CVO_174.pdf

openings

174 | May 2 n 2012

what’s hot and what’s not?

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Giants evenly-matched

By IM Merijn van Delft, IM Robert Ris & IM Stefan Kuipers

The Kramnik-Aronian training match ended 3-3, with draws

in the last three games. Aronian won the single rapid game

played because one of the classical games was drawn

within three hours.

Frequency

what's hot?

Score

The Kramnik-Aronian match had a very exciting start, but ended more

or less peacefully. In the fourth game of the match Kramnik drew another

Berlin Endgame comfortably. Therefore Aronian tried 4.d3 in the final

game, which indeed resulted in a more spectacular struggle and our

Game of the Week . In the diagram position Aronian went for the rare

move order 5.¤bd2. In the fifth game Kramnik got a slight pull with White

in the Semi Slav Moscow Variation.

Topalov won his clock simul over eight boards against 2315 Elo average

players 5-3. In the sharp classical main line of the King's Indian he lost

both games, one with White and one with Black. In the rest of the games

Topalov was pretty much in control. Below we have a look at Topalov's

win with White against the Classical Variation of the Ruy Lopez.

Wang Hao-Le Quang Liem (Najdorf 6.¥g5) and Alonso-Cubas

(French Tarrasch) make interesting 1.e4 material and will be covered

below. Cheparinov showed his power with Black in the Grünfeld. His

win against Arnaudov (Anti-Grünfeld) is examined below while his win

against Petkov (4.¥g5) can be found in the PGN.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

Kramnik was as solid as ever with the black pieces, but with the white pieces, when he's supposed to create play, his results were very

mixed. Last week we saw his win with 1.e4, but this week in the rapid game Aronian showed why he's arguably the world's biggest

1.e4 e5 expert. In the period from 2003-2005 Kramnik also tried a lot of 1.e4, but that almost cost him

his World Championship title in 2004 against Leko. The closed games remain his natural habitat.

what’s not?

1 of 4

openings what’s hot and what’s not?

174 | May 2 n 2012

Anti-Berlin complications

After Aronian, who also plays the Berlin Endgame with Black, couldn’t achieve much in his

irst two white games, he tried his luck with the 4.d3 Anti-Berlin. This at least keeps more

pieces on the board.

game of the week

Aronian-Kramnik

Aronian,L (2820) - Kramnik,V (2801)

Zurich Chess Challenge, 28.04.2012

C65, Ruy Lopez, Berlin

A very principled continuation. Nothing can

be gained from 16.¤g3 d5 when Black is

absolutely OK after this liberating move.

16...d5 17.e5 ¤e4 18.¥xe4 dxe4

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19.a5!?

Aronian is complicating matters by temporarily

deflecting the ¥ from the a7–g1 diagonal.

After 19.¦xe4 c5 20.¤f3 ¥c6 Black obtains

reasonable compensation for the §. Another

possibility is 19.¤g3 f5 20.a5 ¥c5 21.¥e3 ¥xd4

22.£xd4 ¥e6 and Black is close to equality.

19...¥xa5 20.¤g3 ¥b6 21.¢h2

Aronian wisely removes his ¢ from the a7–g1

diagonal. Less convincing is 21.¤xe4 £h4

22.¤d6 ¤xf4! 23.¥xf4 £xf4 24.¤xe8 ¦xe8

and Black obtains excellent compensation for

the exchange.

21...c5 22.¤df5 ¥xf5 23.¤xf5 £xd1 24.¦xd1

¦ad8 25.¥e3

Alternatives doesn ' t seem to offer White

anything either: 25.¤d6 leads to equality after

25...f6 26.¥e3 ¦e7 27.¤xe4 ¦xd1 28.¦xd1

¤xe5! 29.fxe5 ¦xe5 30.¤xf6+ gxf6 31.¥xh6

¦e2= while after 25.¦e1 f6 26.exf6 gxf6

27.¦a4 h5 28.¦axe4 ¦xe4 29.¦xe4 ¢f7 Black

shouldn ' t face too many problems.

