What's New - November 2003
|
Reviewing all the roadmaps I discovered that one of them is almost empty. So I corrected my omission - this update is mostly dedicated to the Stonewall Slav. The other games feature some recent developments in the QGD 5 Bf4 variation. Ruslan Scherbakov |
Download PGN of November '03 1 d4 d5 games
Slav Stonewall [D30-31]
            
|
Dautov,R - Krasenkow,M: White energetically exploited Black's risky play in the opening and achieved a certain advantage, but the position remained complicated and Black's creative defence allowed him to first get counter chances and then, after some inaccurate White moves, to finish the game with a very beautiful, and fantastic blow.
Volkov,S - Malakhov,V: An early c4xd5 by White gave Black a good opportunity to get rid of the weak d5-pawn by capturing with the knight. White obtained a pawn superiority in the center but an attempt to take benefit of it was met in a fashionable style. Black's queen and minor pieces took full control of the position and, despite the black king being deprived of castling, it was his counterpart who soon found himself in trouble.
Beliavsky,A - Timofeev,A: White's set-up, connected with the f2-f4 advance, is very solid, sometimes just boring. Thanks to the more advanced pawns White should be slightly better but Black can achieve a good position with accurate play. The position becomes too closed and in this game all winning attempts were exhausted very early on.
Kramnik,V - Tregubov,P: White's set-up Bf1-d3, Ng1-e2, Qd1-c2, f2-f3 is a fairly dangerous weapon against the Stonewall:
|
|
It seems that White is preparing for central action but his arrangement is rather flexible and he can also keep many other things under control. In this game White proved that he is well prepared for Q-side play as well.
Bauer,C - Grischuk,A: A tricky set-up by Alexander Grischuk. Black's pawns on a6, b6 and c6 looked a bit strange but in fact this flexible pawn structure could easily be changed - soon Black played ...c6-c5 and began play in the center. White was also not badly placed but soon he lost control and missed some blows which completely destroyed his position.
Mamedyarov,S - Schneider,D: An interesting set-up from Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - he played c4-c5 before castling, not giving Black the possibility to play Grischuk's ...b7-b6. Then he preferred a principled approach - the advance e3-e4 seems to be a key idea with White's arrangement. Black was crushed in style - the piece sacrifice, the stunning g-pawn advance were both quite impressive. Most probably Black could improve his play in the opening but White's chances should be preferred anyway.
QGD - 5 Bf4 [D37]
|
|
Khalifman,A - Onischuk,A: The line with long castling is not very popular recently but it appears from time to time. The variation Black chose here is quite playable but not well developed so players soon found themselves on unexplored ground. White captured a sacrificed pawn but then his rook was trapped. Yet, he took a couple of pawns for the exchange and kept better chances up to the moment a draw was agreed.
Zvjagintsev,V - Lputian,S: In a few recent games Black tried to advance thematic ...c7-c5 with some delay. Yet typical isolated d5-pawn positions, similar to the main line are often reached. The queens were soon swapped:
|
|
- such endgames are usually defendable but White can pressurise very comfortably and for a long time. Black should defend precisely and in this game he eventually failed to hold on.
Leitao,R - Bruzon,L: A typical endgame with an isolated Black d5-pawn promises a small and stable advantage for White. Here Black failed to defend it once again.
Najer,E - Kaidanov,G: Here White tried to improve a side line, which we considered in the game P.H. Nielsen - Kaidanov/Bled (ol) 2002. An interesting idea led to an unbalanced endgame - White obtained a pair of bishops but Black's lead in development was more than sufficient to equalise. Yet perhaps he got a bit too ambitious and then faced some problems but anyway a draw always seemed to be the most likely result...
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.