Download PGN of August '05 1 d4 d5 games

Ragozin Variation [D38]

Here is the position after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 Bb4 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bg5 Nbd7 7 e3 c5 8 Bd3 Qa5 9 Qc2 c4 10 Bf5 0-0 11 0-0 Re8 12 Nd2 g6 13 Bxd7 Nxd7:

Arencibia - Disconzi da Silva: In the critical position after 13. Bxd7 Nxd7 White faces a rather important choice. Whilst pushing the black bishop with 14 a3 clarifies the situation, in many cases this turns out to be a waste of time since Black often parts with his bishop anyway, without an invitation! Nevertheless, Black must always be careful with his vulnerable king and in this game he allowed White to launch a crushing attack.

Pinter - Greenfeld: In order to get activity for his pieces the e3-e4 advance is White's main idea - it increases the power of his pieces, which are getting closer to the Black's weakened kingside. However, before pushing his e-pawn forward, White has to do something with his bishop on g5, as otherwise this piece comes under attack from the Black queen on a5 after the usual ..d5xe4. In this game White opted for h2-h4, which does not seem to be the most promising continuation.:

Black achieved good play and outplayed his opponent, but then he suddenly collapsed.

Huebner - Tischbierek: The f2-f3 advance is a common way to prepare for e3-e4. Nonetheless, White still has to secure his bishop and in this game he just moved it back to f4. In reply Black decided to keep his dark-squared bishop on the board - this typical and rather interesting idea gave him an acceptable position but then his passive play afterwards led him to a situation without any counter chances.

Bellon Lopez - Campos Moreno: In this game a rather important type of position with a closed center and opposite-coloured bishops was tested:

Both sides were more or less equal to the task: White was playing rather riskily, trying to launch a strong attack at any cost, while Black was creatively getting counter chances and his position at some point was preferable but then he panicked and destroyed his K-side all by himself.

Navrotescu - Inkiov: This game shows what might happen when White fails to develop his initiative - despite building a strong-looking center he had no chances to create real problems for Black, who could comfortably improve on the Q-side. Actually, White could probably achieve half a point with accurate defence but he eventually failed.

Korotylev - Landa: Here White demonstrated a very energetic and interesting approach - after placing his Q-side rook on e1 he found a way to protect his c3-pawn without moving his knight back to b1!

His position looked promising but Black defended with accurate play. Nevertheless, White's idea should probably give him a small advantage in the opening.

Mamedyarov - Bagirov: Here White decided to put his K-side rook on e1 and this solid approach gives him the edge:

However, Black is also OK after getting all his pieces into play but he treated the position impatiently and gave himself real problems. Then White got tricky - a bit unnecessarily but it eventually worked very well and allowed him to show some nice tactics which broke Black's resistance.

Ruslan

If you have any questions, then please post a message at the 1 d4 d5 Forum, or subscribers can email me at ruslan@chesspublishing.com.