CVO_118.pdf

No. 118, April 6, 2011

OPENINGS

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

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Ultra sharp Sicilians

By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

Frequency

The European Championship was indeed won by

Potkin ahead of Wojtaszek and Polgar, and was a

rich source of theoretical encounters. Meanwhile, the

Chinese Championship has started, and we check out

the irst six rounds.

WHAT’S HOT?

Score

Our Game of the Week , Nisipeanu-Wojtaszek, underlines that the Poisoned

Pawn variation must be the critical test of the good old attacking move

6.¥g5 in the Najdorf. New approaches are being found for Black. Below we

also have a look at the Perenyi Attack (6.¥e3 e6 7.g4) against which Black

seems to be in good shape as well. The very sharp French Winawer played

in Grigoryan-Apicella was rather good news for White.

One of Potkin's crucial games was his win with Black over Jobava in the

Slav with 4.£b3. The following games are important study material in

the Semi-Slav Meran: Wojtaszek-Potkin, Kurnosov-Zherebukh, Esen-

Grigoryan and Svidler-Kobalia. Below we take a look at the 'Anti-Meran-

Chebanenko hybrid' with an early ...c5.

On the Catalan front we suggest having a look at Ragger-Vallejo Pons (see

below) and Shimanov-Salgado Lopez (see PGN). King's Indian fans will

certainly enjoy playing through Alsina Leal-Vuckovic and Zhou Jianchao-

Ding Liren. The former is a Fianchetto Variation with a positional piece

sacrifice played before by Hebden amongst others, resulting in a nice pawn

steam roller. The latter is a Classical Main Line straight from the legendary

Kasparov times.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

Whereas the Poisoned Pawn variation is still doing great as an answer to the 6.¥g5 Najdorf, the very modern 6...¤bd7 move order continues

to find itself in trouble. We refer to CVO 113 and CVO 117 for a complete picture. This week

we saw white wins in Gharamain-Navara (7.f4) and Li Chao-Zhou Jianchao (7.¥c4), which

will hardly be encouraging for Black players.

WHAT’S NOT?

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

No. 118, April 6, 2011

Winning with the Rybka 3 book

It’s unclear what Wojtaszek’s main source of preparation was (possibly simply the latest

engines), as the fact is that some of the razor sharp Najdorf lines from the Rybka 3 book are

slowly but surely appearing in top level chess. Black’s king turned out to be the safer one.

GAME OF THE WEEK

hxg3.

31...¤xh2?

Throwing away the advantage. In case of

31...¥e5! Black remains on top.

32.¦g1?

White doesn ’ t take his chance, though the

following variation is hard to calculate OTB:

32.¦e1! ¢f8 (32...¤g4? 33.£xg4) 33.£e3 £b4

(33...£c4? loses to 34.£h6+ ¢e7 35.£g5+

¢e8 36.¤b6; 33...£xe3?! 34.¦xe3 ¤g4 35.¦f3

is better for White.) 34.£h6+ ¢e7 35.¦xe6+!

fxe6 36.£g7+ ¢d8 (36...¢e8?? 37.¥c6+ and

mate.) 37.£g8+ ¢d7 38.£h7+ ¥e7 39.£d3+

and a draw is inevitable!

32...¢f8!

Stepping away from the e-file, enabling the ¥

on e6 to move.

33.¦g5?

The decisive mistake. More stubborn would

have been 33.c4! ¥xc4 34.£d2 ¤f1! 35.£g5

£xg5 36.¦xg5 ¤g3+ 37.¢g1 h2+ 38.¢f2

h1£ 39.¥xh1 ¤xh1+ when it ’ s not at all clear

whether Black can win the endgame.

33...£b4!

Threatening ¤g4 and £b1!.

34.£e4 £b1+ 35.¦g1 ¤f1!

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disposal, though neither is thought to be

sufficient for anything tangible: 22.¤b6 ¥c5

(22...¥xf4? 23.¤xd7) 23.£b2 (23.£c4?

¥xb6 24.¦d5 ¦e8! 25.¦xg5 hxg5–+) 23...¢c7

24.¤xd7 (24.¤xa8+ ¢b8) 24...¦d8 (24...¥xd7?

