Download PGN of May '14 1 d4 d5 games
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Open Catalan 4...dxc4 5 Bg2 Nc6 [E04]
In the Open Catalan line 5...Nc6 6 Qa4 Bb4+ 7 Bd2 Nd5 8 Bxb4 Ndxb4 9 O-O Rb8 the popular move 10 Na3!? was recommended by both Avrukh in Grandmaster Repertoire Volume 1 and Ippolito and Hilton in Wojo's Weapons 1:
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Strangely Bologan does not like it because of the line in the note to Black's 14th move, but this is rather odd as we shall see in Gupta - Venkatesh.
Instead of 9 0-0, the developing move 9 Nc3 was introduced into top level play by Aronian, who beat Adams but then lost to Kramnik. The mainline in the Catalan eBook continues 9...Bd7 10 O-O a5 11 Qd1 O-O 12 e3 a4, and now 13 Nxa4!? has been tried a bit in correspondence play:
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This works well in Rodshtein - Harutyunian, and might be preferable to the mainline 13 Qe2, which is looking drawish.
Open Catalan 4...dxc4 5 Bg2 a6 [E04]
After the principal 5...a6 6 O-O Nc6 7 e3 Bd7 8 Qe2 b5 Hammer - Pert,R features the move 9 b3!:
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Which is new to chesspublishing.com. David writes: "I like this move a lot. It scores much better than 9.Rd1 and is more forcing. White does not commit his rook to d1 yet (c1 may prove to be a better square) and the knight remains on b1, also preserving some flexibility."
Instead of the previous game's 7...Bd7, 7...Rb8 is an intriguing line, the rook moves off the long diagonal to prepare ...b5. In Muzychuk - Kosteniuk White played the critical 8 Nfd2 e5 9 Bxc6+ bxc6 10 dxe5 Ng4 11 Nxc4 Be6 12 Nbd2!:
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and yet after 12...Bb4 13 Qe2 h5!? she soon found herself in big trouble. Black certainly seems to have plenty of light square compensation for her wrecked queenside structure and pawn less.
Main Slav 5...Bf5 6 Ne5 Nbd7 7 Nxc4 Nb6 8 Ne5 a5 9 Bg5 [D17]
As David pointed out, in our coverage of this trendy Slav line "there is not even a mention of 9.Bg5 and 9.e3 which have graduated to main line status along with 9.f3 and 9.g3".
First, in Swinkels - Cuijpers we take a look at Maksimenko's 9 Bg5, which was also favoured by a young Magnus Carlsen (not that he is so old now!):
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As soon as Black plays ...e6 the f6-knight will be pinned and so White can play e4 without any other preparation. The game quickly becomes quite strange, and at some point White completely loses the thread and loses horribly.
Main Slav 5...Bf5 6 Ne5 Nbd7 7 Nxc4 Nb6 8 Ne5 a5 9 e3 [D17]
Instead 9 e3 is perhaps the most natural move, but again wasn't previously mentioned on ChessPub at all. Kramnik - Vachier Lagrave continues 9...Nbd7, the latest trend, 10 Nc4 Qb8!? to play ...e5:
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A fantastic hard-fought draw, which includes 50 moves of rook and knight against rook.
Main Slav 5...Bf5 6 Ne5 Nbd7 7 Nxc4 Nb6 8 Ne5 a5 9 g3 [D17]
Huzman - Goryachkina furthers the theory of 9 g3. White plays the critical 18 f4, allowing the c5-knight into b3:
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and after 18...Nb3 blithely answered 19 Be3!?, offering the exchange. Black played pretty well, but after a couple of inaccuracies got into a terrible mess, where White didn't even want to swap one of his immense bishops for a mere black rook.
Main Slav 5...Bf5 6 Ne5 Nbd7 7 Nxc4 Nb6 8 Ne5 a5 9 f3 [D17]
Finally, Li Chao2-Vachier Lagrave looks at the main 9 f3. Following 9...Nfd7 10 e4 Nxe5 11 exf5 MVL preferred 11...Ned7 to the 11...Nec4 Ruslan analysed in his June '13 Update. The game continued 12 d5 g6 13 dxc6 bxc6 14 Qd4:
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when the French number 1 soon introduced an important improvement on previous play, and showed just how Black should use his rooks.
Best wishes, Tony, David
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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.