openings 154 | December 14 n 2011

what’s hot and what’s not?

XIIIIIIIIY
Showdown in London 9r+lwqkvl-tr0
9+p+-+pzpp0
9p+n+psn-+0
9+-zp-+-+-0
9-+LzP-+-+0
9+-sN-zPN+-0
9PzP-+-zPPzP0
By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris
9tR-vLQ+RmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy
Kramnik won the 3rd London Chess Classic and got back Frequency
to 2800, while McShane was the surprise of the tournament.
Wang Hao won the very strong seven round rapid event at
the World Mind Games in China.

what'shot?
Score
McShane got interesting play against Kramnik with the Anti-Berlin and
only spoiled it later on. Short impressively managed to put Carlsen
under pressure in a game that started off as the most boring Italian one
can imagine. The King's Gambit was played in no less than two games
in London. First McShane beat Short with Black and then Nakamura
beat Adams with White (see below). In the PGN file you'll find five Caro-
Kann games as study material. Howell-Aronian was a complex Pirc.

Tournament winner Kramnik is still a mighty force with the white pieces.
In the fifth round he didn't leave Adams any chances in the Catalan.
Two rounds later our Game of the Week, Kramnik-Howell, saw a QGA
become a thrilling affair. In the diagram position Kramnik played 8.a3.
In the rapid encounter Ponomariov-Nielsen White did win the Nimzo
endgame that was drawn last week in Carlsen-Kramnik (see below).
Carlsen also beat Adams in the Nimzo-Indian.

Nakamura showed himself to be flexible in his white games, since apart

from the King's Gambit he also played the English Opening (1.c4) twice,
beating Howell and drawing against Short after a long struggle. Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

