What's New - October 2002

For those who can't use ChessPub.exe, Download PGN of October '02 1 d4 d5 games

Queen's Gambit Accepted [D20-29]

Gagunashvili,M - Rublevsky,S: The endgame which may arise after 9.a3!? was never very popular, probably because White's advantage seemed to be insufficient to win the game. This year it was given a little boost thanks to the efforts of Georgian players. Curiously enough, their opponent was every time the same player, one of the main QGA experts Sergei Rublevsky. He comfortably drew with Jobava, beat Azmaiparashvili (by the way, both were the members of the Georgian team in Slovenia) but here he faced real problems as his opponents have done their home work and produced an interesting novelty on move 26, improving White's play in the game, which Rublevsky played more than 10 years ago! Still, he managed to make a draw but it looks like Black's problems in this endgame were slightly underestimated.

Bayram,Y - Xu Jun: The manoeuvre ...Nc6-b4 followed by ...Bc8-d7-c6 is a solid approach to establish control over the d5 square, playing against an isolated pawn. In this game White was in a hurry to get rid of his d4-pawn but the advance d4-d5, which is often quite strong, was a bit premature at this moment. A nice tactical trick let Black simplify into a slightly better endgame in which White missed a lot of chances to make a draw.

Georgiev,V - Ganguly,S: Vladimir Georgiev surprised his opponent with a rare line - instead of the common 7. Bb3 b5 8. a4 b4 9. Nbd2 followed by 10. e4 he played 9. a5 with the idea of giving a rather annoying Ba4-check. Yet, White delays the development of the other pieces and so Black should be OK with precise play.

Zhu Chen - Skripchenko-Lautier,A: theory of the 7. Bb3 line has made a new step. Black realised that in the line 7. ..b5 8. a4 b4 9. Nbd2 he can continue the K-side development without any delay by 9. ..Be7!?

In this game White obtained the better chances but there are a lot of interesting possibilities for both sides. Let's wait for future encounters.

Bu Xiangzhi - Stevic,H: A small innovation in a deep line allowed Black to force some exchanges but it seems that the problems still remain.

Vanderstricht,G - Rytshagov,M: White's approach, which worked very well when it was a surprise in the game Kasparov - Ivanchuk/Linares 1999, now does not seem to be very promising. Black played a new continuation in a deep line - perhaps not the best one but still good enough to avoid any problems.

Meenakshi,S - Tetenkina,I: While preparing for tournament games, I often refer to my material on ChessPublishing.com as I have been trying to make them useful both for chess lovers and professionals, including, of course, myself! Being a coach of the Indian women team at the Olympiad and, having noticed that our opponent (by the way, Byelorussian player was leading on the second board at that moment with 5,5 out of 7) may go for the fashionable line of 7. Bb3, I just gave Meenakshi all the games commented for Chess Pub in which White played the promising Kramnik's manoeuvre Qd1-d2-f4-h4. There would be more serious problems on the other boards so my further help was limited to only one question after all: "Have you got the spirit of the position?" You can guess the answer by watching this game...

Nielsen,P - Sadvakasov,D: Some times in the main position of the QGA after 6.0-0 Black plays 6...Nc6 instead of 6...a6.

This approach is not very popular and the featured game shows Black's difficulties very well. In some lines it is really important to develop the bishop on b7 as soon as possible, getting control over some important squares on the long diagonal while the knight would be better placed on d7.