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Fianchetto Variation Panno System [E63]
The Panno continues to be popular. In the line with 8.h3 Rb8 9.e4 b5 10.cxb5 (10.e5 is the main continuation) 10...axb5 11.Re1:
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The young American star Daniel Naroditsky faced this line three times against strong opposition and in each game he played 11...e5!?, scoring 2/3. See Cabrera - Naroditsky.
Another somewhat obscure line in the Panno is 8.Re1 Rb8 9.Rb1. In Adly - Wang Hao. The Chinese Grandmaster comes well prepared for this game and plays a novelty with the flexible 14...e6! which looks quite good.
Classical Mainline 8.e4 9.h3 Qa5 [E69]
In the Classical variation with ...Qa5 White scores a smooth victory against the funny 12...Be6 in Delchev - Almeida Quintana:
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I can see the appeal in this idea for Black, but classical principles should indicate that White is better.
Classical - Gligoric Variation 7...exd4 [E92]
The Indian Grandmaster Sasikiran has won a couple of recent games with his pet line 7.Be3 exd4 8.Nxd4 Re8 9.f3 c6 10.Bf2 d5 11.exd5 cxd5 12.0-0 Nc6 13.c5 Re5:
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However, in Onischuk - Sasikiran White plays 14.Bb5!? and the Indian Grandmaster finds himself in big trouble when he send his rook on a mistaken adventure.
7.0-0 exd4 [E94]
Ponomariov tries 7...exd4 8.Nxd4 Re8 9.f3 c6 10.Kh1 Nbd7 against Kramnik and it works to a certain degree. In Kramnik - Ponomariov White plays 11.Be3 which is rather unusual. Black missed some chances, but it still looks like White can aspire to an advantage.
Delayed Exchange Variation 7...Nc6 8.dxe5 [E97]
In Dortmund Ponomariov reaped a full revenge on Nakamura after suffering a defeat in their St. Louis match. Here he won both games, and he took on the King's Indian with the rare 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Bg5:
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This 'delayed exchange variation' is not completely harmless. Here it proves to be well founded, psychologically at least. See Ponomariov - Nakamura.
Bayonet Attack 9.b4 [E97]
The final round of Dortmund saw a complete turn of events between Kramnik, who dominated the event and Nakamura, who had struggled. In Kramnik - Nakamura the leader went for the seldom seen 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.c5 and followed up with the even less common 10...Nf4 11.a4!? Perhaps White had a tiny edge when he went for a speculative piece sacrifice.
9.Ne1 Main line [E99]
In a battle of young stars, Shankland - Nyzhnyk, we revisit the critical 15.Nb5 via a slightly unusual, but perhaps very accurate move order. After 15...Rf7 16.Ba5 b6 17.cxd6 cxd6 the American goes for the relatively uncommon 18.Bb4:
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Instead 18.Be1 is more popular. Still, the game shows that 18...Bf8 19.Rc6! is hardly easy for Black. I expect we will see this again in the near future.
Until next month, David
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