Download PGN of March '06 1 d4 d5 games
Marshall Gambit [D31]
Aronian - Vallejo Pons: Here Levon Aronian wiped out his opponent in an endgame which was supposed to be defendable for Black. However, more precise defence would have proved that the most likely result in this line really is still a draw.
Mamedyarov - Tregubov: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov does not believe in White's chances in the endgame we considered in Aronian - Vallejo Pons/Linares 2006, and comes up with an interesting novelty, 12 b4, which led to rather complicated play instead of simplifications:
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Being under certain pressure Black eventually blundered but even with a better defence he still had a lot of work to do to extinguish his opponent's initiative...
Moscow Variation [D43]
Cmilyte - Galliamova: Here in the first semi-final game of the Women's World Championship Alisa Galliamova introduced a new idea which helped her to eliminate her opponent's strong dark-squared bishop:
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, but the problems still remained. Then she missed a tactical blow but nevertheless was lucky to escape with a perpetual thanks to her opponent's subsequent mistake.
Williams - Hillarp Persson: The Anti-Moscow Gambit has recently become very popular - there are many players who believe in White's initiative but on the other side there are many of those who prefer to stay under fire with an extra pawn in the pocket. Curiously enough, Black recently prefers a slightly strange-looking approach - he advances his h-pawn and then develops his rook to h6, getting rid of the pin and so making his knight on f6 available for action:
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His king usually remains in the center so Black has to defend actively, with all available resources. It is very important to distract White's attention from his main target, so in many cases Black gives his extra pawn back if it helps to increase the power of his pieces. In the featured game Black's position looked suspicious but he eventually survived.
Radjabov - Vallejo Pons: Another example of Black's modern approach. Recently Francisco Vallejo successfully employed it in some games, including his victory over the World Champion Veselin Topalov earlier in the same tournament. Here Teimour Radjabov managed to break Black's Q-side but Vallejo's K-side counterplay was enough to hold balance.
Nielsen - Vallejo Pons: Peter-Heine Nielsen tried a new approach to clarify the drawbacks of Black's set-up but did not achieve much. Vallejo gave his extra pawn back but completed his development, moving his king to the Q-side. The game continuation was very interesting - after White's piece sacrifice Black's king had to quickly find a narrow path to the opposite wing, then Black almost spoiled his chances but eventually exploited his opponent's mistake and came up with a beautiful counter blow, which forced White to give a perpetual.
Anti-Meran [D45-46]
Sargissian - Hillarp Persson: Playing against the Latvian Bayonet Black should not be too worried about a further g-pawn push - an attempt to stop it mechanically by ...h7-h6 looks slow and might give White the time to develop his initiative, as happened in the featured game.
Ruslan
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