CVO_019.pdf

No. 19, May 13, 2009

OPENINGS

WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

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Is the Chebanenko Slav

still OK for Black?

By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

Frequency

The “FIDE World” team beat Azerbaijan convincingly:

21.5-10.5. Of course rapid games do not contain the

same weight as normal games, but for the world’s very

best we make an exception. We also have a look at the

US Championship, Sarajevo and the Mitropa Cup.

WHAT’S HOT?

It was as if Kramnik wanted to save the reputation of the Petroff all by

himself. He beat Gashimov and Guseinov; both were unsuccessful with

3.d4. Against Radjabov ’ s 5.¤c3 Kramnik decided to castle queenside (in

the past he preferred kingside) in accordance with the current theoretical

verdict that Black is fine there. Gashimov indeed returned to 8...¥f5 against

Shirov as we suggested in CVO 17. Incidentally, a further three games with

the Petroff at grandmaster level this week were all won by White.

Score

Shirov came up with an uncommon idea against the Accelerated Dragon,

which was skillfully picked up by Anand a few rounds later. Karjakin-

Mamedyarov was a continuation of their theoretical discussion started

in Nalchik (7.£d3!?), but it is hard to believe White has something after

the queen exchange. In the US Championship Kamsky beat Akobian in

the French Rubinstein while Shulman was successful with 12...d4 in the

Winawer and therefore he ’ s this week ’ s Opening Expert.

In the Semi-Slav Meran, German team mates Gustafsson and Baramidze

simultaneously repaired a line that got into some trouble recently, by

means of the interesting 13...¥b7. Furthermore, Gustafsson got an edge

with White in the Semi-Slav Marshall Gambit. Mamedyarov finally won a

game with his 3.f3 pet line against the Grünfeld.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

In our Game of the Week Eljanov-Sokolov, played in Sarajevo, the Chebanenko Slav was crushed. Eljanov is Gelfand’s second and they

seemed to have worked on this stuff together. Putting the games of these two heavyweights

together provides an excellent repertoire for White against the Chebanenko, based on 5.e3 b5

6.c5. In the diagram position 7.¤e5! seems to be way to go for White.

WHAT’S NOT?

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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 19, May 13, 2009

The Chebanenko crushed, irst aid needed

Even though the Chebanenko Slav is a remarkable concept and a creative alternative to the

traditional 4...dxc4 (in the early days Black could often be found playing ¦a7 to defend b7), Black’s

queenside play starts to look suspicious compared to the healthy Semi-Slav.

13.exd5 cxd5 14.¥f3 but here White ’ s protected

passed pawn gives him a solid edge.

13.¤a4 dxe4

Consistently played, otherwise 12...b4?! would

make no sense at all. Again it would have been

better to castle: 13...0–0 14.¤b6 ¦a7 15.exd5

cxd5 16.0–0 but obviously Black would rather

have his pawn on b5.

14.¤b6 ¦a7 15.£b3!

It is this simple move that makes clear how

problematic Black ’ s position is.

15...¦e7

With the idea of 16...¥e6. 15...f5 16.¥f4 ¤d7

17.£e6++-.

16.¤xc8 £xc8 17.¥f4 f5 18.0–0–0

There was no need to hurry with 18.¥d6?!

allowing 18...¥xd4 19.¥xe7 ¢xe7 which is still

better for White, but unnecessarily complicates

matters.

18...¤d7 19.¥d6 ¤f6

19...¦f7? 20.£e6+

20.¥c4! ¦d7 21.¢b1 £b7 22.£a4 £a8

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GAME OF THE WEEK

Eljanov, P (2693) - Sokolov, I (2669)

39th Bosna Sarajevo, May 9, 2009

D15, Chebanenko Slav, 5.e3 b5 6.c5

b4 15.¥c4 ¤c7 16.¤g5 was seen in Gelfand-

Ragger, Graz 2009 and here 16...¤d5 should

have been played with approximately equal

chances.

a2) 11...f6!? 12.exf6 exf6 13.e4 b4 14.¤a4

(14.¤xd5!? cxd5 15.exd5 is a typical piece

sacrifice and not easy to handle for Black)

14...dxe4 15.¤b6 ¦a7 16.£b3+ ¢h8 17.¤xc8

£xc8 18.¥f4 f5 with counterplay for Black in

S.Savchenko-Wirig, Metz 2007. The position

has many similarities compared with our main

game, but now that the ¢ has found a safe

residence, Black ’ s task to develop his pieces

has become easier.

b) 10.¤d3 a5 (10...f5 11.a4) and now White

opened up a new front with 11.h4! h5 12.g4

hxg4 13.¥xg4 ¤f6 14.¥f3 ¥f5 15.h5 b4 16.¤e2

¤e4 17.¤f2 ¤xf2 18.¢xf2 ¤d7 19.£g1 e6

20.£h2 and Black had to suffer for a long time

in Gelfand-Levin, Ansfelden 2009.

