Download PGN of October '10 1 d4 d5 games

Noteboom [D31]

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c6 4 Nf3 dxc4:

Le Quang - Saptarshi: Shifting to a Catalan type of position has never been harmful for Black in the Noteboom - however, accurate play is required, as usual. Here thematic ...c6-c5 pawn advance did not seem to fully equalise, but then White spoiled his advantage and even had to fight for equality.

Harikrishna - Nyback: Here Tomi Nyback came up with ...c6-c5 very early - it looks interesting and might be the way to solve Black's problems:

However, his following play was far from perfect and Penteala Harikrishna cleverly exploited Black's incomprehensive play in the ending but then a victory slipped from his hands twice due to a wrong final step.

Kipper - Nyback: Tomi Nyback came up with a clever novelty and quickly solved Black's problems in a position which was supposed to be comfortable for White, 9...Nb4!:

Gupta - Aswin: Apart from the well-developed side line 16...e5, which is still playable for Black, there are other less-known ways which might actually close the whole line as completely harmless for Black. Here is one of them:

Black's king bravely moves forward and it soon turns out that White has to fight for equality!

Jasnikowski - Scherbakov: Here my opponent played very inventively but still failed to give Black serious problems and a couple of inaccurate moves led him to disaster. White's play would be improved but in fact his approach does not promise much though Black should play precisely.

Savchenko - Shulman: It seems that a combination of the move Rf1-c1 and an advance of the pawn center does not promise much. Here White even gained a slight benefit compared to the game Jasnikowski - Scherbakov/Katowice 1992:

but still failed to obtain anything substantial, while a first inaccurate move led to problems.

Magerramov - Scherbakov: In this game I faced an interesting novelty on move 25 in the main line. I reacted in a very tempting but actually mistaken way - however, my opponent returned the favour and Black eventually prevailed in a long and very exciting battle.

Georgescu - Posedaru: It is very dangerous for Black to allow White's c-passer to be effectively supported by the rook and other pieces, such as the knight and light-squared bishop. It usually helps White to develop a rather annoying and long-lasting initiative and, even though Black may still maybe somehow prove he is not losing, the whole point of playing the Noteboom is spoiled if he has to fight for a draw under such pressure.

Jianu - Baratosi: White's approach, connected with a blockade of Black's Q-side passers, has already become common. However, it seems that Black's counter measures against his opponent's king, which sometimes involve the g-pawn push and the knight's jump to g4 are also becoming rather typical:

This approach took centre stage only a few years ago (see Onischuk - Shirov/World Cup (m/4.2) Khanty-Mansiysk 2007) but it has already caused White some real headaches. In the featured game Black's timely K-side assault gave him a comfortable edge though one inaccurate move eventually allowed White to escape.

Goganov - Molchanova: One more example of how powerful Black's K-side assault may become if White does not pay proper attention to it. At one point she could have even mated her opponent's king by force but one wrong step led to a disastrous turn of events.

Dreev - Zhigalko: Alexey Dreev advocates a logical plan. Since White's e-pawn push is usually stopped he does not see any reason to waste time on the move Rf1-e1 and so he blockades Black's Q-side pawns without any delay:

This approach seems to be a serious challenge for Black though in this game some slow manoeuvres actually almost led White to disaster.

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.