All three games between Anand, Kramnik and Aronian were drawn with the same variation of the QGD (see PGN file). They were not
particularly spectacular, but perhaps they were simply played at a high level (difficult to judge for mere mortals). Kramnik-Aronian
was understandable, as it clinched the title for Kramnik. Anand did some (reputation) damage control
by beating Short on the black side of a 3.¥b5+ Sicilian, but drew his remaining games. what’snot?
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 openings
The mighty Kramnik
We’ve reported before about the new Kramnik and again he was considering a piece
sacrifice on move 13. He managed to control himself this time and won anyway with some
fine tactics.
gameoftheweek Aronian - McShane
Kramnik,V (2800) - Howell,D (2633)
London Chess Classic (London), 10.12.2011
1.¤f3 d5 2.d4 ¤f6 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 e6 5.¥xc4
c5 6.0–0 a6 7.¤c3
More common alternatives are 7.dxc5 (CVO
52, 120, 129) and 7.¥b3 (CVO 89, 139).
7...¤c6
Another option is 7...b5 8.¥b3 ¥b7 9.e4!?
which we covered in CVO 49 and 57.
8.a3
8.a4 is a rather harmless line, as after 8...¥e7
9.£e2 cxd4 10.¦d1 e5 11.exd4 exd4 12.¤xd4
¤xd4 13.£e5 £d6 many games quickly ended
in a draw.
8...b5 9.¥a2 ¥b7 10.£e2 £c7
10...cxd4 11.¦d1 followed by 12.exd4 gives
White nice play. 10...¥e7 11.dxc5 (11.¦d1!?)
11...¥xc5 12.b4 ¥d6 13.¥b2 0–0 14.¦fd1 £e7
15.¦ac1 ¦fd8 with equality in Nikolaidis-
Ivanchuk, Eretria 2011.
11.¦d1
The most consistent plan is to push d4–d5, but
let's look at other moves played here.
a) Right now 11.d5 is a bit premature, since
after 11...exd5 12.¤xd5 ¤xd5 13.¥xd5 ¥e7
14.a4 £b6 15.e4 0–0 16.¥g5 ¤d4! Black was
doing fine in Sandipan-Fridman, Pardubice
2002.
b) 11.h3 was played in Piket-Korchnoi, Tilburg
1998 and now the logical continuation would
have been 11...¦d8! with approximately equal
chances.
11...¦d8 12.d5 exd5
XIIIIIIIIY
9-+-trkvl-tr0
9+lwq-+pzpp0
9p+n+-sn-+0
9+pzpp+-+-0
9-+-+-+-+0
9zP-sN-zPN+-0
9LzP-+QzPPzP0
9tR-vLR+-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy
what’s hot and what’s not? 154 | December 14 n 2011
13.¤xd5 and a loss of material is inevitable.
Kramnik would have preferred installing a ¤ 22.¦xa5 ¥xd5 23.¦axd5 ¦xd5 24.¦xd5!
permanently on d5 and hence mainly focused 24.exd5 might also have been played, though
on 13.¥xd5 but failed to make it work after 13... it's not easy for White to mobilize his passed
b4! (13...¥e7 14.e4 as played in Schandorff- pawn. Kramnik rightly evaluated that he can
Unzicker,F Copenhagen 2010, was considered give up his b-pawn.
somewhat favorable for White by Kramnik.) 24...£c1+ 25.¢g2 ¥xb2
14.axb4 cxb4 15.¦xa6 (15.¤g5 ¦d7! (15... 25...£xb2 26.£xa6 almost comes down to the
bxc3? loses to 16.¥xf7+ ¢e7 17.bxc3 ¦xd1+ same thing.
18.£xd1 £d7 19.£b3!+–) 16.¦xa6 bxc3 26.£xa6 £c2 27.¦d2 £b3
17.¥xc6 ¥xc6 18.¦xd7 £xd7 and White can't 27...b3 can be met by 28.£e2 (obviously not
bring his £ to the battlefield due to back rank 28.¦xc2? bxc2–+) 28...¦c8 29.¤e1! and White
problems.) 15...bxc3 (15...¥xa6 16.£xa6 is wins.
pretty dangerous for Black.) 16.¥xc6+ ¥xc6 28.a5 ¥c3 29.¦d5 £c2 30.£b7 b3
17.¦xd8+ ¢xd8 18.£d3+ ¢c8 (18...¥d6? is In case of 30...£xe4 31.a6 Black is unable to
beautifully met by 19.¤e5! ¥d5 20.¦xd6+ exploit the pins on the a8–h1 diagonal.
£xd6 21.¤xf7+ and wins.) 19.¤d4 ¥b7 20.¦a4 31.a6 b2 32.¦b5 £a4 33.a7 h6 34.e5
¢b8 and White's compensation is insufficient. 34.£b8? would have spoiled all the effort, due
Moreover 13.e4? doesn't lead anywhere after to 34...£xe4!.
13...dxe4 14.¥g5 ¥e7! and Black is on top. 34...¢h7
13...¤xd5 14.¥xd5 ¥e7 34...£a1 35.£e7 b1£ 36.¦xb1 £xb1 37.£xf8+
After 14...¥d6 15.e4 the ¥ will be developed ¢xf8 38.a8£+ should be technically winning
to g5. for White.
15.e4 0–0 16.g3 ¤a5 17.¥f4 £c8 35.¦b3 £a2 36.h4!
Perhaps a better try would have been XIIIIIIIIY
17...£b6!? when White has to prove whether 9-+-+-tr-+0
he has an edge at all. 9zPQ+-+pzpk0
18.a4! 9-+-+-+-zp0
Another idea is 18.¥d2 but then 18...¤c4!
9+-+-zP-+-0
19.¥xc4 bxc4 20.¥c3 (20.£xc4?! £g4 21.¤e5
£h5! is quite unpleasant for White.) 20...£g4
9-+-+-+-zP0
should be OK for Black.
9+Rvl-+NzP-0
18...b4 9qzp-+-zPK+0
18...¤c4? has lost its effect, since after 9+-+-+-+-0
19.¥xc4 bxc4 20.£xc4 £g4 21.¦xd8 ¦xd8 xiiiiiiiiy
22.¤e5 Black is forced to exchange £s with Excellent technique. White isn't in a hurry and
22...£e6 after which White is a full pawn up. simply improves his position, boxing in the
19.¦ac1 ¥c6? black ¢.
A serious mistake, after which the damage 36...¢g8 37.h5 £a5 38.£b8 £a2 39.¦xc3
is irreparable. Howell should have tried b1£ 40.¦c8! 1–0
19...¦fe8! preventing White from trading the Black resigned in view of 40...¦xc8 (or
dark-squared ¥s. 40...£f1+ 41.¢xf1 £a6+ 42.¢g2 ¦xc8
20.¥g5! ¥xg5 21.¦xc5! ¥f6 43.¤d4+–) 41.£xc8+ ¢h7 42.a8£ and White
21...¥b5 can easily be parried with 22.£c2! is just a piece up.
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 openings what’s hot and what’s not? 154 | December 14 n 2011

