Download PGN of November '09 1 d4 d5 games

Vienna Variation [D39]

Matlakov - Landa: The transposition to the ending by 7. dxc5!? is supposed to be harmless for Black, but accurate play is still required:

otherwise White's pieces might become powerful...

Kunin - Khenkin: Igor Khenkin came up with an interesting new idea, which almost solved Black's problems, 16...Bf5!?:

However, he did not work out his approach deeply enough and that caused a wrong step, followed by a blunder.

Riazantsev - Zhu Chen: Alexander Riazantsev came up with a surprising novelty in a well-known position. Actually, it looked rather harmless for Black, who got an extra pawn in the ending. However, White was able to maintain some pressure thanks to his pair of bishops and Black still had to defend accurately, which turned out to be more difficult than expected...

Gelfand - Aronian: Levon Aronian successfully defended the same position in which Black recently suffered a painful defeat. His improvement, 19...Rg8!, which I already suggested in the comments to the game Tkachiev - Balogh/World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk 2007, prevented the escalation of his opponent's initiative:

but perhaps White can still find chances to secure an edge.

Meier - Acs: Georg Meier demonstrated a wonderful improvement over his own game. First the knight and then the rook were sacrificed, and this certainly came as a nasty shock for Peter Acs, who wasn't given a chance to show his skill.

Kramnik - Naiditsch: Vladimir Kramnik's ambitious approach against a topical line was well met by Arkady Naiditsch. Both sides were equal to the task and a draw should have been the most logical result of the complicated struggle. However, Black's king always remained vulnerable and it eventually caused a series of mistakes in time pressure.

Gupta - Naumann: Compared to the previous game, Kramnik - Naiditsch/Dortmund 2009, here Black secured his K-side pawns but it allowed White to activate all his pieces. Alexander Naumann has already used this approach to hold the balance earlier this year but Abhijeet Gupta came up with a new idea on move 29, which gave Black some problems, 29.Nd6!:

Analysis show that they were not very dangerous, but some precise, and sometimes not quite obvious, moves were required...

Shulman - Naiditsch: Arkady Naiditsch showed that Black is very much alive after capturing the pawn. This line was supposed to be suspicious for Black but it seems that White has got work to do...

See you next month, 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.