a step-by-step quide to|Brilliant chess He) ame aelten EVERYMAN CHESSmodern chess: move by move Colin Crouch EVERYMAN CHESS www.everymanchess.comFirst published in 2009 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers plc), Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OAT Copyright © 2009 Colin Crouch First published 2009 by Gloucester Publishers plc The right of Colin Crouch to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in ac- cordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina 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 185744 599 2 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480. Allother sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1VOAT tel: 020 7253 7887 fax: 020 7490 3708 email: info@everymanchess.com website: www.chessindia.net Everyman is the registered trade mark of Random House Inc and is used in this work under license from Random House Inc. Evenyman Cxess Senses (formerly Cadogan Chess) Chief advisor: Byron Jacobs Commissioning editor: John Emms Assistant editor: Richard Palliser Typesetting and editing by First Rank Publishing, Brighton. Cover design by Horatio Monteverde. Printed and bound in America by Versa Press.Contents CON ANEWNR NNNNNNNB BB BB BPE BB AUEGBNBSCSHBURDEAWNERO Preface Introduction Kasimdzhanov-Kasparov, Linares 2005 Dreev-Dominguez, Poikovsky 2005 Adams-Yusupov, French League 2005 Topalov-Anand, Sofia 2005 Bacrot-Rublevsky, Khanty-Mansiysk 2005 Karjakin-Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2006 Svidler-Topalov, Morelia 2006 Sargissian-Nisipeanu, German League 2006 Leko-Radjabov, Morelia 2006 Wanchuk-Aronian, Russian Team Championship 2006 Karpov-Akopian, Russian Team Championship 2006 Bareev-Efimenko, Turin Olympiad 2006 Kramnik-Leko, Dortmund 2006 Navara-Socko, Polish Team Championship 2006 Sokolov-Polgar, Hoogeveen 2006 Shirov-Aronian, Moscow 2006 Shirov-illescas Cordoba, Pamplona 2006 Rublevsky-Grischuk, 7th matchgame, Elista 2007 Van Wely-Radjabov, Biel 2007 Ni Hua-Jakovenko, Nizhniy Novgorod 2007 Alekseev-Tkachiev, Spanish Team Championship 2007 Stellwagen-Eljanov, German League 2007 Carlsen-Tiviakov, European Team Championship, Crete 2007 Kamsky-Carlsen, Khanty-Mansiysk 2007 Morozevich-Sakaev, Russian Championship, Moscow 2007 Wang Yue-Movsesian, Pamplona 2007 22 36 46 56 73 85 98 119 126 139 151 161 172 186 199 212 228 239 250 265 279 292 300 312 321 33627 28 29 30 31 32 33 Cheparinov-Nepomniachtchi, Wijk aan Zee 2008 Eljanov-Ponomariov, Kharkiv 2008 Bu Xiangzhi-Zvjaginsev, Russian Team Championship 2008 Gelfand-Alekseev, Russian Team Championship 2008 Mamedyarov-Nepomniachtchi, Russian Team Ch’ship 2008 Inarkiev-Ni Hua, Russian Team Championship 2008 KarjakinAnarkiev, Baku 2008 Index of Openings Index of Games 344 354 361 373 381 388 401 413 415Preface This is by far the most ambitious of the various chess books and articles | have written. To have analysed in detail a win by 33 different 2700+ grandmasters against 2600+ strength opposition is a big effort. It is fair to say that no writer could even have considered such a task fifteen years ago. One reason is that only Kasparov and Karpov had reached this chess stratospheric level, although a few others were pressing hard. Chess has changed considerably during the age of the computer, and players have had the opportunity of improving their play and un- derstanding considerably. Without the computer, | myself would only be able to scratch the surface in analysing the games, and would not be able to say with confidence whether such a Move is good or a mistake. tt is good not to have to guess. Of course, in some posi- tions the play is so complicated, or so subtle, or both, that even the computers and the strongest players would find it beyond themselves to understand everything. Quite often it is a major task of the top players to try to understand what is going on in such difficult lines, on the basis that if the top player has been able to ana- lyse the position in depth at home, and is capable of outplaying the opponent over the board, there is an excellent chance to win. A 2600 grandmaster is still a very strong grandmaster, but a 2700+ grandmaster will take his opponent out of their comfort zone. We must not forget that ultra-sophisticated positional play can also work. The main dedication | give is to the players who have dedicated themselves to such high levels of chess. Without them, there would have been no book. The games themselves were at the time completely fresh to me. After a serious brain seizure in 2004, | was fortunate that | was able to play chess, or even see the board. | feel grateful in having the opportunity, with this book, to catch up with so many marvellous games, and even participate in discussing them. tt tured out that it has taken almost a whole year to write up such an effort. The world outside has changed considerably in terms of chess, and the world in general. At some stage, | will no doubt want to catch up with the world of chess from Easter 2008 onwards. Outside chess, there has been a year of financial and economic crisis. It seems a long, long time since | wrote a PhD on the economics of Tecession and unemployment in Britain in the early 1980s, and | would like to think that the argument | made at the time still has merit. The question was al- ways not whether there would be another serious recession, but when. Naturally there has always been the dominant opposite argument, among politicians, economists, journalists and others, that the economy is stable, that there is no such thing as unemployment, that the banks have stabilized growth, and that poli-Modern Chess: Move by Move ticians have ended the problems of boom and bust. It will be of interest to see how the orthodox thinkers will now empirically justify such a point of view. Colin Crouch Harrow July 2009Introduction This book is based on games by contemporary players at the very highest level. The idea is based around a move-by-move approach to annotation, with the hope that players from all levels will be able to appreciate something of top-level chess. Do not be excessively deterred at what might seem a long-winded approach, a dozen or more detailed pages over a single game. Chess is complicated. While writ- ing up this book, | played through Sergey Shipov’s annotations of Shirov-Aronian, Moscow 2006 (Game 16), in New in Chess Magazine (2006, vol. 8, pp. 23-35). Shipov went through the first 22 moves at great speed, and commented that the players have reached ‘another deep-water tabiya. The best analysts in the world began their analysis in positions which simple chess amateurs are not even capable of teaching.’ Which is, of course, absolutely believable. The problem for the reader is that Shipov gives no analysis. This is understandable enough, since space is pre- cious, and there is no room to go through moves which are already established and analysed. Where does this leave the reader, though? Half the content of the game has been dropped in the annotations, and the simple chess amateur has no chance of trying to understand what is going on. One of the main aims in this book is to try to bridge the gap in understanding between the amateur and the top players, which | suppose means | must regard myself as somewhere midpoint in this gap. It is up to the reader to decide how deeply, or how briefly, he or she would want to explore the opening. There is no obligation to try to plough through every variation. There is also another reason, beyond the opening part of the game, why the analysis might seem long-winded. The point is that a top-level grandmaster when writing up games will tend to concentrate only on the most difficult positions, and will tend to ignore writing down what is seen as ‘obvious’. The obvious points are, though, absolutely fundamental to good chess, and no top grandmaster will ig- Nore them while playing a competitive game. A player may note that there is a simple back-row checkmate if he snatches a piece, and he will avoid this. It would seem hardly worthwhile to mention this elementary tactic while annotating, but the tactic is central to the game, and needs if possible to be mentioned. Inevitably there will need to be some juggling when trying to annotate games which will be satisfactory both for stronger players and for the less-experienced player. My hope is that everyone will be able to gain something. As time goes on in chess, analysis tends to become more complicated. The use of the computer means that an author is these days expected to cover long strings of analysis. There is no longer any excuse. Nowadays it will be easy enough for the Teader to check, with the help of the computer, whether the author might be dodg-