Download PGN of November '05 1 d4 d5 games
Chebanenko System [D10 & D15]
Paragua - Movsesian: This recently played game shows that the 5. c5 line is still one of White's main weapons against the Chebanenko system. The popular advance h4!? has been met by numerous attempts to open the position but all of them failed since White always had sufficient control over the key squares:
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Actually Black's troubles here were the result of his unfortunate novelty but White's chances still seem preferable in this line.
Main line Slav [D16-D19]
Aronian - Bu Xiangzhi: Another important test of Baadur Jobava's approach. Bu Xiangzhi improved on Black's play in the game Jobava - Grischuk/Calvia (ol) 2004 but Levon Aronian was still able to put some pressure on Black's position and eventually got the full point thanks to his creative and patient play. However, Black's resources in this line seem to be sufficient for good play.
Vienna Variation [D39]
The 7. e5 line has not been played a lot in recent practice:
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Georgiev - Perunovic: In case of White castling Q-side Black gets good play by sacrificing a piece for a strong pawn center while if White prefers a safer approach then Black has few problems to complete his development. The only drawback of his position is the damaged K-side pawn structure so he must be careful with his king. In the featured game he somehow managed to forget about this and was badly punished for that in the harmless looking endgame.
Topalov - Naiditsch: In order to avoid problems with his king Black's defence must be well organised. In this game, however, his mind was shifting from one plan to another and so it was not a big surprise that White quickly achieved a very strong attacking position...
Popov - Filippov: Black tried a rare option here but it was White who came up with an interesting novelty, hiding his king on the Q-side, and secured a small advantage. Then the game became a thriller with both kings moving into the fire, numerous mistakes and eventually it was Black who went astray...
Moscow Gambit [D43]
For many years White mostly concentrated on the 10. h4 line in order to give Black problems. However, recently he paid more attention to simple development and it suddenly brought him success:
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Here is the key position after 11. Ne5!?.
Izoria - Riazantsev: In this game Zviad Izoria came up with a strong novelty on move 14, quickly achieved a big advantage and finished the game in style. The ball is back on Black's side...
Vitiugov - Czarnota: Here Black tried to improve on the game Potkin - Grischuk/RUS-ch Krasnoyarsk 2003 but his attempt failed - White exploited his advantages without sweat. It seems that Black should seriously think about keeping his knight on d7, where it's doing a lot of important defensive work.
Vitiugov - Stripunsky: In the recently popular line with the g4-pawn sacrifice Black was tempted by the chance to eliminate White's strong dark-squared bishop, but the cure turned out to be worse than the disease - White's powerful rook on the open f-file prevented Black's monarch from moving to safety without serious losses.
Nakamura - Dreev: Compared to Vitiugov - Stripunsky/St.Petersburg vs New York 2005, here Alexei Dreev exchanged White's strong bishop only after castling Q-side so he could look for counter chances in the middlegame without any worries with his king. Then Hikaru Nakamura built his strategy on keeping Black's light-squared bishop locked in at any cost. Black grabbed a pawn but a lack of counterplay soon forced him to give up an exchange, after which White converted his material advantage with ease. A rather painful defeat for one of the main experts in this system. As to the opening, this important theoretical game should be analysed more thoroughly to find out how Black could have achieved more counter chances.
Anti-Meran [D45]
Aronian - Kornev: The relatively rare approach with ...a7-a6 instead of ...Nbd7 gained some popularity recently:
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White cannot go into the Meran main lines but he can reasonably hope to gain some benefit compared to the Anti-Meran. Black can be satisfied with the rather quiet play, having no problems with development and the safety of his king but it still does not seem to be fully equalising. Yet, the same can be said about Black's chances in almost every opening so generally we can conclude that such an approach is playable if it suits the player's taste. As to the featured game, Black wasn't doing so badly and at some point he could even achieve the better chances but eventually one big mistake was enough to spoil everything.
Dreev - Khenkin: White queen's impressive movement along the first rank helped him to secure a small advantage but Black's position was still playable until he invented a suicidal attacking rook manoeuvre.
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.