Download PGN of March '10 1 d4 d5 games
The Main Slav [D17]
Bacrot - Bareev: Usually very stubborn, Evgeny Bareev was not himself on this particular day and quickly collapsed, despite having a rather solid position. However, it does seem that Etienne Bacrot's active approach really puts pressure on Black.
Khenkin - Bindrich: Here Black developed his bishop more actively but still failed to solve all his problems. Surprisingly enough, the position which arises in this line is almost the same as in the Exchange Variation of the French Defence:
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and one small difference gives even more chances for White as he gets the useful extra move a2-a4.
Radjabov - Harikrishna: It's hard to explain why such a fine positional player as Harikrishna went in for the dangerous position which we've already analysed in the game Eljanov - Giri/EU-ch Ohrid 2009. The extra pawn brought him nothing but trouble and only a big dose of help from his opponent granted Black half a point.
Bhat - Benitah: Vinay Bhat gave his opponent serious problems with a series of energetic moves. Black has to look for a more reliable way to play this opening line.
Jakovenko - Harikrishna: Penteala Harikrishna came up with a strong novelty, which solves Black's problems in the ending "piece vs pawns", 21...b5!:
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It seems that the knight retreat from the game Anand - Khalifman/FIDE WCh (m/5) New Delhi 2000, does not promise much for White.
Anti-Meran [D46]
Aronian - Gelfand: Levon Aronian came up with an improvement over ... his opponent's play and maintained the better chances. At first White's novelty looked pretty harmless but soon Black began to face real problems on the Q-side...
Akopian - Harikrishna: Penteala Harikrishna deviated from the game Aronian - Gelfand/WchT Bursa 2010, with 11...Qc7, and his choice seems quite reasonable:
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Black got acceptable play but some mistakes still led to him to disaster.
Akobian - Esen: Varuzhan Akobian once again proved that it is not so easy for Black to equalise against a typical Anti-Meran approach.
See you 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.