Feb '00 Update
Paulsen/ Taimanov
Hello my chess friends. February's update starts off with Dolmatov putting the wood to the Paulsen-Kan not once but twice in impressive fashion as well, see FED374 and FED375.
In a battle of the big boys Kramnik draws with Leko in a very unclear situation. Despite heroic efforts de Firmian couldn't crack Svidler's stodgy hedgehog setup in FED379.
The World Champion suprisingly played something other than his beloved Najdorf and made it look easy vs Barua, see FED380.
J Polgar drew easily vs Adams' inaccurate opening in FED377 and in Gruenfeld - Katzir we see another example of a ...Bc5 system going horribly wrong.
We wind up this months B40 to B49 update with Nijboer making an old variation look old in FED381.
The Kasparov game deserves special attention. It isn't entirely clear where white went wrong so this could be food for thought for players on both sides of the variation.
Scheveningen/English Attack
This months B80 to B89 Najdorf/Schevenigen update is one of our more interesting ones. The red hot scorching theory was played by the big boys.
This month's entertainment was provided by the Dutch GM Luc Van Wely. This guy is one stubborn persistent dude. First he gets waxed by Kasparov (FED398. and Morozevich (FED399. then he improves to draw with Anand (FED402. only to run into a Timman prepared buzzsaw (FED401..
Tiviakov - Danailov is the right thing to do and Van Wely tried again vs Kasparov, this time achieving a playable position, see FED405. I give the guy an A+ for effort. In FED404 his exchange sac gave him good play. White shouldn't allow this type of sacrifice.
FED400 shows that, though the Keres Attack is a dangerous weapon against a pure Scheveningen move order, Black has decent ways of meeting it.
Enjoy
Najdorf
Hello Najdorf enthuisiasts. This month's update sees some new developments in a very theoretical line. In both games white comes out on top using 10 h3!? instead of 10 Be2 h5 11 Bg4 hg4 which didn't bring white much happiness. It appears the weakness of f5 can pay white serious dividends.
In Kasparov - Polgar white wins in flashy fashion, even so white appears to have all kinds of nice ideas.
Anand - Gelfand is a rapid play game, but white won with ease. I'm predicting a new wave of popularity from 10 h3.
Black continues to get solid results in the Be3, f3 line. Check over David - Dinstuhl and Berkvens - Ashley. I like white's method of play in Dolmatov - Zakarov, but black played inaccurately.
We round out this Najdorf update with a solid effort from black in Polgar - Van Wely. As is usual the Najdorf provides some excitement and some fresh ideas as one of the more reliable open Sicilians.
Good Hunting to my friends around the world.
Richter Rauzer
Our February update sees B Avrukh playing what has become his pet line. In two games he made a 1-1 score.
vs Anand in FED391 he ran into an apparent improvement 12 Qe1!? and never found the thread. In FED394 Greenfeld missteps and pays dearly. I could see this Avrukh specialty gaining momentum down the road. I'm noticing a trend around here, these ...Qb6 lines in various positions are scoring well for the second player.
I'm sure we are all happy to see Rauzer hero Kozul back on the beam. He suffered vs Luther in FED395. but rebounds in FED397 to win a sparkler vs Filipenko. In FED396 black chalks another one up for this older variation which seems to improve with age.
The variation in FED393 has brought black reasonable success for quite a while now.
Naditch - Wells, Anand - Kramnik and Polgar - Anand illustrate some worthwhile ideas as well. FED392 - I think this looks like it could catch on vs the 8...h6 variation.
Sveshnikov/ Kalashnikov
This month's Sveshnikov/Lasker and Kalishnikov update sees a lot from the S/L and not much from the Kalishnikov.
Especially interesting is Kasparov - Leko a game where black neutralized the champion quite easily. Leko also had an effortless draw vs J Polgar in FED368 proving again that he's the world's leading authority on this opening.
In my opinion Fedorov - Grishin shows the correct path in the positional line, while Nunn - Delaney and Shabalov - Halkias are worth a look.
FED371 shows black's best try vs the so called positional line.
Our only Kalishnikov in FED369 sees Shabalov one of it's main practitioners lose kinda easily.
Enjoy!
Classical Sozin/ Two Knights
Our February B54-B59 update sees black going hogwild in the Benko System vs the Sozin. White's only draw was in Polgar - Timman and even here black had some advantage. Black romped in Velimirovic - Damljanovic, Cuartas - Pupo, and Saladen - Pupo. Thus the Benko proves itself once again.
We switch gears to Morozevich - Milos where white emerges victorious but with a lot of help from black. Mateus - Abreu shows model black play vs white's inaccurate opening.
See you all next month and Good Luck, GM Johnny Fed