The Very Latest Developments
Welcome to the September 2002 Update!I played a couple of new lines for White (new for me, that is!) in a recent rapid tournament, and won easily both times, but my opponent's play was far from perfect, for instance 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 a3 a5?! 5 d4 when White has all the advantages of the 4 d4 system without the disadvantages, as Black cannot play ...Bb4 ! I had a few more letters this month, so don't forget to have a look at my E-mailbag. TonyK |
All this month's new games are easily downloaded in PGN format using ChessPub.exe, but to download the September '02 Flank Openings games directly in PGN form click here: 
English Opening
1...e5
[A28]: Following 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 e3 Bb4 5 Qc2 0-0 6 Nd5 Re8 7 Qf5 d6 8 Nxf6+ the move 8...Qxf6 seems to be favoured these last few years, but what about 8...gxf6 ?
                  
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There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this move, and in Kharlov,A - Korotylev,A Black even managed to get on top for a while.
1...c5
[A31]: Jean-Marc Degraeve is one of the strongest young French Grandmasters, and, with Igor Nataf, the most exciting. He revels in sharp chess and tactical complications, and so it was no surprise that when he faced Dorfman in the French Championships he would pick one of the very sharpest lines: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5 but the former Ukranian GM had an unusual idea prepared for his young opponent, see Dorfman,J - Degraeve,J.
[A34]: Do you remember the game OCT01/Rublevsky,S-Zhang Pengxiang from a year ago? The game was a crushing defeat for Rublevsky, but he obviously still believes in this line for White, as he repeated it in the game Rublevsky,S - Polgar,J, played in the Russia-ROW match.
1...Nf6 & others
[A10]: I have mostly examined 3 e4 against the English Defence, but, of course, 3 Nf3 is also an excellent move,
  
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and Black was decimated in Fridman,D - Mainka,G, but on closer examination it seems that he was fine from the opening.
[A17]: The sharp move 4 g4!? against the Nimzo-English had gone quiet recently, but it still has a nasty sting, witness White's 6 Rg1!?
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which led to an emphatic victory in Vaisser,A - Sokolov,A.
[A18]: Have you ever seen the move 3...Nc6!? against the Mikenas Attack?
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Well, I hadn't, but after the wonderful black demonstration in Azmaiparashvili,Z - Ivanchuk,V I expect we are more than likely to see it again!
[A18]: Again in the Mikenas, but this time with the mainline 3...d5, we considered 7...e5 in some depth last month, but 7...c5 is also a respectable line:
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see the game Bratanov,Z - Antonov,O for this.
Bird's
[A03]: By comparison with 2 Nc3 against the Dutch, the move (1 f4 d5 2 Nf3) 2...Nc6!? seems perfectly playable,
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and in the game Strain,H - Shulman,Y Black introduced a pawn sacrifice, followed by a sharp novelty at move four(!) with play reminiscent of From's Gambit, and a crushing win. This game is well-worth a look!
[A03]: In Vasiukov,E - Bykhovsky,A a Reversed Leningrad position led to a surprising piece sacrifice from White to lure the black queen away from the king's defence, and a quick victory, but on closer examination Black had two moves that would have defended the position.
e-mails
Don't forget to pop over to my September E-mailbag!
Please feel free to share any of your thoughts with me, whatever they are, suggestions, criticisms (just the polite ones, please), etc. Drop me a line at tonykosten@chesspublishing.com
Till next month, Tony K