Radjabov’s King’sIndian put to the testBy IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

The Taimanov got beaten again in Karjakin-Stellwagen. Black had his chances in the game, but we feel White can improve earlier on. Even the Najdorf is not very hot this week: Dominguez beat Morozevich with the English Attack (starting with 6.¥e3), Ivanchuk defeated Karjakin with the Classical 6.¥e2 and Stellwagen got excellent play against Van Wely with the sharp 6.¥g5. Surprisingly, the only Sicilian in good shape is tournament leader Movse-sian’s Scheveninger (we are waiting for the good old Keres Attack!).

OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not?

what’s Not?

The classical start with 1.e4 e5 is still the main battlefield in Wijk aan Zee. Was Short intending to repeat the Lange Gambit that Movsesian used successfully earlier in the tournament? To 4. 0-0, Kasimdzhanov replied with 4...d6 and seemed to be perfectly fine after the opening. The Spanish torture is still working with a cold 59.4% score over 32 grandmaster games. This means that Black is fine most of the time (especially the Berlin Wall is a tough nut to crack lately), but White gets his occasional win.

The real testing of the Marshall is done in the C-group. In So-Gupta (round 4) Black did his homework and sacrificed all his pieces for an elegant perpetual. In Nijboer-Gupta (round 8) White did convert his extra pawn in the line 8.h3!? (Anti-Marshall) 8...¥b7 9.d3 d5!? (Anti-Anti-Marshall). Last but not least, Black scored a comfortable draw in all games with the Petroff so far.

Similarly, 1.d4 d5 remains the way to go for Black and while Smeets brought the Botwinnik back to life, Motylev is doing very well with the Moscow variation.

The King’s Indian has known better days, as in our game of the week its truest defender Radjabov got some sever beating at the hands of Van Wely. In a tabiya position for the Bayonet, the Dutchman used the interesting 13.¦b1!? as suggested by his second Vladimir Chuchelov shortly before the game.

Score

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Frequency

No. 4, January 28, 2009

1 of 3

what’s hot?

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

The KID suffers yet another Bayonet blowIn our 0-issue we already mentioned Teimour Radjabov as the greatest expert on the King’s Indian. In Wijk aan Zee, Loek van Wely beat the Azeri GM with the Bayonet Attack. The score in their private theoretical discussion is now 3-3.

game of the week Van Wely,L (2625) - Radjabov,T (2761)Corus Chess Tournament, January 22, 2009E97: King’s Indian, Bayonet (9.b4), 13.¦b1

1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 g6 3.¤c3 ¥g7 4.e4 d6 5.¤f3 0–0 6.¥e2 e5 7.0–0 ¤c6 8.d5 ¤e7 9.b4 ¤h5Two rounds prior to this game Radjabov gave the old 9...¤e8!? a try against Ivanchuk and although he went on to win that game, the resulting position from the opening was certainly not a success. Vallejo Pons did win a straightforward game with it against Werle in round 9 though.10.¦e1Last November at the Olympiad Van Wely tried the old 10.g3 against the same opponent and following 10...f5 11.¤g5 ¤f6 12.f3 f4 13.b5 h6 14.¤e6 ¥xe6 15.dxe6 fxg3 16.hxg3 £c8 17.¤d5 £xe6 18.¤xc7 £h3 19.¦f2 ¤xe4 20.fxe4 ¦xf2 21.¢xf2 ¦f8+ 22.¢e3 £xg3+ 23.¢d2 ¦f2 24.¤e8 Black erred with 24...h5? after which White managed to escape from the checks and went on to win.10...f5 11.¤g5 ¤f6 12.f312.¥f3 is the other main continuation after which 12...c6 13.¥b2 (13.b5 h6 14.¤e6 ¥xe6 15.dxe6 fxe4 16.¤xe4 ¤xe4 17.¥xe4 d5 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.¥a3 dxe4 20.£xd8 ¦fxd8 21.¥xe7 ¦e8 22.¥c5 is an annoying ending especially for ambitious Black players) 13...h6 14.¤e6 ¥xe6 15.dxe6 fxe4 16.¤xe4 ¤xe4 17.¦xe4 d5 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.¦xe5 ¥xe5 20.¥xe5 £b6 21.¥b2 is a tricky exchange sacrifice mainly known from Shirov-Radjabov, Linares 2004. The main fea-ture of the position is White controlling the long a1–h8 diagonal instead of Black!12...¢h8

(diagram)

13.¦b1!?The ¦ is not doing anything special here, but just goes out of the a1–h8 diagonal. The next moves seem to be more or less forced. 13.b5 ¤e8 14.¥e3 ¥f6 15.¤e6 ¥xe6 16.dxe6 ¤g7 17.¥h6 ¤xe6 18.¥xf8 £xf8 and the weakened black

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squares gave Black enough compensa-tion in Carlsen-Ivanchuk, Foros 2008. 13.c5 h6 14.¤e6 ¥xe6 15.dxe6 d5 is fine for Black; White’s main moves are 13.¥e3!? and 13.¤e6!? - the latter has been played in several games between the same players. Radjabov is clearly leading 3–1 on that territory.13...h6 14.¤e6 ¥xe6 15.dxe6 fxe4 16.fxe4 ¤c6 17.¤d5 ¤g8It’s too early for 17...¤d4? 18.e7 while 17...¤xe4? 18.£d3 ¤f6 19.£xg6 ¤xd5 20.¥xh6! simply looks bad for Black.18.¥d3 ¤d4 19.£g4 g5Black has no time to kick the ¤ back: 19...c6? 20.£xg6 cxd5 21.exd5 ¤f6 22.¥xh6.20.h4!A logical improvement on 20.£h3 c6 21.¤e3 £f6 22.¤g4 £e7 23.¥e3 ¤xe6 where Black had the slightly better chances, Ponomariov-Radjabov, Wijk aan Zee 2003.20...¤f620...c6? 21.hxg5 cxd5 22.exd5 wins for White.21.£g3

