What's New - September 2002
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This update is completely dedicated to the Botvinnik Variation [D44]. During the last few years Black was under severe pressure but it looks like the opening's real heroes still exist and the Botvinnik variation is still very much alive! Ruslan Scherbakov |
Please note that I have decided to split the 'Botvinnik- Various Lines' chapter into three new chapters to account for all the extra material (in the Slav eBook). This should make it much easier to follow, and also simpler to become familiar with all these lines.
For those who can't use ChessPub.exe, Download PGN of September '02 1 d4 d5 games
Botvinnik Variation [D44]
Almeida,O - Otero,D: The line 9...Nd5 does not have a good reputation - White gets a serious material advantage while Black's counter chances do not look too promising as his king is rather vulnerable. However, two brilliant victories of young Cuban player Diasmany Otero may increase its popularity. Here is the first game - the final attack is quite impressive but thorough analysis proves that White probably had the possibility to give Black more problems...
Almeida,O - Otero,D: Another game between the same opponents. White deviated from the previous encounter, and probably in vain! This time a sacrifice of two exchanges worked very well and White could not oppose Black's monstrous minor pieces...
Almeida,O - Dominguez,L: Omar Almeida is very unlucky against the Botvinnik variation - he loses again! This time he faced a promising novelty by Lenier Dominguez in the rare line 12...Qc7!? White has probably missed the strongest continuation but nevertheless the game might give a boost to this universal variation, which can arise after both 11.ef6 and 11.g3.
Yermolinsky,A - Atalik,S: A very exciting battle in the line 11.ef6 Qa5. To be fair, Black didn't show anything special in the opening and found himself in a difficult endgame, which turned out to be the most interesting stage of the game. White was probably really close to winning but the position was so complicated and full of study-like ideas that he could even get beautifully checkmated at one point. So the players seemed to be quite happy to shake hands due to perpetual check in the ...queen endgame.
Bacrot,E - Fressinet,L: The game Kramnik - Shirov/Monaco rapid 2002 raised interest in the tricky line 11.g3 Rg8!? where Shirov's 16...Kd8!? worked very well:
            
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but here an interesting and fairly unexpected idea 17. Bxd5!? helped Etienne Bacrot to carry the day. Yet, thorough analysis shows that Black was probably OK...
Rahman,Z - Gaston,S: A tough battle in a principled line. Black introduced an interesting but risky approach and soon missed a strong idea, after which his major forces were cut from his king. The game was not without mistakes but very exciting - a new-born queen turned out to be Black's only piece taking part in the action and it let him escape!
Ernst,T - Hermansson,E: You may remember the fantastic idea of the genius Vassily Ivanchuk: 21. Qg7!?
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but it is probably not as strong as it could seem after his crushing victory over Alexei Shirov (Ivanchuk - Shirov/Wijk aan Zee 1996). Black's precise defence let him hold the position and White's attempts to get more are rather suspicious, as the featured game shows...
Rytshagov,M - Hermansson,E: A good-looking novelty in a deep and important line let Black enter the endgame with reasonable drawing chances. Yet, I suppose that this improvement over the game Kramnik - Shirov, Monaco blind 1996 was well known to Alexei Shirov's second Mikhail Rytchagov, who has cleverly exploited his opponent's mistake. The last word of theory on this principled line...
Rahman,Z - Sriram,J: An interesting novelty in this deep line poses certain problems for Black.
Sakaev,K - Abreu,A: Black's attempt to improve the game Beliavsky - Atalik/Vrnjacka Banja 1999 did not bring the desired effect. The ball is still in his court.
In fact, these last two games have already been annotated, but I have re-assessed them, and changed the annotations.