Download PGN of July '08 1 d4 d5 games
Chebanenko System [D15]
Atalik - Harikrishna: A slow and quiet variation led to a quick disaster for such a solid and cautious player as Penteala Harikrishna. Suat Atalik used a typical method to destroy Black's Q-side and rather unexpectedly faced no obstacles on the way.
Main Slav [D17]
Volokitin - Inarkiev: Recently Morozevich's line is not a frequent guest in tournament practice, as White has found some fruitful ideas to disturb Black's king on the Q-side, playing with a draw in his pocket.
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This game was no exception - Andrei Volokitin simply flattened his opponent's Q-side.
Moscow Variation [D43]
Gelfand - Alekseev: Boris Gelfand achieved a big advantage in a complicated Anti-Moscow Gambit with 9 Ne5!?:
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White maintained all his pluses playing with an equal number of pawns, so Black was just suffering for nothing - surely he should have grabbed one pawn in the early stages... ?
Botvinnik Variation [D44]
Khalifman - Buhmann: Alexander Khalifman chose a common way to counter Black's rare line of the Botvinnik Variation. He got a small advantage in the endgame and eventually proved the superiority of his bishop over his opponent's knight in the unbalanced pawn structure. Yet Black still seems to be able to hold this variation with precise defence, though a draw is the absolute maximum he can achieve.
Leitao - Coelho: It seems that Rafael Leitao has found a more promising way to give Black problems in the rare line, which has just been considered in the game Khalifman - Buhmann/EU-ch Plovdiv 2008, by 16 b3!?:
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My first impression is that it may easily be Black's last attempt to play the entire variation.
Anti-Meran [D46]
Gelfand - Anand: Vishy Anand came up with astonishing novelty in a rare line of the Anti-Meran in this game. The surprising retreat of Black's bishop to a1 (!) helped him to secure the invasion of his rook and successfully exploit some strong tactical options to disorganize his opponent's forces:
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Nielsen - Grachev: Boris Grachev used to play this line with either colour. Here he showed a good way for Black to achieve good counter chances, which he eventually developed into a rather annoying initiative and he then managed to score a full point thanks to his opponent's mistake in time trouble.
Svidler - Karjakin: Peter Svidler came well-prepared and gave Black problems in the line in which Vishy Anand just scored a nice win against Boris Gelfand. White's novelty on move 18 gave him the initiative, which he eventually converted into a full point. However, Black's play might still be improved.
QGD [D57]
Aronian - Ivanchuk: This rather short draw was full of events. Levon Aronian's play was not quite typical for this variation but it might have brought him a good result if only Vassily Ivanchuk did not come with a witty pawn sacrifice, which gave him excellent counter chances.
Ruslan
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