CVO_010.pdf

No. 10, March 11, 2009

OPENINGS

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

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6.¥e2 is still critical

against the Najdorf

By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

Frequency

This week we bring you the inal part of Linares,

which was won by Grischuk, and the European

Championship in Budva. 1.e4 is back, with special

attention to the Najdorf Sicilian.

WHAT’S HOT?

1.e4 e5 stayed rocky solid for Black until the very end in Linares: all

eight games played with it ended in a draw. The Sicilian is slightly

less solid on the highest level (of course for us mere mortals it is

arguably the best opening there is!). 6.¥e3 is not the only critical

move against the Najdorf. In our Game of the Week Carlsen played

6.¥e2 and produced a marvellous game against tournament winner

Grischuk. In the diagram position (a Scheveningen) Carlsen played

14.¦ad1 and after 14...e5 he came up with the novelty 15.fxe5!?.

More on 6.¥g5 can be found below as well. The Poisoned Pawn

Variation seems to be fine for Black at the moment (after being in a

crisis for the last few years) but it is not quite clear whether the same

can be said about the Gelfand Variation (delaying ¥e7).

Score

Moving on to 1.d4, the Indian openings also remained untouchable

in Linares until the very end, with the King’s Indian being the biggest

revelation since Wijk aan Zee. When Grischuk needed a draw in

the last round this was exactly his choice as Black! 3.f3 as an Anti-

Grünfeld weapon fails to impress; Anand tried it twice without much

success. Carlsen for example replied with the interesting 3...¤c6.

Some words on the Semi-Slav: Ivanchuk managed to beat Aronian

with nice positional play, and last week’s novelty 15...0-0!? by

Aronian was repeated successfully by Van Wely in Budva.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

Not all Sicilians are doing equally well theoretically speaking (even when they keep scoring in practice). The Taimanov Sicilian for one

remains under pressure because of the English Attack. Cheparinov-Maletin was a one-

sided affair and below you’ll find Ragger-Navara. The Rauzer is always complicated, but

Vallejo Pons-Jankovic and Inarkiev-Kozul show some good ways for White.

WHAT’S NOT?

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

No. 10, March 11, 2009

A wonderful Scheveningen Sicilian

The classical 6. ¥ e2 is still a very interesting option against the Najdorf. Against Carlsen, Grischuk

decided to transpose into a Scheveningen but as it turned out the Norwegian felt very much at

home in the type of positions that were often fought out in World Championship matches.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Carlsen, M (2776) - Grischuk,A (2733)

Linares, 5 March 2009

B85 Classical Scheveningen, main line

on a8 and without losing a tempo White forces

it to go there.

17...¦a8 18.¥b6 £e7

18...£c6 19.¤a5 £e6 20.¦ad1 and White ’ s

forces

Alternatives:

a) 14.¦ad1 e5 15.¤de2 b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.f5

b4 18.¤d5 ¤xd5 19.£xd5 ¥a6 20.£d2 ¤d4!

gave Black enough counterplay in Grischuk-

Rublevsky, Elista 2007.

b) 14.g4 ¤d7 15.g5 ¤xd4 16.¥xd4 b6 17.¥g2

¥b7 18.¦f2 e5 19.¥e3 exf4 20.¥xf4 ¤e5„

Wang Hao-Van Wely, Dagomys 2008.

c) 14.¦fd1 ¤a5 15.£f2 ¤c4 16.¥c1 e5 17.¤de2

exf4 18.¤xf4 ¥e6 19.b3 ¤e5 20.¥b2 g6

21.¤cd5 ¥xd5 22.¤xd5 ¤xd5 23.¦xd5 ¥g7=

Ivanchuk-Van Wely, Dortmund 2008.

14...e5

One year ago Anand played a bit inaccurately

against Carlsen: 14...¥d7 15.g4 e5 16.¤f5

exf4 17.¥xf4 ¥e6 18.¦ad1 ¤e5 19.¥xe5 dxe5

20.g5 ¤d7 21.¤d5, which gave the Norwegian

prodigy some initiative. By the way, 14...¤a5?

is a bad blunder, because of 15.¤xe6 ¥xe6

16.¥b6 winning a pawn.

