No.

11, March 18, 2009

OPENINGS
what’s hot and what’s not?
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Gambit keeps hitting 9r+-wqk+-tr0
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the Queen’s Indian 9+-zpn+-+-0
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By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris 9PzPQ+PzPLzP0
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Melody Amber has started again with an extremely Frequency
strong field this year and the European Championship
in Budva just ended in a spectacular 11-way tie at the
time of writing. We’ll cover it all for you.

what’s hot?
In Nice White is doing a great job with 1.e4 using the Ruy Lopez
and the Open Sicilian. In addition, although we have no doubt about
its theoretical status, Karjakin (against Topalov) and Morozevich Score
(against Wang Yue) nevertheless managed to beat the Petroff.
The Caro-Kann is Black’s most solid answer against 1.e4 so far.
Interestingly, in Budva we see the exact same picture: White is
winning theoretically important games with the Ruy Lopez (see
Volokitin-Inarkiev below) and the Open Sicilian (see Inarkiev-
Sjugirov below) and even the Petroff is no garantuee for a draw.
However, in Budva Caro-Kann killer Kotronias is participating: a
good attacking win against Nanu and against Jobava he also looked
better after the opening (some sort of Poisoned Pawn variation with
a black ¤xh5).

Concerning 1.d4, in Nice there was a comeback of the classical

Queen’s Gambit and of course there was the usual amount of Slav
games as well, but not so many Semi-Slavs. Wang Yue kept his
own twice with the 4...dxc4 Slav but the third time around, Kramnik
crashed through. In our Game of the Week Aronian underlined
that the Queen’s Indian is currently under pressure thanks to the
positional pawn sacrifice 7.d5!. In the diagram position he went for
11.£a4 and then suprised Leko with a novelty on the next move. Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

