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This month there were many big events and top level games and the KID was a common guest in many of them. I have decided to mainly show you games from the European Championship and I still had to pick between so many. I put the one rapid game in because it is rare to see Kramnik playing these days.

Download PGN of March ’23 KID games

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Seirawan System 5.Bd3 0-0 6.Nge2 Nc6 7.0-0 e5 8.d5 Nd4 [E70]

Moroni, L - Sadikhov, O was in the Seirawan System. Both sides followed one of the main lines where White is trying to attack in the centre and Black on the queenside. In the middlegame White went for the standard 22.e5 break:











but instead of only giving a pawn he offered a piece and got a crushing attack. However, he could not find the winning move and in the end was forced to give his queen and to look for a repetition.


Makagonov System 5.h3 0-0 6.Be3 Na6 7.g4 e5 8.d5 Nc5 9.f3 a5 [E71]

Samunenkov, I - Ivanchuk, V was in the Makaganov system. The game was following a natural path in this line until, instead of the main 15. h5, White tried the new move 15.g5:











Ivanchuk replied with 15...Nh5 and this blocked the attack on the h-file. Later Black even started an initiative on the f-file. He then offered an exchange in order to gain control of the dark squares and was better in the complications. In the end the famous KID bishop helped to organize a very strong attack and Black won.


Karpov Variation 6.Be3 Na6 7.h4 [E73]

Anton, D - Kadric, D featured a very rare line in the Averbakh with the 7.h4 move:











This forced Black to go into a fresh kind of Benoni position and soon we were out of the book. Black continued in Benko style with 12....b5 and got some compensation. When it was looking that White was in trouble Black made a mistake and allowed White to launch a counterattack and so White managed to win.


Karpov Variation 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 Na6 8.g4 [E73]

Erdogmuz, K - Muradi, M was in the Averbakh System, Black tried a rare plan with 14...Rf7 but White did not get the idea.











In fact, Black relocated the bishop to e7, and, in order not to lose the g-pawn for nothing White was suddenly forced to go active. Black managed to keep the pawn and deal with the initiative and later started to push his kingside pawns until he managed to bring them to the second rank and win the game.


Karpov Variation 6.Be3 Na6 7.d5 Ne5 8.f4 Neg4 [E73]

Lupulescu, C - Donchenko, A was in the Karpov Variation where, a bit surprisingly, White was not so well prepared. First he went 9 Bc1, which is very rare move and then already after 12 exd5 he was simply a bit worse:











Later on Black took the initiative on the kingside and slowly built an attack on the h-file. White could not do anything and in the end Black won the game with a nice finish.



Classical Variation 6...Na6 7.0-0 e5 8.Be3 Qe7 9.c5 [E94]

Han, Y - Sargsyan, S was in the Classical line with 6...Na6 where Black went for the rare line with 8...Qe7 and this was met by the even less common idea 9.c5:











This led to an equal game and then slowly they went into an endgame where not much was going on until White blundered into a small tactic and lost a piece and the game.


Classical, Gligoric Variation 8.0-0 exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.Qc2 [E94]

Kukhmazov, A - Bernadsky, V was in the Classical line with 8...exd4. Black followed the main idea with ...d5 and soon White ended up with having a weak e4 pawn:











Later Black took over the initiative and White gave a pawn to look for some activity. However, in the endgame he did not play well and Black slowly realized his extra pawn and won the game.


Classical, Bayonet Attack 9...Ne8 10.c5 h6 [E97]

Kramnik, V - Kamsky, G was in the Bayonet Attack. Black opted for a rare line where he kept delaying the thematic move ...f5. Then he played a bit passively and White managed to get very strong outposts for his knights pressing the d pawn:











Black could not do anything active and White easily converted his advantage.



Till next month, Marian

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