Download PGN of September '15 d-Pawn Specials games
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The Trompowsky 2...Ne4 3 h4 d5 [A45]
Richard Rapport's games are always worth a look and he wheeled out 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 3 h4!? once again in Abu Dhabi, and in an important round no less. However, even the creative Hungarian failed to make the position all that exciting after Nils Grandelius' highly sensible 3...d5 and ultimately White was quite badly outplayed in Rapport - Grandelius.
The Trompowsky 2...Ne4 3 Bf4 d5 4 f3!? [A45]
Another adventurous line sometimes under a cloud is 3 Bf4 d5 4 f3!? Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 e4, but this has scored quite well in a couple of tests of late:
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I had always presumed that Black should now deploy his bishop from f8, but perhaps 6...dxe4 7 fxe4 Bb4 isn't so bad. However, after 8 Qd3! c5 9 dxc5 Black must either trade queens or go 9...Qa5 10 Bd6 and then 10...Nbd7. Instead, the greedy 10...Ne4? pretty much loses by force to a lovely line, as we'll see in Esen - Mona.
The Trompowsky 2...d5 3 e3 c5 4 Bxf6 gxf6 [D00]
More topical in recent years has been 2...d5 3 e3 c5 4 Bxf6 gxf6 5 dxc5:
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Here 5...Nc6!? continues to seem quite critical. Instead, 5...e6 can be fairly well met by Adams' 6 Nf3 Bxc5 7 c4 and even the immediate 6 c4!? isn't totally innocuous, as shown by Wen Yang-Xu Jun.
The Torre Attack 6 a3 [A46]
It began with 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 e6 3 e3 c5 4 c3 b6 5 Nd2 Bb7 6 a3!? Be7 7 Bxf6 Bxf6 8 Ngf3, but I dare say that we should really consider this unusual position a Torre. When you learn that Igor Miladinovic was White, the further continuation of 8...0-0 9 Bd3 Nc6 10 h4!? d5 11 Ng5 h6 12 f4! may not seem so surprising:
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White's play may seem primitive, but defending against it is no easy task over the board and even a creative piece sacrifice failed to entirely help Black in Miladinovic - Bokros.
The Torre v KID, 4 Nbd2 c5 [A48]
Another solid line which can burst into life is 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 Bg5 Bg7 4 Nbd2 c5 and then 5 Bxf6!? Bxf6 6 Ne4 Bxd4 7 Nxd4 cxd4 8 Qxd4 0-0 9 Qd2 Nc6 10 0-0-0:
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Mamedyarov tried this out as White recently, but while he definitely posed a few questions, Black seems to have at least three entirely viable moves in this position, as we'll see in Mamedyarov - So.
The Jobava-Prié Attack 3...Bf5 [A45]
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 Bf4 just won't go away, with Daniel Naroditsky the latest to join the white cause. After 3...Bf5 4 f3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 h4 h6 7 e3 a6 the young American Grandmaster elected to keep his h-pawn on h4.
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I'm not convinced that 8 Bd3!? Bxd3 9 cxd3 should favour White, but 9...c5 10 dxc5 Bxc5 11 d4 Bd6 12 Nge2 Nc6 13 Kf2 certainly gave him a pretty pleasant set-up in Naroditsky - Kiewra.
The Neo-London System 2...d5 3 e3 c5 [D00/A45]
Finally, we turn to this Kamsky and sometime Grischuk favourite. Previously the latter has tried 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 mainly in speed events, but he was happy enough to wheel it out in the first round of the Sinquefield Cup, meeting 2...d5 3 e3 c5 with 4 dxc5!? Nc6 5 Bb5 Qa5+ 6 Nc3 a6 (amazingly, we've now transposed to a position that can also arise from a line of the Trompowsky) 7 Bxc6 bxc6:
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Here praxis has tended to focus on the principled if greedy 8 Qd4, but Grischuk's simple 8 Nf3 may well promise White a small pull, and it soon led to more than that in Grischuk - Anand.
More creativity next month! Until then, Richard
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