9.f4 ¤xe5

9...0–0 was still an option of course.

10.fxe5 f6 11.exf6 exf6 12.e4!

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12...b4?!N

A novelty, but we shouldn ’ t expect to see many

followers in the future. Since other moves also

don ’ t seem to equalize, it means that Black

has to look for improvements earlier on. 12...

f5 13.exd5 (13.e5²) 13...£h4+ 14.g3 £xd4

15.£xd4 ¥xd4 16.¥f4² was Cmilyte-Houska,

Dresden 2008; probably best was 12...0–0

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤f3 ¤f6 4.¤c3 a6 5.e3

In CVO 16 we covered the current situation of

5.c5 with the game Leko-Karjakin.

5...b5 6.c5

White invited Black to play 5...b5, but with

6.c5 he will try to demonstrate that this pawn

advance is only helping him to open a second

front with a4 (if necessary supported by b4)

sooner or later.

6...g6

After 6...¤bd7 there are two options:

a) 7.¥d3 e5 8.¤xe5 ¤xe5 9.dxe5 ¤d7!?

10.e6 ¤xc5 11.exf7+ ¢xf7 12.¥c2 g6 13.0–0

¥g7 14.¤e2 ¦e8 15.¤d4 £d6 16.b4 ¤e6 and

Black already had a slight edge in Aronian-

Movsesian, Nanjing 2008.

b) 7.a3! (because of this move 6...¤bd7 is

currently a bit under pressure) 7...a5 8.£c2!?

(a fresh new idea - previously 8.¥d3 had

been played, but Karjakin ’ s innovation closed

this chapter: 8...e5 9.dxe5 ¤g4 10.e6 fxe6

11.¤d4 ¤xc5 12.¥e2 ¤xf2! Eljanov-Karjakin,

Foros 2007) 8...£c7 9.e4 ¤xe4 10.¤xe4 dxe4

11.£xe4 ¤f6 12.£e5 £xe5+ 13.¤xe5 ¥b7

14.a4! b4 15.¥f4 ¤d7 16.¤c4 ¥a6 17.¤b6 ¦a7

18.¥xa6 ¦xa6 19.¤c4² and White had the more

pleasant position in Gelfand-Karjakin, Nalchik

2009.

7.¤e5!?

This is the critical approach against the 6...g6

line. In previous games it became clear that

other moves are less promising: 7.¥d3 ¥g7 8.e4

dxe4 9.¤xe4 0–0 10.¤xf6+ ¥xf6 11.¥e3 ¥g4

12.¥e4 £c8 13.h3 ¥f5 14.£c2 ¥xe4 15.£xe4

¦d8= Aronian-Svidler, Heraklio 2007; 7.b4 a5

8.bxa5 £xa5 9.¥d2 b4 10.¤b1 ¤e4 11.a3 ¤xd2

12.¤fxd2 ¥g7= Miton-Rublevsky, Sochi 2006.

7...¥g7 8.¥e2 ¤fd7

Safer would be 8...0–0 and after 9.f4 ¤fd7 there

is:

a) 10.0–0 ¤xe5 11.fxe5 and now:

a1) 11...a5 12.e4 dxe4 13.¤xe4 ¤a6 14.a4

23.g4!

The decisive breakthrough!

23...¤d5

23...¤xg4 24.d5 ¤e5 25.¥b3+- and Black

collapses, while 23...fxg4 is beautifully refuted

by 24.¦hf1 ¤d5 25.¥xd5 cxd5 26.¦f7!+-

24.gxf5 gxf5 25.¥xd5 cxd5 26.¦hf1 ¢d8

27.¦xf5 ¦e8 28.£xb4 ¦e6 29.¦df1 ¢c8

29...£b7 30.£a5+ followed by 31.¦f8.

30.¦f8+ ¥xf8 31.¦xf8+ ¦d8 32.£b6 1-0

A very fine performance by Eljanov, punishing

Sokolov for neglecting his king ’ s safety!