25.¦xd7+ ¢xd7 26.£xb7+) 25.¤xc5 ¦xd1+

26.¥xd1 £xc5 27.¥f3 ¦b8 with equality. 22.¥g4

¥xf4 (22...£e5!?) 23.¥xd7 ¥xd7 24.£b6+

(24.¤b6 ¢c7) 24...¢e8 25.£b4 ¢d8 with a

draw.

22...¦e8 23.¤b6

23.¦xe8+ ¢xe8 24.¤b6 ¥c5 25.£e4+ ¢f8

26.¤xa8 (26.¤xd7+ ¥xd7 27.¦xd7 £xf6)

26...¤xf6 is also OK for Black according to the

Rybka 3 book.

23...¦xe4 24.£xe4 £c5 25.¤xa8 ¤xf6 26.£d3

Only one correspondence game went 26.£c4

¢e7 27.£xc5 ¥xc5 28.¥f3 ¤g4 29.¦e1+ ¢d6

1/2–1/2 Staroske-Pierzak ICCF email 2009.

26...¢e7 27.¥f3 h5

The first independent move. The Rybka 3 book

mentions 27...¤g4 and 27...¥e6.

28.£e2+?

The Romanian GM immediately goes wrong.

He should have played 28.£d4! £xd4 29.¦xd4

¥c5 30.¦d2 ¤g4 31.¦e2+ ¢d8 32.¦d2+ ¥d7

(32...¢e7 33.¦e2+=) 33.¦d5 ¥e3 34.¦xh5

¤f2+ 35.¢g1 ¤g4+ 36.¢h1 with a repetition

of moves, but not 36.¢f1? ¤xh2+ 37.¢e2 ¥d4.

28...¥e6 29.¥xb7 ¤g4 30.¦f1 h4 31.gxh4

31.¥f3 is beautifully met by 31...¤xh2! 32.£xh2

Nisipeanu,LD (2673) - Wojtaszek,R (2711)

European Ch (Aix les Bains), 31.03.2011

B96, Sicilian Najdorf, Poisoned Pawn

1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3

a6 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 h6

This tricky move-order was recently seen in

Vallejo-Morozevich, see CVO 105.

8.¥h4 £b6 9.£d2 £xb2 10.¦b1 £a3 11.e5

Transposing to one of the critical main lines

of the Najdorf. The aforementioned game

continued with 11.f5 ¥e7 12. fxe6 fxe6 13. ¥c4

¤xe4 14. ¤xe4 ¥xh4+ 15. g3 ¥g5! Vallejo-

Morozevich, Reggio Emilia 2010/2011.

11...dxe5 12.fxe5 g5!?

The alternatives 12...¤fd7 and 12...¤d5 could

be the subject of an endless number of pages.

13.exf6

13.¥f2? ¤g4 14.¥g3 ¤d7 15.¥e2 ¤gxe5 16.0–0

¥g7 and Black got the upper hand in Anand-

Nepomniachtchi, Mainz rapid 2009 (CVO 31).

13...gxh4 14.¥e2

14.¤e4!? has been tried in numerous computer

and correspondence games and is perhaps a

more challenging move.

14...£a5 15.0–0 ¤d7 16.¢h1 £g5 17.¦f4 e5

17...¥d6? fails to 18.¤xe6! ¥xf4 19.¤xf4 with a

dangerous attack for White.

18.¤d5 exd4

18...exf4? is met by 19.¤c7+ ¢d8 20.¤de6+

fxe6 21.¤xe6+ ¢e8 22.¦e1! and White wins.

19.£xd4

19.¤c7+? ¢d8 20.¤xa8 d3! (20...¥d6?

21.¦xd4) 21.¥xd3 ¥d6 22.¦bf1 (22.¦f2 £e5)

22...¥xf4 23.¦xf4 h3 and White was in trouble in

Bromberger-Areshchenko, Munich 2010.

19...¢d8 20.¦d1

20.¤e7 leads to a drawish endgame after

20...£e5 21.¤xc8 ¦xc8 22.¦d1 ¥d6 23.£xd6

£xd6 24.¦xd6 ¦xc2 25.¥d1 ¦c6.

