November 2000
Moscow
RS302 NOV00 In RS269 SEP00 we suggested that it is now White's turn to find an improvement. Well Sergey Ivanov has done it again!
The idea of 10...b4 is clear - after pushing the Knight Black takes the pawn on e4. Here a great surprise awaited him, and although the position is probably far from clear he was too shaken to offer much resistance...
RS303 NOV00 An interesting battle between two experts in the Anti-Moscow gambit. This time Valery Shalimov defends his own variation 11...Nbd7 successfully.
RS304 NOV00 Before this game I was not in the mood to test my opponent's pet variation 11...Nbd7 in the Anti-Moscow gambit, and instead preferred the cool 6 Bxf6. Surprisingly we followed the game R.Scherbakov - Dreev, Europe-ch (blitz) Neum 2000 OCT00 upon which I commented in the previous month. Despite having much more time, my opponent nevertheless played innaccurately and found himself in the unpleasant ending which I had mentioned in my annotations.
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QGA
RS305 NOV00 In the QGA ending Black's path to equality is not as easy as it may seem. Garry Kasparov chose a method which is considered to be slightly inaccurate by modern practice. Vladimir Kramnik introduced a strong novelty at a critical moment, and completely outplayed Kasparov in the next stage of the game. The rest was highly dramatic - despite being a piece down Kasparov had a lucky escape after mutual blunders. Considering that it began with a rather quiet opening this just goes to show great players can find a lot of hidden resources even in boring positions.
RS306 NOV00 Curiously enough this game was played just two days after the fourth game in the Kasparov - Kramnik match. My opponent was impressed by Kramnik's play after reading the chess column in the "Times", and so decided to copy his ideas. I did not expect to reach the QGA ending but fortunately I had not yet seen the K-K game and was able to hold the balance without great difficulty.
Mainslav
RS299 NOV00 We saw how Alexander Lastin suffered in the game S.Ivanov - Lastin, Vrnjacka Banja 1999 (RS106). Now he decides to play this variation with White, and is faced with an improvement on his own play! An important game for theory of the Morozevich variation.
RS300 NOV00 In a training game against Sergey Rublevsky a new idea came to my mind. Instead of placing his attacked queen in the centre, White intriguingly moves it backwards intending to use the square e4 for his minor pieces.
RS301 NOV00 It seems that Ivanchuk's idea 17. a5!? in the "piece versus pawns" line is becoming popular. Here FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman is conclusively outplayed...
...a6 Slav
RS297 NOV00 Sergey Volkov introduces a strong novelty in his pet variation. He has clearly been doing his homework...
RS298 NOV00 White introduces a very interesting plan, in a position which is a rather strange mixture of the Cambridge Springs and the Exchange Slav, but which originates from the Chebanenko system. Alexey Shirov defends excellently for a long time but eventually makes a fatal mistake...