No.

4, January 28, 2009

OPENINGS

whats hot and whats not?

Radjabovs Kings
Indian put to the test
By IM Merijn van Delft & IM Robert Ris

The Kings 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.

whats hot?

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+lwq-tr-mk0
9zppzp-sn-vlp0
9-+-zp-snp+0
9+-+PzppsN-0
9-zPP+P+-+0
9+-sN-+P+-0
9P+-+L+PzP0
9tR-vLQtR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy
Frequency

Score

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 SoGupta (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.

Source: Megabase + TWIC, 2500+ only

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 Movsesians Scheveninger (we are waiting for the good old Keres Attack!).

whats Not?
1 of 3

ChessVibes OPENINGS whats hot and whats not?

No. 4, January 28, 2009

The KID suffers yet another Bayonet blow

In our 0-issue we already mentioned Teimour Radjabov as the greatest expert on the Kings
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, 2009
E97: Kings Indian, Bayonet (9.b4), 13.b1
1.d4 f6 2.c4 g6 3.c3 g7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 00
6.e2 e5 7.00 c6 8.d5 e7 9.b4 h5
Two 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.e1
Last 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.f3
12.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 feature of the position is White controlling the long
a1h8 diagonal instead of Black!
12...h8
(diagram)
13.b1!?
The is not doing anything special here, but just
goes out of the a1h8 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

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+lwq-tr-mk0
9zppzp-sn-vlp0
9-+-zp-snp+0
9+-+PzppsN-0
9-zPP+P+-+0
9+-sN-+P+-0
9P+-+L+PzP0
9tR-vLQtR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+-wq-tr-mk0
9zppzp-+-vl-0
9-+-zpPsn-zp0
9+-+Nzp-zp-0
9-zPPsnP+-zP0
9+-+L+-wQ-0
9P+-+-+P+0
9+RvL-tR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

squares gave Black enough compensation in Carlsen-Ivanchuk, Foros 2008. 13.c5

h6 14.e6 xe6 15.dxe6 d5 is fine for Black;
Whites main moves are 13.e3!? and 13.e6!?
- the latter has been played in several games
between the same players. Radjabov is clearly
leading 31 on that territory.
13...h6 14.e6 xe6 15.dxe6 fxe4 16.fxe4
c6 17.d5 g8
Its 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 g5
Black 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, PonomariovRadjabov, Wijk aan Zee 2003.
20...f6
20...c6? 21.hxg5 cxd5 22.exd5 wins for White.
21.g3

chances. 21...h5? is no serious option, since

after 22.h2 Black can not deal with Whites
main threats 22.e7 and 22.hxg5. But the
question remains: who wants to play the Kings
Indian to have to defend accurately?
22.xh4
Trying 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...xh6
24...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...f7
26...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 resistance.
27...cxd5 28.exd5 e7 29.dxe6 xe6 30.ef3
a5 31.e4! 10
Black 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?

(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

van wely - RADJABOV

2 of 3

ChessVibes OPENINGS whats hot and whats not?

No. 4, January 28, 2009

this weeks harvest

Sicilian Najdorf, 6.e3

Ruy Lopez, Anti-Marshall

Caro-Kann main line

Semi-Slav, Anti-Moscow

XIIIIIIIIY
9-+rwqkvl-tr0
9+-+-+pzpp0
9psn-zplsn-+0
9+-+-zp-zP-0
9Nzp-+P+-+0
9+N+-vLP+-0
9PzPPwQ-+-zP0
9+-mKR+L+R0
xiiiiiiiiy

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+-+-trk+0
9+lzp-vlpzpp0
9p+-+-+-+0
9+p+q+-+-0
9-sn-+N+-+0
9+P+P+N+P0
9-zPP+-zPP+0
9tR-vLQtR-mK-0
xiiiiiiiiy

XIIIIIIIIY
9r+-wq-trk+0
9+p+nvlpzp-0
9-+p+psn-zp0
9zp-+-+-+P0
9-+-zP-+-+0
9+-+-+NsN-0
9PzPPvLQzPP+0
9+-mKRtR-+-0
xiiiiiiiiy

XIIIIIIIIY
9rsnlwqkvl-tr0
9zp-+-+p+-0
9-+p+psn-+0
9+-+-sN-+p0
9-zppzPP+pzP0
9+-sN-+-vL-0
9PzP-+LzPP+0
9tR-+QmK-+R0
xiiiiiiiiy

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 10.000 c8
11.g4 b6 12.g5 b4 13.a4

1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.a4

f6 5.00 e7 6.e1 b5 7.b3 00
8.h3 b7 9.d3 d5 10.exd5 xd5
11.xe5 d4 12.c3 b4 13.e4
xb3 14.axb3 d5 15.f3

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 12.000 e7 13.he1
00 14.e2 a5

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

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.

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.

White's last move is a serious improvement 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 seriously 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 technique in converting his advantage.

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 13.00 leading to an
unbalanced game with chances for
both sides.

opening expert
Who:
Born:
Nationality:
Rating:

Wang Yue
March 31, 1987
China
2731

Expertise:

Why:

Very solid Black repertoire,

combining the Petroff and the
Berlin Wall
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 worlds 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.

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:
18 for six months / 25 a year (thats less than 0.50 per issue!). More info can be found at www.chessvibes.com/openings.
2009 ChessVibes. Copyright exists in all original material published by ChessVibes. 1.Any copying or distribution (reproduction, via print, electronic format, or in any form whatsoever), as
well as posting on the web, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.

3 of 3