Chapter 3.4: Main Line- 9 ... dxc4 1 O. ~xc4 Vlfl c7 ll.~d3

White's situation - on the contrary, it should help Black. 1 S ... ~xa6 16.ifxa6 e5 Black starts a standard pawn attack on White's centre. Here however, given the fact that the light-squared bishops have been exchanged, Black can also play on the light squares w ith 16 ... tt:Je4 17.'iVd3 f5 with a good game; or he can consider 16 ... tt:Ja5. 17 .h3

B 1) 17 ... e4?! is strategically wrong -White now gets a favourable position. 18.ltJd2 White now has a favourable pawn structure - please analyse the main lines with 9 ... dxc4 and compare, Timman-Bosch, Netherlands 1996 ;

B 2) Black could have played 17 ... exd4 18.cxd4 cxd4 19.ti:Jxd4 (after 1 9. exd 4 ti:Jd5 Black has a good block­ade) 19 ... ttJxd4 20.l:lxd4 ~c3 21.iffl l:rac8 22.itb4 and White's advantage is very small.

C) A clever way for White to take ad­vantage of the fact that 9 ... Jd.e8 has been played instead of 9 .. . Wif c7 and the e5 -square is not covered, may seem to be 1 0 .t2:Je5?!.

However, White will find it d ifficult to move his kingside majority, his double e-pawns being a problem, while Black has the better pawn structure and good play: 1 O ... tt:JxeS! ll.dxeS tiJd7 12.f4 dxc413.~xc4 tbb6 14.~b3 .2.d71S.a4 ~c6 16.a5 ttJd5 17.~e1 lt:Je7- Black

has nice play and went on to win in Borisenko-Kortchnoi, Gyula 1 9 6 5 . • 9 ... lt:Ja5!? is a possibility deserving attention. Black attacks the centre, ask­ing White to make a decision. White has a tiny road to an advantage (when analysing this position it is useful to compare with the line 9 ... i¥c7 1 O .~b2 ttJa5):

A) Black is fine in the case of 1 O.lLJd2 filfc7 ll.ife2 b6 12.cxd5 exd5 13.f3 Me8 as in Bu Xiangzhi-Zhou Jianchao , Xinghua Jiangsu 2 0 11;

B) Determining the central situation w ith 1 O.cxdS exdS does not bring White the desired result si11ce Black gets a favourable version of the line 9 ... 'Wii c7 1 0 .~b2 tt:Ja5 11 .cxd5:

.! .ti¥ .~ • . • . ..

ll ill ~ ~

~ ll ~

·~ ~ ~~Cjj ~~ ~

:r ~~ .. :r~ B 1) The attempt to be clever and take

advantage of the move order does not bring White a plus. Black has a good dy­namic game after 11.dxc5 ~ c7 12.a4 a:es 13 .~a3 ~g4 14.l:lb 1 (or 14 .h3 ~xf3 15 .~xf3 t2Jb3 16 . .S:a2 ttJxcS; or 14.'ifc2 ~xf3 15 .gxf3 lLJc4 16 .~xc4 dxc4 1 7 . .Sad 1 Wi c6oo) and now:

B11) Inferior is 14 ... lt:Je4?! 15.ifc2 ~xf3 16.gxf3 lt:Jg5 (or 16 . .. 'if d7 17 . ~g2 tt:Jg5 18.~f5) 17.\t?g2 with a white advantage;

B12) 14 ... 11ad8! 15.h3 (or 15 .iVc1 ~xf3 16.gxf3 tt:Jc4 17 . .tld 1 tt:Jd7 !) 15 ... ~h5 with a good game for Black.

267

Chapter 3.6: Main Line- 9 . . . dxc4 10. ~xc4 Vli c7 11 .h3

. ···:- . ~ .... : :~ -:-.... •.,;.;.