The Grünfeld is underperforming in Nice with 0 out of 3 - White just has so many options to choose from.The main lines are hot, but
sidelines are not; that is what Anand discovered when his 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 d6 4.
what’s Not?
0-0 (we prefer 4.¥xc6) backfired against Carlsen. In addition to this game we’d like to point
out Zezulkin’s 7.¥a4 b5 8.¥c2 e5 9.h3 g5!? as a nice attacking idea.
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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 11, March 18, 2009
A highly effective blindfold novelty
Two leadings experts on the Queen’s Indian faced each other in this year’s Amber
tournament. Although the game was unrated, Aronian was not afraid of using a strong
novelty and he won surprisingly quickly with a devastating attack on Leko’s king.
game of the week
Aronian, L (2750) - Leko, P (2751)
Nice (Amber blindfold), 15 March 2009
E15 Queen’s Indian, 5.£c2, 7.d5
1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.¤f3 b6 4.g3 ¥a6 5.£c2
This £ sortie has been played for half a century,
but got into the spotlights only three years ago.
In the traditional main line 5.b3 ¥b4+ 6.¥d2 ¥e7
7.¥g2 c6 8.¥c3 d5 9.¤e5 ¤fd7 10.¤xd7 ¤xd7
11.¤d2 Black achieves equality with accurate
play.
5...¥b7 6.¥g2 c5 7.d5!
This is the modern gambit interpretation of
5.£c2. Black will be suffering from a backward
d-pawn and a lack of coordination between his
pieces.
7...exd5 8.cxd5 ¤xd5
8...¥xd5?! gives White the chance to develop
his pieces with gain of time: 9.¤c3 ¥c6 10.e4 ,
which brought White many fine victories.
9.0–0
Obviously, the text is the main move, but
another tricky attempt is 9.£b3 ¤f6 (after
9...¤c7 10.¤e5 d5 11.¤c3 ¥d6?! one of the
CVO editors got his chance to show some
home preparation: 12.¤xf7! ¢xf7 13.¤xd5
¢f8 14.¥g5 £d7 15.0–0–0 ¤c6 16.£f3+ ¢e8
17.£e4+ ¤e6 18.¤c7+ £xc7 19.£xe6+ ¥e7
20.¥xc6+ 1–0 Ris-Spraggett, Gibraltar 2007)
10.¤e5 d5 11.¤c3 ¥e7 12.£a4+ ¤bd7 13.¤c6
¥xc6 14.£xc6 ¦c8 15.£a4 d4 16.¤b5 0–0
17.0–0 (17.¤xa7 ¦a8!) 17...¤e5 18.£xa7 ¤c6
19.£b7 ¤a5 20.£a7 ¤c6 ½–½ Kramnik-Leko,
Dortmund 2008.
9...¥e7 10.¦d1 ¤c6
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 with 16...¤e8?! doesn’t work in view of 17.¦d2
The black ¢ cannot escape yet: 10...0–0?
11.£e4 f5 12.£c4. After the main alternative
10...£c8 it is the profylactic 11.a3! ruling out the
tactical defence ¤c6, that currently puts Black
under pressure. 11...¤f6 12.¥g5 d5?! (12...
0–0) 13.¥xf6! ¥xf6 14.¤c3 ¥xc3 15.bxc3 ¤a6
16.¤h4 g6 17.¥xd5 ¥xd5 18.¦xd5 0–0 19.¦ad1
White is superior; Topalov-Anand, Bilbao 2008.
11.£a4
The point of Black’s last move is that 11.¦xd5?
fails to 11...¤b4. The other main option is 11.£f5
but Black seems to hold at the moment: 11...¤f6
12.e4 d6 (12...g6 is the alternative) 13.e5 £d7
14.£xd7+ ¤xd7 15.exd6 ¥f6 16.¦e1+ ¢f8
17.¤c3 ¤b4 18.¥g5 ¤c2 19.¦e7 ¥xf3 20.¥xf3
¥xg5 21.¦xd7 ¦d8 22.¦xd8+ ¥xd8 23.¦d1 ¤d4
and the passed d-pawn was under control in
Carlsen-Pelletier, Biel 2008.
11...¤f6 12.¤h4!N
A fresh new idea, found by Aronian’s second
Rodshtein, who is a leading expert on this line
as well. Previously 12.e4 had been seen in a
few games, although during the last Grand Prix
tournament, Leko demonstrated a nice way to
equalize: 12...0–0 13.e5 ¤e8 14.¤c3 ¤c7 15.¥e3
£e8 16.¦d2 ¦d8 17.¦e1 ¥a8 18.¤e4 ¤e6 19.a3
¢h8 20.£c2 h6 21.g4 ¤cd4! (a typical method
in this kind of structures: to get rid of White’s
central pressure, Leko decides to give back his
extra pawn to be able to free himself) 22.¤xd4
cxd4 23.¥xd4 ¤xd4 24.¦xd4 d6 25.¤xd6 ¥xd6
26.¥xa8 ¥xe5 27.¦xd8 £xd8 28.¦xe5 £xa8
29.£e4 ½–½ Wang Yue-Leko, Elista 2008.
12...g6
12...0–0 13.¤f5 gives strong pressure. White
has a natural follow-up with ¤c3, ¥g5 and
doubling ¦s on the d-file.
13.¥h6 ¥f8 14.¥xf8 ¢xf8 15.¤c3 ¢g7 16.¦d6!
A strong move, underestimated by Leko.
16...¤a5
It’s not clear what else Black can do here. White’s
position is easier to handle with moves like
Aronian - Leko
£f4 and ¦ad1 in prospect. Driving the ¦ away
followed by ¦ad1 and the ¤ has to return to f6.
17.£f4 ¥xg2
17...¤e8 18.¥xb7 ¤xb7 19.¦d3 £f6 20.£d2 d6
21.¤d5 is horrible for Black.
18.¢xg2 h6
Defending against motivs connected with
¤f5/£g5, but creating another weakness.
19.¤e4 ¤xe4 20.£xe4 ¦e8?
The decisive mistake. Aronian strikes beautifully
now. 20...£e8 was Leko’s last chance to stay
in the game. Whereas the computer evaluates
the position rather conservatively, Aronian him-
self considers Black’s position to be completely
hopeless. White has total domination.
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21.¦xg6+! fxg6 22.£xg6+ ¢f8
22...¢h8 23.£xh6+ ¢g8 24.¤f5 ¦e7 (24...¢f7
25.¤d6+ transposes to game) 25.£g6+ ¢f8
26.£f6+ ¢e8 27.¤d6# and 26...¦f7 27.£h8#
are two pretty mates.
23.£xh6+ ¢e7
23...¢f7 24.£g6+ ¢f8 25.¤f5 wins.
24.¤f5+ ¢f7 25.¤d6+ ¢e7
25...¢g8 26.£g6+ ¢h8 27.¤f7# and 26...¢f8
27.£f7# are two more mating patterns.
26.¦d1!
The last piece joins the game with devastating
effect.
26...¦f8 27.¦d5 ¦f6
The surprising counterstrike 27...¦xf2+ doesn’t
exchange £s, because after 28.¢xf2 £f8+
White has the pretty in-between check 29.¤f5+.
28.£h7+ ¢f8 29.¦g5 1–0
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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 11, March 18, 2009