thisweek’sharvest
Ruy Lopez, Berlin 1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 ¤f6 4.d3 ¥c5 5.¥xc6 dxc6 6.b3 ¥g4 7.¤bd2 ¤d7 8.¥b2 f6 9.¤f1 ¤f8 10.h3 ¥xf3 11.£xf3
XIIIIIIIIY ¤e6 12.¤e3 £d7 13.h4 a5 14.a4 0–0 15.h5 ¥xe3 16.£xe3 c5 17.£h3 £c6 18.0–0 ¤f4 19.£h2 £e8 20.h6 g5 21.g3 ¤e6
9r+-+qtrk+0 There's never a dull moment with Luke McShane. His new Anti-Berlin approach with 4.d3 and 6.b3!? doesn't
9+pzp-+-+p0 promise White an opening edge, but that's not the point. It gives White the normal playable middlegame position
9-+-+nzp-zP0 he wants, instead of having to specialize in the highly complex Berlin Endgame. Half a year ago McShane used
9zp-zp-zp-zp-0 this line to beat Parker in the 4NCL and this week in the penultimate round of the London Chess Classic he
tested it again in the decisive game against Kramnik. In the diagram position McShane once more showed that
9P+-+P+-+0
he's not afraid to take a risk and played a positional exchange sacrifice starting with the obvious 22.f4!?. In the
9+P+P+-zP-0 unbalanced position that followed both players made inaccuracies, which is only natural. With the passive retreat
9-vLP+-zP-wQ0 35.¦g2? McShane finally lost track. Kramnik took over the initiative and by winning this game he virtually secured
9tR-+-+RmK-0 tournament victory. Early in the opening 4...d6 is an alternative for Black that White has to cover before he can add
xiiiiiiiiy this line to his repertoire.

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.¤f3 h6 4.d4 g5 5.¤c3 d6 6.g3 fxg3 7.hxg3 ¥g7 8.¥e3 ¤f6 9.£d3 ¤g4 10.0–0–0 c6 11.¦e1 ¤d7 King's Gambit
'The only reason why the King's Gambit is playable is that Black has about ten different good lines, but he can only XIIIIIIIIY
play one at a time. That's actually why it's OK,' was Short's explanation for his opening choice against McShane 9r+lwqk+-tr0
in the 7th round. Indeed, he caught his opponent by surprise and soon became very optimistic about his own 9zpp+n+pvl-0
chances. Probably a bit too ambitious, he went for 12.e5? but quickly figured out the tactics didn't work out in his 9-+pzp-+-zp0
favour (see PGN-file). Instead a more positional approach initiated with 12.¥h3 would have given White excellent 9+-+-+-zp-0
prospects. Inspired by the former World Championship Challenger, Nakamura decided to give it a try as well in his
9-+-zPP+n+0
last round game against Adams. The latter opted for a more solid approach and clearly won the opening battle,
as the American GM paid a high price for complicating matters. Although Short's opinion still stands, the ensuing
9+-sNQvLNzP-0
positions remain fresh and indeed may offer White better practical chances than dealing with The Petroff, Berlin
9PzPP+-+-+0
Wall and the Marshall. 9+-mK-tRL+R0
xiiiiiiiiy
Najdorf, 6.¥g5 / 7...£c7
XIIIIIIIIY 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥g5 e6 7.f4 £c7 8.£f3 b5 9.0–0–0 b4 10.e5 ¥b7 11.£h3 dxe5 12.¥b5+
9rsn-+kvl-tr0 Every now and then we're contacted by our readers with either feedback or interesting ideas. One of them is 76–
9+lwq-+pzpp0 year-old Peter Dahl from San Francisco, who did some independent analysis on the 6.¥g5 Najdorf after having
9p+-+psn-+0 watched Kasparov's DVD. He felt like sharing a spectacular novelty with us, since he's not actively playing in
9+L+-zp-vL-0 tournaments anymore. Peter discovered that 12.¥b5!? leading to the diagram position pretty much repairs a white
attacking line previously thought insufficient. Black's very likely to be surprised by this aggressive move that isn't
9-zp-sN-zP-+0
mentioned anywhere, as far as we know. Black has to navigate his way through an unknown labyrinth and only if
9+-sN-+-+Q0 he finds a whole series of only moves will he reach an endgame with equal chances (but still unbalanced material!).
9PzPP+-+PzP0 We refer to the PGN file for many of the lines Black has to avoid and their spectacular refutations. With the help of
9+-mKR+-+R0 this novelty fans of attacking chess no longer have to play the positional alternative 8.¥xf6 against the old 7...£c7
xiiiiiiiiy Kasparov line, but instead can still sacrifice all their pieces.

