Download PGN of February ’22 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games
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Queen’s Gambit Accepted: 3.e4 b5!? 4.a4 c6 5.axb5 cxb5 [D20]
Last month, I analysed a new trend in the QGA: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 b5 4.a4 c6 5.axb5 cxb5 6.Nc3 Qb6! The lines are extremely complicated here. While the engines will typically provide assessments of 0.00 in all sorts of lines, the positions are far from clear for human beings, even if they are super-GMs! Aronian, L - Dominguez, P. L continued 7.Nd5 Qb7 8.Bf4 e5 9.Bxe5 Nd7 10.Bf4 Ngf6 11.Nc7+ Kd8 12.Nxa8 Qxe4+ 13.Ne2 Qxa8:
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I reached this position in my analysis last month and gave 14.Nc3. Aronian deviates with 14.f3 Nd5 15.Bg5+ f6 16.Bd2 Bd6 17.Ng3. The position remains unclear, but it was Aronian who eventually showed better understanding and went on to win.
Tarrasch Defence: 6.g3 Nc6 7.Bg2 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 [D33]
Wojtaszek, R - Oparin, G featured a sharp Tarrasch Defence via the move order 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.g3 e6 4.Nf3 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.d4 Nc6 7.Bg2 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Nb3 Bb6 10.Na4:
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This is a new move for the site, but one which Oparin was very well prepared for: 10...0-0 11.Nxb6 axb6 12.Be3 h5! Very energetic play! Play continued along the engine top lines with 13.0-0 h4 14.gxh4 but after the fairly aimless 14...Bg4?! 15.f3 Bf5 16.Nd4 Bg6 17.Qd2 White was clearly better. Instead, Black should have played 14...Qd6! with the threat of ...Ng4.
QGD: 4...Be7 5.g4!? [D37]
The most unorthodox game this month was Bellahcene, B - Girya, O, which started 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.g4!?:
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Increasingly, Grandmasters are showing that g4 can be played in almost any opening within the first 10 moves! Bellahcene’s move is somewhere between dubious and interesting, and definitely comes under the category of the "one game try". That said, it is not completely unsound. Black cannot actually take the pawn, and analysis shows that it is more or less equal with best play from both sides. The critical line is 5...0-0, but I also like 5...dxc4. Girya chose the less effective 5...c5 6.dxc5! 0-0?! which gave White a clearly better endgame (successfully converted by Bellahcene) after 7.g5 Ne4 8.Nxe4 dxe4 9.Qxd8 Rxd8 10.Nd2.
Ragozin: 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Qc2 Qe7!? [D38]
Keymer, V - Aronian, L was a very exciting encounter in the Ragozin: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Qc2 Qe7!?:
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A very rare move. Presumably, Aronian employed it to create some winning chances. 8.Bd2, by far the most logical move. 8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 e5 10.d5 Qc5 This is the point of Black's 7...Qe7. Here, the two critical moves are 11.dxc6 and the messier 11.Ne4 as played in the game. 11...Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Ne7 13.Nxe5?! This was too ambitious from Keymer as after 13...Bf5 14.Qf4?! Bxd2+ 15.Kxd2 his king became a central cause for concern.
Semi-Slav: Anti-Meran with 7.b3 [D45]
Now we turn to the main topic this month, the Anti-Meran complex of the Semi-Slav. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6, White’s main choices are between 7.Be2/7.Bd3 and 7.b3 (there is also 7.g4 which was played in Esipenko, A - Caruana, F, Tata Steel 2022, but it was quite an unsuccessful attempt to revive the Latvian Gambit).
