The Latest Developments - October 2003
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Whilst looking at the latest TWICs from the first half of this month I was surprised at the number of high quality Flank Opening games in just a couple of weeks, which is why this update comes to you only 3 weeks after the September edition. Note that there is once more a new E-mailbag for this month. TonyK |
I am actually playing the Open tournament at Cap D'Agde (in the South of France) at the moment, and hoping to watch the World Rapid Championships, featuring nine of the World's ten best (only Kasparov is missing), later tonight. Fortunately the event is organised so that the weaker players can play their games, and then watch the 'real chess' afterwards in excellent conditions.
Everyone eats together, too, and it is a real treat to dine with 'la crème de la crème'. Last night I was on the same table as Peter Leko, Judit Polgar and their respective partners, but I didn't have the nerve to ask Peter why he stopped being a vegetarian (I am still, of course).
Before all that, though, I am trying to get this update online, and was helped by my work for this site as this was the reason I only used 15 minutes to win my game this afternoon!
I decided to try something we had looked at 3 years ago in the Symmetrical:
          
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Do you remember this position, from Krasenkow-Macieja?
I played 12...Rb8!? as in that game, and after 13 Nxf7+ Ke8 14 Nxh8 Rxb2 my opponent blundered with 15 f3? (15 Rd4 is forced) 15...Bb4 16 g3?! Nd5 17 Kf2 Bc5+ 18 Ke1 Nxc3 and he resigned, as after 19 Rc1 Be3 the move 20 Ra1 is forced, but then White cannot move any of his bits!
Actually, my game from the day before was pretty quick, too, as I used the Gurevich System, sacrificed my g and h-pawns and destroyed my opponent's king position, but perhaps more of that next month!
To download the October '03 Flank Openings games directly in PGN form click here: 
English Opening
1...e5
[A21]: After 2...Bb4 3 Nd5
 
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the move 3...Bc5 hasn't been played a lot recently, and perhaps the game Poldauf,D - Kasimdzhanov,R explains why, although Black can prefer 4...c6, of course.
[A28]: In the Four Knights 4 e3 doesn't really seem to offer much on 4...Bb4, but 4...Be7 is also possible, and the game Filippov,V - Joachim,S follows an old idea of Zaitsev that was used by Karpov with success.
[A28]: Korchnoi has been trying 4 a3 recently, but his originality only brought him big problems in Korchnoi,V - Rublevsky,S, although his technique was sufficient to hold a draw (just!)
1...c5
[A36]: Thiede,L - Filippov,V gave me another chance to look at the pawn sac I advocated in The Dynamic English:
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and although Black eventually won, he was quite lost at several points.
1...Nf6 & others
[A16]: Another queen for 3 pieces swap in Khalifman,A - McShane,L, but unfortunately it was agreed drawn a little too soon for my taste!
[A17]: What would a Flank Openings update be without a 4 g4 win in the Nimzo-English? However, in Bareev,E - Naiditsch,A I am not convinced that White wasn't in trouble for most of the game.
Réti
[A04]: Tkachiev,V - Clarke,T is a bit of a crush (well, White is much stronger than his opponent) but is another opportunity to look at an interesting anti-Dutch system played with brio.
[A09]: Granda Zuniga,J - Lima,D features an original anti-QGA idea for White, but White didn't follow it up too well, and then blundered.
[A13]: One of the nice things about the Flank Openings is that you can sometimes follow a pre-arranged plan and get a good position, almost without thinking, see Kharlov,A - Izoria,Z.
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