Download PGN of February ’25 Flank Openings games
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Larsen’s Opening 1 b3 Nf6 2 Bb2 d5 3 e3 Bf5 [A01]
With the current popularity of the London System it is only to be expected that players adopt similar setups with Black against a variety of openings. One such is Larsen’s Opening, but in Wei, Y - Kravtsiv, M White replied with the unusual and combative 4 Be2 e6 5 g4!?::
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White plans to overwhelm the bishop with an advance of his h and g pawns, but Black then played the critical 5...Be4!? 6 f3 Nxg4!? 7 h4 Bd6 8 Rh3!? which looks like a beginners' position!
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Black already has two pieces hanging, and his next move, 8...Bg3+! left a third one en prise! In fact, Black is close to winning here, all the tactics seem to favour him. Exciting stuff!
Neo-Catalan, 4...dxc4 5 Qa4+ Nbd7 [A13]
Following the mainline 6 Qxc4 a6 7 Qc2 c5 8 0-0 b5 9 a4 Bb7 10 Nc3 Qb6 11 d3 Be7 I quite like the Najdorf-style move 12 e4!?:
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White blunts the b7 bishop and stops any ideas of ...Nd5-b4. Yes, it's a bit committal, White also weakens d4 and leaves himself open to ...c4 tactics. Objectively the position is level, but White showed an interesting plan in Indjic, A - Pultinevicius, P and eventually emerged victorious, although there were plenty of bumps en route.
King’s English, Keres System 3 Nf3 e4 4 Nd4 d5 5 cxd5 Qxd5 6 Nc2 [A20]
The mainline continues 6...Nf6 7 Nc3 Qe5 8 Bg2, and now, in Sindarov, J - Vachier Lagrave, M, instead of the most common 8...Na6, Black played 8...Be7 when I like the reply 9 b4!:
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White often has to prepare this advance with Rb1 or a2-a3, but here, as Black has less control over b4, he can play it immediately. A couple of moves later Sindarov played a strong novelty and won the e pawn, although Black always had compensation as the white king was awkwardly placed in the centre.
King’s English 2 g3 d5 [A20]
I always think that 2...d5 is the sort of move a weak player might try in a blitz game, but, in fact, this rare move is actually not as bad as it might appear, play will probably transpose into a Reversed Dragon type of position with the black king's knight on f6 rather than b6. In Warmerdam, M - Fedoseev, V Black retreated his queen to the more active d6 square rather than the normal d8:
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White later played a logical novelty and pressed on the queenside, but was never really any better as Black's position was always solid, and he even managed to win after White fell for a little trick.
King’s English 2 Nc3 Bb4 3 Nd5 a5 4 Nf3 d6 5 a3 Bc5 6 e3 [A21]
David has already examined the following position a few times:
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White often plays 9 Be2 here, and sometimes a later g2-g4, but in Praggnanandhaa, R - Abdusattorov, N White preferred to first play 9 Qc2 Ngf6 10 Bd2 0-0 11 0-0-0 and only then 12 h3 and g2-g4. However, White's first new move was a mistake and Black pounced to gain a big advantage with sharp tactics involving a temporary queen sacrifice. Black was winning but made a small slip and White managed to claw his way back into the game with a strong exchange sacrifice. An exciting game!
Symmetrical, Kasparov Gambit 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 [A31]
The Kasparov Gambit is still a good aggressive choice for Black. In Ernst, S - Garcia Cuenca, V White played 7 g3, which would not be my choice, and Black replied with the crude 7...0-0 8 N5c3 Ng4! 9 e3 f5:
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Black wants to continue with ...f5-f4 and White has to be very careful. At one point in the endgame White played well and was soon winning, but then made a couple of small slips, allowed the black king to waltz in on his weak dark squares, and found himself in the following dismal position:
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Now Black played 48...a5 and it's total zugzwang! I suppose that both players were short of time around here as not only did Black not win this, he actually found a way to blunder away an exchange and get into a totally lost position! That wasn't the end of the story, though, as White also blundered and the game was drawn, a fair result, after all, I think.
Symmetrical English 3 Nc3 b6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Bb7 [A31]
In Santos Latasa, J - Matlak, O White setup a Maroczy setup by 6 f3 e6 7 e4 d6 8 Be3 a6 9 Be2 Nbd7, but now, rather than the standard 10 0-0, he played the aggressive 10 Qd2 Be7 11 0-0-0!?:
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The question is, compared with, say, a 6 Be3 Najdorf, is the c pawn better on c4 than c2? Certainly the answer was a resounding 'yes' here as White was completely winning very quickly.
Pure Symmetrical, Botvinnik System [A37]
In Matlakov, M - Wei Yi White deferred playing d2-d3 in order to save a move, so after 7 a3 Nge7 8 Rb1 a5 he manoeuvred his knight to c2 immediately by 9 Ne1, answering 9...Be6 with 10 Nd5 0-0 11 Nc2, ready to play the positionally-desirable b2-b4, 11...Rb8 12 b4:
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Black often captures here with the a pawn followed by ...b7-b5, which tends to equality, but here Black played the more ambitious 12...cxb4 13 axb4 b5 14 bxa5 bxc4, gaining a nice central pawn mass, but at the cost of giving White a dangerous passed a pawn.
Until next month, Tony.
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