20...h3 21.g3 ¥d6

36.£c6 ¤g3+ 37.¢h2 ¤f1+ 38.¢h1 £d1!

Protecting the ¥ before launching the final blow.

39.£f3

39.¤b6 ¤g3+ 40.¢h2 ¤e4+ also leads to mate.

39...£d2

and White resigned, in view of 40.¦g2 hxg2+

41.£xg2 £e1 and mate soon follows. 0–1

(diagram)

NISIPEANU - WOJTASZEK

22.¦e4

White has two other interesting moves at his

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

No. 118, April 6, 2011

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Sicilian, Perenyi Attack

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥e3 e6 7.g4 e5 8.¤f5 h5 9.g5 ¤xe4 10.¤xg7+

¥xg7 11.¤xe4 d5 12.¤g3 e4 13.c3 ¤c6 14.¤xh5 ¥e5 15.f4 exf3 16.£xf3 d4 17.¥c4 £e7 18.0–0–0 dxe3

The eighth round of the European Championship saw a very relevant encounter for the theory of the Perenyi

Attack. 8...g6 9.g5 (9.¥g2!? gxf5 10.exf5 is a more positional kind of sacrifice) gxf5 10.exf5 d5 11.£f3 d4 12.0–0–0

¤bd7 leads to an important crossroads of the main line. The other alternative 8...¤c6 was examined in CVO 18.

The modern 8...h5 has actually been coming under some pressure because of 12...d4 13.¥d2 £d5 (13...¤c6

14.¥c4!? ¥g4 15.f3 h4 16.¤e4!N) 14.c4 £c6 15.¥d3 ¥g4 16.£c2 ¥f3 17.0–0!! which was introduced in the

game Sutovsky-Hoffmann, Plovdiv 2010. Black cannot make use of White's funny king position. In Cheparinov-

Parligras Black therefore followed the new trend 12...e4!?, preventing White from getting control over the

important central square e4, followed by the strong novelty 13...¤c6!. In subsequent play, White got the timing

of castling queenside wrong. In the diagram position White doesn't have enough compensation for the piece, but

after 17.0–0–0 ¥e6 18.¤f6 ¢f8 Black also seems to have full counterplay.

French, Winawer

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1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 ¥b4 4.e5 ¤e7 5.a3 ¥xc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.£g4 0–0 8.¥d3 ¤bc6 9.£h5 ¤g6

10.¤f3 £c7 11.¥e3 c4 12.¥xg6 fxg6 13.£g4 £f7 14.¤g5 £e8 15.h4 h6 16.¤h3 ¥d7 17.£e2 b5 18.g4 a5

19.h5 gxh5 20.g5 hxg5 21.¤xg5 g6 22.¢d2 b4 23.¦ag1 bxc3+ 24.¢xc3 ¦f5 25.¤f3 ¦b8 26.¤h4

For some reason opposite-coloured bishops are strongly associated with drawing tendencies in the endgame.

We guess a lot of counter examples are still required before this common assumption is undermined. Firstly, only

in pure opposite-coloured bishop endings are drawing chances increased for the defender, but even then there

are many exceptions. In the middlegame opposite-coloured bishops favour the attacker, a nice case being the

main line of the French Winawer with 7.£g4 0–0. The diagram position is a model example. For some reason Black

players keep trying to defend these positions, hoping to get to the white king first. In Grigoryan-Apicella, White

played the most straightforward moves 22.¢d2! and 24.¢xc3!, improving on Van den Doel-Psakhis and following

a correspondence game. A piece sacrifice will usually be enough to open files to the Black king, while on the other

hand all that's left for Black are a few checks. Black may have to stick to 8...f5 instead, or the sharper 7...£c7.

