Quality Chess Blog

After a tough fight, Boris Avrukh’s Grandmaster Repertoire 2 won the public vote for the ChessPublishing Book of the Year prize. Congratulations to Boris and thanks to all those who voted.

Last year the first volume of Mihail Marin’s 1.c4 GM Repertoire won this prize, so ChessPublishing regulars clearly have excellent taste. Next year we shall attempt to three-peat.

I am at times asked how reliable our books are, and at what level they can be used. I have to bite my tongue, because what I really wanted to say in such a situation is that player X, rated 2700+ has just bought the books on our website – and most likely not to put under the Christmas three. Peter Heine Nielsen said about some of our books that they were “of use even at the highest level.” He is the chief second of the World Champion, so it is easy to read things into such a statement. One player you could easily suspect of having read our books is English Grandmaster Luke McShane. In this game he follows the recommendation of GM Mihail Marin in Grandmaster Repertoire 5 as a stepping stone to beat the World number one. Whatever I say hereafter, I feel I can say it with full confidence…

Luke McShane – Magnus Carlsen [A37]

London Chess Classic, 1^st Round, 08.12.2010

1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.0–0 Nh6

A sideline, but still a serious Read more…

Dear Quality Chess Reader,

Andrew Greet and I have just returned from the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. Andrew was non-playing captain of the English Women’s team, who performed above expectations. I was Board 3 for the Scottish team in the Open section; we finished slightly below our seeding, despite beating all the teams we were meant to beat and only losing to our betters.

Back to the books: the final two volumes of Mihail Marin’s 1.c4 repertoire: Grandmaster Repertoire 4 and Grandmaster Repertoire 5 are being printed now and, if you live in Europe, October 15 is a good prediction of when you will be able to read them.

GM Christian Bauer’s Play the Scandinavian will also be available at the same time. Please note that this book concentrates on 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5; fans of the quirky 3…Qd6 will have to look elsewhere.

Excerpts are available for all three books at the following links: Grandmaster Repertoire 4, Grandmaster Repertoire 5 and Play the Scandinavian.

Attached is a bumper collection of chess analysis: including various puzzles, a couple of Avrukh-crunching Grunfelds, a non-boring Exchange Slav and a friendly but spirited analytical debate between Jacob and Anish Giri. This is available in either ChessBase or pdf format.

Regards,

John Shaw

Chief Editor

Quality Chess

Because GM5 is “only” 280 pages, I have decided to cut the price down to 24.99 for the softcover and 32.99 for hardback edition. Those that have pre-paid will receive a refund of the 3 euro difference somewhere in the next few weeks. The reason this does not happen immediately, is because I have to work out how to do it!

An author can save the reader all sorts of suffering with a well constructed opening repertoire. I believe one of the strengths of Lars Schandorff’s GM Repertoire 7 – The Caro-Kann is the way he carefully selects his recommended move order to avoid lines where White has easy attacking play. The following game was played yesterday and shows exactly the sort of thing Lars avoids.

Ponomariov – Wang Yue

Kings Tournament, 21.06.2010

One of Boris Avrukh’s novelties was in play in the Kings Tournament in Romania a few days ago. The opening was a big success, and only at move 37 did White let the win slip.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Be2 0–0 7.0–0 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Bg4 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 Nbd7 11.Rd1 e5 12.d5 e4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nb6 15.Rb1

15.Bb3 Nxd5 16.Bxd5 cxd5 17.Rxd5 Qb6 18.Qd3 Rfe8 19.Rb1 Rad8 20.Bd2 Rxd5 21.Qxd5 Rd8 22.Qa5 Qxa5 23.Bxa5 b6 24.Be1?! (24.Bb4 was a better chance. The idea is: 24…Rc8 25.b3 Rc2 26.Rd1! Bf6 27.Rd2 with a winning ending.) 24…Rc8 25.a4 (25.b3) 25…Rc2 26.b4 Bc3 27.Bxc3 Rxc3 28.b5 Rc4 29.Ra1 f5 30.Kf1 Kf7 31.Ke1 Ke6 32.Kd2 h5 33.Kd3 1/2–1/2 Gelfand-Wang Yue, Astrakhan 2010.

15…Re8 16.Qc2!N

Avrukh’s novelty.

16…cxd5 17.Bb5 Re6!?

This was not in GM1, but it seems that Ponomariov has had his own look at it, as he plays all Rybka’s moves. 17…Rf8 and 17…Re7 were Avrukh’s moves in his annotations.

18.Qb3 Qh4 19.Bd2 d4 20.Bf1! Rd8 21.g3 Qe7 22.Bg2²

White is better here. He has the two bishops and Black has little to show for it.

22…Qe8 23.exd4 Bxd4 24.Bc3

Getting rid of the strong bishop on d4. Bg2 is better than Nb6.

I also like Rybka’s suggestion: 24.Bg5 Rd7 25.Bf3, which gives White a pleasant long term pressure. I doubt many players will head this way on purpose with Black.

24…Bxc3 25.Rxd8 Qxd8 26.Qxc3 Qe7

Maybe Black can organise his pieces better here.

27.Rd1 h5 28.b3!±

Good domination of the knight. 28.Bxb7 Na4 29.Qc8+ Kg7 30.b3 Nc5 31.Bf3 h4! was probably what Ponomariov was not certain about. I think White is better, but in practice it looks hard to handle.

28.h4 Na4! disturbs the coordination.

28…h4 29.g4 Rd6 30.Rxd6 Qxd6 31.Bxb7 Nd7

White is a pawn up, but the conversion was not effortlessly conducted.

