Download PGN of February '12 1 d4 d5 games
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The Slow Slav [D12]
Carlsen - Gelfand: Magnus Carlsen recently beat the World Title challenger Boris Gelfand twice in the same line:
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It gives Black solid play but White's pair of bishops always promises some edge...
QGD Exchange Variation 5.Bf4 [D31]
Carlsen - Aronian: Magnus Carlsen outplayed Levon Aronian in a simple-looking manner but it certainly required great understanding and technique to gain real benefit from the slight concession Black made on the K-side.
Turov - Grover: A concrete idea of Anish Giri's helped Sahaj Grover to comfortably solve Black's problems. It would be interesting to see what Magnus Carlsen had in mind for such a case...
QGD 5.Bf4 [D37]
Giri - Aronian: Despite his loss against Carlsen, Aronian was successful with this type of QGD in Wijk aan Zee:
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Here is one of Levon's victories, which is not just the result of good opening preparation but also his deep understanding of the position which arose after Black's clever exchange sacrifice...
Botvinnik Variation 6.a4 [D44]
Ernst - Potkin: Vladimir Potkin came up with a fresh approach and obtained comfortable play. Yet later he spoiled a very promising position and eventually failed to hold a drawish ending.
Anti-Meran [D46]
Bruzon Batista - Motylev: Alexander Motylev successfully defended a position in which Black had a disastrous score so far:
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However, White's position still looks promising in this line...
QGD Lasker's Defence Mainline 9.Rc1 [D56]
Ernst - Harikrishna Penteala Harikrishna cleverly met White's K-side pawn assault by a central counter strike though later he unnecessarily became too ambitious.
Ivanchuk - Carlsen Magnus Carlsen came up with a slight innovation, 18...Rac8:
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and gradually neutralised White's pressure.
Till next month, Ruslan
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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.