15.fxe5!?N

The first new move. In previous games, White

went for 15.¤de2 b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.f5 ¤b4

18.¤g3 and now for example 18...¤xc2 19.¥g5

¤xa1 20.¥xf6 £c5 21.£d2 ¤b3 22.£g5 h6

23.£g4 g6 24.¤d5 and White ’ s initiative for the

exchange is probably not enough; Jakovenko-

Rublevsky, Poikovsky 2008. Of course this

line was not forced and there is lot of scope to

improve for both sides.

15...dxe5

15...¤xe5 is possible too, but the text is more

consistent.

16.¤b3 ¤b4?!

16...¥e6 looks more accurate: 17.¥b6 £c8

18.¤d5 (after the more restrained 18.a5 Black

has 18...¤b4) 18...¥xd5 19.exd5 ¤b4 (a huge

blunder would be 19...e4? 20.dxc6 exf3 21.c7!)

20.c3 e4! 21.cxb4 exf3 22.£xf3 £d7 23.¥d4

£xd5 24.¥xf6 £xf3 25.¦xf3 gxf6 with equality.

17.¥a7

A typical manoeuvre; the rook is placed worse

are

dominating

the

centre,

since

20...¤xc2? fails to 21.¤d5!.

19.¦ad1 ¥e6?!

Now 19...¥g4 would have been the best way

to develop the bishop and relieve some of the

pressure.

20.¤d5 ¥xd5 21.exd5 e4 22.d6 £e6?!

22...£e5 23.d7 ¤xd7 24.¦xd7 exf3 25.£xf3

f6 would have still given Black some hopes of

surviving.

23.¤c5 £f5 24.¥e2 £xf2 25.¦xf2 ¤bd5

26.a5?

After the straightforward 26.d7 ¦eb8 27.d8£

¦xd8 28.¥xd8 ¦xd8 29.¦f5 it is Black who has

nice positional compensation for the exchange

after 29...¥xc5 30.c4 ¦c8 31.cxd5 ¥d6. Strong

would have been the immediate 26.¦xf6! ¤xf6

(26...¤xb6 27.¦ff1) 27.a5! ¦ec8 28.b4+- and

Black can ’ t get free himself.

26...¤xb6 27.axb6 ¦ab8?

The decisive error. 27...¦ec8! 28.b4 ¦c6 29.d7

¥xc5 30.d8£+ (30.bxc5 ¦d8 31.¥xa6 ¦xc5

32.¥xb7 ¦b5 and Black is still alive.) 30...¦xd8

31.¦xd8+ ¥f8 and Black is OK.

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28.¦xf6! gxf6 29.¤d7 f5 30.c4!

Positional play.

30...a5 31.c5 ¥g7 32.¤xb8 ¦xb8 33.¥a6!

The final point of a wonderful game.

33...¥f6 34.¥xb7 ¦xb7 35.c6 ¦xb6 36.¦c1

¥xb2 37.d7 1–0

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

a6 6.¥e2 e6

Of course 6...e5 is more in the spirit of the

Najdorf, but on the other hand less flexible than

the Scheveningen.

7.0–0 ¥e7 8.a4 ¤c6 9.¥e3 0–0 10.f4 £c7

11.¢h1 ¦e8

This is the most important tabiya in the classical

Scheveningen. One only has to think about the

matches Kasparov played with Karpov and

Anand, and many great games will immediately

come back to life.

12.¥f3

This is the main line. Other important moves are

12.¥d3, 12.¥g1 and the tricky pawn sacrifice

12.a5. The latter especially is a move that Black

players need to be well prepared for.

12...¥f8

A useful waiting move, with Black being ready to

counter in the centre with ...e5 at any moment.

Nowadays, Black players prefer to keep the d7-

square available for the knight. After 12...¥d7

13.¤b3 (threatening to fix the queenside with

14.a5) 13...b6 14.g4 the bishop has to return to

c8.

