What's New - May 2002
|
Welcome to the May update, I am sorry for the slight delay. The Russian Championship tournament was tough, and the playing conditions were very poor - during one game I hurt my knee by hitting a metal pipe in the tournament hall - I just couldn't walk for a couple of days - both before, and after the surgical operation... ! Now everything's fine and I could already play soccer if it wasn't raining every day! Ruslan Scherbakov |
All this month's new games are easily downloaded in PGN format using ChessPub.exe: open ChessPub.exe, put the date on, say, 5th June 2002, and then click on '1 d4 d5', over on the right. All these games should appear (and the new ChessPub Guides, too)!
For those who can't use ChessPub.exe, the May '02 '1 d4 d5' games can be downloaded directly in PGN form here: 
Queen's Gambit Accepted [D20 to D29]
Volkov, S - Rublevsky, S/RUS-chT 9th Ekaterinburg 2002 [D20]
Sergei Rublevsky successfully stands up for the QGA! Recently he has played several games and none of his opponents had chances to give him any serious problems. Is it possible for White to get an advantage in the QGA?! This game was a principled battle - in the previous encounter between the same opponents (Volkov - Rublevsky/RUS-chT St.Petersburg 1999) Sergei was completely outplayed. This time he returned to his pet variation and easily solved the problems.
Scherbakov, R - Rublevsky, S/RUS-chT 9th Ekaterinburg 2002 [D20]
In the game Sakaev - Rublevsky/YUG-chT Vrnjacka Banja 1999 White gave Black serious problems by very energetic play. Black had eventually managed to escape so I had a little hope that Sergei maybe believed in his position in this line despite the fact that I had already discovered that Black has much safer way to hold balance. Yet, Sergei had already found it, too...
Shariyazdanov, A - Rublevsky, S/RUS-chT 9th Ekaterinburg 2002 [D27]
Andrei Shariyazdanov used to play the 7. Bd3 variation against the QGA. The line does not look too dangerous for Black but he must be careful. In this game Rublevsky introduced an interesting idea - a pawn sacrifice distracted White's pieces from good squares and made Black's play easier.
Sokolov, I - Rublevsky, S/Poikovsky 2002 [D27]
The system with a2-a4 allows Black to achieve a playable position without many problems. However, White usually gets his pieces into play quicker and it helps him to create some pressure. Sometimes Black's task does not look easy - some tricky action was required to hold the balance in this game.
Meran Defence [D47-48]
Arencibia, W - Dominguez, L/Capablanca Mem Elite 2002 [D48]
Some important games were recently played in the Meran variation. Here Black introduced a surprising novelty in a deep line but White put it in doubt by energetic play.
Radjabov, T - Anand, V/FIDE GP, Dubai UAE (4.1) 2002 [D48]
A small but important innovation by Vishy Anand proves that Black has got another playable line to counter one of the most ambitious set-ups 14. Nd4 and 15. Be3.
Alterman, B - Gabriel, C/Bad Homburg 1997 [D48]
A classical game for theory of the Nf3-d4 and Bc1-e3 set-up. Boris Alterman brilliantly exploited the advantages of his position but later Black discovered better ways to play this line.
Yevseev, D - Scherbakov, R/RUS-chT Ekaterinburg 2002 [D48]
To be honest, I was not intending to play the main Meran lines against such a theoretician as Denis Yevseev (you may remember his Meran battles Yevseev - Dreev/Novgorod 1999 and Yevseev - Filippov/Kazan 2001) but somehow found myself in a very complicated position which I've not been playing for many years. Yet, I decided it's a good opportunity to try the idea which we considered in the game Radjabov - Anand/Dubai 2002 not long ago. My opponent preferred to transpose to a more familiar line and, being unable to recall theory, I played a typical idea, which happened to be a novelty!
Radjabov, T - Dreev, A/Bosnia GM Sarajevo 2002 [D48]
Teimour Radjabov came up with an improvement on move 22 but, to be honest, his set-up, connected with a pawn sacrifice, does not look very promising. Alexei Dreev outplayed his opponent little by little but, probably being short of time, accepted a draw offer in a clearly better position.
Johannessen, L - Goloshchapov, A/New White Plus GM open 2002 [D48]
In the game Sadler - Dreev/FIDE Wch KO Groningen (m/2) 1997 we witnessed a triumphal appearance of the new set-up ...Bf8-d6 and ...Nd7-f8, invented by Dreev's coach Alexander Filipenko. After some years of fruitless attempts it seems that White has finally found the way to put problems in Black's path. The first steps were made by Jeroen Piket and Michal Krasenkow in 2000, then there were followers...
Shirov, A - Dreev, A/Bosnia GM Sarajevo 2002 [D48]
A principled battle - Alexei Shirov beat the biggest Meran expert Alexei Dreev in a recently important line. It looks like Black will have to do some good homework now - maybe it's time to return to the old-fashioned early advance ...c5-c4?!
Catalan Opening [E01-09]
Fridman, D - Zvjagintsev, V/4th Borowski GM Essen 2002 [E04]
The excellent counter actions by Vadim Zvjagintsev made a rather unusual White approach even less attractive.