Download PGN of October ’23 1 e4 ... games
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Modern Defence with 3...a6 4.h4 d5 [B06]
Starting with a variation that very few have ever seen before, let alone played in classical chess, we have the game Thavandiran, S - Fernandez, D, played in the US Masters. White correctly accepted the pseudo-sacrifice, and after 5.Nxd5 e6 faced a choice of knight retreats:
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While Black’s position is slightly worse in quite a few cases, I was fairly happy to reach a complicated and strategically rich position after the subsequent 6.Nc3 Bxd4 7.Nf3?! Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 Qxd1+ 9.Kxd1 Nf6, even attaining an advantage at some point before reaching a totally lost rook endgame.
Pirc/Modern Defence, 150 attack with 4...c6 [B07]
Our next game features rather stronger players on both sides, but the same sort of evaluation trajectory: the much-annotated Pranesh, M - Carlsen, M. Play proceeded with 5.f3 b5 6.g4!? (I am quite fond of this idea) 6...h5 7.g5 Nfd7 8.f4 Nb6:
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White’s exotic concept would have been well supported by 9.a3, while in the game he found himself on the receiving end of a rather brutal Gurgenidze-type squeeze before managing to break out with an f5 break.
Caro-Kann, Two Knights Variation with 3...Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Nf6 [B11]
A fresh concept (at least for me) in a rather tired position was shown by Black in the game Lagunow, R - van Foreest, J. The followup 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Nf6 is already not the most common for Black, and after the further 6.Be2, 6...g6 was also noteworthy. The justification, however, comes a few moves later, after White’s 11th:
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Here 11...h5! set up a strategic clamp on the kingside based on controlling many dark squares with the pawns. A hot pawn grab from White then led to suffocation of their queen in the g1/h1/h2 corner.
Caro Advance with 3...c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 [B12]
Onto another recent favourite and the game Bacrot, E - Vallejo Pons, F. White went for fairly standard and principled play with 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 e6 8.0-0 Ne7 9.Nd2:
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I wanted to take a very detailed look at this position and figure out what plans made the most sense for Black. There are three that feel vaguely useful: a bishop trade with ....Ba6, the pawn push ...f6, and the knight rerouting ...Ne7-g6 (plus combinations of the above.) My conclusion is that ...Ng6 should be played immediately, or delayed until after the trade of light squared bishops. The middle ground Black chose in this game looks problematic; White went on to win a nice game.
Caro Advance with 3...c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.Nxc6 [B12]
In the next game Vachier Lagrave, M - Idani, P White went for a more subtle approach with 6.Bb5 Bd7 and only now 7.Nxc6, which creates interesting differences from the previous line (including the unavailability of ...Ba6 motifs.) Black recaptured with the bishop, denied White any blockading chances on d4, and reached the following position after 11...Bc5:
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Here White played a safe 12.Kh1, but can pose greater problems by means of 12.Nd2 Ne7 and now the deceptively challenging 13.a4.
Caro-Kann, Advance Variation with 4.h4 h5 5.c4 [B12]
Onto the most theoretically confusing game of the update and I’ll launch straight in with the position after 10...Qb6 in Karthikeyan, M - Maghsoodloo, P:
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We will consider two ways of trying to annoy the queen on b6, firstly 11.Be3 (setting up d5 ideas) and secondly the subtle variation on it employed in the game, namely 11.a4 a5 12.Be3. Against both approaches it makes a fair amount of sense for Black to react with ...Nh6, but the devil is in the details.
Caro-Kann, Exchange Variation with 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 Qc7 [B13]
We have touched on this way of spinning the Exchange before, one of several closely linked systems in which Black makes an early claim to some ...e5 ideas. That claim is of course invalidated if White gets to play Bf4, so after 6.Ne2 Black went for 6...Bg4:
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White chose to double down with the correct choice 7.f3 Bh5 Bf4 Qd7 and now a controversial one, 9.Bxb8!? obliging Black’s king to stay in the centre, but granting them the bishop pair and a very solid structure. After a sudden exchange of inaccuracies in the late middlegame, Black emerged on top in Audi, A - Chandra, A.
Caro-Kann Defence, Korchnoi Variation with 9...h5 [B15]
Finishing off with another perennial fan favourite, we have the position after 9...h5 10.0-0 and now Black chose a relatively fresh concept, 10...Qc7 11.h3 c5!?:
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The threat of ...c4 is obvious, and so is the fact that White should probably take with 12.dxc5 Qxc5, but very little in the canonical theory of this opening can really prepare you for what to do in the free-form position that remains, and it seems that in Svane, F- Abasov, N the reaction of 13.b4 was a little bit overambitious.
All the best, Daniel
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