ELJANOV - SOKOLOV

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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 19, May 13, 2009

THIS WEEK’S HARVEST

Accelerated Dragon

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤c6 5.¤c3 ¥g7 6.¥e3 ¤f6 7.¥c4 0–0 8.¥b3 d6 9.h3 ¤a5 10.£d2

A basic problem with the Accelerated Dragon is that White can play the Maroczy Bind with 5.c4 and enjoy a solid

space advantage for a long time to come. That 5.¤c3 hasn ’ t lost it ’ s sting either was confirmed by two top level

rapid games this week. 9.h3 is the alternative to the more common 9.f3 and has something very deceptive to

it: as Shirov showed it ’ s not forbidden to continue with h4-h5 later on anyway! On move nine Black has many

alternatives and to us 9...¥d7 looks like the most solid one. White then castles kingside, which means that most

aggressive scenarios are ruled out. 10.£d2!? is a sudden change of pace. In the first game Shirov-Guseinov

Black couldn ’ t deal with it at all and was basically checkmated along the h-file without a fight. In the second game

Anand-Mamedov Black was better prepared, but got into trouble anyway. 18...¦d7, to double rooks, may have

been better. Anand ’ s dynamic use of his ¤ was very impressive.

French, Rubinstein

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1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 dxe4 4.¤xe4 ¤d7 5.¤f3 ¤gf6 6.¥d3 c5 7.¤xf6+ ¤xf6 8.¥e3 ¤d5 9.¤e5

In previous issues we have already written about the difficult task to crack the rock solid French Rubinstein. In

the US Championship Kamsky played a real model game against expert Akobian which will give White players

new hope. 9.¤e5 is a strong novelty, immediately grabbing the initiative, but it must be said that 8...¤d5 is a

pet variation of the Armenian-born GM, whereas 8...£c7 is still the critical continuation. In the game, Akobian ’ s

king was stuck in the centre and hence Black couldn ’ t create his usual counterplay along the c- and d-file.

White ’ s moves 16.¦he1, 20.¦xd6! and 21.¤xf7! show that White really needs to play very concretely to prove the

drawback of Black ’ s play. After this slaughter we can be almost certain that we won ’ t see 8...¤d5 much anymore.

Black ’ s idea to get rid of White ’ s bishop pair has vanished into thin air (after...¤xe3 fxe3 White obtains excellent

attacking chances) and so we can only conclude that Black should still rely on 8...£c7.

Semi-Slav, Marshall Gambit

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.¤c3 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.¤xe4 ¥b4+ 6.¥d2 £xd4 7.¥xb4 £xe4+ 8.¥e2 ¤a6 9.¥d6 £xg2

10.£d2 ¤f6 11.¥f3 £g6 12.0–0–0 e5 13.¥xe5 ¥e6 14.¤e2 £f5 15.¥f4 £c5 16.b3

The German grandmaster and theoretician Jan Gustafsson chose 9.¥d6, whereas 9.¥a5 was examined in

CVO 6. Black continued with the principled 9...£xg2, since the alternatives allow White to smoothly continue his

development with ¤f3 and 0-0. On the next move 10...£xh1? is refuted by the pretty 11.0-0-0 £e4 12.¥e7!!.

Gusti may have something nasty prepared against the greedy 15...¥xc4 as well. After the game ’ s 15...£c5 White

played a novelty with 16.b3. In the next few moves the exchange of queens seems more or less inevitable and

it is quite possible that Pavasovic, a true expert on the black side of this gambit, has judged these positions to

be fine for Black in his home preparation. Maybe Black should have exchanged bishops with 21...¥g4, since as

the game continued the white advantage based on his two bishops increased steadily. Just when it was about to

become very real, for instance with 39.¥h6 or 43.¢c3 h6 44.¥d3, Black escaped with a draw.

Grünfeld, 3.f3

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1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5 4.cxd5 ¤xd5 5.e4 ¤b6 6.¤c3 ¥g7 7.¥e3 0–0 8.f4 ¤c6 9.d5 ¤a5 10.¥d4 e5 11.¥xe5 ¥xe5

12.fxe5 £h4+ 13.g3 £e7 14.£d4 ¦d8 15.b4 ¤ac4 16.¥xc4 £xb4 17.¤f3 £xc4 18.£e3 c6 19.¦c1

Of course it was just a rapid game, but Mamedyarov showed once more his confidence in the sharp 3.f3

Grünfeld. This time it was the Azeri himself who deviated from his well-known game against Kurnosov and in a

long theoretical line he introduced the new 19.¦c1. Shirov had to spend a lot of time to overcome his opponent ’ s

home analysis. Shirov ’ s 21...cxd5? is a serious mistake, vacating the e4 square for the ¤ and so Black had to

give the exchange. In the game Shirov fought hard, but couldn ’ t turn the events and after a long struggle he lost

anyway. 21...¦c8! is our suggestion, being ready to take on d5 at any moment, while after 22.d6 ¤d7! it ’ s not

clear to us how White should launch a kingside attack, since Black controls the centre. Most likely Shakh drew

the same conclusion that White should take the perpetual (see analysis) and that explains why he didn ’ t save

this novelty for a rated game.