13.£d2 ¦b8

13...¤a5 14.b3 ¦b8 15.¦ad1 ¤c6 16.¥f2 ¤d7

17.¥g3 ¤xd4 18.£xd4 b5 19.axb5 axb5 20.b4!

with a typical edge for White in Adams-Topalov

Wijk aan Zee 2006.

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14.£f2

CARLSEN - GRISCHUK

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

No. 10, March 11, 2009

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Najdorf, Poisened Pawn

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4

¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 £b6

8.£d2 £xb2 9.¦b1 £a3 10.f5 ¤c6

11.fxe6 fxe6 12.¤xc6 bxc6 13.e5 dxe5

14.¥xf6 gxf6 15.¤e4 £xa2 16.¦d1

¥e7 17.¥e2 0–0 18.0–0 ¦a7 19.¦f3

Najdorf, Gelfand Variation

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4

¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 ¤bd7

8.¥c4

Sicilian Taimanov, 6.¥e3

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4

¤c6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥e3 ¤f6 7.£d2 ¥b4

8.f3 d5 9.0–0–0

Caro-Kann, main line

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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+ 12.¥d2 ¥b4 13.c3 ¥e7 14.c4 £c7

15.0–0–0 ¤gf6 16.¢b1 0–0 17.£c2

Another tough nut to crack for White

players is the Gelfand Variation

(in which Black delays ¥e7). The

classical continuation 8.£f3 seems

to be virtually a forced draw, but

lately White has been succesful with

other moves, for instance 8.£e2!?

which was tried by Naiditsch. Young

star and tournament leader after

five rounds Sjugirov beat Van Wely

with 8.¥c4!? followed by sacrificing

on e6 when the White pawns looked

stronger than the Black piece. In

this line, 8...£b6 is the other critical

move.

Black's move order with 5...a6

(delaying £c7) is designed to

prevent the fearsome English

Attack (normally White settles for

6.¤xc6 bxc6 7.¥d3) but Ragger

has put this idea into question by

convincingly beating Navara at

the Europeran Championship. In a

previous game against Kabatianski,

Ragger had uncorked the novelty

9...£a5 10.¤b3 ¥xc3 11.¤xa5

¥xd2+ 12.¥xd2 dxe4 13.¤c4!? and

after 13...0–0 14.¤b6 ¦b8 15.¥e3

Black should have limited the

damage with 15...¤d5.

The status of the Caro-Kann main

line has been quite solid in recent

years thanks to 12...¥b4, provoking

the white c-pawn to move forward.

Kotronias is single-handedly fighting

back for White though and with his

pet move 17.£c2!? he has now

beaten three young top GMs in a row:

Braun, Nakamura and Vallejo Pons.

Typical is the positional double pawn

sac d4-d5! to clear square f5 for a

White knight and g2-g4! to open the

g-file for the rooks.

In the Poisoned Pawn, 10.e5 has

been giving Black headaches

in recent years, but now Black's

problems seem to be finally solved

(all can be found in the Rybka book).

In Grischuk-Anand Black for some

reason didn't follow Kasparov's

19...¢h8 which still looks like a forced

draw. Black got into trouble after not

playing 21...¦f7! but when White

missed some chances like 29.Bxf5!

the game was drawn anyway.

OPENING EXPERT

Expertise: White versus the Anti-Moscow,

Black playing the French Winawer

Why: He has an aggresive and dynamic

style and accordingly prefers sharp

opening battles

Since 2001 (making his debut in Linares), Grischuk belongs to world ’ s elite players. In recent times, playing with

White he mostly goes for 1.d4 where he makes a huge contribution in the Slav. From Black ’ s side Grischuk tries

to bring less renowned openings back to life, like the French Winawer and the Yandemirov Variation of the Ruy

Lopez. Entertainment guaranteed!

Who:

Alexander Grischuk

Born:

October 31, 1983

Nationality:

Russia

Rating:

2733

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:

€ 18 for six months / € 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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