1 e4 ... February '04 update
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Greetings everyone and welcome to the February Update. This month the games are more than tinged with originality and we have some interesting and very different chess for you. IM Andy Martin |
To download the February '04 1 e4 ... games directly in PGN form, click here: 
Scandinavian Defence
The games commence with a risky display from Eric Prie in a recent French Open tournament. He plays the Scandinavian provocatively to win and has very good results with 3...Qa5. Here he shows that 9...Qxf6!?
            
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is playable in one of the main lines - see Game one.
Pirc/Modern Defence
We then proceed to the Modern, which is always fertile ground for new and different ideas.
In Janev - Todorov my impression is that White castles a little too soon e.g. 6 0-0-0!? giving Black something to aim at and after 14...c5!
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, Todorov was well on the way to obtaining an ideal opening position.
Lahno is courageous against Conquest in Game Four e.g. 7...0-0!?
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but White cannot prove anything special and Black gets good counterplay.
How do you classify the 1 e4 d6 2 d4 c6!?
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of Baklan - Lachmeyer and 1.e4 d6 2 d4 Nd7!?
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of Leskovar - Rodriguez? White has to better in several ways but the one-all score line of the two games reflects the difficulty of pinning the advantage down.
Caro-Kann
Lekic - Burmakin sees another outing for the hybrid Modern/Caro system 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 g6!? 4 Nf3 Bg7:
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Black gives White plenty of rope to hang himself and scores a quick and surprising win.
Igor Miladinovic is definitely a player to watch. His style is flamboyant and his opening choices rank alongside Morozevitch! In Game seven he plays an excellent attacking game lighting the fuse with 5 f3!?:
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Finally, Nataf comes unstuck against the 4...Bf5 Caro in Game 8. He uses an old system, the teeth of which have been drawn e.g. 7 N1e2:
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I like 7...Bd6 now, as recommended by Botvinnik but Hansen shows that 7...Nf6!? is also well playable.
Guess that's it for now - have a great month! IM Andrew Martin
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.