Download PGN of December ’24 Open Sicilian games
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Kan 5.Be3 [B42]
The first game, Svane, F - Kucuksari, K, saw White play the rare 5.Be3!?:
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in order to confuse his lower-rated opponent. It seems that the surprise effect worked as Black erred with 10...Nd7? which put him on the verge of collapse. Frederik soon returned the favor, however, with 13.Be6? which let Kaan stay in the game. Moreover, at some point Black could have seized the initiative, but eventually the higher-rated player won.
The Four Knights 6.a3 d6 [B45]
In Burke, J - Griffith, K White played the original 8.Qe2:
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It looks like Kyron was well-prepared for it, as Black correctly reacted with 8...e5! followed by 10...a5! Perhaps such an energetic response confused John, and after 14.Be3? White quickly find himself on the verge of defeat. Luckily for him, Black first liquidated into a drawish endgame with 19...Qb8? and then let White's king in with 31...Rf7?
A very spectacular struggle!
Taimanov 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Ndb5 [B47]
In the game Brkic, A - Santos Latasa, J the players entered a relatively sharp and trendy position after 9...Be7:
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Perhaps Ante was trying to deviate from his opponent's preparation, so White went for the quieter 10.0-0 and the game soon transposed to Classical Scheveningen paths. At some point Jaime chose the risky 17...Ne8, but it was fully justified - GM Brkic didn't react aggressively, and a draw was soon accepted.
At the moment, it looks like 10.g4 is the only challenge for Black in this line.
Classical Richter-Rauzer 7.Qd3 Bd7 [B62]
An interesting theoretical discussion took place in one of the Classical side lines in Druska, J - Oparin, G. In the position after 14...Bg7:
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Juraj played the new move 15.Nd2 that doesn't seem to offer White anything special. However, the surprise effect achieved its aim, and the impulsive 19...f5?! allowed White to seize the initiative. Luckily for Grigoriy, at the critical moment White went astray, first with 22.Nf3? and then with 24.g5? At the end, the higher-rated player scored a convincing victory.
Najdorf 6.Rg1 h5 [B90]
The next game, Iskandarov, M - Rodshtein, M, saw the players enter a sharp and relatively rare position after 10.f4:
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Maxim decided to wrongly follow in Keymer's footsteps with 10...b4?! which made White's development advantage very significant. However, the really critical moment came on move 15, when 15...Qxa2! could have led to a spectacular struggle, when all three results are possible. Instead, 15...Rh6? let White develop a crushing attack and win in elegant style.
In general, 6...h5 is one of most interesting ways to meet 6.Rg1.
Najdorf 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 h5 [B90]
This time we have 2 interesting games in the fashionable Najdorf line with ...Be7+...h5. First, in Ponomariov, R - Aizenberg, B White played 10.Nd5 and later deviated from Dominguez - Caruana with 15.Bd3:
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Perhaps Benny messed something up in his preparation and inaccurately played 16...Nd7? As a result, White managed to seize the initiative with 17.0-0-0! Black's position was rather unpleasant till the end of the game, but Ruslan didn't handle it properly and let Black build a sort of fortress at the end.
Najdorf 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Qf3 [B90]
In another game, Ganguly, S - Erigaisi, A, White chose 10.Be2. Arjun reacted with the relatively fresh 12...Qc7:
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This interesting approach (Black keeps his king in the centre for a while) worked well in this game, and GM Erigaisi obtained an excellent position with good attacking prospects. The further play of Arjun wasn't perfect, and at some point he could have found himself in difficult situation. The really critical point came on move 29, when GM Ganguly didn't manage to withstand the pressure and quickly collapsed after 29.Qd4?
Najdorf 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qf3 [B95]
In our last game, Esipenko, A - Salem, A, White chose an ambitious but quite risky setup. In the position after 10.0-0-0:
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which already looks more pleasant for Black, GM Salem came up with a natural novelty 10...Nc6, followed by 11...b5. This plan is rather dangerous for White in view of the upcoming ...b5-b4, but starting from 12...Bb7?! Black went astray a few times and eventually got positionally busted.
See you next month, Michael
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