~

1 S ••• ~g6 Please compare this position to the comments on Knaak-Kortchnoi in Chapter 3.5 with ll .~a2. Black's seemingly 'active' bishop is in fact far

from active. White is going to slaughter Black on the queenside, while the sec­ond player fails to create even a glimpse

of counterplay on the kingside, his bishop remaining out of play for the rest of the game: 16.~fc1 ~adS 17.a4! White is stronger on the queenside and he con1es into action. 17 ... ~h5 18. ~bS Mfe8 19 .~a3 gS Black understands that

the battle on the queenside will be lost,

so he tries a desperate attempt against the white king. 20/2Jf1! ctJd7 21.ctJg3

~g6

;.•,

. :t;~;o';;-;

·.:~:. ·-g .:::

22.~d1! Very instructive. Anand now doubles on the d-file and Black's positi­on cracks. 22 ... ctJa5 23.~d2 hS 24.J:t.ad1 h4 2S.dxcS! Just in time. 25 ... CZJxcS 26.~xc5 bxc5 27.ctJf1 Just look at Black's helpless, discoordinated

tDa5 and ~g6. 27 ... ~b8 28.~d7! lixbS 29.~xc7 .Ub2 30.~d5 ~eb8 31 . .Uxa7 ctJb3 3 2.aS Black is totally paralysed, while White's a-pawn is on its way to queening. 32 ... ~hS 33 . .Uel 1- 0, Anand-Bacrot, Nanjing 2010. • In a number of games, Black devel­oped l1is bishop to the b 1-h7 diagonal, while keeping the central tension, with 12 ... ~fS. With correct play by White

this should not equalize. A) The situation is not clear after

13.ctJh4 ~d7 14.d5 ttJaS 1 S.c4 t2Je4:

AI) 16.~b2 ~ae8 17."iYc2 17 .f4? is a principled move to open the long diago­nal for the ~b 2, but it fails to a nice queen manoeuvre: 17 .. . ~b6! 18.l:tb 1

~h6 19.'i¥e1 exf4 20.Jlxf4 b6 and Black was better in Kantsler-Lautier, Halkidiki 2002. 17 ... £5! Again, it is important for Black to keep his knight on e4. With his h-pawn already on h3 it is difficult for

White to evict the ltJe4, since playing f2 -f3 would create a hole on g3. Black is

not worse. One practical example contin­ued 1 7 .. .ttJd6 18.e4 f6 1 9 .CZJ£'3 .Ue 7 with a space advantage for White, Gulko-A. Ivanov, Durango ch-USA 1992;

A2) Or 16.'iVc2 and now:

A21) 16 ... tt'Jd6 17 .e4 is a standard slight advantage for White;

A22) 16 ... fS! Once more, with White's pawn on h3 it is difficult to kick

299

Part IV: 4 . .. 0-0 S. ~d3 dS 6 . ti) f3 cS 7.0-0- The Immediate 7 ... dxc4 8. ~xc4

ring blundering a rook or something similar, the worst thing that can happen is that Black will eventually manage to save the game. Sometimes, respect is a beautiful thing and I have occasionally seen many great players escaping from lousy positions with a simple draw of­fer - the only problem is that Cornette was not playing Kasparov or Anand- he was playing Van Wely!

12.bxc3 ~b713.~b3

Aronian prefers to keep his bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal. 13.~d3 WHc 7 14.c4 ~ac8 15.ltb2 ~fe8 would have led to positions seen under 8 ... cxd4 in Chap­ter4.2.

Leko plays the most flexible and natural move here. In one recent game Sasikiran chose a relatively unusual - not often seen, in any case - set-up which can perhaps be applied as an idea in these positions: 13 ... ncs 14.c4 'iVc7 1 s.h3 J!tfe8

:·: .1 ' .I • i.ti¥~ iii

'i i~

16.lte3!? The point behind White's play With the bishop on e3, Black's rook on e8 will not be doing much when White pushes d4-d5. 16 ... tt:Je4 The Sasikiran game continued 1 6 ... tiJhS (a move I am not impressed with) 17 .~a4 ~c6 18.~xc6 ~xc6

382

.I .I • i ~ · iii

it¥ i .,·

19.dS! exdS 20 .ti:Jd4 20.cxd5 ~g6 2 1 . ~bS (2 1 ... tt:Jes? 2 2. tt:JxeS l:.xe5 23."i¥d7 20 ... ~g6 looks good for White) 21 .cxd5 with White's advantage in Sasikiran-Yu Shaoteng, Subic Bay 2 0 0 9. 17 .J:.ac 1 h6 White can now take immediate action in the centre, which leads to unclear consequences: 18.d5!? Or 18.~a4 ~ed8, when for both sides it is not easy to improve their position, though for the side with more space it should be easier - this holds in chess in general and here in particular. 18 ... exd5 19 .cxdS li:JdcS