Unfortunately, I had a bad memory of the 7.b3 line, having been outplayed on the black side by Stephen Gordon at the British Championship 2019. I have to say that I largely erased the game from my memory(!) but I felt that it was necessary to revisit it in order to understand what I did wrong from a positional point of view. Via a transposition, the game reached the following position: 7.b3 0-0 8.Be2 b6 9.0-0 Bb7 10.Bb2 Qe7 11.Rfe1 This turns out to be a more meaningful move than I had realised:
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11...Rac8?! A natural alternative is 11...Rad8, but after accidentally leaving my engine running for a while on this position, I discovered an astonishing idea 12.cxd5! The point is that the natural recapture 12...exd5?! is met with 13.Bd3! White plays e4 next and the queen on e7 is left embarrassed. If I am faced with a similar situation in the future, I'll be careful not to underestimate e3-e4 and would probably play 11...Rfe8 which is a better setup against the central pawn thrust. 12.e4! 12...dxe4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6? This allows White's queen to transfer to an attacking square and the knight is not necessarily well-placed on f6. After 15.Qh4 Bb4?! White could have gained a decisive advantage with 16.Bd3! as 16...Bxe1?? fails to 17.Bxh7+ Kh8 18.Bc2+ Kg8 19.Rxe1+-. My opponent missed this opportunity, but after some mistakes from both sides, he eventually took the full point. See Gordon, S - Tan, J.
Although 10...Qe7 is the main line, I believe it is potentially stronger to play 10...Rc8! As in Sethuraman, S.P - Cheparinov, I. It is fair to say that Cheparinov is the expert in the line as he has played it a few times already. 11.Rad1 c5! 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.cxd5:
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13...Nce4! An important move for the line. Sethuraman responded with 14.Qd3 which was not the most challenging move due to 14...Nxc3 15.Bxc3 Nxd5. The critical test was 14.dxe6 Nxc3 15.exf7+ Rxf7 16.Bxc3 Ne4 17.Bc4 Rxc4! 18.bxc4 Nxc3 which ends peacefully according to my analysis.
Semi-Slav: Anti-Meran with 6...b6!? [D45]
A different interpretation was seen in Esipenko, A - Carlsen, M where Black deviated on move 6 with 6...b6!?:
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The game continued 7.b3 I also cover 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.0-0 dxc4!? 9.Bxc4 where Black has the choice between 9...c5 and 9...a6. 7...Bb7 8.Bd3 Bd6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bb2 This should be a slightly improved version of the 6...Bd6 7.b3 lines for White, as the light-squared bishop is on d3 rather than e2 (note that after 6...Bd6 7.b3 0-0 it is inaccurate for White to play 8.Bd3 there due to 8...e5!). Nevertheless, the World Champion was willing to accept this in order to deviate from the main lines. For the record, I believe that 10...Re8 is a good move in this position, but Carlsen’s very direct 10...c5 was also reasonable. Later in the game, Carlsen missed two opportunities to play the typical ...d5-d4 pawn break in the hanging pawn structure and I go into great detail about some new, thematic ideas that I believe will improve the reader’s understanding of those positions.
Semi-Slav: Anti-Meran with 7.Bd3/7.Be2 [D46]
Reverting to 6...Bd6, the main line of the Anti-Meran (without b3) can be reached via either 7.Be2 or 7.Bd3. There is a difference between these moves for some Semi-Slav players but not for others. For the players who are willing to enter the ...dxc4 complex, there is no difference between the moves and you can more or less disregard this analysis. However, for those players who intend to meet 7.Bd3 with 7...0-0 8.0-0 e5, as in this game, they would need to work out a separate system to the move 7.Be2. As such, I take this opportunity to analyse the line 7.Be2 0-0 8.0-0 b6!? which is underrated in my opinion. The critical line continues 9.e4 Nxe4 10.Nxe4 dxe4 11.Qxe4 Bb7 where White has various moves but Black should be equalising everywhere. Returning to Vidit, S - Caruana, F, play continued 7...0-0 8.0-0 e5 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.e4 dxe4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.Bxe4 h6 13.Be3 exd4 14.Bxd4 More critical according to Johansson’s analysis for us is 14.Bh7+ Kh8 15.Bxd4. 14...Nf6 15.Bf5 Qa5 With this move it was clear that Caruana had killed the game successfully. Vidit must not have been aware that the bishop check on h7 would have led to a slightly improved version of this. Nevertheless, Black holds up there as well.
Till next time, Justin
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