E92: ¬ариант Gligoric с 11.d5
лючева¤ позици¤, рассмотренна¤ в этом обзоре, возникает после
следующих ходов: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0
6.Nf3 e5 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5 f6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Nh6 11.d5.
The author GM Boris Avrukh writes: УIn my opinion 11.d5!? is the
most critical continuation to meet 10...Nh6, which has become
quite popular during the last couple of years. Closing the
centre makes perfect sense since the black knight is misplaced
on h6, so Black falls behind if it comes to typical KingТs
Indian play, that is WhiteТs play on the queenside is usually
faster than BlackТs attempts on the kingside. On the other hand,
the position of the white bishop on g3 is not ideal either, so
Black may take advantage of this, advancing his pawns on the
kingside. In any case it leads to a very complicated struggle in
which White has very good chances to get an opening advantage.
Most of BlackТs ideas have been introduced by Radjabov and
French grandmaster Nataf, who are considered to be the main
experts in this line.
Black has two main replies which are equally popular: 11...Nd7
and 11...f5, but some attempts to fight for equality have been
made also after 11...a5 and 11...Na6, however, the latter two
moves are less popular so I have concentrated mainly on the most
crucial continuations.Ф
Ѕаза содердит: теоеретический раздел, 57 специальных
партий, 25 с комментари¤ми.
C40: Elephant Gambit (Part 6)
ѕродолжение Peter LeisebeinТs, номера CBM
106 и 108 (позици¤ после ходов 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 Bd6):
Up till this point, we have considered the most important
replies by White: 5.d4! and 5.Bb5+!?. Of course, White can also
choose other continuations, but none of them ought to be really
dangerous for Black. Proof of this can be found in the
statistics for the games we are considering: 1:0 42%, drawn 15%,
0:1 43%. However, Black must play very accurately after 4.Nc3.
Of course this natural developing move by White cannot be bad,
but for all that one has no better chances for an opening
advantage after playing it! The game Lo Conte,V-Leisebein,P
shows this clearly: White can lay claim to having slightly the
better of things into the middlegame, but Black has tactical
opportunities which often cause this advantage to melt away.
Note that the continuations 4.c4, 4.Qe2, 4.d3 and 4.Bc4 have
also been played. Since these lines are not well suited to bring
any advantage to White, they are not considered any further in
LeisebeinТs article. In ChessBase Magazine 111 the author
promises to take a look at the less often played continuation
3...e4 (instead of 3...Bd6).
C13: French Defence Ц Bern variation
—тать¤ GM Alex Finkel. Ќачальные ходы 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6
4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0
Be7 10.Bd3 b6 11.h4 Bb7 or 10...Bb7 11.Qf4 Be7 12.h4.
GM Finkel writes: УI have no doubts that the setup involving
Qd2, Bd3 and 0-0-0 is the most ambitious way to meet the Bern
variation, which is probably BlackТs main weapon against 4.Bg5
lately. Due to the efforts of Bareev, Gurevich and Croatian
grandmaster Goran Dizdar, who are using this line on a permanent
basis (and I would add they are doing so very successfully!),
this sharp line is considered to be a relatively safe option for
Black. Well, maybe I am not using the right term to describe it,
as in some lines White gets a very dangerous initiative (we are
talking about the positions with castling on opposite wings,
after all), but in all of them Black gets very good
counter-chances of his own...Ф The content of the database:
1. 93 games played in this line. On the white side you will find
such strong players as Anand, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Short, Vallejo,
Sakaev, Motylev and many others who used this variation
occasionally. On the black side you will find quite a few
experts in the French Defence: Bareev, Gurevich, Dreev, Radjabov,
Dizdar etc.
2. 30 annotated games, 18 of them annotated by Alex Finkel for
this database.
3. As usual, you will find a very detailed opening key designed
especially for the database to make the learning process more
efficient.
The conclusion the author draws after his investigations are as
follows: УThis line leads to a sharp struggle with mutual
chances, so it is a good choice to play for a win with the black
pieces. White also has quite a few reasons to opt for this line,
since he has reasonable chances of getting an opening advantage
after 12.Qe2, 12.Neg5 and 12.c3.
The best way for Black to treat this position is pushing c5 as
early as possible to be able to trade some major pieces down the
d-file and to disrupt WhiteТs play on the kingside by opening up
the centre. In my opinion the lines with 11.Qf4 are rather
harmless for Black, so I do not really believe in this
continuation.Ф
B31: Sicilian 2...Nc6 3.Bb5
—тать¤ GM Sergey Erenburg 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.0-0 Bg7
5.c3 Nf6 6.Qa4..
GM Erenburg writes: УThe variation 3.Bb5 has become very popular
in the last few years. White avoids the Sveshnikov variation,
where Black scores quite good results. In this database we deal
with the 3...g6 variation. After the following logical moves
4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3, the first player is intending to seize space in
the centre. After 5...Nf6, he has a choice of moves to protect
his central e-pawn, like 6.Re1 or 6.e5.
The creative move 6.Qa4 has its point: White prepares to carry
out the breakthrough d2-d4 and creates some pressure on BlackТs
queenside, disturbing the opponent in the completion of his
development.
This variation has become a frequent guest in modern practice,
including top-level tournaments, thanks to the games:
Morozevich,A-Anand,V 0-1 and Svidler,P-Gelfand,B. The main
protagonists of this variation for the white side are the elite
grandmasters Peter Svidler, Leonid Totsky, Peter Wells, Andrei
Kovaliov, Evgeny Alexeev, Nikola Sedlak and many other strong
players. Both sides have some interesting strategic and tactical
ideas, including pawn and exchange sacrifices...Ф
There are 69 selected games in this database, 18 of them are
annotated by the author. There are a few more games annotated by
other contributors as well. This database contains almost all
fresh practical material up to October 2005. Furthermore, there
is an opening key, specially developed for this database.