25...¦d3 26.¦e1 f6 27.exf6 gxf6 28.¤xh6+

¢f8?

Kramnik underestimated White ' s move.

Instead he should have played 28...¢g7

29.¤f5+ ¢f7 and a repetition of moves seems

the most logical continuation, since 30.¦a4

can be answered with 30...¤e7! when Black

is alright.

29.¦a4! ¦d5 30.c4?

A very ugly move, blocking the 4th rank for the

¦. White could have retained an advantage

with 30.f5! ¥c7+ 31.¢g1 ¥g3 32.¦f1 ¤e5

33.¦xe4².

30...¦d3 31.b4

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31...¦xe3!

With this powerful exchange sacrifice Black

seizes the initiative. Inferior would have been

31...cxb4?! 32.¥xb6 axb6 33.¦xb4 and White

is better.

32.¦xe3 cxb4 33.¦g3

Attempting to create counterthreats. After the

passive 33.¦e1 a5! Black also remains clearly

on top.

33...e3?

Throwing away the advantage. Black should

have opted for 33...¤e7! 34.¦xb4 ¥c7! when

he retains serious winning chances.

34.¦xg6 e2 35.¦a1 ¥f2

Of course not 35...e1£? in view of 36.¦g8+!

¢e7 37.¦xe1+ and White wins.

36.¦g8+ ¢e7 37.¦g7+ ¢d6 38.¦xb7 e1£

39.¦xe1 ¥xe1 40.¤f5+ ¢c5

40...¢c6 also leads to a draw after 41.¦xa7

b3 42.¤d4+ ¢b6 43.¦a1 ¥c3 44.c5+ ¢b7

45.¤xb3 ¥xa1 46.¤xa1 and there isn ' t much

left to play for. 41.¦b5+! ¢c6

41...¢xc4? even loses to 42.¤d6+! and the ¦

on e8 falls.

42.¤d4+ ¢c7 43.¦c5+ and here the players

agreed to draw in view of 43...¢b6 44.¦b5+

¢c7 and neither side can really make progress

without taking further risks. ½–½

1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 ¤f6 4.d3

In his first two white games in this match

Aronian went for the endgame arising from

4.0–0. Since the Armenian player didn ' t

achieve anything he decided to play a more

flexible system.

4...¥c5 5.¤bd2

This move fits this type of structure perfectly,

but in this particular position it ' s rarely been

seen. However, we ' ll see that well-known

territory can again be reached via this move-

order.

5...d6 6.c3 0–0 7.0–0 ¤e7

In earlier games Kramnik successfully

employed 7...a6, but apparently he had some

reason for playing differently this time.

8.h3

The critical attempt seems to be 8.d4!? exd4

9.cxd4 ¥b6. Kramnik had undoubtedly worked

this possibility out in much greater depth.

8...¤g6 9.¦e1 c6 10.¥a4 ¦e8 11.d4 ¥b6

12.¥c2 h6 13.a4

The alternative 13.¤f1 d5! didn ' t offer White

anything special in Radjabov-Kramnik, Kazan

blitz 2011.

13...¥e6 Another game went 13...¥c7 14.¤f1

¤h7 15.¤g3 ¤g5 16.dxe5 ¤xf3+ 17.£xf3 ¦xe5

18.¥e3 ¥b6 19.¦ad1 ¥e6 20.£e2 h5 21.¥xb6

and now in Kobalia-Alekseev, Dagomys 2010,

the players agreed to a draw.

14.¤f1 exd4

Black deviates from 14...£c7 15.¤g3 ¦ad8

16.¥e3 d5? 17.¤xe5 ¤xe5 18.¥f4 ¤fd7 19.a5!

¥xa5 20.exd5 ¥xd5 21.dxe5 which was seen

in Alekseev-Jumabayev, Moscow 2012 and

clearly favored White.

