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Hello again and welcome to the November update. Another high powered update; all but one of the players are Grandmasters (and the other defeated a GM himself)! I've gone for a wide selection of openings with the Caro-Kann, one Philidor (which I considered similar enough to the Pirc and Modern for this section- apologies if I've stolen it from someone else's section), Scandinavian and Modern.

Download PGN of November '10 1 e4 ... games


Scandinavian Defence

We start off with a look at Shirov - Tiviakov in which the fiery Latvian destroys Black's 3...Qd6 Scandinavian with a very aggressive line. After 14 d5! Black was in a lot of trouble:

In Petrosian - Kurajica I continue to examine the 3...Qd6 Scandinavian with the topical 5...g6 line. White played the most aggressive line and Black erred early.

Here 14 Qc2! left Black in deep trouble.



Pirc/Modern Defence

Moving onto the Modern, we see the critical Austrian Attack against Tiger's Modern. Mekhitarian - Ahmadinia saw Black equalise fairly comfortably and then a strong knight sacrifice saw him take over the advantage. This is the position after 20...e5 when Black's central pawns are easily worth a piece:

I'm not sure what category the next game falls into but ChessBase calls it B06 so I'll include it here. Lenderman - Becerra Rivero saw the Caro-Kann-Modern Hybrid of 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 g6. Black played the unusual 6...Na6!?:

and outplayed his opponent in a nice game.


Philidor

Strictly speaking I'm not sure if this falls into my section but it started life as a Pirc so I'm claiming it! Svidler - Salgado Lopez saw an important upset in the Russia-Spain match. Here Black came up with a great move, completely blowing White off the board:

See if you can spot it!



Caro-Kann - Two Knights Variation

I finish this month's update with three games in the Caro-Kann.

In Short-L'Ami Black quickly exchanged queens and reached the following position:

The position looks rather dull but White used his bishop pair to great effect and won very comfortably. This is definitely an important line to be aware of, from both sides of the board.


Short Variation

Karjakin - Tukhaev shows the newly converted Russian showing off some more of his preparation in the topical 5...c5, 6...Qb6 line. 12.Ndb5!? is a novelty:

I believe Black should be able to keep equality with accurate play but he has some more problems to resolve.


Classical Caro-Kann

Finally we look at Balogh - Rodshtein which features the topical 15.g4 in the mainline. Black came up with an important new counterattacking idea with 16...Nd5!:

Black's attack on the queenside shouldn't be underestimated. Check out the game for some fascinating lines!



That's it for this week and I hope you enjoy looking through these new developments. I'll see you all again in December!

Gawain

Please post you queries on the 1 e4 ... Forum, or subscribers can email me at support@chesspublishing.com.