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The December update contains some quick disasters players suffered during 2005. Do you think they are beginners? No, they are actually strong Grandmasters, including 2700+ Etienne Bacrot, who didn't manage to keep his king safe although he had the white pieces. Well, sometimes it can happen...

Do you want to avoid such surprises in your games? Keep yourself up-to-date with Chess Publishing! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Ruslan


Download PGN of December '05 1 d4 d5 games


The Slow Slav [D12]

Knaak - Smeets: A surprising central breakthrough in a well-known position gave White a rather annoying initiative in this game, which instantly brought him total success.

However, it seems that if Black pays more attention to other options on the previous moves his position is perfectly playable.



Main line Slav [D16-D19]

Matveeva - Kosteniuk: It's not easy to explain what happened here but perhaps White simply confused two different lines and failed to achieve the famous "piece vs pawn" position. Black sacrificed a piece in a much more favourable situation and comfortably converted her initiative into a full point.

Mikhalevski - Wojtkiewicz: The 7...Nb6 line is not very popular:

in many cases Black has to play with a bishop locked on g6. Here he tried to avoid such suffering and simply sacrificed this bishop but the compensation was insufficient.



QGA [D20-29]

Eljanov - Sorokin: In this game a rare line led to complications which are typical for the Botvinnik Variation and Black soon went astray in a position which was actually full of life.

Ernst - Van den Doel: In this line (which is actually not very promising for White) his opponent probably forgot the right path and failed to find it over the board. Actually Black was still not so badly placed but the second mistake led to a disaster.



Marshall Gambit [D31]

Vaisser - Tregubov: In the line with 7. Ba5 White changed the order of moves and gave Black an excellent opportunity to capture the pawn on g2:

After this White could probably have played better but anyway it seems more precise for him to prevent such a course of events.


Tarrasch Defence, Swedish Variation [D33]

Arencibia - Bruzon Bautista: The Swedish variation of the Tarrasch Defence is not very popular and positionally suspicious:

Here Black deviated from its main lines and failed to solve the opening problems, then missed a tactical shot and had to resign.


Vienna Variation [D39]

Bacrot - Delchev: Black sometimes does not capture on c3 in the Vienna Variation:

It gives White a chance to keep his pawn structure solid but at the same time he does not inflict any damage on Black's pawn shield. As is usual in positions with a symmetrical pawn structure the play is rather quiet but here White underestimated the possible danger and some careless moves led to a quick disaster.

Moiseenko - Bluvshtein: Black recently faces serious problems in the risky line with 7...h6:

Here White quickly sent his queen to h7 and his threats to Black's king soon brought results.



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.