15.¤xd4

Making way for the f-pawn. The automatic

recapture 15.cxd4 doesn ' t seem to pose big

problems after 15...¥a5.

15...¥d7 16.f4

2 of 4

openings what’s hot and what’s not?

174 | May 2 n 2012

this week’s harvest

Ruy Lopez, Cordel Gambit

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1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 ¥c5 4.c3 f5 5.d4 fxe4 6.¤xe5 ¤xe5 7.dxe5 £e7

The Ruy Lopez is currently being confronted with the Jänisch a lot, but the popular 3...f5 is now finding its

way into other lines as well. After 4...¤f6 the main line right now is 5.d4, posing Black some problems as

seen in Sutovsky-Jones. Against 4...f5, the line Topalov chose with 6.¤xe5!? seems to be out of fashion, but

he found some very interesting lines starting with the novelty 8.b4!?. After 8...¥xb4 Black gets pushed into a

very uncomfortable spot, but 8...¥b6 seems to be a safer way of playing. Even then White can put pressure on

the black position with 9.¥f4 £f7 10.¥e3!?. Black might need to look for alternatives on move 7 in his search

for satisfaction, but that isn ’ t easy. In the game the number of possibilities for White gets even larger after the

interesting 10. cxb4!? when he has a choice between several types of comfortable position. 14. e6! and 15.

¤d5!! are particularly strong moves and result in an opposite-colored bishop ending where White is completely

in charge.

Najdorf, 6.¥g5 ¤bd7 7.£e2

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥g5 ¤bd7 7.£e2 b5 8.a4 b4

9.¤d5 ¥b7 10.£c4 ¦c8 11.£xb4 ¦b8 12.¤xf6+ gxf6 13.¥e3 ¥xe4 14.£c4 £a5+ 15.¥d2

As we showed in CVO 117, an interesting way to counter the flexible 6...¤bd7 is the equally flexible 7.£e2. The

point is that 7...e6 8.f4 and 7...£c7 8.0–0–0 e6 9.f4 transpose to the Gelfand Variation. Back then we thought the

independent 7...b5 could be countered well by 8.a4, which hadn't yet been played in tournament practice at that

point. This week 8.a4 was finally tested in the top Chinese League encounter Wang Hao-Le Quang Liem, and

the overall impression seems to be that Black gets reasonable counterplay in any case. When White tries 10.¥xf6

¤xf6 and only then 11.£c4, Black can answer with 11...¤xd5 12.exd5 and then 12...g6!? or 12...£c8 13.£xb4

g6!?. White may win a pawn, but Black gets good compensation due to his strong dark-squared bishop. As the

game continued Black had a decent alternative in 13...e5!? 14.¤f5 d5 15.¤d6 ¥xd6 16.£xd6 d4 17.¥d2 ¥xe4,

with counterplay. In the diagram position 15...£b6 would have been better than 15...£c5?!, which could have

been answer by 16.f3!. The game stayed highly tactical and messy until the very end, and was eventually drawn.

French, Tarrasch

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1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.¤d2 ¤f6 4.e5 ¤fd7 5.¥d3 c5 6.c3 ¤c6 7.¤gf3 ¥e7 8.0–0 g5 9.dxc5 g4 10.¤d4 ¤dxe5 11.¥b5 ¥d7

With the return of the French in top level games this opening is getting more and more popular. The idea with

... ¥e7 and ...g5 has been made popular by Morozevich and can be used in many different lines. This line still

seems to be a bit unexplored, because both sides have tried several moves and new ideas keep popping up.

The main line in this position is considered to be 12. ¤2b3 h5 13. ¦e1. The resulting positions seem to be slightly

better for White, but are very unclear and double-edged. In the current game White tried to seek a more steady

advantage by forcing the exchange of pieces after 12. f4 ¤xd4 13. ¥xd7 £xd7 14. cxd4 ¤c6. The pawn push

f4–f5 seems strong, but Black shouldn’t be scared of playing ...f5 himself. In the game it turned out that White

managed to break through the enemy lines, but with the interesting 16...e5!?N Black tried to retake the initiative.

