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ChessBase Magazine #163Italian talent Fabiano Caruana is a spoilsport. Right after the crowning of Carlsen as world champion he set out to remind everyone that the chess world was a republic and not a monarchy. He did it by beating the new ruler time and again.
As is known, Fabiano has a healthy disrespect for authority, but on occasion the enfant terrible goes too far. Early this year he beat Gelfand in Wijk aan Zee and in his annotations to the game commented, tongue in cheek, “Boris has been playing the Sveshnikov a lot recently, but for this game he returned to his old love the Najdorf; no doubt inspired by my recent games.” (Caruana was probably alluding to his own loss to Topalov with White in Zug Grand Prix 2013).
Boris was not amused. He was playing the Najdorf before Caruana was born and this cheeky lad here was saying, the inspiration came from him. Surely, such impudence deserved a lesson and he did not have to wait for long. The wonder boy and the veteran met in the recent Baku Grand Prix Tournament with both vying for top honours. And their individual encounter had all suspense and drama, with Boris repeating the same line he had lost before.
At first Fabiano met his rival’s determination with nonchalance, only to have his position rocked by a series of tactical blows. It was with some resourceful play that he earned a draw. The enthralling encounter is annotated in this issue by grandmaster Kr. Szabo (I have kept the commentary easy and simple for younger readers to follow and added lines wherever necessary):
An exciting battle!
In Baku Caruana and Gelfand shared the first prize. But neither could keep pace in the Tashkent event that followed a week later. While Caruana could occupy the middle rung of the tournament table Gelfand shared the bottom place with Kasimdzhanov. It was Andreikin who came first with an unbeaten 7.0/11.
This brings me to the contents of the current issue of ChessBase Magazine. Apart from the Baku and Tashkent Grand Prix events it also has commentary on games from the Bilbao Grand Prix and the European Union Cup 2014. The Bilbao Grand Prix, as is known, was won by Anand. The other tournament was more interesting. The European Cup was a tough competition with 52 teams participating. The Azeri team SOCAR scored an unbeaten first followed by Novy Bor.
There are as many as 13 opening surveys ranging from the Sicilian to Staunton Gambit. Among them the analysis of 9…Ne8 line in King’s Indian (E98) deserves special mention. For quite some time this line has languished for want of attention.
Kr. Szabo (yes, we are with him again!) makes a persuasive bid for reviving the whole line. Here is a critical game annotated by him. (Again I have kept it easy and simple for readers not familiar with theory. I have also made a couple of suggestions for White).
A terrifying game in which Black’s attack played itself and the editorial verdict: White is better, but Black wins. In my view White should bring the knight early into play with 10.Nd3. It might give him better chances.
CBM 163 also carries trademark sections with middle game strategy, tactics and endgame technique. For reasons of space I have not dealt with them here. In all there are 1437 OTB games of which 132 are annotated. The Telechess Section has 10,000 correspondence games of which 33 are annotated by GMs Robert Alvarez and Juan Morgado. One would like to see coverage of high class events like the ICCF World Championship. Recently none other than Caruana revealed that he picks his ideas from the gurus of correspondence chess. Need one say more?
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Check out if there are any lines here that you play or are interested to learn...
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Illingworth: Reti Opening A11 This flexible setup allows one to decide at a later point whether to follow it up with d3 or with d4. Max Illingworth has studded his article with numerous rules of thumb so that it is to a great extent possible to avoid having to learn long theoretical variations. |
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Kuzmin: Benkö Gambit A58 As Alexey Kuzmin explains, what we have here is a totally new approach to playing the Volga. Black does not want to take on a6 quickly in order to prevent White from castling with Ba6xf1. Instead of that he is even prepared to rapidly exchange his queen. |
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Stohl: Benoni A60 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 cxd5 5.exd5 b5 The Fianchetto Variation may not be reckoned the strongest way to fight the Modern Benoni, but nevertheless White does have chances of getting an advantage. So, with 5...b5!? Black is trying to go his own way at an early point; Igor Stohl investigates how dangerous that is for him. |
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Karolyi: Dutch Defence A83 1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nc6 5.d5 Ne5 6.Qd4 Nf7 7.h4 Till now in this variation of the Staunton Gambit 7.Bxf6 was played – however it led to good results for Black. But as Tibor Karolyi demonstrates in his article, after 7.h4! Black has to face much greater problems. That represents a considerable upward revaluation of the move 2.e4. |
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Havasi: Modern Defence B06 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 a6 5.Nf3 b5 6. Bd3 Bb7 7.Be3 At first White develops naturally with Bd3 and Be3. But as Gergö Havasi demonstrates in his analyses, you would require good knowledge of the theory specific to this variation in order to really get an advantage in the long run. |
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Krasenkow: Sicilian B22 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 e6 At the level of club players, the Alapin Variation 2.c3 is very popular. So Michal Krasenkow makes you acquainted with his own repertoire against it. Early on 4...e6 is a subtle move, since White can hardly reply 5.dxc5 (5...Qxd1+). |
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Sumets: French C11 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Qb6 8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 b6 After the strongest continuation 10.Bd2 c4 11.b4 there are two quite distinct lines: 11...Qa6 and 11...Nxb4. Andrey Sumets’ investigations prove that the knight sacrifice has a greater tendency to give Black satisfactory play. |
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Antic: French C12 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Bg3 Ne4 8.Nge2 6.Bh4 provokes 6...g5, and White hopes to be able to go on and exploit the weakness. Dejan Antic deals with 8...h5 and 8...f5, before turning to the main move 8...c5. It appears that White cannot lay claim to any objective advantage. |
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Müller: King's Gambit C37 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Nc3 From the position in the diagram Black has several moves: 4...g4?!, 4...Bg7, the subtle 4...d6 and 4...Nc6, which leads to a position which is frequently arrived at via a transposition of moves. Karsten Müller introduces you to the subtleties and goes far beyond present theory. |
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Gormally: Queen's Gambit Accepted D24 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5 This is one of the sharpest variations of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. By playing 7...e6 Black returns the pawn immediately. Daniel Gormally acquaints you with both continuations: 8...Bb4 and Miles’ 8...Nb6. |
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Gormally: Queen's Gambit Accepted D24 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5 This is one of the sharpest variations of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. By playing 7...e6 Black returns the pawn immediately. Daniel Gormally acquaints you with both continuations: 8...Bb4 and Miles’ 8...Nb6. |
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Postny: Grünfeld Defence D85 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bd2 Bg7 6.e4 Nxc3 7.Bxc3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nowadays 5.Bd2 is no longer a surprise way to meet the Grünfeld Defence. Evgeny Postny has worked intensively on the position in the diagram and come to the conclusion that there are several continuations for Black which give him a level game. |
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Marin: Nimzoindian E41 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c5 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 d6 8.0-0 e5 9.d5 Ne7 The so-called Hübner Variation (Mihail Marin mentions earlier games by Portisch in the 1950s) is not an easy one to defuse. Our Romanian author tries to do so with 10.Nd2 and in his extensive article he is able to show a slight plus for White. |
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Szabo: King's Indian E98 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Ne8 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 h5 13.c5 g5 Krisztian Szabo is a specialist in this sharp variation, which can be characterised in brief as follows: White is better, but Black wins. So the risk factor is extremely high for both sides. |
