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In my last month’s update I followed up my interest in the game Flear - Boensch to go deeper into a topical line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation. This month I found myself investigating the line played in another of Glenn Flear’s games, again from the European Senior Team Championships.

Download PGN of May ’25 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games

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Meran Variation 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0-0 a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 Qc7 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Bc2 [D48]

The game in question was Ograbek, G - Flear, G, which went 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.O-O a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 Qc7 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Bc2:

This standard line has been well covered on ChessPublishing, particularly by Ruslan Scherbakov, but Flear’s 13...0-0-0 14.Qe2 Bd6 is rather rare. He finally won an exciting game, with White making the final major error.


Meran Variation 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0-0 a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 Qc7 12.dxe6 fxe6 13.Ng5 [D48]

Another development that is new to ChessPublishing is 13.Ng5:

instead of 13.Bc2, and here there have been sizeable developments. After 13.Ng5 Qc6 14.Qe2, Vassily Ivanchuk chose 14...h6 against Matthias Bluebaum (Bluebaum, M - Ivanchuk, V), but after 15.Nf3 should have played 15...0-0-0 rather than his 15...Rd8. In the end Black drew, but only by the skin of his teeth.

Black’s most popular way of meeting 13.Ng5 Qc6 14.Qe2 has been 14...c4 rather than 14...h6, and the line 15.Bc2 Bc5 16.b4! has been discussed in a number of correspondence games.

After 16...Bd6 I’ve covered 17.a4 in Szabo, V - Broniek, M and 17.a3 in Hildebrand, G - Gnilka, T.

Neither of these moves seem to promise White an advantage, and 16...Bd4 (Kienel, N - Klapp, H) seems equal too.

Does White have ways of trying for more? Well 14.Be2 (Xu, Y - Wang, H ) is worth considering:

especially because Wang’s choice of 14...Be7 is well met by 15.Qd3.

On the other hand, 14.Re1:

As in Mammadova, N - Movahed, S, seems rather bad, especially if Black then plays 14...c4!.


Meran Variation 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0-0 a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 Qc7 12.Ng5 [D48]

Last, but not least, I’ve covered 12.Ng5:

(Chen, Z - Ma, Q), which Giorgi Bagaturov played a few times before engines became really strong. It seems that 12...h6 13.Nxf7 is just winning for Black, though several players have blinked when facing this aggressive knight sortie.


See you next month! Nigel

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