Therefore it looks as though White should go for more double-edged positions earlier on in the opening, but that

also seems to be what Black is looking for in these lines.

1.¤f3 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 d5 4.cxd5 ¤xd5 5.£c2 ¤c6 6.d4 ¤db4 7.£a4 ¥d7 8.£d1 e5 9.dxe5 ¥f5 10.¥g5 ¥e7 11.e4 ¥g4

12.¥xe7 £xe7 13.a3 ¥xf3 14.gxf3 ¦d8 15.£a4 ¤d3+ 16.¥xd3 ¦xd3 17.£b5 ¦xf3 18.£xb7 ¤d8 19.£b4 £h4 20.0–0–0 a5

Despite Topalov's quick elimination from last year's Candidates Event in Kazan, his efforts in the Anti-Grünfeld

certainly contributed to the development of the opening. For quite some time the move 5.£c2 posed Black

some serious problems, but an antidote finally seems to have been found. In games played recently Black

has chosen to delay developing his dark-squared ¥ with 5...¤c6 6.d4 ¤db4!. Experts Vachier-Lagrave and

Sutovsky have managed to reach comfortable equality and this week Cheparinov even demonstrated Black

may hope for more. His 19...£h4!? is a sharp improvement upon the game Vordobiov-Sutovsky. In the diagram

position White might have considered playing 21.£xa5 though after 0–0 22.£xc7 ¤e6 23.£b6 ¦c8 Black obtains

excellent play for the material invested. Moreover, he's about to regain the pawns on the kingside, after which

his passed pawns seem to run quicker than their counterparts on the queenside. In the game White's attempts

to disturb the consolidation of Black's kingside were in vain. Black's setup heralds the end of the 5.£c2 era in

the Anti-Grünfeld.

Anti-Grünfeld

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3 of 4

openings what’s hot and what’s not?

174 | May 2 n 2012

it’s your move

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last week’s solutions

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Popovic-Pikula, Serbian Championship (Vrnjacka Banja), 2012

The following is standard for an experienced player, but nevertheless pleasing to the eye: 22.g3! Preparing

to transfer the ¦ to the h-file. 22...bxc3 23.bxc3 f6 23...f5 24.¢g2! £d7 25.¦h1 ¤b5 26.¦xa8 ¦xa8 and now

the killer: 27.¥xf5! exf5 28.e6 £xe6 29.¤e5! and the black ¢ is trapped. 24.¢g2! The ¢ makes space for the

¦. 24...£d7 25.¦h1 ¤c6 26.¦xa8 ¦xa8 27.¥h7+! and Black resigned as 27...¤xh7 (27...¢h8 28.¥g6+ ¢g8

29.£h8#) 28.£xh7+ ¢f7 29.£h5+ g6 30.£h7+ ¢e8 31.£xg6+ ¢d8 32.¦h8+ wins the ¦. 1–0

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Lalith-Akopian, Dubai Open, 2012

A rather normal position for the English-Nimzo hybrid system where Black has exchanged his ¥ for the ¤. In the

long run ¥s are generally preferable and thus Akopian comes up with an interesting plan of harrassing the white

¤. 8...e4! 9.¤d4 c5! 10.¤b3 b6! Restricting the mobility of the ¤ on b3. 11.d4 exd3 12.¥xd3 ¥b7 13.0–0 ¤bd7

14.¥b2 ¦e8 15.f3 ¤e5 16.e4 ¤h5 17.¦f2 f5 18.exf5 ¤xd3 19.£xd3 ¤f4 20.£c3 £g5 21.¢h1 ¦e7 22.f6 ¦e6

23.¦e1 ¦ae8 24.¦xe6 ¦xe6 25.bxc5 bxc5 26.fxg7 ¤xg2 27.¥c1 ¤e3 28.¥xe3 ¦xe3 29.£d2 £e5 and White

resigned. Note the poorly placed ¤ on b3... 0–1

openings

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