November Daring Defences
GM Glenn Flear |
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Dutch
I had a couple of enquiries concerning the Dutch defence. Laurent Selvi of Paris asked me if Black can go for 8...e5 in the following position.
            
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Well it seems that it has been played, and by a Frenchman! In Shchekachev - Santo-Roman Black obtained a good opening and even missed a win. If you look closely at the notes you will see that I suspect that White can perhaps obtain a shade of an edge, but nothing extraordinary.
I have to agree that it seems playable (see game 2)and is better than 8...Ng4 (game 1)and 8...h6 (game 3). The more established moves 8...Nc6 and 8...c6 should be investigated if you don't like 8...e5 after all.
Grant Sidnam asked me for my opinions on the anti-Dutch systems 2 Nc3 and 2 Bg5. I suspect that nowadays most Dutch practitioners are well accustomed to meeting these lines which no longer have much surprise value.
However there has been some recent interest in 2 Nc3 d5 3 Bf4 (rather than the better-known 3 Bg5) and so I've concentrated my efforts here, see game 4.
As for my opinion: It's only dangerous for non-subscribers to Daring defences!
Benko
In Game 5, Adianto took on Karpov in one of his pet lines against the Benko Gambit, and survived!
In the fashionable 5 b6-system, the unusual idea of placing the queen on a7 was adopted by Van Wely to obtain a good game against Azmaiparashvili.
In Game 7 Degraeve was in good form with the more open 5...e6 defence.
Budapest
The unusual 4 Qd3!? against the Fajarowicz is examined in Game 8.
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Still, if you don't fancy moving your queen twice in the opening then there is always 4 a3 against which I don't know how Black equalizes.
Nimzowitsch
In Game 9, Rogers gets into hot water with 1...Nc6, although he had beaten Vallejo Pons with it earlier that week. A typical case of playing a "surprise-weapon" one time too many.
Grünfeld
The Grünfeld Defence received less attention than I expected in Bled, but Ftacnik's win in Game 12 was a rare exception. Simply developing a piece with 10...Bd7!? makes a lot of sense in that it avoids the over-analysed main lines and yet still gives Black a good game.
Much more theoretical is game 11 where Gyimesi wins in a game which sets more questions than answers. How did Gyimesi intend to continue against 15...Qa5 and why didn't Black sacrifice the exchange on move sixteen?
In Game 10 the idea developed by Zakharevich has it's antidote, 8...Be6!:
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Keep the questions rolling in, you may find an idea that I've missed!
Write to Glenn_Flear@chesspublishing.com.