Download PGN of July '13 1 d4 d5 games
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The Slow Slav 4.e3 Bf5 [D10]
Stefanova - Girya: The development of White's knight to c3 was usually good enough to stop Black's light-squared bishop's lunge to f5. However, Black recently introduced an interesting gambit trying to prove it's possible in any case!
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This approach gives him decent compensation for the pawn and, despite White's success in this game, it certainly deserves more practical tests...
Exchange Slav 6...a6 [D10]
Melkumyan - Balogh: The Exchange Slav was always known to be rather harmless for Black but, rather surprisingly, its popularity is growing at the GM level these days. White players are happy to maintain a slight pressure without any risk of losing the game, while being ready to punish any opposing inaccuracies. Black's quick disaster in this game was fairly unexpected and it seems that he should not hurry with the exchange of his light-squared bishop here:
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6...Bg4 [D10]
Romanov - Eljanov: Black came up with a well-planned approach and quickly seized the initiative thanks to his opponent's omission, though later he went astray just one step before total triumph.
Main Slav 5...Bf5 6.Ne5 Na6!? [D17]
Rodshtein - Nabaty: Black's relatively rare approach - a combination of ...Bc8-f5 and ...Nb8-a6 - is recently gaining popularity and bringing him excellent results!
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Here White quickly found himself in trouble and survived only by a miracle.
Slav Triangle 4.Qc2 [D30]
Landa - Yudin: Here White used his rook in a rather unusual role - he placed it en prise in order to mechanically prevent Black's thematic c-pawn push:
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It actually helped him to obtain the advantage but the opening approach still does not look that promising.
QGD 5.Bf4, 6.a3 [D37]
Moiseenko - Predke: White's brutal plan eventually brought him success
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but it still looks too creative...
Botvinnik Variation 11.g3 Rg8 [D44]
Edouard - Brunner: Black came up with a clever novelty on move 18:
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but the whole line still looks fairly suspicious.
Till next month, Ruslan
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If you have any questions, then please post a message at the 1 d4 d5 Forum, or subscribers can email me at ruslan@chesspublishing.com.