Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Sharp play in the Najdorf

by Robert Ris
9/27/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris analyses a game from the Olympiad, in which Black tried a risky line in the Najdorf to counter White's strange-looking move 6.Rg1!? However, Black's risky approach backfired and White, who had almost 500(!) Elo-points less than his opponent achieved a surprising draw. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Robert Ris: "I have a look at another spectacular game from the Olympiad, played in the first round and featuring a sharp Najdorf with 6.Rg1. In fact Black has a whole range of setups to choose from, but in the Cabralis-Yakubboev game Black chose the principled response 6...b5 7.a4 b4 8.Nxd5 Nxe4. Although theoretically sound, it is incredibly risky to take White's central pawn and soon Yakubboev was in deep trouble.

In this week's programme I'll explain White's key ideas as well as some long variations to give the viewer an idea of what to expect."

Question: White to move, what to do?

Q. Cabralis - N. Yakubboev, Chess Olympiad 2024
White to play

Feel free to move the pieces on the live diagram!

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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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