May '00
The Weird 2...b5AS150 MAY00 It seems that Black systems with an early ...b5 are making a small comeback. Black grabs some early queenside space and hinders White's normal approach of c4. As you are all d-pawn specialists, this shouldn't pose too many problems. My advice is don't underestimate your opponent, just because he plays a few funny-looking opening moves. Remember, Tony Miles once beat Karpov with ...a6 and ...b5! |
London system
AS152 MAY00 Black scores a nice win, using my favourite anti-London system. Giving up the centre is no answer to White's problems in this line.
AS153 MAY00 The Spanish grandmaster Magem Badals tries an offbeat line, intending to lop off White's dark squared bishop as early as possible. In the game, this aggressive strategy works like a dream. Unfortunately, this is not a good month for London system afficianadoes.
Barry Attack
AS151 MAY00 The most aggressive way of playing the Barry, involves trying to exchange dark square bishops as early as possible. If Black fails to react actively, he is likely to be squashed like a bug!
Trompowsky
AS146: Another b-pawn grabber bites the dust MAY00 For attack minded players, there is nothing better than watching your hapless opponent pointlessly move his queen around the board, munching as many pawns as possible along the way. Kasparov may get away with it in the Najdorf, but not everybody has his defensive technique.
AS147 MAY00 Here we see one of the major drawbacks of Black's ...gxf6 recapture. The Black king is sometimes left with nowhere safe to hide. It is my extreme pleasure to show you this game, where the Black king is mercilessly hunted down and mated mid-board.
AS148 MAY00 The next game concerns a crucial line of the ...Ne4 variation. Practical results have heavily favoured White, but I feel that Black has some, as yet unseen resources in this line.
Pseudo-Trompowsky
AS149 MAY00 In the Pseudo-Tromp, it seems to me that White does best when he goes for the c4 break, which fights for the advantage. The idea is to reach a favourable Slav or Queen's Gambit Declined position while gaining time on the clock. When White omits this pawn thrust, he limits his options and extremely enterprising, if not downright risky play is required if he wants to chalk up the full point. The following game sees the later approach.
Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
AS155 MAY00 Black's inventive play allows him to take the full point in the following game, but as the notes show, this line can hardly be called a refutation of the gambit.
Stonewall
AS154 MAY00 Although I'm not a big fan of the move order White uses here to set up his Stonewall battering ram, once it is up and running, the Black defences are unable to cope with the following debacle.