Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Carlsen's 4...a6 against the Queen's Gambit

by Robert Ris
10/15/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Armageddon game between Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen from round 1 of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. Against Aronian's Queen's Gambit Carlsen tried the Janowski variation, 4...a6!?, which led to a sharp fight and theoretically interesting complications. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to understand better the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, it helps when you can just

A weapon for Black? - the Janovsky variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined

Robert Ris: "Magnus Carlsen is back and played his first over-the-board games in months at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament! We will have a closer look at his Armageddon game with Black against Aronian from round 1, in which the World Champion employed his favourite Janowski Variation (4...a6) vs. the Queen's Gambit Declined.

Rather than going for a slow manoeuvring game, Aronian opted for White's sharpest option by voluntarily trading his bishop for the knight with 7.Bxf6 Qxf6, following it up with 8.Qb3. This variation is quite new and various players have fallen victim to this venomous concept!

Carlsen wisely avoided these sharp complications, but his opening experiment couldn't be called a success. Nevertheless, he managed to clinch victory, as Aronian's attacking play didn't work out."

Warming up exercise: Do you see White's best move?

 
L. Krysa - L. Tristan
White to play

You can move the pieces on the live diagram!

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Robert is on air every other Thursday at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EST)

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Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.

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