CVO_033.pdf

No. 33, August 19, 2009

OPENINGS

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

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The Semi-Slav

put under pressure

By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

Frequency

Top favourite Aronian continued to be The Force with

the white pieces in Jermuk, but his black repertoire

suffered a temporary meltdown. Besides, we have a

look at the Zurich Jubilee, Staunton Memorial and the

French and Hungarian Championships.

WHAT’S HOT?

Score

1.e4 e5 was still very frequent on the highest level this week, but not

with the same success. The Petroff continued to do well for Black, but

Karjakin did beat Bacrot with the 8.h3 Anti-Marshall. Morozevich showed

the true Sicilian spirit with his two dynamic Najdorf wins. Vachier-Lagrave

continues to convince with his 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 ¤c6!? line. The Caro-Kann

was put under quite some pressure: Short beat L ’ Ami with the Two Knights

Variation and Berkes had to defend for 99 moves against Almasi.

Last week we noted a rare minus score for the white pieces, but especially

1.d4 recovered completely - check for example Leko ’ s win against

Karjakin. With 1.c4 White even scored 100% over three games in Jermuk;

have a look at Aronian-Kamsky.

The Queen ’ s Indian continued to hold itself, even against the modern pawn

sacrifice. Opening Expert Meier convincingly beat Bromberger ’ s King ’ s

Indian. McShane consistently played a hypermodern version of the same

opening. In our Game of the Week Sutovsky did some good advertisement

for the Grünfeld by beating Malakhatko in a very entertaining manner. In

the diagram position he played his trademark move 11...f5!?.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

In Aronian’s games White scored five wins and four draws so far, hence the death of chess still hasn’t arrived. Aronian’s 1.e4 e5 has

been very impressive in recent times and undoubtly his Semi-Slav will recover as well, but for now the latter is going through some

rough times. The Moscow Variation (6.¥g5 h6 7.¥xf6) is setting some mild problems in the

opposite-coloured bishop ending (see PGN file) but the lion’s share of trouble is caused by

the Meran, by both 6.¥d3 and 6.£c2 (see below).

WHAT’S NOT?

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

No. 33, August 19, 2009

Castling queenside in the Grünfeld

Castling queenside in the Grünfeld has a long tradition that goes back to a Reuben Fine

game (New York 1938), but still it is not very common and certainly not in sharp positions

with the queens still on. This week’s game is a real masterpiece by Sutovsky.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Malakhatko, V (2570) - Sutovsky, E (2675)

Jubilee Zurich Open, August 12, 2009

D85, Exchange Grünfeld, 8.¥e3 £a5

17...¦xd5 18.¥d4?

The decisive mistake. Necessary was 18.£e2

¦xe5 19.£xc4+ ¢b8 20.£e2 ¦c8 21.¤d1 ¥h6

22.¥xh6 ¥d3! with a powerful initiative.

18...h5!

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Obviously threatening 19...¥h6 followed by

snacking the bishop on d4.

19.g4

At first sight, this makes a weird impression, but

soon the clue will be revealed. Overprotection

by 19.¦d1 doesn ’ t help in view of 19...¥h6

20.£b2 ¦hd8 21.£b6 £xb6 22.¥xb6 ¦xe5+

23.¥e2 ¦xd1+ 24.¢xd1 (24.¤xd1 ¥d3) 24...¦b5

winning the piece back with interest. Moreover

19.¥xc4 fails to 19...¥h6 20.£d1 ¦xd4.

19...hxg4 20.¦d1 ¥h6 21.£b2 ¦hd8 22.¥g2

This was White ’ s idea, but Black has...

22...¦b5!

The bishop is untouchable in view of 22...¦xd4

23.£xb7# but after the text, White is simply lost.

23.£a1

23.£e2 ¦xd4 24.¦xd4 £xc3+ wins as well.

23...¦xd4!

The final point.

