Feb '00 Update
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My apologies for the delay in the latest instalment of Daring Defences - the reason was a kind of Leap Year 2K virus. Not the computer kind, I got one, and seemed under the delusion that February had 30-something days, and when the computer came down with a serious case of hardware failure … well, a deadline is not always an easy thing.
A short month, but some very interesting games in these theoretical backwaters, and I have spent a little extra time with some of the more heavyweight affairs. The statistics of the games chosen to represent the highlights of the month make pretty depressing reading for Black, but I don't think that I am exaggerating when I say that in most cases improvements are at hand. I got such an overall feeling of contentment for the motley crew of defences here while analysing the games that the actual scoreline never really struck me until I was preparing this text. So don't despair from just a quick look at the numbers. Just think of the stats as a way of sharpening your concentration.
English Defence (JT)
The English Defence remains the most favoured home and stomping ground of today's daring defender. There are three GM slugfests in this line, and all are both fun and fairly encouraging for the budding convert -if you can ignore the results.
Piket - Short, Davies - Baburin and Beliavsky - Timoschenko all ended in nice white wins, but only the first game never looked completely convincing for black to me. Short seemed a shade shy of equality throughout, though there is no reason to get nervous as Piket's choice of variation offers black a very wide selection of interesting counters - perhaps an idea with an early …Ba6 is called for here?
Baburin played a provocative new idea in a line that has traditionally been rather solid for black. Davies reacted with great energy and was constantly offering to pitch a pawn for various attacking schemes. In the end Davies pitched a pawn and a piece and Baburin resigned just before his opponent flung a rook through the window
Beliavsky and Timoshchenko had a good brawl in something that looked much more like a King's Indian than something that starts out with a fianchetto on the opposite wing. Admittedly, a King's Indian where both sides had made a lot of very odd moves. As in the Baburin game, I think black had at least his fair share of the chances.
Amongst other games worth noting for opening value was Li Wenliang-Burnett, where Black plays a rather seldom line and got a very sound and comfortable position. Unfortunately, he did not fare any better than our better known guests in this section of the survey.
Cheparinov - Romero Holmes was another nightmare result, but I rather liked Romero's handling of a rare variation against one of white's more popular lines.
The remaining games in this section are non-critical, and to remind you of why one plays these openings, Benitah - Kinsman provides the bright spot of the month. Where else could black develop his knights and then have a winning position after 11 moves?
In Prakash - Reefat Black gets this a bit muddled - experience shows that when you put the bishop on e5 it should be stopping Nb5 - If white plays a fast Nb5 then one needn't fear a capture on d6 - black wastes quite a bit of time not getting this right, but on the other hand, provoking f4 does give black a nice outpost on e4.
Benko (JT)
Plunging into the Benko Gambit, our respectable pawn loser, we get an assortment of lines and a few eyebrow-raising ideas.
My hobby horse, the g3 system with an early Rb1 continues to be a highly topical debating theme, and finally I got to see what I have been expecting for some time, someone cruising down the stem game of recent times Piket - Topalov and trying to find a refinement for black. Lugovoi - Sivokho is the name of the game. I must be very prejudiced, but I still don't see the charm of the Benko in this particular variation. Black survived this game, and the new move is very logical. But he suffered, and suffered, got attacked, reached an ending a pawn down, and was very happy to get a fraction of the point. I still have this system flagged as the crisis area until further notice.
Zimmerman - Vajda featured a new move by black in a relatively rare line. Black did a very neat job of demonstrating lasting compensation in this variation, but if you ask me, the critical question was not asked by white. If I am right, then white players might have some fun with this line, and Benko advocates should check their alternatives.
Hauchard - Salmensuu is just included as a cautionary tale - it is only important as an example of a theoretical detour not to be taken again.
Almond - Palatnik illustrates that the move f2-f4 should always make white pause when beginning operations that have a whiff of tactical danger about them. Sure enough, here it provokes a combinational wave, with the first one not being decisive as such.
Meanwhile, Van Laatum-Trent is a textbook example of rolling back the Benko- it is not of pure theoretical importance from an opening point of view, but does show the dangers in a typical type of structure.
Budapest (JT)
The Budapest (and Fajarowicz) Gambits were not terribly active, and this month's games are included more for their human interest (even though one of the game doesn't involve humans).
The Fajarowicz, Halkias - Fernandez Romero, is the most important from an openings standpoint. White's readiness to sacrifice the exchange in a main line is noteworthy not just because it is a central position to this defence, but because the sacrifice left black trussed up like an out-of-season Christmas turkey. A brief sharpening of the knife and fork and it was all over.
The Budapests - well, just play through them, they will raise a smile:
Blumenfeld (JT)
The Blumenfeld got a very poor character reference when GM Zelcic used it to go down in flames at the hands of a much lower rated opponent, see Lipinsky - Zelcic. This was without question one of the most peculiar games I have ever seen in this job - a non-stop contest of peculiar ideas. Black was fine early on, and even Zelcic's flamboyant interpretation may well be quite playable too.
The other game, Yu Mingyuan-Froehlich, was a very thematic duel, with white having to return the pawn to break up black's massive centre, black giving it up again to break up white's structure, and white insisting on evening up the balance to get some peace and quiet.
Old Indian (JT)
The Old Indian for February could just as well be called the Sargissian, and seems to reinforce the vague feeling I had that this solid, practical opening is gaining a following in the Armenian community. Mr Sargissian wheels out the classical Old Indian against two much higher rated opponents and does a very professional job of demonstrating the defence's resilient side, see Korneev - Sargissian and Tregubov - Sargissian.
The trend continues, with the defence tending to do much better for lower rated players.