After 12...¤xe4 13.£xe4 the latest trend is

13...¦e8!? (13...e5 14.£d3 exd4 15.£xd4 ¥e7

16.£f4! was introduced in Kasimdzhanov-

Aronian, Nalchik 2009 - see CVO 17 - while

13...¥b7 14.¥d3 g6 15.£h4 c5 16.¤g5 h5

17.¥e4 ¥e7 18.¥xb7 £xb7 19.£g3 £b8 was

Ragger-Gustafsson, Rogaska Slatina 2009)

SASIKIRAN - NYBACK

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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 30, July 29, 2009

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Najdorf, English Attack

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.¥e3 b5

8.£d2 ¤bd7 9.g4 h6 10.0–0–0 b4 11.¤ce2 £c7 12.h4 d5 13.¤f4

The early ...b4 push in the English Attack of the Najdorf has become a common theme since its introduction by

Topalov. Instead of using basic rules of developing, Black immediately strives for counter-attacking. As a rule

of thumb, White needs to sacrifice material in order to expose Black ’ s king to White ’ s major pieces. Creative as

usual, Morozevich came up with a very powerful idea (13.¤f4!) not hiding his intentions to launch a bomb on

e6. Vachier-Lagrave, who was obviously not well prepared for this idea, quickly ended up in a very suspicious

position. A short computer check learned us humans that Moro missed some big chances (24.¥e6 while 26.¦xf8!

would have won on the spot). Already 13...e5 seems to be a huge mistake, where Black should have taken up

the challenge with 13...dxe4, as then the sacrifice on e6 has lost its effect. After missing his chances, Moro lost

the thread and after a heroic fight the young Frenchman brought home the full point.

Caro-Kann, 4...¤d7

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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 dxe4 4.¤xe4 ¤d7 5.¤f3 ¤gf6 6.¤xf6+ ¤xf6 7.c3 ¥g4 8.h3 ¥h5 9.g4 ¥g6 10.¤e5 ¥e4 11.f3 ¥d5

12.¥e3 g6 13.c4 ¥e6 14.£d2 h5 15.¦g1 hxg4 16.hxg4 ¤d7 17.¤xd7 £xd7 18.0–0–0

Even though 4...¥f5 is by far the most popular move, 4...¤d7 seems to suit creative players like Morozevich,

Bologan and Wojtaszek. In Alekseev-Morozevich White chose the solid 5.¤f3, which has an interesting

psychological point. When Black settles for the normal 8...¥xf3, like Karpov used to do, it is extremely hard

(for both sides) to play for a win. White ’ s pair of bishops seems to be completely compensated for by Black ’ s

massive pawn structure. Moro wouldn ’ t be Moro if he didn ’ t find a way to unbalance the position anyway with

8...¥h5, 9...¥g6 and the virtually new 10...¥e4!. After the alternatives 10...¤d7 11.¤xg6 hxg6 12.d5 and 10...e6

11.h4 White enjoys a nice initiative. In the diagram position White seems to have a harmonious attacking setup,

but in reality the Black king may even be the safer one. In the game Black was on top most of the time until he

blundered with 43...e6. It seems that White should return to the critical 5.¤g5 in future games.

Slav, Exchange, 6.¥f4 ¥f5

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1.d4 d5 2.¤f3 ¤f6 3.c4 c6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.¤c3 ¤c6 6.¥f4 ¥f5 7.e3 e6 8.£b3 ¥b4

9.¥b5 0–0 10.0–0 ¥xc3 11.£xc3 ¦c8 12.¦fc1 ¤e4 13.£a3 g5 14.¥g3 f6 15.¥xc6 bxc6 16.£xa7 h5

17.h4 g4 18.¤h2 ¤xg3 19.fxg3 £d6 20.¤f1 ¦a8 21.£c5 £xc5 22.¦xc5 ¦fb8 23.¦xc6 ¦xb2

Recently we mentioned how Kamsky fought his way to victory against the notorious Exchange Slav and this

week Ni Hua beat a grandmaster virtually without thinking. On move six Black has an interesting choice to make.

6...¥f5 is perfectly fine, but keeping the white-squared bishop inside the pawn chain with 6...e6 as Dreev does is

just as playable and might keep more tension in the position. Confusing the opponent with 6...¤h5!? is another

consideration. After 8.¥d3 ¥xd3 9.£xd3 Black doesn ’ t have to play the automatic 9...¥d6 but can claim the

somewhat better bishop after 9...¥e7. With 12...¤e4 and 13...g5!? Black grabbed the initiative on the kingside,

an idea that takes many forms in these positions. The first 21 moves were played twice before, showing that Ni

Hua did his homework well. In the pretty final position the White rook got trapped.