24.¦xd4 ¦b1+ 25.£xb1 £xc3+ 26.¢e2 ¥xb1

27.¥xb7+ ¢c7 0–1

Sutovsky ’ s aggressive style. The inclusion of

...a6 is considered to favour White, as it softens

up the queenside. 11...cxd4 12.cxd4 £xd2+

13.¢xd2 f5 (13...¥g4?! 14.d5) 14.e5 ¥e6 15.¥c4

¥xc4 16.¦xc4 0–0 17.g3 ¦ad8 18.¢e2 e6

19.¦b1 (19.¦hc1!?) 19...¦d7 20.¦b6 gave White

some pressure in Svidler-Ganguly, Gibraltar

2009. Another serious alternative is 11...¥g4

which was tested a few months ago amongst

two specialists: 12.d5 ¦d8 13.¥d3 0–0 14.0–0 f5

(14...¥xf3?! 15.gxf3 ¤e5 16.¥e2²) 15.¤g5 fxe4

16.¤xe4 ¤e5 17.f3 ½–½ Khenkin-Dominguez

Perez, Havana 2009.

12.d5

12.¥d3 cxd4 13.¤xd4 0–0?! (13...¤e5!)

14.¤xc6 bxc6 15.0–0 ¥e6 16.exf5 ¥xf5 17.¥c4+

¢h8 18.¥d4! e5 19.¥e3² was seen one month

before in the rapid game Rodshtein-Sutovsky,

Natanya 2009. 13...¤e5 should be preferred

though, with chances for both sides.

12...fxe4 13.¤g5

Obviously bad is 13.dxc6 exf3

13...¤e5 14.¤xe4 c4!

A logical novelty over 14...0–0 15.¥e2 b6 16.0–0

¥f5 17.¤g3 ¥d7 18.¦fe1 ¦ae8 19.h4 £a4 20.c4

e6 21.d6 ¤c6 22.h5± which led to a nightmare for

every Grünfeld player in Petursson-Thorsteins,

Reykjavik 1989.

15.f4 ¥f5

Not working is 15...¤g4?! 16.¥xc4 ¥f5 17.¥d4!.

16.¤f2?

Better would have been 16.fxe5 ¥xe4 17.¥xc4

£c7 18.¥b3 ¥xe5 19.0–0 0–0–0 with some

unclear consequences, but Black doesn ’ t have

much to fear in that case either.

16...0–0–0!

Not a very common thing to do in the Grünfeld,

and it this case a real piece sacrifice. Retreating

one ’ s pieces in the Grünfeld, 16...¤f7 is certainly

not what Sutovsky had been thinking of!

17.fxe5

17.¥d4 ¦xd5! 18.fxe5 h5 transposes to the game.

1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 d5 4.¤f3 ¥g7 5.cxd5

¤xd5 6.e4 ¤xc3 7.bxc3 c5 8.¥e3 £a5 9.£d2

¤c6

9...0–0 10.¦c1 ¦d8 is also quite popular

nowadays, inviting White to get a protected

passed pawn. Things aren ’ t that simple either.

11.d5 e6 12.¥g5!? (White doesn ’ t gain anything

from 12.c4 £xd2+ 13.¢xd2 ¤a6 or 12.¥e2

exd5 13.exd5 ¤d7 14.0–0 ¤f6) 12...¦e8?! (12...

f6! is stronger, as in Hoeksema-Timman, Dutch

Open 2009.) 13.d6 ¥d7 14.¥h6 £d8 15.h4 f6

16.e5 ¥c6 17.h5 g5 18.¥xg7 ¢xg7 19.exf6+

£xf6 20.h6+ ¢h8 21.£xg5± and White went on

to win quite easily in Anand-Leko, Miskolc rapid

2009.

10.¦b1

Another important tabiya arrises after 10.¦c1

cxd4 11.cxd4 £xd2+ 12.¢xd2 0–0 13.d5 ¦d8

14.¢e1 which became popular at the beginning

of the millenium, when Kramnik scored some

fine endgame victories with it. Now it seems

that the line has lost its venom, since Black has

various ways to play. Another one of Sutovsky ’ s

inventions is 14...¤a5 15.¥g5 ¥d7 16.¥d3 f5!?.

10...a6

10...0–0 11.¦b5 cxd4 12.¦xa5 dxe3 13.£xe3

¤xa5 probably gives Black just about enough

compensation for the queen.

11.¦c1

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11...f5!?