32.Qc8+ Kg7 33.Qd8 Qe6 34.Kg2 Ne5 35.Qd4!?

Not bad, but 35.Qxh4 Qb6 36.Be4 Qd4 37.f3 won.

35…Qf6 36.b4!?

36.Qxa7 Nd3 37.Qe3 Nf4+ 38.Kg1 and the compensation for the pawns should be insufficient.

36…g5 37.a4??

White needs to take the pawn! 37.Qxa7 Nd3 38.Qe3 Nxb4 39.a4 Nc2 40.Qd2 Nd4 41.Qb2 was one winning line.

37…Ng6! 38.Qxf6+!

Also 38.Qxa7 Nf4+ 39.Kh2 Qc3 40.Qe3 Qc7! would give Black enough counterplay.

38…Kxf6 39.b5 Nf4+ 40.Kf3!

The best chance is activity. 40.Kh2 Ke5 41.a5 Kd6 would also make the draw it seems.

40…Ke5 41.a5 Kd6 42.Ke4 Nxh3 43.Kf5 Nxf2 44.Bf3 Kc7 45.Kxg5 h3

Black makes the draw by a tempo.

46.Kf6 h2 47.g5 h1Q 48.Bxh1 Nxh1 49.Kxf7 Ng3 50.g6 Nh5 51.Ke7 Ng7 52.Kf6 Nh5+ 53.Kg5 Ng7 54.Kf6 Nh5+ 55.Kf7 Kd7 56.Kf8 Kc7 57.Kg8 Nf4 58.g7 Ne6 59.Kf7 Nxg7 60.Kxg7 Kd6 61.Kf6 Kc5 62.b6 axb6 63.axb6 Kxb6 ½–½

When we reprinted GM1 earlier this year, we changed one line, as we did not want to have a bad line in the book. Obviously many more changes could be made, but this is the one we thought was necessary. The update is on page 335-336, and will be on the same pages in the first print.

B2) 8…Ne4

Editors’ note: We have updated this section for the 2nd reprint after careful analysis.

9.g3

9.Nxg6 hxg6 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Nxe4 dxe4 12.d5 was the recommendation in the first print, but this idea suffered a big blow in a number of games and Boris noted it down as the one recommendation from this book that should certainly not be followed. 12…Bd6! 13.g3 c5! The computers like White, but in practice it turns out that the h2-pawn is a huge target and White has difficulties opening up the position for his pieces. The following game is but one example: 14.Qa4 Qe7 15.Bb5 0–0–0! 16.Bd2 Nf6 17.Qxa7 Bb8 18.Qa3 Rxd5 19.Rfc1 Ng4 20.Ba5 Nxh2 21.Rd1 Qe6 22.Rac1 Nf3† 23.Kf1 Rh1† 24.Ke2 Nd4† 25.exd4 Qg4† 26.Kd2 Rxd1† 27.Rxd1 Rxd4† 0–1, Hillarp Persson – Malakhov, Denmark 2009.

9…Nd6!?

This was Shirov’s idea. It is hard to see any other reason to play 8…Ne4. After 9…Be7 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Nxe4 (12.f3!?²) 12…dxe4 13.d5 small edge. White has a good version of Boris’s original idea, Schlosser – Marusenko, Pardubice 2009.

10.c5!?N

10.b3 was played in Inarkiev – Shirov, Poikovsky 2008. Black won a beautiful game.

10…Nf5 11.Ng2

11.Nxg6?!  looks dangerous, but White could also try 11.Nxf5 Bxf5 12.f3 with complicated play.

11…Be7!

11…e5?! was recommended by Maxim Notkin in Chess Today, but it is refuted by 12.g4! Nh4 13.f4! and White will end up with a superior structure on both flanks: 13…exd4 (13…h5 is easily repelled by 14.fxe5 Nxg2 15.Kxg2 hxg4 16.Bxg4 Qh4 17.h3 and Black does not have enough compensation) 14.exd4 Nxg2 15.Kxg2 f5 16.Re1! (16.g5 Qc7!? unclear) 16…Be7 17.g5 And White has a space advantage.

12.Nf4!?

We like this idea best, as it is most critical. 12.b4 0–0 13.Nf4 is another idea. Black might try to break in the centre with 13…e5 14.dxe5 Nxe5, but after 15.Bb2 Bf6 16.Qb3² White is probably a bit better.

12…e5

12…0–0 13.h4 small edge, will provoke Black into advancing the h-pawn.

13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.h4 d4!?

This seems to be the most logical move. 14…f6 is a computer idea, which is met with: 15.Qa4! Bf7 (15…b5? is punished by 16.Nxb5! cxb5 17.Bxb5† Kf7 18.Rd1± with a strong attack) 16.e4! dxe4 17.Rd1 Qc8 18.Nxe4 0–0

19.b3 small edge

14…h6 might be the best move. We think White is better after: 15.b4!? d4 (15…a5 16.Bb2!² axb4? 17.Ncxd5+–) 16.Ne4! Nxe3 (16…dxe3? 17.Bb2!±) 17.fxe3 Bxe4 18.Bb2!² White keeps the initiative and control of the centre.

15.exd4 Nxd4 16.Nxg6 hxg6 17.Bf4 Bf6 18.Re1 0–0 19.Bxe5! Bxe5 20.Bc4 small edge

White has some interesting attacking ideas on the light squares. After 20…Re8 21.Ne4 White has many threats and ideas with h4-h5 and Qg4 can be dangerous.

One example is: 20…Qc7?! 21.h5! g5 22.Ne4 Qe7 23.Qg4!± Nc2 24.Nxg5 Nxe1 25.Rxe1 Qf6 26.Re3! White has

a winning attack.