What's new - July '04
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By far our number one source of income comes from playing tournaments, of course, so we all try to fit our other work in when we can. TonyK |
Shortly after my previous update comes this one! There are two good reasons: firstly, the FIDE World Championships has just finished and so there are lots of interesting games from the last two weeks (and after all, the very latest theory is what this site is all about!), and secondly, I am not playing any tournaments at the moment, so I had lots of time to work on it!Before continuing with the chess, I should mention that subscriber 'Seb' wrote asking: «in his book Nigel Davies suggests 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 what do you think after 3...b5 ? I don't see any clear continuation». Well, it is a very good question! I can't find any games where Black has tried to hang-on to his pawn like this, and so can only suggest that White play 4 a4 c6 5 b3 attacking the queenside pawn chain, but it doesn't look too clear to me.
Does anyone have any ideas? Nigel?
To download the July '04 Flank Openings games directly in PGN form click here: 
English Opening
1...e5
[A26]: Movsesian,S - Acs,P features the Closed English where White plays e3, and Nge2, a very popular system at all levels.
1...c5
[A30]: After 1 Nf3 c5 2 c4 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nigel Short played the astounding 4...f5!?:
            
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In the game Krasenkow,M - Short,N. To my great surprise, not only has this move been played many times before (particularly by the maverick GM Norbert Miezis), but also it is not too bad!
[A33]: Wojtkiewicz,A - Zvjaginsev,V features a speciality of Wojtkiewicz, the Nbd5 and Bf4 variation of the Symmetric Four Knights:
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Zvjaginsev produces a strong innovation, and once again White obtains nothing.
[A34]: Rubinstein's line has a good reputation for Black at the higher levels. In Aronian,L - Smirnov,P White tried Lputian's sharp move, 15 Bxc6!?:
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but Black improves on Lputian-Perunovic, and defends well.
[A34]: Nimzovitch's line with 6 Bc4 is still one of the most exciting for an English Opening player:
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In the mainline White sacrifices a pawn, but gets strong positional compensation, see Filippov,V - Van Wely,L.
Réti
[A06]: Korchnoi tried the Réti/Larsen a couple of times in his recent match, see Korchnoi,V - Vallejo Pons,F, which shows the other game in the notes.
[A07]: Poor Acs suffered badly against the Flank Openings in his match against Movsesian. Here is another defeat, this time in a King's Indian Attack against Capablanca's set-up:
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White was winning, then losing, then winning again in the crazy tactics of Movsesian,S - Acs,P.
[A14]: Another look at one of the mainlines, this time in the following standard position:
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White played the unusual 8 cxd5, see Filippov,V - Grischuk,A
e-mails
Please feel free to share any of your thoughts with me, whatever they are, suggestions, criticisms (just the polite ones, please), etc. Drop me a line at the Flank Openings Forum, or subscribers can write directly to tonykosten@chesspublishing.com
Till next month, Tony K