What's New - April 2001
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Welcome to the April Update! I recently received an email from a fan of the ...a6 Slav. In particular, he is interested in the line 5.e3 b5 6.b3 Bg4 7.Be2 Nbd7 8.00 e6 9.Bb2 Bd6 (or 9...Be7)" I liked this request because it focusses on a concrete and really important variation for theoretical examination, and so half of this update is dedicated to it. Bye for now! Ruslan Scherbakov |
            
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...a6 Slav
APR01/01 is quite a typical game for this variation- White kept some slight pressure but Black defended successfully- however, when his problems were almost solved he suddenly went astray.
His advantage in development often allows White to take control of the c-file, which promises him a small edge. Black usually tries to neutralise White's initiative by simplification. In APR01/02 Black defends precisely and the invasion does not give White serious winning chances.
After h2-h3 Black chooses an unusual Bishop retreat in APR01/03- to f5. Soon White gains the Bishop pair but the position looks too blocked up for White to get something real from this. Yet White finds a way to keep up the pressure, and Black could not cope with the problems.
APR01/04 Here Black tried to solve his problems in simple fashion- by attacking both the Knight on e5 and the Bishop on b2 with his Queen on b8, he was probably hoping to force favourable exchanges. However, instead White sacrificed a pawn, seized a strong initiative against his rival's centralised King, and finished the game with an excellent and well-calculated attack.
APR01/05 Here an interesting novelty helps Black achieve good play. Trying to maintain his disappearing initiative White fortifies his Knight on e5 with the dubious f2-f4, and suffers for the rest of the game from the weakened e4-square, eventually failing to hold on to a worse ending due to inaccurate play.
Chigorin
The Chigorin Defence does not seem to be an appropriate opening for super-tournaments. Nevertheless Alexander Morozevich was brave enough to play it at Wijk aan Zee and scored 1.5 points from two games! To tell the truth he was lost in APR01/06, against Jeroen Piket, but managed to confuse his opponent in time-trouble...
Despite having been under severe pressure against Jeroen Piket, Alexander Morozevich ventured to repeat the Chigorin Defence in APR01/07, against Vishy Anand. Perhaps the FIDE World Champion did not expect it, as it worked very well - only Anand's composure helped him hold the balance.
Robert Rabiega is a hero of the Chigorin Defence: you may remember his excellent victory over Alexander Nenashev in the German Championship 2001 (RS336.. However in APR01/08 he faces an interesting novelty in the main line, and is knocked out on move 18!
Meran
APR01/09 By playing an early Nd4 White tries to entice Black into a rather dangerous variation, but Robert Kuczynski (who is one of the biggest Meran experts) tried an unusual but fairly interesting idea, and outplayed his very strong opponent. Only severe time pressure prevented him from realising his clear advantage.
QGD Exchange
The manoeuvre ...Nf6-h5, connected with an early exchange of dark-squared Bishops, allows Black to place all his pieces without problems as he often suffers from a lack of good squares. However the loss of time involved prevents him placing his pieces actively, and he is usually forced to defend passively. Nevertheless White's task of maintaining the initiative is not easy, as Black has a rather solid position and no pawn weaknesses. In the featured game, APR01/10, Rustam Kasymdzhanov introduces a very interesting set-up which allows him to save a couple of important tempi and the result is that Black is too slow in regrouping his pieces for defence.