August 2004
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IM Andy Martin |
Greetings! This intro will be a little shorter than usual. I'm worked off my feet here at the BCF Centenary British Championship in Scarborough.To download the August '04 1 e4 ... games directly in PGN form, click here: 
A number of short, sharp games for you this month but packed with new moves and ideas.
Scandinavian Defence
We start with a Main Line Scandinavian Check out 12...b5!?:
            
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and the attendant analysis in Pavlogianni - Makropoulous.
3...Qd6 gets very rough treatment in Bologan - Gofshtein. Observe 8 g3!? which works fantastically:
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But then it was only a blitz game.
Alekhine's Defence
Adams - Nakamura is a quick draw for Black in an unfashionable line of the Alekhine e.g. 4 Nf3 Nc6!?:
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After playing through the game we can put this down to White not wishing to lose rather than the opening idea being anything special.
Pirc/Modern Defence
Moving on to Majboob - Azmaiparashvili, which starts out Pirc-style, and becomes a Phildor, when White is careless Black unleashes the thematic 7...d5!
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This is an entirely logical move with the white King hanging around in the middle and although Black won, my analysis shows that he could play even better than he did!
Caro-Kann
Aronian - Carlsen is a theoretical 2 c4 Caro where Black prepared the improvement 12...e5!:
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which seems to equalize immediately. Another crucial game.
Cernousek - Mista is another outing for 1 e4 c6 2 Nf3 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 Ne5!? But I'm beginning to have my doubts. What Black did in this game was very effective e.g. 4...Nd7! 5 d4 g6!:
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, yet another efficient novelty.
Nijboer - Bosboom is a murky Caro/Modern. Black's a bit worse after 11...a5:
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and I think White can increase his advantage with 12 exd5! exd5 13 Re2! But Nijboer doesn't do that.
Finally Chuprov - Burmakin is a rare White win in the Capablanca Variation perhaps thanks to the move 16 Ndxe2!:
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, keeping pieces on for a middlegame squeeze. A game which ends in an unusual zugzwang.
Well, rather than shorter than usual, I seem to have written as much as I normally do!
Have a great month!
Andrew
Please post you queries on the 1 e4 ... Forum, or subscribers can write to me at AMartin@ChessPublishing.com if you have any questions or queries.