What's New - July 2002
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Welcome to the July update! Sorry for the delay, I have been coaching in India since July. Ruslan Scherbakov |
Our keen reader, Doug Schwetke, drew my attention to the line 3. e4 Nc6 in the QGA, and it is fairly interesting so I added it to the site. Curiously enough, he did it before White suffered a painful defeat in the game Sturua v Kharlov, EU-ch Batumi 2002!
For those who can't use ChessPub.exe, Download PGN of July '02 1 d4 d5 games
QGA 3.e4 Nc6 4.d5 [D20]
            
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Scherbakov,R - Sulava,N: The immediate advance of the d-pawn followed by the bishop's sortie does not promise any advantage against 3. ..Nc6. Yet, White's position is not at all bad and in this struggle he managed to exploit the inaccurate play of his opponent.
Volkov,S - Ibragimov,I: The advance of the d-pawn followed by the early queen's sortie is a quite interesting idea to counter 3. ..Nc6. Black has two possibilities in reply - to exchange the important White bishop, thereby helping White's development, or to retreat with the knight and then to stabilize the situation in the center. In this game Black unsuccessfully tried the first approach but everything still seems to be not at all clear in this line.
Volkov,S Volzhin,A: The knight's retreat to g6 followed by ...e7-e5 is a safe approach. Black stabilizes the center and secures further development of his pieces. Yet, the problems still remain as White has got a space advantage. In this game Black undertook an interesting pawn sacrifice and achieved very good counterplay but then wavered at the critical moment...
QGA 3.e4 Nc6 4.Be3 [D20]
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Shirov,A - Murshed,N: Usually White does not give in to the provocation and prefers to protect the d-pawn rather then to advance it. However, after the forthcoming ...e7-e5 he advances the d-pawn anyway. In this game Black chose a rare set-up, playing ... e7-e5 before ...Ng8-f6 but it seems that White has just got some good extra possibilities. Both players were very creative in the opening but Black definitely had a lack of resources at the critical moment...
Beliavsky,A - Ehlvest,J: As usual, in the system 3. ..Nc6 Black soon develops his other knight, attacking the pawn on e4. In this game White protected it by the move f2-f3, which looks slow and also rather weakening and so it can hardly promise any advantage for White.
Vyzhmanavin,A - Baburin,A: In the opening Black played too many moves with the knights and was punished for neglecting his development.
Timman,J - Lautier,J: The typical pawn advance ...e7-e5 clarifies the situation in the center as White should play d4-d5 and thus Black can safely complete his development. However, the problems still remain as Black has lack of space for manoeuvring while he should be prepared for White's actions on both flanks. In this game Black began the Q-side counter actions first but it only promoted White's plans on that side of the board.
Kamsky,G - Salov,V: The most principled way - Black protects the c4-pawn by knight to a5, trying to make White's life not so comfortable. However, at that time the tricky idea of trapping the queen was unknown - to secure his ugly-placed knight Black gave up his pawn on e5 and White obtained a certain advantage thanks to his superiority in the center.
Epishin,V - Baburin,A: The idea of Matthew Sadler breathed new life into Black's position. After protecting the c4-pawn with the knight on a5 he also secured the pawn on e5, apparently not caring about his ugly knight. White has to win this piece but after that his queen is almost trapped!
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The first appearance of this idea had a great triumph - Sadler beat a strong Spanish GM in just 13 moves! In this game White has sacrificed the queen. The idea looks very interesting - his minor pieces become very powerful and he keeps the Black king uncastled. It has only one serious drawback - it is probably losing...
Haba,P - Fahnenschmidt,G: Peter Haba revealed a strong idea and proved White's advantage. However, Black's play can certainly be improved.
Sturua,Z - Kharlov,A: White found the way to secure the extra piece and to let his queen escape from danger - the way, which was probably recommended by Fritz. However, it was not for free - Black gained a mighty pawn heap which kept White's piece pressed to the first ranks. White's only idea seemed to be to return the piece but it was not enough to equalise.