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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

No. 19, May 13, 2009

OPENING EXPERT

Who:

Yuri Shulman

Born:

April 29, 1975

Nationality:

American

Rating:

2632

Expertise:

White: sharp 1.d4 lines, for example 8.¦b1

against the Grünfeld. Black: French

Why:

Shulman has a small repertoire, but within his own openings he varies

a lot. His main speciality is the French Winawer, where he feels very

comfortable in massive complications, while not forgetting about the

hidden subtleties this opening contains. We can notice some similarities

in play with Boris Gelfand (also from Belarussian origin), who in fact

used to train Shulman years ago. In CVO 15 we had a closer look at the

game Shulman-Friedel, in which White outplayed his opponent from

a healthy positional base. Actually this is typical for Shulman’s games,

where he starts from a positional base, gradually improves his position

and finally launches a devastating blow. A serious candidate to win the

US championships for the second time in row!

Key game:

Khachiyan - Shulman, US Championship (St. Louis), May 9, 2009

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1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 ¥b4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 ¥xc3+

6.bxc3 ¤e7 7.£g4

7.¤f3 b6 8.a4 ¥a6 9.¥xa6 ¤xa6 10.0–0 h6

11.£e2 £c8 12.£b5+ ¤c6 13.a5 bxa5 14.¦xa5

¤ab8 15.¥a3 0–0 16.¦a4 ¤d7 17.¥xc5 ¦b8

18.£e2 ¤xc5 19.dxc5 ¤e7 and Black started

to collect all weak c-pawns, Sadvakasov-

Shulman, Ledyard 2009.

7...cxd4 8.£xg7

8.¥d3 £a5 9.¤e2 0–0 10.¥g5 ¤g6 11.f4 ¤d7

12.¥xg6 fxg6 13.£xe6+ ¦f7 14.0–0 dxc3 15.£d6

¤c5 16.£xd5 ¥e6 17.£d4 ¦c8 18.¦fe1 ¥f5

19.£xc3 £xc3 20.¤xc3 ¤e6 21.¤d5 ¦xc2³

Friedel-Shulman, Saint Louis 2009.

8...¦g8 9.£xh7 £c7 10.¤e2 ¤bc6 11.f4 dxc3

12.£d3 d4 13.¤g3 ¥d7 14.¥e2 £b6 15.0–0

0–0–0 16.¤e4 ¤d5

Up to this moment the players followed the

recent game from Nalchik between Karjakin and

Kamsky.

17.£b5

In the aforementioned game, Karjakin played

17.¤d6+ ¢b8 18.¤xf7 ¦df8 19.¤d6 ¤ce7

20.¥f3 ¥c6 and even went on to win after

surviving some precarious moments. For more

detailed analysis check CVO 17!

17...£xb5 18.¥xb5 ¢c7 19.¦b1 a6 20.¥d3 b5

Although White has managed to exchange

queens, it ’ s absolutely not easy for him to

convert his extra pawn. The bishop on c1 is

restricted in his activity and with his next move

White tries to solve this matter.

21.a4?

(diagram)

30...¦xd6! 31.¦a8+ ¢d7 32.¦1a7+ ¢c6–+.

31.¦a8+ ¢d7 32.¦8a7+ ¢e8 33.¦g1 ¦g2!

34.¦e7+ ¢f8 35.¦c7+ ¢g7

35...¦xd6! 36.exd6 ¦xg1+ 37.¢xg1 ¤c4.

36.¦xg2+ ¤xg2 37.¦xc2 ¤e3 38.¦d2 ¦c8

39.¢g1 ¦c4 40.¢f2 b4 41.¦d3 ¦c2+ 42.¢f3

¦c3 43.¢e2 b3 44.¦xd4 ¤c4 45.¥e7 b2 46.¦d8

¦e3+ 47.¢f2 ¦xe4 48.¢g3 ¦e3+ 49.¢g4 b1£

50.¥f6+ ¢h6 0–1

Now Black can create a very dominating passed

pawn on c3. 21.¤c5 ¢b6 22.¤a4+ ¢a5 23.¤c5

¢b6 repeats the moves.

21...¤cb4! 22.¥a3 ¤xd3 23.¥d6+ ¢c8

24.cxd3 ¤e3 25.¦f2 ¥c6 26.axb5 axb5

27.¦a2? ¥xe4 28.dxe4 c2 29.¦ba1 ¦xg2+

30.¢h1 ¦d2

www.chessvibes.com/openings

ChessVibes Openings is a weekly PDF magazine that covers the latest news on chess openings. Which openings are hot in top level chess?

Which are not? Editors IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris keep you updated once a week! Singles issues cost € 1. You can subscribe too:

€ 25 a year (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!). More info can be found at www.chessvibes.com/openings .

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