Almost never seen before, but typical for

MALAKHATKO - SUTOVSKY

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

No. 33, August 19, 2009

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Najdorf, 6.¥g5, 7...¤c6

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 ¤c6

8.¤xc6 bxc6 9.e5 h6 10.¥h4 g5 11.fxg5 ¤d5 12.¤e4 £b6 13.c3 £xb2

The Najdorf with 6.¥g5 seems to have gained back its popularity which it had back in the eighties. It ’ s still full

of new ideas (e.g. delaying the advance of the e-pawn) and numerous old lines which were supposed to be

refuted are being played now. One of these lines is the tricky system with 7...¤c6, where in the main line Black

grabs a lot of pawns in the hope to survive the attack and exploit its material advantage in an endgame. Various

attacking games have proved the ‘incorrectness’ already, but for some reason Vachier-Lagrave has scored

quite reasonable with it lately. In Biel Alekseev didn ’ t test him in a critical line, while Le Roux misplayed a level

ending in the French Championship this week. Two rounds later Hamdouchi played the more critical variation

with 8.¤xc6, but his 13.c3 gave Black the opportunity to force a repetition. So until now, we are still waiting

for someone who tries to tackle the young Frenchman in his pet line or we should look for ourselves for some

advantage after 13.¥d3!?.

Semi-Slav , 6.¥d3

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤c3 ¤f6 4.e3 e6 5.¤f3 ¤bd7 6.¥d3 dxc4 7.¥xc4 b5

8.¥d3 b4 9.¤e4 ¤xe4 10.¥xe4 ¥b7 11.a3 bxa3 12.0–0 ¥d6 13.£c2

First a few words about move order issues. After 8.¥d3 there are four moves for Black. 8...a6!? is relatively

independent and was used by Anand to become World Champion. 8...¥b7 is the main line after which White

besides some major alternatives can try the modern positional 9.a3!?, after which Black either goes for 9...¥d6

(line A) or 9...b4 (line B). Since White has this choice anyway, Black can try to cut out the major alternatives with

8...¥d6 or 8...b4 respectively. Now Aronian lost with line A against Kasimdzhanov and the question is where to

improve. The options include 11...£e7 12.e4 e5 13.¤e2 ¦e8!? and Gustafsson ’ s 17...exd4. In the game Black ’ s

exchange sacrifice didn ’ t quite work and therefore 24...¥c8 is a serious alternative. Balogh went for line B and

showed himself to be well-prepared against Berkes ’ novelty 13.£c2, since after 13...¦c8 14.b4 f5! 15.¥d3 c5! it

was a draw by force. Possibly 14.¤d2 would have been a better try.

Semi-Slav , 6.£c2

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤f3 ¤f6 4.¤c3 e6 5.e3 ¤bd7 6.£c2 ¥d6 7.¥d3 0–0 8.0–0 dxc4 9.¥xc4 a6

10.¦d1 b5 11.¥d3 £c7 12.a4 b4 13.¤e4 ¤xe4 14.¥xe4 ¤f6 15.¥d3 c5 16.b3 cxd4 17.£xc7 ¥xc7 18.¤xd4

Aronian may have repaired his repertoire against 6.¥d3, but two rounds later he was taken by surprise in the

6.£c2 complex. Firstly, the Latvian Attack 7.g4 will always remain a tricky story, but Leko ’ s 7...h6 8.h3 e5!? looks

like a fairly straightforward method of play. The second issue is 10.a4 c5 11.dxc5 ¥xc5 (Giri played 11...¤xc5!?

in Zürich) 12.¤e4 ¤xe4 13.£xe4 ¤f6 14.£h4 and now instead of 14...¤d5 (Fressinet-Aronian, Paris 2009) Ruck

played 14...b6 which was succesfully answered by Berkes with 15.b4!, an idea of his training buddy Predojevic.

The white bishops simply became too strong. The third issue is Kasimdzhanov ’ s 11.¥e2 £c7 12.¤e4 ¤xe4

13.£xe4 after which we still like the look of 13...¦e8!? we mentioned before in CVO. Finally there is 11.¥d3,

which led to the diagram position in Eljanov-Aronian. In the course of the game Black suffered from too many

weaknesses on both sides of the board. An interesting alternative is 11...¥b7, ignoring the vis-a-vis with the

white rook on d1.