Benoni, Taimanov (7.f4)

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1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.¤c3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 ¥g7 8.¥b5+ ¤bd7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 ¤h5 11.e6 £h4+ 12.¢d2

While a draw with Black is considered by many as a fine result, one tends to forget about risky openings like the

Benoni. White has a wide range of choice in building up his position, with the Taimanov Variation (7.f4) being the

sharpest possibility. The position after 11...£h4 has been analysed quite extensively already, mainly resulting in

an ending of two pieces against rook, which objectively should be fine for Black. As this comes from a standard

series of moves, 12.¢d2 has been more or less neglected by top players, except for Kasparov, who used it once

in a simultaneous exhibition. White is ready to pick up the piece and defend with his pieces on the back rank in

Steinitz style. In the game Golod-Novikov, the players agreed to a draw after a repetition, but 18.£g4 seems

to be an interesting attempt, which was already seen in a previous encounter. Certainly new findings will be

revealed soon in this sideline.

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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 30, July 29, 2009

OPENING EXPERT

Who: Johnny Hector

Born: February 13, 1964

Nationality: Sweden

Rating: 2647

Expertise: Gifted attacking player, various hypersharp variations in his repertoire.

Why:

The opening experts are getting ever younger these days. Hector, of

the older generation, is an exception to this rule, and has absolutely no

problems matching himself with his younger colleagues. His style can

be best described as fearless, no matter which colour he plays, Hector’s

play always contains some risks. He prefers sharp, unusual openings with

a lot of imbalances. Playing White, many players fear his approach to

different Sicilian systems. He is a typical all-or-nothing player, so in case

his attack won’t succeed, he usually ends up in a strategically hopeless

position. The game below is a good example that without loads of theory,

one can launch a dangerous attack, based on a solid development.

Key game:

Hector - Agrest , Helsingor (Politiken Cup), July 22, 2009

In the current game, Hector easily creates a

stable edge based on his space advantage. In

the middlegame phase it ’ s very interesting to

see the way the Swedish GM brings his pieces

into the direction of his opponent ’ s king and so

poses serious problems.

12.¤d2

A speciality of Hector ’ s. 12.¥d2 is the main way

for White.

12...¤gf6 13.c4 ¥e7 14.£e2 0–0 15.0–0 ¦fe8

16.a3

16.¦fd1 was earlier seen in the game Hector-

Iordachescu, Copenhagen 2005.

16...£d8 17.¦ad1 a5 18.¤f3 a4 19.¤e5 ¤f8

20.£f3 ¤8h7 21.¦d3 ¥d6 22.¤e2 £e7 23.¤c3

¦ed8 24.¦fd1 ¥c7 25.£e2 ¤g5 26.¦g3

With minimum effort, Hector has brought his

pieces into play and suddenly Black ’ s position

starts looking very suspicious.

26...¤fh7 27.¥c1 c5

Typical to meet an attack on the king with a

break in the centre, but it seems it comes too

late for Black already.

28.¤b5 cxd4 29.f4 ¥xe5 30.£xe5 f6 31.£e2

¤f7 32.¦xd4

White ’ s attack has been stopped, but at a high

price. The knight on h7 is out of play, while Black

also has some other weaknesses to deal with.

32...f5?

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32...e5 33.¦xd8+ ¦xd8 34.¤c3.

33.¥d2! £h4 34.¥e1 £e7 35.¦g6 ¤f8

35...¤f6 36.¥b4 £e8 37.¦xd8 ¦xd8 38.¥c3 A

murderer has arrived on the long diagonal.

36.¥b4 £h4 37.¥xf8 ¦xf8

37...¢xf8 38.¤c7 ¦xd4 39.¤xe6+.

38.¤c7 e5 39.¦d7 ¦ae8 40.¤xe8 ¦xe8 41.fxe5

¢f8 42.e6 1–0

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 dxe4 4.¤xe4 ¥f5 5.¤g3

¥g6 6.h4 h6 7.¤f3 ¤d7 8.h5 ¥h7 9.¥d3 ¥xd3

10.£xd3 e6 11.¥f4 £a5+

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www.chessvibes.com/openings

ChessVibes Openings is a weekly PDF magazine that covers the latest news on chess openings. Which openings are hot in top level chess?

Which are not? Editors IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris keep you updated once a week! Singles issues cost € 1. You can subscribe too:

€ 25 a year (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!). More info can be found at www.chessvibes.com/openings .

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