July '00 Update
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Hi everyone! Another first time for me as I find myself writing this month's update on the road so to speak. Yes I'm currently at the Copenhagen Open and as Mr Chesspublishing.com himself has requested that this comes in earlier than usual, I can only assume that you will have it posted ahead of schedule too. |
I was hoping that there would be a Dragon encounter or two early on in this tournament that I could deliver direct to you and as if by magic today I got a rare chance to employ my favourite opening. Yes extremely hot off the press (I only finished the game an hour ago) comes a round two tussle where my opponent seemed intent to sacrifice as much as he could. Of interesting theoretical value too is this 9 Bc4 Yugoslav Attack …Qa5. Kb1 and h4 variation entitled appropriately 'The Caveman Cometh!'.
My intention is to keep my eyes peeled over the next couple of days for any other Dragon/Accelerated Dragon games (as well as playing my own games too!) and to combine this with a similar "current encounters" theme to the one employed last month.
For me the British Championship follows this, but I will be back home in time to write the August update which will include any outstanding promised material (including the …b5 pawn sac in the 9 0-0-0 Nxd4 10 Bxd4 Be6 line).
No mail this month (thank you!) but by all means get any queries in for next month.
Okay I've now managed to scrape to 3/3 and I'll sign off here. You will see that I have included 5 games of varying standards from the first couple of rounds of this event. The games may not all be of theoretical importance, but it shows how the trends are and the mistakes that are still made at lower levels.
There is the Maroczy Bind Accelerated Dragon in Gulko - Nielsen, two fascinating Bc4 Accelerated Dragons in Laursen - Nilssen and Brinck Clausen-Andersson as well a pretty miserable Levenfish, see CW142.
Finally there are 2 recent White crunches in the Yugoslav Attack from somewhere other than Denmark!: CW145 sees a 9 Bc4 where Black pfaffs around with …a6 (not to be recommended) and in CW146 another tempo losing 9 0-0-0 Bd7.
New Games
Accelerated Dragon
Showing Respect A cheeky attempt is made to blow away a super GM. When it fails though Black is quick to throw in the towel.
The Swiss Open Scalp A shock to many as White overcomes a 300 point rating disadvantage to vanquish his opponent. Nevertheless it now appears to be a ropey Accelerated Dragon line for Black and White fully deserved his victory.
White squares Vs dark square is how this tussle may be billed but at the end of the day it just came down to some tricks.
Yugoslav 9 Bc4
'The Caveman Cometh!' But fortunately he leaves with his tail between his legs. A case of sac, sac, but not mate!
Caught in possession! The Dragon isn't the opening to be caught dwelling on the ball. Black takes his time and is punished in this delightful miniature.
Yugoslav 9 O-O-O
Donating Tempi is definitely not advised in the Yugoslav Attack. When playing a competent opponent there can only be one outcome.
Levenfish
Grass roots and below! Black's handling of the Levenfish leaves a lot to be desired in this low board encounter of an early round big Open event.