What's Hot- September'00
Novelty of the monthThe c3 Sicilian is one of the most popular openings at club level and has also enjoyed success among the world's elite. This is why Black is always looking for ways to confuse and trick White from playing his normal game. It might explain why the Swiss GM Nemet played the novelty of the month by meeting 1 e4 c5 2 c3 d5 3 exd5 with 3…Nf6!?, see Extroem - Nemet. |
            
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He follows up with an unusual pattern of development but is surprisingly caught out in the opening when White moves his king after 9 moves, which is sufficient for the GM to contemplate resignation!
A rising Russian star is Maxim Turov who has been spending his time winning numerous tournaments in Europe. We catch up with him in Greece when Turov - Botsari is a good example of the Rossolimo featuring the move-order 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 e6 4 Bxc6 bxc6 5 0-0 Ne7 6 d3 Ng6 and now the aggressive 7 Ng5
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helps White to start a strong attack.
The line looks good and has another outing in the game Rechlis-I.Botvinnik where Black gives up after 27 moves.
A more positional approach for White is explored in Huebner - Abramovic after 7 Nbd2. Huebner gives a good demonstration of how to handle the middlegame by using his space advantage thoughtfully to manoeuvre his pieces.