Jan '00 Update
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Happy New Year to all my friends around the world. It seems we all survived our Y2K fears and continue to be in one piece. |
Richter Rauzer
We start our B60 to B69 January 2000 update with some good news. Not only do we have a Kozul sighting, but his opening is gaining in popularity. Before long we'll have everyone in the world playing this variation. We have four interesting games with our hero Zdenko defeating the strong Chilean GM Ivan Morovic, see FED344. Atalik was like a Rauser machine in his victory over Sollenveld (see FED351..
Enders - Baklan and Rajlich - Balogh worked out well for black as well.
Rauser advocates should keep a close watch on the f3 variations. There is no need to panic, but white has been doing well. Witness Bologan - Zvaginsev and Lanka - Heinbuch.
The Icelandic GM Stefansson continues his domination in the ...h6 variation. See his game with Ramos Aguilar in FED346.
Maierov - Fomchenko shows a variation that white must rethink; in my opinion black gets nice positions from the opening. If white doesn't play 9 Nb3 then he must turn to either f3 or f4.
Medvegy - Van der Weide is completely reasonable for black, but white has alternatives.
Rahal - Vidarte Morales illustrates an offbeat variation which I remember from when I was a kid. It's very complicated and quite unclear as well.
Paulsen/ Taimanov
Our B40 to B49 Pausen Kan update sees some interesting stuff. We have three Hedgehog type positions. Lastin - Shaposhnikov sees white play a proper game vs the fianchetto and win well; Zapata - Corradine sees black reach a good setup only to ruin it, while Korneev - Kovacevic shows off good use of a space advantage. I must say that I never thought too much of these k-side fianchetto systems.
In Damaso - Spraggett black's opening looks suspect.
The best game is Leko - Khalifman where white's handing of the position makes one wonder about the viability of black's opening.
Socko - Taimanov sees white hand the man a convincing defeat in his own opening.
FED334 This line looks a little odd, but it's not bad for black with correct play. Black must take care not to give up too much territory.
We wind up with three irregular systems in Zapata - Mosquera, Tiviakov - Van Beek and Svidler - Karasev.
Najdorf
Our January 2000 update sees some interesting developments. One thing I noticed is the total disappearance of 6 Rg1, and I think GM Topalov's recent play has a lot to do with it.
This month the 6 Be3 e5 trend continues with 3 games. Makarov - Dvoirys, Lastin-Dvoirys. and Kobalija - Gadjily. Of these 3 I recommend that Najdorf players on the black side look carefully at Makarov - Dvoirys. I think these lines with ...a5 at some point make the most sense. Black gets very nice counterplay.
The other 3 games see white get good positions. In de Firmian-Roeder we see white emerge victorious in an older 6 Be2 variation while Ramirez - Roeder is comfortable for black and is another battle tested line. Burnett - Roeder is a g3 variation which we might see more of as the trends come and go. If black players don't like the looks of 6...e5 they should turn to 6...e6 which is solid enough.
Scheveningen
The January 2000 B80 to 89 update sees some worthwhile ideas from both sides. Check out the Sozins in Van Riemsdyk-Smith, Bosch - Lanka and Istrati - Peptan where I saw some interesting ideas for the second player.
In Bojic - Cebalo black tries something I've been wondering about. He plays against a Keres Attack with white having the useless f3 thrown in. The 2 Keres attack where white wins are Van Riemsdyk-B Watson and Calota - Voicu but black didn't function in either case. Nick de Firmian treats Mr Mueller very rudely after black plays an inferior idea, see FED360.
FED358 shows that Black should beware of captures on c6 when retaking with the pawn is forced.
Classical Sozin/ Two Knights
The B54 to 59 January update sees 2 interesting Benko systems in Voicu - Peptan and Parligras - Nevednichy. I think this system is a good way to avoid the craziness of the Velimerovic Attack. It's been around forever and is very reliable. People are playing f3 vs just about anything. I don't think black should be frightened.
In the games Tindall - Dwyer and Shaposhnikov - Ionov black shows some ideas and plans. In Salmensuu - Atalik black gets an Ok game, but I think he has better alternatives.
We finish off with FED341 where black played well against white's insipid play.
Sveshnikov/ Kalashnikov
Our January 2000 update sees some strange trends in the Sveshnikov-Cheliabinsk-Pelikan area. In all 5 of these games (Almasi - Illescas Cordoba, Van den Doel-Wiersma, Petrov - Ravagnani, Maiorov - Beshukov and Dervishi - Cacco black, instead of playing the absolutely solid main line, tried an inferior collection of moves. Of course black payed dearly with lots of suffering.
Take a look and then PLEASE play the main line. Bereguez - Sarmiento is a Lowenthal variation which I don't have a lot of respect for. White has a safe path to an edge or some very complicated lines that are a bit messy. This month we didn't see a lot on the Kalishnikov front. I'm sure in the February update we'll hear more from this variation.
Good Luck to my Sicilian friends. And as my friend GM Yasser Seirawan likes to say "enjoy".
Happy Holidays and Good Chess from GM JF