
The Botvinnik Variation of the Semi-Slav is still seen from time to time in grandmaster games, but in the game Gukesh-Warmerdam White didn’t fancy entering the main lines and opted for the tricky sideline with 7.a4.
Special attention will also be paid to the famous game Dubov-Giri, Moscow 2019, in which White castled queenside without any pawns in front of his king and beautifully crushed his opponent on the other side of the board. That game must have inspired Gukesh to go for this specific line, even though Black has various alternatives on move 7 encountering, unlike the main lines after 7.e5 which are usually leading to more forcing type play.
It's good to see we can still see some brilliant, uncompromising attacking chess without using deep opening preparation!
Exercise: White to play and win!
You can move the pieces on the live diagram!
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