Download PGN of August '10 Open Sicilian games
The Taimanov
How long it now seems since Morozevich's 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Be3 a6 7 Qd2 Nf6 8 0-0-0 Be7 9 f3 0-0 was a welcome new development in Black's armoury against White's English Attack approach. That was only a couple of years ago and while it's not clear that there's anything too much wrong with 9...0-0, the move has virtually been dropped by the leading Taimanov practitioners, largely because 9...h5! is in such good shape:
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Against this prophylactic approach White has tried all manner of ideas in his quest for an advantage, but without rarely obtaining more than an unclear middlegame. We examine the latest developments in Negi - Vachier Lagrave, focussing especially on the fairly critical 10 Nxc6 bxc6 11 Bf4 e5 12 Bg5, prioritising piece-play. White plans to blunt Black's b-file counterattack by placing his light-squared bishop on b3, but Black has a few viable counter-plans.
The Classical Sicilian: The Richter-Rauzer
Right at the start of the year we examined Jobava's recent interest in the then extremely-rare 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 d6 6 Bg5 e6 7 Qd2 Be7 8 0-0-0 0-0 9 f4 Nxd4 10 Qxd4 Qa5 11 Bc4 (we'll also consider this month a new idea of the said Jobava's against 11 e5) 11...Rd8!?:
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Due to some recent imitators, including even in the game Kasimdzhanov - Sanikidze from last month's Turkish Team Championship, I've taken another look at the perfectly-natural rook move. Kasim came up with a highly-interesting double-pawn sacrifice, which really deserves further tests. I'm not convinced that White had more than enough compensation, but Black's queenside was rather tied up and his position not so easy to handle. Indeed, Kasim already had dangerous attacking chances by the time that the Georgian GM made a pretty bad oversight, seemingly forgetting about his opponent's play in an almost solipsistic moment.
The Najdorf: 6 h3
To some having a sub-category for 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 may seem plain wrong, but the simple truth is that this little move just won't go away. Not only will we see Vallejo it employing this month, but Naiditsch and Nepomniachtchi too. At this point I must draw the more creative subscriber's attention to Sutovsky's 6...Nbd7!? 7 g4 g6, echoing an approach Black sometimes employs against 6 f4. However, most folk continue to favour 6...e6 7 g4 and then either the topical 7...Be7 8 Bg2 Nfd7!? or the traditional 7...d5:
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After the latter White usually continues 8 exd5 Nxd5 and then either 9 Bd2 or 9 Nde2, but in Vallejo - Van Wely the immediate 8 Nde2!? is seen. This has actually received some correspondence tests, but Black should be okay even if 8...Bb4 9 exd5 Qxd5!? 10 Qxd5 Nxd5 11 Bg2! was perhaps a touch more pleasant for White to handle in the game.
The Najdorf: 6 Be3
So to keep any theory junkies out there happy we'd best move on with some coverage of the ultra-theoretical 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 e5 7 Nb3 Be6 8 f3 Be7 9 Qd2 0-0 10 0-0-0 Nbd7 11 g4 b5 12 g5 b4 13 Ne2 Ne8 14 f4 (they rarely play much else these days) 14...a5 15 f5 in Van Oosterom-Kukk:
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Kukk went 15...a4, but also in the World Correspondence Final the leading Dutch player demonstrated against Vrkoc that 15...Bxb3 16 cxb3 a4 17 bxa4 Rxa4 18 Kb1 Rxa2 isn't necessarily enough for Black to claim equality. However, Van Oosterom certainly found matters much tougher against Kukk's choice. Perhaps De la Villa is correct that White should avoiding forcing matters after 15...a4 with 16 Nbd4!? for Black manages to draw without too much difficulty.
The Najdorf: 6 Be2
Dare I say that Van Oosterom will have happier memories of his experiences on the black side of the Najdorf from this Final in which he finished third? Indeed, after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e5 7 Nb3 Be6 8 Be3 Be6 9 Nd5 Nbd7 10 Qd3 0-0 11 0-0 Bxd5 12 exd5 he produced a model performance in Sasvari - Van Oosterom:
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At this stage Black used to go 12...Nc5 then, for some not entirely clear reasons, 12...Rc8 became fashionable and now there's a third move to consider, 12...Ne8!?. Indeed, after 13 Qd2 f5 there's no real reason for Black to fear the natural block, 14 f4, and all Najdorf players should learn much from Van Oosterom's deep dark-square play and gradual attack.
The Najdorf: 6 Bg5
Nigel Short and Matthew Sadler (making a most welcome if sadly rare tournament appearance) have both gone 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 of late, surprisingly I would say for neither is nowadays known as a lover of theory. However, all becomes clear after 6...e6 - they have been drawn to 7 Qf3!?. This move is perhaps not as tame as theory has suggested and we'll consider it along with developments after 7 f4 Qc7 in Motylev - Zhao Jun, which White wins, but Black's idea of 8 Bxf6 gxf6 9 Qd2 Nc6 10 0-0-0 Bd7 11 Kb1 Be7!? deserves further attention, if not his follow-up. The notes reveal why the more usual 11...h5 and 11...0-0-0 may not suffice for full equality, or perhaps I should say that the ball is currently in Black's court after them.
A line rarely seen in grandmaster praxis these days is the Old Main Line, 7...Be7 8 Qf3 Qc7 9 0-0-0 Nbd7, especially then the continuation 10 g4 b5 (the rare 10...Rb8?! isn't great and gives White a few options, including the dangerous new attempt at refutation: 11 e5!?) 11 Bxf6 Nxf6 12 g5 Nd7 13 f5 Nc5 14 f6 gxf6 15 gxf6 Bf8 16 Rg1:
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16...h5 was for quite a while considered the correct choice for Black, but some recent games have suggested that older annotators were wrong to denote the forcing 16...b4 with a '?'. We'll examine this new evidence in Kukk - Blanco Gramajo.
This year's British Championship has seen the usual lack of exciting Open Sicilians on the top boards, but I'm sure that plenty of other current events will remedy that particular English disease and so supply much for discussion next month!
Arivaderchi! Richard
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 Open Sicilians Forum, or subscribers can write directly to richard@chesspublishing.com