(diagram)

21...gxh4?21...¤xe6! was necessary, when 22.hxg5 ¤xd5 (22...hxg5? 23.£h3+; 22...¤xg5?! 23.¥xg5 hxg5 24.£xg5±) 23.gxh6 (23. exd5 ¤xg5) 23...¤df4 24.hxg7+ ¤xg7 25.£h2+ ¢g8 26.¥xf4 ¦xf4 27.c5 ¦h4 28.£g3 £f6 gives Black equal

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chances. 21...¤h5? is no serious option, since after 22.£h2 Black can not deal with White’s main threats 22.e7 and 22.hxg5. But the question remains: who wants to play the King’s Indian to have to defend accurately?22.£xh4Trying to keep the strong pawn on e6 with 22.£h3 is not as strong as it looks, because of 22...¤g8 controlling e7 and preparing c6. 22...¤xe6 23.¥xh6 ¢g8?!Better was 23...¤h7 24.£xd8 ¦axd8 25.¥e3 but White remains with a pleasant edge.24.£h3!Forcing Black to take on h6.24...¥xh624...¤d4 25.¦e3; 24...¤f4 25.¤xf4 exf4 26.c5 bringing another piece into the attack; 24...£e8 is answered by 25.¦f1.25.£xh6 c6 26.¦e3! A nasty rook swing. 26...¢f726...cxd5 27.exd5 ¤g7 28.¦g3 £e7 29.¥f5 ¦f7 30.¦f1 with a murdereous attack.27.¦f1!The most accurate move, not allowing any re-sistance.27...cxd5 28.exd5 ¢e7 29.dxe6 ¢xe6 30.¦ef3 a5 31.¥e4! 1–0Black is defenceless. To summarize, Black still seems to be OK theoretically speaking, but where are the times that Black was the one attacking on the kingside?

van wely - RADJABOV

ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 4, January 28, 2009

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Ruy Lopez, Anti-Marshall

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1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 a6 4.¥a4

¤f6 5.0–0 ¥e7 6.¦e1 b5 7.¥b3 0–0

8.h3 ¥b7 9.d3 d5 10.exd5 ¤xd5

11.¤xe5 ¤d4 12.¤c3 ¤b4 13.¤e4

¤xb3 14.axb3 £d5 15.¤f3

The Modern Anti-Marshall with 8.h3 is increasingly often met by the persisent Marshall move 9...d5!?. Maybe Gupta was surprised by 13.¤e4, but in any case his 14...£d5 seems to let some of the compensation slip away after which Nijboer slowly but surely converted his extra pawn. More tests are needed at this cutting edge of opening theory.

Caro-Kann main line

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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.¤c3 dxe4 4.¤xe4

¥f5 5.¤g3 ¥g6 6.h4 h6 7.¤f3 ¤d7

8.h5 ¥h7 9.¥d3 ¥xd3 10.£xd3 e6

11.¥d2 ¤gf6 12.0–0–0 ¥e7 13.¦he1

0–0 14.£e2 a5

In the Caro-Kann main line, 11.¥d2 is currently favoured over 11.¥f4 and at move 14 Black has to make a major decision. Was Morozevich afraid to follow 14...c5 15.¤f5 cxd4 16.¤3xd4 ¥c5 17.¤xh6+ like in Gashimov-Jakovenko, Elista 2008? A safe alternative seems to be 14...¦e8 followed by £b6. In the game the Russian lost quickly after an incorrect piece sacrifice.

Sicilian Najdorf, 6.¥e3

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1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4

¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥e3 e5 7.¤b3 ¥e6

8.£d2 ¤bd7 9.f3 b5 10.0–0–0 ¦c8

11.g4 ¤b6 12.g5 b4 13.¤a4

White's last move is a serious im-provement over 13.¤b1 which was played in Leko-Morozevich, Asrian Memorial 2008. Since Dominguez and Leko are working together we presume that this new move is se-riously home-studied and more or less the refutation of Black's setup connected with 10...¦c8. A fine performance by the Cuban GM, who showed excellent tech-nique in converting his advantage.

Semi-Slav, Anti-Moscow

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.¤c3 ¤f6 4.¤f3 e6

5.¥g5 h6 6.¥h4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.¥g3 b5

9.¤e5 h5 10.h4 g4 11.¥e2 b4

With his last move 11...b4, Black is trying to punish White for the slightly unusual move-order, whereas 11...¤bd7 would have been a transposition to the main lines. After the text, l'Ami reached an ending where he had not enough compensation for his pawn. Instead of 13.¥f4, the critical move seems to be 13.0–0 leading to an unbalanced game with chances for both sides.

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: € 18 for six months / € 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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ChessVibes OPENINGS what’s hot and what’s not? No. 4, January 28, 2009

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this week’s harvest

opening expert Who: Wang YueBorn: March 31, 1987Nationality: ChinaRating: 2731

Expertise: Very solid Black repertoire, combining the Petroff and the Berlin WallWhy: Comfortable with reaching endings out of the opening

In 2008 the young Chinese GM made a big step forward in his career and almost entered the world’s top ten. His game against Morozevich perfectly shows the strength of Wang Yue: obtaining a small edge after the opening, little by little improving his position and transforming his advantage into something concrete. Similar technique was shown in his last round win during the Turin Olympiad 2006, against Van Wely.

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