20.~c4 20. ti:Jd4?! iYd7 21. ti:Jc6 tt:Jxb3! (after 21 ... ~xc6 2 2 .dxc6 ~xc6 23 .~d5 White's bishops provide enough compensation) 22 .axb3 ti:Jf6 23 .~f3 leads to a draw: 23 .. . ttJxdS! 24.~xd5 ~e6 2s . .::es ~xeS! 26.ti:Jxe5 l:.xc1+ 27.~xcl ~xf3 28 .ti:Jxf3 aS and Black's queenside passed pawn will be difficult to stop. 20 ... li:Jd6 21.~b2

Chapter 4 .4: Parma Variation- 8 .. . 12J bd7 9. ~b3

for White's tbeS in this position. 13.a4 ~c8 A better move order for Black was 13 .. . a5! 14 .~d2 l:tc8. 14.i..d2 14.a5 ttJbdS 15 .~d2 looks a bit better for White. 14 ... a5 15.~f3 ~c7?! This al­lows White to take the initiative. Better was 15 ... cxd4 16.exd4 h6 followed by ... ~c6, and White would have had just a very small advantage. Later, after White takes tbxc6 and Black responds with ... bxc6, we will have a pawn struc­ture from the 7 .a4 line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted, and that structure is OK. White has just a very small advan­tage. 16.dxc5 ~xeS 1 7 .ctJd3 ~ c4 18.'i¥xc4 ctJxc4 19.~e1 More precise for White was 19.tlJb5 ~xbS 20.~xb4 axb4 21 .axb5. 19 ... ]ld6 Better was 19 ... tbxb2. 20.tiJb5 ~xb5 21.axb5 b6 22.b4 White had the advantage and went on to win in Alexandrov­Gashimov, Moscow 2 0 0 7. • Also not to be recommended for Black is 9 ... cxd4.

:i_· ~ ·l

iftLJ ~ tLJ ~ :~ ' ~' ~ if5s·· 1:: ~ :~

Again, this capture, which defines the central pawn structure, is premature here because it only helps White to de­velop more quickly:

A) 1 o:iixb4?! is wrong, as after 1 o ... dxc3 11. i¥xc3 ~ c7 general logic tells us that due to his bishop pair White should be having an advantage here, but actually White has problems finishing

his development ar1d things can easily go wrong for him here: 12.1Vb3 b6 13.~e2 Or 13 .~d2 ~b7 14 .~e2 tbc5. 13 ... jlb7 14/t:Jd4?! 14 .~d2 14 ... ctJc5 15.~a3 e5 16.ctJb3 ctJxb3 17 .axb3 l::fd8 White still cannot develop - Black was better and went on to win in Kamsky-Elianov, Montreal 2 0 0 7;

B) 10.exd4 ]lxc3 11.bxc3 b6 Here Topalov has demonstrated an interest­ing idea: 12.ttJg5 l:.e8 13.1:.e 1 tt:Jf8 14.f3 This pawn will be useful, control­ling the e4- and g4-squares, while at the same time freeing the f2 -square for his knight. 14 ... ~b7 15.~f1 The im­mediate 15 .t2Je4 is also good for White. 15 ... l:tc8 16.~b2 ~c7 17.c4 ~ed8 18.l:racl White simply has a good ver­sion of the standard centre with con­nected hanging pawns. 18 ... ~f4 19.ttJh3 Wic7 20. tt:Jf2, as in Topalov­Ponomariov, Vitoria Gasteiz 2 0 0 7. • Popular and also enough for equality, provided the right plan is followed on n1ove 10, is 9 ... a6 and after 1 O.a4

K j_~ E. '~.:· .... l -~· ~ .;, l , .. l l l~

l . .. ,,

~ 1..~ --~ ' {;if tLJ, ~ - tLJ ~ ;~ ~ ~-

:s. ~ .. :~ White has to prevent ... b7 -bS here, oth­erwise Black develops quickly and har­moniously and he is the only side that can be better:

A) 1 O ••• ~a5 is probably playable, though it looks a bit strange since it loses considerable time: 11.~d 1 cxd4 12.exd4 e'b6 13.~c2 ~c7 14.~d3

387