What's New - September 2001
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Here is the September update, and yet, I haven't forgotten about playing and in a couple of hours will leave home for 10 days to participate in the 2nd League of the Russian Team Championships at Omsk, heading a young team from our region. Actually, my city's name won't tell you much - it was unnamed for years as it was (and still is!) one of the biggest centers of the Russian nuclear industry. Officially it was just a post-box: Chelyabinsk-70, although 100 km from Chelyabinsk! Even now one has to get some kind of pass (like a visa!) to get there... Bye for now! Ruslan Scherbakov |
Botvinnik Variation
SEP01/01 An interesting novelty in the deep line poses certain problems for Black.
SEP01/02 A principled battle in a rare line. White introduced a novelty in the complicated endgame and won conclusively, but it seems that Black's play can be improved.
Meran
A novelty in a rare line was already mentioned in my comments to the game Volzhin - Cs.Horvath, Gyula 2000. However, in SEP01/03 Evgeny Najer proves that White's initiative is much stronger than it seemed to be. Perhaps Black should pay more attention to the possible alternatives on the 13th and 15th moves.
5 Bf4 QGD
SEP01/04 Young Vladimir Kramnik disproved the passive approach of his experienced opponent in brilliant style.
A slow approach - instead of the direct 6...c5 Black preferred 6...b6, which reminds me of the Tartakower system, is examined in SEP01/05. Curiously enough, rather complicated play began very soon - Black sacrificed a pawn but quickly got all his pieces into play and achieved a certain compensation. Yet, White's chances still look preferable in this line.
SEP01/06 Another alternative way to the main 6...c5. Yet, a transposition to the Carlsbad pawn structure does not look very good for Black in this situation.
QGA
While an inaccuracy from White in the opening just spoils his advantage, Black should be much more precise. In SEP01/07 a careless pawn exchange in the center happened to be a novelty, and this is not such a big surprise as no one offered White such great help before, opening two important lines for his pieces. Evgeny Vladimirov appreciated it very much and came up with 3 consecutive and powerful piece sacrifices, which totally destroyed Black's position.
Tarrasch
In the games Ruban - Arensibia, Havana 1990 and Babula - Leito, Krynica 1997, we discussed the most direct attempt to refute the Tarrasch Defence by capturing the c5-pawn at the very beginning, after which Black is almost forced to sacrifice the pawn. Michal Krasenkow used to play the idea with the inclusion of the moves Ng1-f3 and Nb8-c6, which certainly changes the situation. The game SEP01/08 ended in a draw after a short clash but it seems that White had a better alternative and the line deserves more attention.
SEP01/09 Joel Lautier introduces a new set-up to counter the Swedish variation. Instead of damaging Black's queenside pawn structure he decided to keep his knight on e5. It worked very well but Black probably didn't exploit all his counter possibilities.