Statistics for this database: Out of 69 games White won 33 =
47%, 25 games were drawn = 38%, Black won 11 games = 15%. The
average rating of White players is 2474, performance = 2523; the
average of Black players is 2413, performance = 2349. As can be
seen from the statistics, White has quite an obvious advantage.
The final conclusion of the author: УThis variation is one of
the most principled attempts to get an advantage after 3...g6.
The resulting clash of ideas has led to many original and
unexplored positions. Black faces some problems to equalize the
game, also in the pawn sacrifice line 8...d6. On the other hand,
in the 8...Nxe4 line the second player found an original idea
for an exchange sacrifice in Hernandez,G-Kotronias,V 0-1, which
probably leads to a position where he is at least not worse.
There is no doubt that the resources of this variation are not
exhausted yet.Ф
B22: Alapin Sicilian
—тать¤ GM Dorian Rogozenko с подробными примерами из игр
варианта: 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 g6
The move 4...g6 was first introduced in GM practice at the
beginning of the nineties by Cvitan, Hulak, Dizdarevic,
P.Popovic and other players from the former Yugoslavia. Only 6-7
years later, at the end of the millennium, did the fianchetto
system against the Alapin gain a wider popularity. Since then
many strong GMs, like for instance Dreev, Almasi and Dautov,
have included 4...g6 in their opening repertoire.
GM Rogozenko writes: УThe established opinion about the
discussed variation is that two strong arguments are in Black´s
favour. First of all, it enables Black often to achieve
positions with many fighting resources and enough possibilities
to outplay less experienced opponents. The second attractive
point of 4...g6 is that it allows the second player to avoid
lots of Alapin Sicilian theory, since most other lines in this
opening are analysed in great detail. For some reasons the
fianchetto system has never been studied properly by theory,
although in practice 4...g6 gave Black very good results. Black
scored considerably above 50% from a total of more than 600
games. This is an extremely high percentage against such a safe
opening like the Alapin Sicilian, and therefore I think that
4...g6 fully deserves a detailed investigation.
BlackТs idea in the diagram position is to develop his pieces in
the most optimal way, especially against an isolated pawn. As is
often the case in Sicilian Defense, BlackТs dark-squared bishop
will be very well placed on the long diagonal. The delay with
the development of the kingТs knight can also turn out to be in
BlackТs favour sometimes: later the knight can go via h6 to f5,
increasing BlackТs pressure on d4. And what about White? Should
he play in the usual slow manner (Nf3, Be2, 0-0), or try to
develop quicker and use every single tactical possibility?
Practice shows that in case of a slow development, Black
conveniently arranges his pieces reaching comfortable play. One
can hardly affirm that BlackТs chances are preferable then, yet
they are not worse. Instead White should try to use the exposed
position of the opponentТs queen in order to quickly develop his
pieces on active positions. Quite often White succeeds in
achieving some development advantage which, however, is not
enough to set serious problems: with accurate play Black is
usually able to neutralize it. In that case, thanks to his
healthy position, the second player can be optimistic about the
future. Nevertheless, as we will see the White players have
found ways to keep Black under a rather long positional pressure,
forcing him to play very exactly move by move in a position
where every inaccuracy would immediately turn WhiteТs edge into
a visible advantage.
My conclusion: 4...g6 leads to interesting play, with a lot of
subtleties. The most promising variations for White are 5.Na3
cxd4 6.Nb5 Na6 7.Be3 and especially 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Na3, when after
both 6...cxd4 7.Bc4 and 6...Nf6 7.Bc4 BlackТs task is far from
easy.Ф
A69: Modern Benoni
Jerzy Konikowski пишет: Уя хотел бы представить ¬ам вариант,
который еще не полностью исследовалс¤ и, поэтому редко
используетс¤ в современной практике. я говорю об остром вариант
3-х пешек в —овременном Ѕенони, что происходит после ходов: 1.d4
Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Be2
exd5 9.cxd5 Re8 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Ng4 12.Bg5 Qb6.
In the position in the diagram the overwhelming choice has been
13.0-0 and in opening theory this move constitutes the main line.
At this point, however, there is a very interesting plan after
13.Qd2!?, clearly intending to castle queenside and rapidly
mount an attack against the opposing king. Black now has a lot
of problems he must overcome in order not to rapidly end up in a
hopeless position.
My judgement: The queen continuation 13.Qd2!? gives White
excellent prospects of a successful attack on the king. But I
think that after 13...Nxe5 14.0-0-0 Nbd7 Black has good chances
of defending himself.Ф
A29 English
—тать¤ GM Zoltan Ribli о варианте: 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6
4.g3 Nd4 5.Bg2 Nxf3+ 6.Bf3 Bc5.
The whole variation with 4...Nd4 is relatively rarely played,
the alternatives 4...Bb4 and principally 4...d5 are more popular
(4...Bc5 is also possible). And also on BlackТs 6th move the
alternative 6...Bb4 is played more; White usually replies 7.Qb3
and Black then plays 7...Bc5. The variation with the immediate
6...Bc5 is a favourite of some strong grandmasters (especially
Sutovsky) and has another advantage Ц in its case there is a lot
less theory.
GM RibliТs conclusion: УThis variation with 4...Nd4 and 6...Bc5
seems to me very playable for Black. The latter is mainly
striving for simplifications and equality. White has a space
advantage in the centre but BlackТs position has no particular
weaknesses. A good method of equalising is in many positions as
follows: if White plays e3 (wanting to play d4) or a3 (wanting
to play b4), Black can reply with the move a6 and his bishop
finds some peace on a7. I believe that the variation 6...Bc5 is
just as playable as the traditional continuation 6...Bb4.Ф