this week’s harvest

Ruy Lopez, Marshall Gambit
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1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 a6 4.¥a4
¤f6 5.0–0 ¥e7 6.¦e1 b5 7.¥b3 0–0
8.c3 d5 9.exd5 ¤xd5 10.¤xe5 ¤xe5
11.¦xe5 c6 12.d4 ¥d6 13.¦e1 £h4
14.g3 £h3 15.£e2 ¥g4 16.£f1 ¦ae8
17.¦xe8 £xf1+ 18.¢xf1 ¦xe8 19.¥d2
15.£e2!? is a relatively new way
of battling the Marshall Attack and
its main expert is Andrei Volokitin.
Against Inarkiev in Budva he
improved with 19.¥d2 on his own
game from last year against Svidler
(Foros 2008) and convincingly won
the ending. Looking for earlier
deviations one has to consider
16...£h5 17.¤d2 ¦ae8 18.f3 f5!?
from the So-Gupta game we
briefly mentioned in CVO 4.
Najdorf, English Attack
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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4
¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥e3 e5 7.¤b3 ¥e6
8.£d2 ¥e7 9.f3 ¤bd7 10.0–0–0 b5
11.g4 b4 12.¤d5 ¥xd5 13.exd5 ¤b6
14.¤a5 ¤bxd5 15.¤c6 £c7 16.¤xb4
¤xb4 17.£xb4 0–0 18.£b6
Via a strange move order (normal
is 8...¤bd7 9.f3 b5 10.0–0–0 and
now the clever 10...¥e7!) the
game Inarkiev-Sjugirov reached
one of the most cricital positions
in the Sicilian Najdorf (Dominguez'
15.¤c4!? has been neutralised).
18.£b6 had already been pointed
out by Karjakin, but from that point
on we are on new territory. White
won this first battle, but we are sure
more games will follow soon.
Slav, main line
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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤f3 ¤f6 4.¤c3 dxc4
5.a4 ¥f5 6.e3 e6 7.¥xc4 ¤bd7 8.0–0
¥b4 9.£e2 0–0 10.e4 ¥g6 11.¥d3 ¥h5
12.e5 ¤d5 13.¤xd5 cxd5 14.£e3 ¦e8
15.¤g5 ¥g6 16.¥xg6 fxg6
The position after 14...¦e8 is
currently the most critical for the
status of the Slav with 4...dxc4.
Karjakin chose 17.a5!? but Wang
didn't fear White's queen entering
his camp and easily held the
balance. Two rounds later Topalov
deviated with 17.£h3 but got
slightly worse out of the opening.
Finally, Kramnik decided to switch
to 6.¤e5 and managed to beat the
young Chinese star, who quickly
went astray.
English, Grünfeld style
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1.¤f3 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 d5
4.cxd5 ¤xd5 5.h4
At the Melody Amber tournament
in Nice the players often try out
systems they wouldn’t readily play
in classical, rated games. Aronian's
flank strategy against Kamsky
with h4-h5 and later on with a4-
a5 followed by the exchange sac
¦xa5, keeping his central pawns
on their initial squares, strongly
reminds us of the games by Dutch
IM Manuel Bosboom. Black's
task isn't that easy since he can't
undermine White's pawn centre
like usual in the Grünfeld. The
given game was far from flawless,
but still a creative piece of work.

opening expert
Who: Vassilios Kotronias White: 1.e4 main lines
Expertise:
Born: August 25, 1964
Black: King’s Indian
Nationality: Greece He plays extremely principled
Why:
Rating: 2603 main lines as White and is a true
expert on 1.e4
Kotronias is a strong grandmaster and a feared theoretician. Lately he focused on finding new idea’s for White
in the Caro-Kann main line and succesfully put them into practice. In Budva he beat Nanu in a nice attacking
game (¤b3! and ¦c1! were key preparatory moves) and against Jobava ¥c1! and ¦h3! were resulting in a nice
edge for White.

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