Semi-Slav, 5...a6 6.£c2 c5

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤c3 ¤f6 4.e3 e6 5.¤f3 a6 6.£c2 c5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.¥e2 ¥e6

9.0–0 ¤c6 10.¦d1 cxd4 11.¤xd4 ¤xd4 12.¦xd4 ¥c5 13.¦d1 £e7 14.¥f3 ¦d8 15.b3 0–0

16.¥b2 ¦c8 17.¤xd5 ¥xd5 18.¥xd5 ¥xe3 19.£e2 ¤xd5 20.¦xd5 ¥g5 21.¦e5 £f6 22.¦e1

In Aix les Bains our eye was caught by two relevant games in the Semi-Slav with 5...a6 6.£c2 c5, a line where

Black doesn't fear being the side with an isolani, despite wasting time with his c-pawn. Kobalija, a former second

of Kasparov's, introduced the new setup with 13...£e7 and 14...¦d8, which seems the only reliable way to play

the line with Black. While it's easy for Black to go astray, White must play precisely in order to maintain pressure

on Black's d-pawn. The critical test arises after 22.¦e1. White's pieces are more actively placed, though if Black

succeeds in neutralizing White's activity then White would be left with nothing special. Kobalija couldn't find a real

solution to the clumsy placement of his ¥ and soon had to give up the exchange. Two rounds later Rublevsky, the

main expert on this opening, improved with the surprising 22...h6! intending to meet 23.¥a3 with ¥f4! Lenic tried

to distract the ¥ by playing 23.h4, but after 23....£g6! Black counterattacks with the threat of ¦c2!

Catalan, main line

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1.¤f3 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.¥g2 ¥e7 5.d4 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.£c2 b5 8.a4 b4 9.¤bd2 ¥b7 10.¤xc4 ¥e4 11.£d1 c5

The strong Spanish theoreticians Vallejo and Salgado seem to have opened a new chapter in the Catalan

main line. Whereas 7...a6 has been played almost exclusively, they followed the idea 7...b5!? of GM Vladimir

Georgiev played earlier this year. In fact the move was introduced more than 30 years ago, but was soon

abandoned due to 8.a4, when Black is unable to keep the pawn with 8...c6, in view of 9.axb5 cxb5 10.¤g5. The

real innovation starts with 8...b4. Both Georgiev and Salgado proved that Black obtains wonderful compensation

for the exchange after 9.¤e5?! £xd4!, while White doesn't really want to waste so much time recapturing the

pawn with his £ either. Hence, in Ragger-Vallejo, the Austrian GM opted for the natural developing move

9.¤bd2, which indeed seems to be the critical test of Black's provocative play. Later in the game, White obtained

a typical Catalan endgame, where the ¤ on d3 is ideally placed. He could undoubtedly have posed Black more

problems, so it wouldn't surprise us if people soon come up with new ideas.

3 of 4

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

No. 118, April 6, 2011

IT'S YOUR MOVE

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LAST WEEK'S SOLUTIONS

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Anand-Kasimdzhanov, Rapid Match (Tashkent) 2011

15.¥xh7+! The World Champion is not interested in recapturing the bishop. 15...¢h8 15...¢xh7 16.hxg4+ ¥h6

17.g5 wins. 16.£xf4 ¤xf2 17.¤g5! The right dynamic attacking move. 17...f6? 17...£f6! 18.£h4 £h6 19.£xf2

£xg5 20.¥d3 is better for White, but Black is still in the game. 18.¤f7+! The point of the last move. 18...¦xf7

19.¥g6 ¤xd1? 19...f5 was the last chance, but after 20.£xf2 White is clearly on top. 20.£h4+ ¢g8 21.¦e1!

The final point of a neat attacking game. 21...¤xc3+ 22.bxc3 ¥e6 23.¦xe6 £b6+ 24.¢c1 and Black resigned

because the next check can easily be blocked. 1–0

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Korobov-Esen, European Championship (Aix les Bains) 2011

All White's pieces are actively placed, while their counterparts aren't yet fully developed. White strikes immediately

with 17.b4! Nothing can be gained from 17.¤xd4?! ¥b7 or 17.exd4?! ¥d6 and in both cases Black is out of

trouble. 17...¥xb4 18.¦xd4 £a5 19.¦g4! Hitting another weakness. Black is helpless against the threat of taking

on g6. 19...f5 19...¢h7 can be met by 20.¦xg6!. 20.¦xg6+ ¢h7 21.¦xe6 ¥b7 22.£c7 £d5 23.¦e5 1–0

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! Why not subscribe

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