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Download PGN of February '07 Nimzo and Benoni games
Nimzo-Indian 4 Qc2
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 d5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 Ne4 7 Qc2 c5 8 dxc5 Nc6 9 e3 is a position that has been reach quite a few times over the board:
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Generally 9 e3 is the move White chooses if he wishes to avoid all the complications and instead aim for a minuscule edge (9 cxd5 exd5 10 Nf3 and 9 Nf3 Qa5+ 10 Nd2 are known to be much sharper). However, in the game Khenkin - Landenbergue, Geneva 2007, White demonstrates a way to play this line in a surprisingly ambitious way.
Borvander - Paehtz, Catalan Bay 2007, begins 1 d4 e6 2 c4 b6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 Bb7 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 Nf6 7 Bg5:
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and now 7...0-0 reaches the main line 4 Qc2 0-0 5 a3, but Paehtz played more ambitiously with 7...h6!? 8 Bh4 g5! 9 Bg3 Ne4! reaching a position I believe is fully playable. Normally Black has to think long and hard about playing....g7-g5, but unlike the mainline 4 Qc2 0-0 Black has yet to commit the king here, so this move gains in strength.
Move order is important here. The Nimzo-Indian order to reach the position after Black's 6th move is 1...Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 b6!? 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 Bb7, but in this variation White does have the opportunity to alter the course of the game, probably for the better, by playing 5 e4!. Another move order to remember is 1...e6 2 c4 Bb4+ 3 Nc3 b6 4 Qc2 Bb7.
Nimzo-Indian/Queen's Indian Hybrid
Ivan Sokolov is a great expert in the early Qb3 line and in I.Sokolov-A.Greet, Catalan Bay 2007, he produces another new wrinkle: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Qb3 c5 6 a3 Ba5 7 dxc5!? bxc5 8 Bg5:
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This is Sokolov's latest attempt to squeeze some advantage from the position. It looks harmless enough, but there are some hidden dangers for Black.
Of course the immediate 7 Bg5 is playable, but Black now has the possibility of 7...h6 8 Bh4 g5!? 9 Bg3 g4! 10 Nd2 cxd4 11 Nb5 Ne4 with massive complications - see Gretarsson-Adams, Reykjavik 2003, in the archives. By trading on c5 first, Sokolov avoids this option for Black.
Queen's Indian 4 a3 Ba6
After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 a3 Ba6, nearly everyone plays 5 Qc2 here (we've seen it quite a few times on the website). However, there's also an argument for the move 5 Qb3!?:
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One obvious point is that 5...Bb7 6 Nc3 c5 (as played against 5 Qc2) is ineffective here on account of the simple 7 d5! - playable as the queen protects the d5-square. In a recent game I instead chose 5...Be7, but I was soon facing quite a few difficulties after White's next move. See what this is in Mackinnen - Emms, London 2007.
Classical Modern Benoni
by Richard Palliser and John Cox
After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 Nf3 Bg7 8 Be2 0-0 9 0-0 Re8 10 0-0 Nbd7 11 a4, 11...g5!? (instead of 11...Ne5) has been out of favour since the mid-eighties:
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However, it recently made a comeback in Hernandez - Lawson, and a rather successful one at that. The notes to that game reveal too that Black ignores the Classical in his general preparation at his peril!
The MML
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 h3 Bg7 8 Bd3 0-0 9 Nf3 b5 10 Nxb5 Re8 11 Nd2!? continues to receive some grandmaster attention of late. Black avoided the critical 11...Nxe4 in Wang Yue-Reefat, preferring 11...Nxd5 and after 12 Nc4 employed the rare but promising 12...Ba6!?:
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Modern Benoni: The Anti-MML
One line which has been causing fans of the Anti-MML (i.e. 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 Nf3 a6) problems over the past decade has been the rise in popularity of 8 h3 b5 9 Bd3 Bg7 10 0-0 0-0:
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Popular author and ChessPublishing contributor John Cox has recently gained a fair amount of experience against this tricky line, as he kindly shares with us in his notes to Ikonnikov - Cox, Port Erin 2006, and Kazhgaleyev - Palliser, Port Erin 2006.
Until next time, John