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This update covers the recently finished Olympiad in Istanbul. This time there were not too many great discoveries, but some ideas certainly deserve attention.
You'll find three white victories from Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who enjoyed the best performance in the event, below. He came up with a number of surprising ideas in various openings and, although not all of them have been confirmed by later analysis, it helped to put a lot of pressure on his opponents and thus brought excellent results!

Download PGN of September '12 1 d4 d5 games

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Chebanenko System ...b7-b5 b2-b3 [D15]

Khenkin - Movsesian: Igor Khenkin came up with an aggressive and rather unusual approach here, 19.Kd2!?:

and eventually gained a tangible advantage...



Main Slav 5...Bf5 6.Nh4 [D17]

Omar - Tikkanen: Hans Tikkanen revived a line which seemed to be suspicious for Black, 11...h6:

and got a full point thanks to his opponent's inaccurate play.



Queen's Gambit Accepted [D23] (Slow Slav 4.Qb3 D11)

Mamedyarov - Wang: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov came up with a surprising novelty in a well-known position:

In this ending White sacrificed the exchange and eventually prevailed, though Black should be fine with precise play.

Nyback - Solak: Dragan Solak came up with an ambitious new set-up to challenge White's solid position. The early h-pawn push might be confusing for White but he should be able to obtain the advantage...



Queen's Gambit Declined 5.Bf4 [D37]

Kasimdzhanov - Topalov: Veselin Topalov found himself in a dull ending without counterplay surprisingly quickly:

It seems that the line he chose simply does not suit his style and this caused some inaccuracies, which eventually cost a lot.


Ragozin System ...h6 [D38]

Danielian - Kosintseva: Tatiana Kosintseva demonstrated some excellent home preparation and gained comfortable play in a line in which Black recently faced some problems.



Semi-Tarrasch Defence [D41]

Mamedyarov - Socko: Bartosz Socko almost equalized in a rare line but still failed to play the final precise move and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored another win for his team.



Moscow Variation 10.Qc2 [D43]

Amanov - Shirov: Alexey Shirov gained comfortable play in a complex line but in fact the whole series of moves had already been analysed on this site by John Bartholomew, who even came up with a more precise move at the end. Yet White still failed to hold the balance...



Botvinnik Variation 11...Rg8 [D44]

Radjabov - Saric: Teimour Radjabov demonstrated the way to give Black problems in a well-known line of the Botvinnik Variation:

It seems that Black is under real pressure here...



Anti-Meran [D45]

Mamedyarov - Brkic: Another Mamedyarov victory from the Olympiad. This time he surprised his opponent with a very rare line in which White sacrifices his queen, trying to get compensation thanks to his strong central passer:

Black should be okay and Ante Brkic even had a chance to obtain a real advantage, but the complexity of the position eventually told and he went astray under the pressure.



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.