Cyrus Lakdawala a ferocious opening repertoire aE,Cyrus Lakdawala a ferocious opening repertoire EVERYMAN CHESS Gloucester Publishers plc. www.everymanchess.comFirst published in 2010 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers plc), Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OAT Copyright © 2010 Cyrus Lakdawala The right of Cyrus Lakdawala to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 85744 6616 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480, All other sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OAT tel: 020 7253 7887 fax: 020 7490 3708 email: info@everymanchess.com; website: www.everymanchess.com Everyman is the registered trade mark of Random House Inc, and is used in this work under licence from Random House Inc. Everyman Chess Series Chief advisor: Byron Jacobs Commissioning editor: John Emms Assistant editor: Richard Palliser Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton. Cover design by Horatio Monteverde. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, Bungay, Suffolk.Contents wort nur wne Roe BOO Bibliography Introduction The Veresov: 3...\bd7 4 f3!? The Veresov: 3...\bd7 4 Wd3 The Veresov: Other Defences Veresov versus French: Lines with .. Df6 Veresov versus French: Lines without ... Af6 1.d4 d5 2 @c3: Second-Move Alternatives Veresov versus Caro-Kann Veresov versus Dutch Modern, Pirc and Philidor Schmid Benoni and Czech Benoni 1...Ac6 and Owen's Defence Index of Variations Index of Games 10 45 74 109 130 163 188 208 233 263 280 298 302Bibliography Dangerous Weapons: The French, john Watson (Everyman Chess 2007) Dangerous Weapons: The Pirc and Modern, Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess 2009) Dealing with d4 Deviations, John Cox (Everyman Chess 2005) Fighting the Anti-King’s Indians, Yelena Dembo (Everyman Chess 2008) French: Advance and Other Lines, Steffen Pedersen (Gambit 2005) How to Play Against 1 e4, Neil McDonald (Everyman Chess 2008) Pirc Alert!, Lev Alburt and Alex Chernin (Chess Info. and Research Centre 2001) Play 1...b6, Christian Bauer (Everyman Chess 2005) Play 1...2c6, Christoph Wisnewski (Everyman Chess 2007) Play the Dutch, Neil McDonald (Everyman Chess 2010) Play the French, John Watson (Everyman Chess 2003) Starting Out: d-pawn Attacks, Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess 2008) Starting Out: The Modern, Nigel Davies (Everyman Chess 2008) Starting Out: The Pirc/Modern, Joe Gallagher (Everyman Chess 2003) The Black Lion, Jerry van Rekom and Leo Jansen (New in Chess 2008) The Flexible French, Viktor Moskalenko (New In Chess 2008) The French, Viacheslav Eingorn and Valentin Bogdanov (Gambit 2008) The French Defense, Svetozar Gligoric and Wolfgang Uhlmann (RHM Press 1975) The Lion, Jerry van Rekom and Leo Janssen (Uitgeverij Schaaknieuws 2001) The Pirc Defense, Alex Chemin and Jan Cartier (Hays 1997) The Richter-Veresov System: The Chameleon Chess Repertoire, Eduard Gufeld and Oleg Stetsko (Thinker’s Press 1999) The Ultimate Pirc, John Nunn and Colin McNab (Batsford 1998) The Veresov, Nigel Davies (Everyman Chess 2003) The Veresov Attack, Ken Smith and John Hall (Chess Digest 1994) Tiger's Modern, Tiger Hillarp Persson (Quality Chess 2005) Win with the London System, Sverre Johnsen and Vlatko Kovacevic (Gambit 2005) Jalso referred to material from ChessPublishing.comIntroduction: The Veresov This book is really the result of a happy accident. | had just finished my first book for Everyman Chess on the London System, when John Emms asked if | wanted to do a second book - on the Veresov. Apparently he had seen several of my games with the Veresov in the database. There was only one problem: John had been looking at my younger brother Jimmy’s games! The database had inadvertently posted many of Jimmy's games under my name. Jimmy had played the Veresov in the 80’s and had long since retired from tournament play to become a captain of industry, running our family business. |, on the other hand, had not played a single Veresov in my life. After confessing this to John he gave me the go ahead any- way. Pethaps John thought Veresov was in the Lakdawala family genes! The book constituted a real chal- lenge, and the irony of a London-loving chess chicken like me writing a book on one of the most bloodthirsty openings in chess was not lost on me. | had al- ways considered the Veresov an open- ing of dubious lineage. After all, with 1 d4 and 2 4\c3 White violates one of the biggest taboos in chess, which is don’t block your c-pawn with your knight in a Queen’s Pawn opening. What never oc- curs to Veresov naysayers is the fact that White isn’t trying for c4, but instead plays for e4! Diehard Veresovers like Jimmy knew better. He would heap po- etic praises upon his beloved opening. Not wishing to hurt the lad’s feelings, | indulged him by nodding politely, coughing, looking up at the ceiling and whistling through my teeth, holding back any criticism of his favourite open- ing. Now, having thoroughly studied the opening, | can state with confidence that Jimmy was right and | was wrong. The Veresov is completely playable, and if you are a tactician and attacking player, it tends to suck your opponent into your realm of power. Nobody both- ers to study the line as Black. So the greatest strength of the Veresov is its own dubious reputation!A Ferocious Opening Repertoire Profile of a Veresover Jimmy was born to play the Veresov: 1. He was incredibly lazy about open- ing study. In fact, he reached an impres- sive US Chess Federation rating just over 2400 without ever studying a single chess book! A feat only the young Capa matched. The opening is easy to lear because you play d4, “\c3, 2g5 and of- ten f3 against just about everything. The idea behind the opening is incredi- bly simple: force e4! no matter how Black responds. This one guiding princi- ple makes your opening choices easy. 2. He was lopsided in his chess abili- ties. | would estimate his strategic un- derstanding at the level of a typical kindergartener, while his tactical and calculation abilities were right in the neighbourhood of Rybka! Once at a family birthday party | was playing GM Kaidanov in a 5-0 game on the ICC. Jimmy came in late, looked at the posi- tion for about 20 seconds and stopped me from making the move | was going to play. He reeled off a long variation with a cheapo at the end and insisted | play it. Kaidanov walked right into it! 3. Jimmy was happiest when the position was a mess. The more unclear the position, the better. And with the Veresov that’s what you get. So if you have any of the following similar traits, then the Veresov is a per- fect opening choice: you don’t have much time or inclination for study; you are a natural tactician; and you revel in chaotic positions. AHistory of the Veresov Besides Jimmy, the other founding fa- thers of the opening were Savielly Tar- takower, who invented the line in the 1920’s and played it his entire life; Kurt Richter, who played it mostly in the 30's; and Gavril Veresov, who played it from the 30’s to the mid-70's. Gavril Veresov must have had the better press agent for the opening to be named af- ter him. Its pedigree includes four World Champions who employed it: Smyslov, Tal, Spassky and Karpov. The top GMs who play it today are Hector and Khachian. Here is an early game in the Veresov. Note the utter confusion the opening inflicts on Black! Game 1 K.Richter-G.Rogmann Berlin 1937 1d4 Af6 2 Ac3 d5 3 2g5 c6 4 #3 We Y Vy, Ak = NS “ \ Ve. e “ Poly >| aw Logical. Black hits the sore spot on b2 before White gets into his groove