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Advance Variation 5...Nh6 [C02]
Let's return to the variation 3...c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Nh6, which continues to score satisfactorily for the second player:
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Both Ding Liren- Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Shijiazhuang 2013, and Dzhumaev - Kotsur, Dushanbe 2013, continued 6 Bd3 cxd4 7 Bxh6 gxh6 8 cxd4. In the former game, Black chooses 8...Bg7 and White wins a nice game. In the latter, Black plays the interesting 8...Qb6! and gets good play.
Dzhumaev - Kostenko, Dushanbe 2013, went into a more standard position via 6 a3 Nf5 7 b4 cxd4 8 cxd4, when 8...Bd7 followed by ...Rc8 and ...Qb6 led to this double-edged position (there are however many options for both sides):
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Now Black played the normal-looking 11...Qb6 with equality, while the move 11...g5!? would have been most interesting.
Tarrasch Guimard Variation 3...Nc6, 6 Bd3 f6 [C04]
Only one game this month, Bojkovic - Paehtz, Warsaw 2014, in which a critical line of the Guimard Variation is tested: 3 Nd2 Nc6 4 Ngf3 Nf6 5 e5 Nd7 6 Bd3 f6 7 Ng5. We've seen this often (see the Archives), with the important games reaching this key position:
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The game goes in a unique direction but confirms our previous assessment.
Winawer Poisoned Pawn 12 Nxc3 [C18]
White is still trying his luck in the Poisoned Pawn main line with 12 Nxc3 (instead of 12 Qd3) 12...Nd4 13 Bb2 Bd7 14 0-0-0:
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In Becerra Rivero-Bhat, US Chess League KO 2013, Black played 14...Qb6!?, which is probably adequate to achieve a level game, but produces some difficult-to-handle positions for both sides.
A more easily analyzable line begins with 14...Ndf5!, played in this month's Nakauchi - Zelesco, Melbourne 2014. As indicated by the notes in the game, that move that has now received enough analysis in both books and games to justify a conclusion that the play is equal.
Poisoned Pawn 10...dxc3, 12...Na6 [C18]
Nicholas Pert's French DVD features the Winawer Poisoned Pawn main line, both with 11...dxc3 and 11...Bd7. But in Milliet - Pert, Hastings Masters 2013-14, undoubtedly fearing preparation, he switched to the rare sequence 10..dxc3 11 f4 Bd7 12 Qd3 Na6!?
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This worked out well, yielding only a tiny advantage (if that), and current theory doesn't include any good line versus this order, much less a refutation.
Classical Steinitz 7...Be7, 9...Nxc5 [C11]
We've looked at many, many games following 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 c5 6 Nf3 Nc6 (last month we looked at 6...Be7!?) 7 Be3 Be7. Thomas Johansson sent us five correspondence games played for the ChessPublishing team in this line with extremely deep annotations. I'll include them over the next two months, adding only very limited comments and references to earlier games and analysis from ChessPublishing.
The three games from this month's batch all begin with 8 Qd2 0-0 9 dxc5 Nxc5 (heretofore 9...Bxc5 has been more common) 10 0-0-0 a6:
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Eberl - Johansson, ICCF 2013, continued 12 f5!?, with a dynamic game in which White can sometimes head for a draw should he seem to be losing the initiative.
The move 12 Kb1 is safe and solid; this is featured in Verhoef - Johansson, ICCF 2013.
Finally, 12 Qf2 is met by 12...b6 in Sadowski - Johansson, ICCF 2013. This apparently improves upon 12...Qa5 as previously played.
Till next month, John
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