Sicilian Schevenigen – for mere mortals too
The subject of
Ftacnik’s first DVD is the Scheveningen Variation in the Sicilian Defence. Its
seven hours of running time demonstrate how far beyond the usual this video
goes. There is no surprise about that, because Ftacnik has many years of
experience with this opening and also his preparatory work has been spread over
a number of years.
Here is a video
in Fritztrainer format (of a total of 24 in English language):
Scheveningen with an
early g4
The author was
kind enough to answer a few questions for us and to send us one of his best
games with the Scheveningen, with annotations of course.
How long have you been working with the ChessBase program and since when have
you been working for the firm ChessBase?
It was in 1987
that I started working with the ChessBase program, and one year later I wrote my
first articles for CBM-Magazine.
When did you start to play the Scheveningen? Who is the strongest player you
have managed to defeat with the Scheveningen? What is your total score with the
opening?
In played my
first games with the Scheveningen in 1977 (e.g. in the GM tournament in Sochi
1977); I have beaten Naiditsch, Adams, Nunn, Socko, Laznicka; out of 190 games
-41 =88 +65, in other words 56.3% and a performance rating of 2515 since 1977,
when at the time my rating was only 2360.
Do you consider that the Scheveningen is an opening for grandmasters only? Is
the opening also suited to playing for a win with Black?
Of course the
Scheveningen is also for mortals. Basically the Sicilian is almost unavoidable
and very popular. The Scheveningen is characterised by active counterplay and
counterattack., meaning that as an opening it is even clearly more suited than
other systems to turning winning ambitions for Black into reality.
Has the rise of computers changed the evaluation of the opening or is it
possible to evaluate specific variations more precisely?
As a general
rule, there have been rather clear corrections in the judgments about many
openings, but not so many for the Scheveningen. The plans have been around for
some time and there have been few adjustments to evaluations (such as, for
example, equality instead of “very promising for White” in some lines). Of
course nowadays it is possible to work out the sharper variations much more
accurately and to give much more precise evaluations, but these are rather
specific matters which do not affect to any great extent the general state of
knowledge on the opening.
What can still be said in favour of the Scheveningen?
Kasparov,
Anand, Topalov, Kramnik, Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Karpov, Svidler, Movsesian,
Mamedyarov, Gelfand and many other have been active users of the Scheveningen.
Games from the latest version of Mega 2009 (show for an average Elo score of
2600 a 55% result for White, that is to say exactly the overall average.
Kasparov has scored 65.7% on the black side of the Scheveningen, (including
decisive games in matches against Karpov), just a fraction more than the 64%
which he has scored as Black with all openings in Mega 2009. Conclusion: Black
can really play for a win, the best players in the world trust the Scheveningen.
Game Nunn - Ftacnik, Naestved
1985
Lubomir Ftacnik: Sicilian
Scheveningen