The June '04 '1 d4 d5' games can be downloaded directly in PGN form here:

Meran Variation [D47 - D49]

Vladimirov,E - Ramesh,R: Black was not familiar with the subtleties of this complicated line and so he mixed some ideas, and was then punished quickly and confidently.

Vaganian,R - Johannessen,L: White can get a small advantage in this deep line but Black's active pieces always give him reasonable counter chances. However, as we can see in some games played by Rafael Vaganian, White can pressurise almost without risk, while Black's inaccurate play can easily increase his problems...

Kuzmin,A - Dreev,A: Alexei Dreev is very comfortable in this old and rather quiet line. By delaying castling he quickly gets a lot of pieces into play and achieves very good counter chances every time:

In this game White treated the position rather passively and so Black had no problems equalising and then successfully exploited his opponent's not very precise play.

Dyachkov,S - Yevseev,D: Perhaps this game will increase the popularity of the old variation. Sergei Dyachkov has discovered some new ideas in a position which was assumed to be in Black's favour:

, and clearly outplayed his opponent in a complex struggle.

However, Black has a lot of resources and he will certainly look for a better way to use his forces.

Klimov,S - Yevseev,D: An interesting theoretical dispute ended up in Black's favour. Sergei Klimov has been trying his idea before, but Denis Yevseev wisely deviated from the previous encounter, being worried about a possible improvement, and successfully exploited White's mistakes. However, White's play can certainly be improved - is the dispute to be continued?!

Bologan,V - Akopian,V: A grandiose battle in a principal line.

Viorel Bologan has done tremendous work played a new move in the diagram position, and proved White's superiority - the ball is on Black's side now...

De Jong,J - Delemarre,J: Here Black successfully defended his position with an extra pawn in exchange for the broken pawn structure and a king in the center:

Moreover, a powerful queen sacrifice promised him the better chances but he decided to finish the game with a repetition of moves!

Hillarp Persson,T - Hector,J: Tiger Hillarp Persson has recently scored two victories in similar lines. Here he introduced an improvement on move 21 and conclusively proved White's superiority.

Hillarp Persson,T - Thorfinnsson,B: Another of Tiger's successes - he confidently secured the advantage in a deep line and then converted it with rather tricky play in the endgame.

Milov,V - Borovikov,V: Recently Black was suffering in the position with two extra pawns and the king stuck in center. Here Vadim Milov shows some kind of magic - Black thought he had kept full control over the center and even locked the White queen on f1, but Milov first introduced an interesting novelty 18. a2-a4!? here:

and soon played a4-a5...a6...a7...and ...then queen! Look and enjoy!

Sasikiran,K - Karjakin,S: In this blitz (!) game Sergei Karjakin became a victim of Krishnan Sasikiran's home preparation. Showing no sense of danger, he blindly repeated about 25 moves of a game his opponent had recently played and could simply resign on the very next move... !! Yet it seems that Black could have improved his play earlier and achieve reasonable counter chances.

The Meran variation is developing deeper and deeper - let's wait for future battles and new discoveries - they are coming soon!

Till next month!

Ruslan

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.