Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: The Gothenburg Variation

by Robert Ris
12/31/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Gothenburg Variation, which derives its name from the fact that three Soviet players (Keres, Spassky and Geller) played against three Argentinian players (Najdorf, Pilnik and Panno) and reached exactly the same variation of the Sicilian Najdorf at the Sweden city! | "Fast and Furious" is available 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

The Gothenburg Variation in the Najdorf

The 6th of September 1955 in Gothenburg will be remembered in chess history as the day when three Soviet players (Keres, Spassky and Geller) played against three Argentinian players (Najdorf, Pilnik and Panno) and reached exactly the same variation of the Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Bg5! 

After the moves 6...e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.fxg5 Nfd7, Black didn't get the chance to gain a positional grip on the dark squares as in all three games White went for the spectacular double piece sacrifice 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Qh5 Kf8 13.Bb5!?. The Soviet players won their mini-match convincingly by a 3-0 score, but three years later Bobby Fischer improved Black's play with 13...Rh7! We will investigate the current state of this variation and show you some fascinating new ideas for both sides which have been discovered ever since!

Warming up exercise: This position was reached simultaneously in Spassky-Pilnik & Keres-Najdorf, Gothenburg 1955. How should White continue his attack?

 
Spassky, B. v Pilnik, H. - Gothenburg 1955

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Robert is on air every other Thursday at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 16:00 EST)

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Solution of the exercise

 
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22.Nd5 Rxa2 23.h3 Qh8 24.Nxe7 Nxe7 25.Qg5 Ra1+ 26.Kh2 Qd8 27.Qxb5+ Kc7 28.Qc5+ Kb8 29.Bxd6+ Ka8 30.Bxe7 Ra5 31.Qb4 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Spassky,B-Pilnik,H-1–01955B98Interzonal-0314

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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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