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King's Indian Defence, Yugoslav System with 8.dxc5 dxc5 9.Bf4 [E65]

Sitting next to Keith Arkell in the World Senior Team Championships, I was rather intrigued by his game against Thomas Pieper (Arkell, K - Pieper, T ). Everything looked rather normal until Black uncorked the imaginative 21...Ncd4(?):

What was happening? I wasn't sure at the time, and felt a degree of concern for my team mate, but as it happened Keith played almost immaculately and won a nice game. Meanwhile I discovered that 21...Ncd4 was actually a theoretical novelty, an earlier game having featured 21...h5. Meanwhile the engines just say 21...Nd6 with what appears to be full equality.

I left the British Championships in Hull before the play-off, but when I looked at the games later it turned out that this same Yugoslav Variation featured heavily. David Howell and Gawain Jones have played a lot of games in this line, David eschewed Keith's 12.Rd1 in favour of the immediate 12.Bh6 and then Gawain played 12...Qe8 anyway:

In the first game of the playoff he got a better endgame after 13.g4 Nf6 14.h3 Rd8 15.Bxg7 Qxg7 16.Qe3 h6, in the third Gawain varied with 16...Nd4 and drew, see Howell, D - Jones, G. Looking at these lines it seems that Black should be OK, but only if he continues to find accurate moves.

King's Indian Defence, Yugoslav System with 8.dxc5 dxc5 9.Be3 [E65]

The debate about whether 9.Bf4 or 9.Be3 is stronger seems to have been going on for decades. I remember that Bent Larsen seemed to prefer 9.Bf4, in his book 'Playing the English: A World Class Repertoire', arch-researcher Nikolaos Ntirlis suggests that 9.Be3 is more annoying. Let's examine this question in more detail:

In the first game with 9.Be3 (Ghosh, D - Tahbaz, A ), Black plays the traditional 9...Qa5:

and quickly finds himself in trouble. This is a good indicator that things have changed since Larsen's day.

The second is the rise of the move 9...b6:

which is essentially an exchange sacrifice. In Keymer, V - Chigaev, M White played the critical 10.Ne5 but then seemed unaware of 13.Bb7!. White was doing well after 14...h5 and 15...Ng4, but towards the end it was Black who had the chances. Obviously it's not easy in a fast internet game.

Another topical move is 9...Be6:

as recommended by Gawain Jones himself. After 10.Qa4 Nd4 White has two main approaches, either 11.Bxd4 (Bogner, S - Moroni, L ) or 11.Rad1 (Banusz, T - Schroeder, J ). This latter game followed two games that were analyzed by David Vigorito, Wadsworth - Jones and Christiansen - Chigaev. Banusz's 21.g4 appears to be new and not especially promising for White, though he then outplayed his opponent in the endgame.

Finally there's a relatively new try in 9...Qb6:

when Blomqvist, E - Johansson, L featured 10.Na4 rather than the equally interesting 10.Qb3. Black seemed to be fine for much of the game, but then erred with 17...Ne8 and 18...Bd7. I think the main problem in all these lines is the greater requirement of accuracy by Black.

King's Indian Defence, Yugoslav System with 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Ne5 [E64]

The final game I want to consider (Grischuk, A - Janaszak, D) is from a Titled Tuesday event and in the queen exchange line with 9.Ne5. Grischuk's 11.Bd2 was a new move:

but was it just over-the-board inspiration? At first I thought it had to be, especially when the engines thought that 13...Ng4 was strong. Yet when I looked at it more deeply it seemed that White could go a pawn down for some compensation. In the game itself Black allowed 15.Bxc6, mangling his queenside pawns. Yet even the superior 14...Bd7 is slightly better for White.

These Yugoslav lines are quite interesting, they often lead to lively piece play and both sides have a lot of possibilities. I'm sure we'll be seeing some further developments.

See you next month. Nigel

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