King's Indian, 7.0–0 ¤bd7

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1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 ¥g7 4.e4 d6 5.¤f3 0–0 6.¥e2 e5 7.0–0

¤bd7 8.¥e3 ¦e8 9.d5 ¤h5 10.g3 ¥f8 11.¤e1 ¤g7 12.¤d3 f5 13.f3

Is the King ’ s Indian old fashioned since Kasparov stopped playing it? Does it work for Radjabov but for nobody

else? Is it simply a bad opening as Kortchnoi has been claiming for decades? Maybe, but the truth is that it is

still very popular at all levels. Recent sources of inspiration include the instant classic Gelfand-Nisipeanu (see

CVO 24), the fact that an allround elite player like Grischuk started playing it and the new repertoire book by

Bologan. We feel that the lines with ¤a6 are somewhat under pressure, while the straightforward main line with

¤c6 is completely back. But there is more, as an idea introduced by Iordachescu back in 1993 has finally caught

on and has been taken up by players like Bologan, Radjabov, Kotronias, David, Shchekachev and Jones. At the

Staunton Memorial, McShane played it three times: ¤bd7, ¦e8, ¤h5, ¥f8, ¤g7, f5 and a5. White finds it hard to

get c5 in, while Black already managed f5.

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

No. 33, August 19, 2009

OPENING EXPERT

Who: Georg Meier

Born: August 26, 1987

Nationality: Germany

Rating: 2658

Expertise: Notoriously hard to beat. French Rubinstein as Black, with White

a very broad repertoire.

Why: Georg Meier is one of the rising stars of German chess. Statistically

speaking Germany has always had a suprisingly low number of elite

grandmasters, but with Meier there is one on his way. Last year at the

Dresden Olympiad he had a fantastic performance at the first board of

the second team, but from now on he will surely play first team. He is very

hard to beat when he has Black and with White he constantly switches

between the main lines of 1.e4, 1.d4 and 1.¤f3. Against Bromberger in

Zurich his clever opening preparation paid off handsomely.

Key game: Meier - Bromberger , Jubilee Open Zurich, August 11, 2009

1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 ¥g7 4.e4 d6 5.¤f3

0–0 6.¥e2 e5 7.0–0 ¤c6 8.d5 ¤e7 9.¤e1

¤d7 10.¤d3 f5 11.¥d2 ¤f6 12.f3 f4 13.c5 g5

14.¦c1 ¤g6 15.¤b5!?

Usually White exchanges on d6 first.

15...¦f7?!

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According to Gallagher in his 2004 repertoire

book Black should accept the challenge with

15...a6 16.cxd6 axb5 17.dxc7 £e8 but we have

no doubt that Meier has done some tricky home

analyses on this position.

16.¥a5!

An annoying move, forcing Black to weaken his

queenside.

16...b6 17.cxd6 cxd6 18.¥e1 a6 19.¤c3 h5

20.¤b4 g4

The first new move in an already suspicious

position. 20...¥h6 21.¤a4 ¦b7 22.¥f2 ¤d7

23.¥xa6 ¦xa6 24.¤xa6 ¤c5 25.¤6xc5 bxc5

26.b4 ¦xb4 27.¦b1 g4 28.¦xb4 cxb4 29.¢h1 g3

30.hxg3 fxg3 31.¥xg3 ¥a6 32.¦f2 ¥e3 33.¦c2

¤f4 34.£e1 ¥d4 35.¥h4 £a5 36.£g3+ ¢f7

37.£g5 ¥c3 38.£e7+ 1–0 Yuferov-Dydyshko,

Minsk 1978.

21.¤a4 ¦b7 22.¥xa6 ¦xa6 23.¤xa6 b5 24.¥a5

£xa5 25.¦xc8+ ¢h7 26.¤4c5 ¦a7 27.£e1

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27... £xa2?

27...£xe1 28.¦xe1 dxc5 29.¤xc5 ¦xa2 had to

be tried.

28.¤b4 £c4 29.b3 £d4+ 30.¢h1

and resigned because of the ¤ fork. 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! Singles issues cost € 1. You can subscribe too:

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