Download PGN of April '14 Flank Openings games
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Bird's Opening Reversed Stonewall Dutch 3 d4 [A03]
Granda Zuniga-Semcesen was the most exotic game of the month. White goes for a kind of reversed color Stonewall Dutch with the bishop out and the queenside developed:
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Basically it is not so easy to explain. Despite the result I don't think I can recommend this variation for White!
Réti reversed Tromp, 2...Bg4 [A07]
In Grachev - Shirov White tried to play a slow game, without committing to e4:
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For me it's too passive and after 20 moves White needed to take care to avoid being clearly worse.
Réti 3 b3 d4 [A13]
This rapid game went quickly out of theory, Black played without any plan and was quickly worse.
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Here it was better to bring the bishop to c5 in one move and play ...a5 at some point, since the main plan for White is to play with b4, see Malakhov - Oparin.
King's English 2...Bb4 3 Qc2 [A21]
Gajewski - Heberla was a good game for White. It's always a good sign when it's hard to define where it went wrong for Black.
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My guess is that 8...c5 here doesn't help the counterplay, and afterwards Black should try something with ...f5.
Four Knights 4 e3 d5 - Paulsen with reversed colors [A28]
Gajewski - Tomczak is an interesting game and I like White's idea. This variation is similar to a Paulsen with reversed colors, with the difference being that White didn't play a3 and also has the extra tempo of the first move:
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With two small inaccuracies Black's position simply collapsed.
Symmetric English Nimzovich's 5 e4, 6 Bc4 [A34]
Once again we take a look at 5.e4 in the Symmetrical English. This time White avoided the main theoretical lines with 9.b4, instead playing the slow 9.d3:
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Black left the opening without problems, but missed some good opportunities in time trouble, see Anton Guijarro-Bok.
Symmetric 3 Knights 3...g6 4 e3 [A35]
This line sometimes brings Black some headaches because of the offside knight on a5:
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but Short finds an original way to get rid of it in Pantsulaia - Short.
Pure Symmetrical - Black plays ...d5 [A38]
In McShane - Maze Black tries 10...Qd6 which is not so usual:
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It looks like this line enters a position close to equality, but White always has some annoying pressure.
Till next time, Alex.
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