1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.¤c3 ¥b4 4.¤f3 c5 5.g3 cxd4 6.¤xd4 0–0 7.¥g2 d5 8.cxd5 ¤xd5 9.£b3 Nimzo-Indian, 4.¤f3 c5
£b6 10.¥xd5 exd5 11.¥e3 ¥xc3+ 12.£xc3 £a6 13.£d3 £xd3 14.exd3 ¥d7 15.¢d2 ¤c6 XIIIIIIIIY
16.¦ac1 ¤xd4 17.¥xd4 ¥c6 18.g4 ¦fe8 19.g5 a6 20.f4 ¦ac8 21.f5 ¥d7 22.f6 g6 23.h4 9-+r+r+k+0
In last week's issue we said ''Carlsen seemed to have a nice ending from a Nimzo-Indian, but Kramnik managed 9+p+l+p+p0
to draw.'' The same ending of this line in the Nimzo-Indian was repeated this week by Nielsen in his game against 9p+-+-zPp+0
Ponomariov. The Ukrainian slightly improved upon Carlsen's play by delaying the exchange of ¤s on move 16. 9+-+p+-zP-0
His choice of 16.¦ac1 ¤xd4 17.¥xd4 has been evaluated by GM Atalik as slightly better for White. In fact, it
9-+-vL-+-zP0
seems Black's position should objectively be holdable, but practice now shows that it's at least very unpleasant
to neutralize White's symbolic advantage. In the diagram position he decided to exchange all four ¦s, allowing
9+-+P+-+-0
White to keep the black ¢ locked on g8. The remainder seems just to be absolutely lost for Black. Like White,
9PzP-mK-+-+0
Black shouldn't hurry to trade ¤s and instead moves like 16...f6 and 16...a6 (enabling the ¦ to leave a8) should 9+-tR-+-+R0
guarantee a rather simple draw. The line with 9...£b6 isn't great fun for Black, though... xiiiiiiiiy

3 of 4
 openings what’s hot and what’s not? 154 | December 14 n 2011

it’syourmove
XIIIIIIIIY XIIIIIIIIY
O 9r+-wqkvl-tr0 O9rsn-+-trk+0
9+l+-+pzp-0 9+-wq-vlpzp-0
9p+-zppsn-zp0 9p+-zp-+-zp0
9+p+-sn-+-0 9+lzpP+-+-0
9-+-sNP+PzP0 9p+-+P+-+0
9+-sN-vLP+-0 9+-+-sNN+-0
9PzPPwQ-+-+0 9-zPQ+LzPPzP0
9+-mKR+L+R0 9tR-+-tR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy xiiiiiiiiy

lastweek’ssolutions
XIIIIIIIIY
Anand-Howell, London Chess Classic, 2011 9r+-+r+k+0
Howell didn't panic and reacted with the very cool 22...h5! 22...h6 allows 23.¥xh6! but still defends after 23... 9zp-+qvlpzpp0
g6! (23...gxh6?? 24.£xh6 simply wins.) 24.¥g5 (24.¥f8!? ¤h5 25.¥xe7 £xe7 26.£xe7 ¦xe7=) 24...¤h5 and 9-zp-+-sn-+0
now after 25.g4? (25.¥xe7 £xe7 26.£xe7 ¦xe7=) 25...f6! Black takes over following 26.gxh5 (26.¥e3 f5 27.¥g5 9+-+p+-vL-0
fxg4µ) 26...fxg5 27.£g3 ¥f6! 28.¦d1 ¦e4! with a deadly counter. 23.¥xf6 ¥xf6 24.£xh5 g6! The key move,
9P+-sN-+-wQ0
killing White’s initiative. 25.£h7+ ¢f8 This theme is known from the Dragon Sicilian: the check on h7 is only
a check because of the strong Dragon ¥. 26.£h6+ ¢g8 27.£d2 ¦e4 28.¦d3 ¦ae8 29.b3? 29.h3. 29...¥xd4
9+-+-+-+R0
30.¦xd4 ¦e2 31.£d1 £f5 32.£f1 and here 32...¦b2! would have maintained a serious advantage.
9-zP-+-zPPzP0
9tR-+-+-mK-0
XIIIIIIIIY xiiiiiiiiy
9-+-+r+-+0 Aronian-Short, London Chess Classic, 2011
9zp-zp-+pmkp0 The question is whether White will be able to exert pressure along the c-file or Black will manage to neutralize
9lzp-tr-snp+0 it. In the game Short opted for the wrong plan with 18...¤e4? The correct plan for Black would have been to get
9sn-+p+-+-0 rid of his backward c-pawn by means of 18...c5! after which he obtains full equality. 19.¤cxe4 dxe4 20.b4 ¤c6
21.e3 ¥xf1 22.¢xf1 ¦e7 23.¤c4 ¦d8 24.¦e2 f6 25.¦ec2 and White retained a nasty long-lasting initiative. After
9-+-zP-+-+0
both sides committed several inaccuracies, White finally managed to convert his endgame advantage.
9zPPsN-+-zP-0
9-+-sNPzP-zP0
9+-tR-tRLmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

openings
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