Nov '99 Update
Grünfeld-
with Guest GM Nigel Davies
With the Grünfeld's sharp and highly theoretical reputation it's easy to imagine that playing the Grünfeld is akin to an arms race in which the latest earth-shattering 'theoretical novelty' is what decides matters. The reality is quite different.
Most jobbing Grünfeld players tend to have certain systems of development that they gradually nurture and perfect over a period of time. Individual names that spring to mind in this context are Dvoirys and Kudrin, but there are also clubs and even countries which specialise in their own lines and churn out scary joint analysis. The super-strong Beersheeva club in Israel is a good example; everyone in town is playing it and Beersheeva's Grünfeld toting Mikhalevsky brothers plus Mark Tseitlin, Boris Avrukh and Alon Greefeld scare many confirmed 1.d4 players into backing down with 1.c4 or 1.Nf3.
Players such as Kudrin and Dvoirys are well worth watching. They aren't highly rated enough for their lines to catch on but have developed many of their own ideas that aren't considered in the books. If you don't want to spend your life studying the Rb1 Grünfeld then Kudrin's patented 12…e6 is very interesting, see DD166. Especially if you're unwilling to spend your life boning up on 9...cxd4 10.cxd4 Qa5+ 11.Bd2.
5 Bg5 is the kind of move you'll see from the kind of White players who like to smoke a pipe - they want to have a nice, stress-free life without getting too rattled by Black's upsetting Grünfeldian counter-play. In the main line White does indeed manage to quieten things down a bit and reach positions similar to those arising from a Queen's Gambit Declined. Yet White's automatic plan of a minority attack on the queenside can be thwarted and neutralised if Black knows what he's doing. In DD167 we see the Russian GM Neverov churning out the fruit of his home study. Neverov plays the fairly common 9...a5 and then follows it up with his own little twist of a …Re8 and …Bf8. The Bishop is en route for d6; restraining b2-b4 and menacing White's kingside.
People have been playing the Bf4 lines against Israeli Avrukh, though it's difficult to understand why. He has notched up an impressive score with Black and shown the right way to play in a couple of key lines. In DD168 he shows that 14…a5 is nothing for White. This line is out of business unless White wants a draw.
It would be interesting to know exactly what the majority of one's readership out there really thinks or wants from this website. I have openly admitted to operating on the assumption that besides clear explanation behind the bewildering proliferation of opening theory, the prevailing mood is that one also wants to avoid the theoretical rat race. I assume this to be true because, though there are players whose hobby is being booked to the gills, there is a natural inclination to want to be practical, cut down the workload, and just try and play the game. Some may call this laziness, others pragmatism. Being indecisive, I can't help thinking that both are accurate.
Anyway, I hope that I will be getting more feedback as time goes on, and a better idea of what people want. At any rate, I'll be shocked if this collection of openings goes all topical at the same time. But if enough people want to find a hiding place from the mainstream, even the backwaters get crowded. On to the month's news...
Dutch (JT)
Leningrad
The Dutch was the surprising winner in the theoretical sweepstakes. Not only were there many games played, but there were some very instructive ones, and even the contours of some rather surprising patterns. DD195 shows one of Black's absolutely most disgusting systems was both reasonably popular, and successful. By this I mean the Leningrad with …Nc6 and …Ne5, where black gets a hideous pawn structure and makes it easier for White to attack on the queenside, in return for very vague attacking chances on the other flank. A theoretical advance for black is seen in DD191, where the favourite ran into unexpected trouble. And an unprepared Cvitan got nowhere in a hurry against a seriously outrated adversary.
But before you start running to check out the possible delights of this neglected line, you should have something prepared for the acid test, which was seen in DD196. Black has almost never scored against 14.Na4 in this line, and here he had no money to produce when asked to put his cash where his cakehole is. If you do have a way to keep black afloat in this line, then I expect to be seeing your games here soon.
In the normal Leningrad, Vietnamese talent Dao Thien Hai did a nice job on Chinese wunderkind Bu Xiangzhi with a simple and restrained plan against a line that is perhaps "too natural" for White, see DD188. Sometimes straightforward is not enough.
Another natural game occurred in the line which I have advocated as a fertile field for the non-theoretically minded, an early b2-b4 against the Leningrad. Beliavsky counters with the very obvious …a5, but white managed to keep a small advantage for quite a while, see DD194.
Stonewall
due to the opening's nature, one is naturally drawn to rather drastic examples of successful strategies. There are several games with drastically weakened dark squares for black (the textbook reason why the Stonewall is supposed to reek) and the classical tune of …Bc8-d7-e8 and around is getting a lot of airplay. I am a firm believer in the …b6 type Stonewalls, but am prepared to admire those who can get the light squared bishop working elsewhere. Of special note are DD189 and DD192. They are extremely similar strategically, but in the former, white's incredibly straightforward (one is tempted to say naïve, but that is risky when it works so well) play met with success, largely because Black's bishop on d7 prevented black from arranging counterplay a la Driamin.
Rogers does a very nice job of outclassing a Stonewaller in every way, even using Black's attacking gestures against him. The educational value of DD197 lies in the Australian GM's delicate handling of exchanges. He trades enough pieces to highlight the weaknesses in the Black camp, and very deliberately avoids swaps that would rob his position of dynamism.
DD187 is a nice example of why very few people dare to play the Stonewall before White has committed himself to playing g3 or e3. White having a easy access to those good old weakened dark squares can really be annoying, even if you are a true believer in the defence's merits.
Offbeat Lines
In the offbeat lines, Danish IM Bjarke Kristensen found a new way to play a very unusual line for black with energy and imagination, see DD179.
In the Anti-Stonewall, an early g4 line led to a lovely upset by Nadanian over Lputian in a game featuring a positional piece sacrifice. This game also features a daring novelty that commits white to a violent course of action, and his bravery was rewarded.