Download PGN of October ’24 1 e4 e5 games
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Petroff Defence 3.Nxe5 Nxe4!? [C42]
First we consider the somewhat trendy Damiano Petroff, which definitely isn’t as bad as it perhaps should be. Following 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 dxe5 7.dxe5 Nc6, the game Assaubayeva, B - Dronavalli, H saw 8.Bf4 g5! 9.Bd2 f5 10.Qe2:
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Here Black should have prepared for queenside castling immediately with 10...Be6, whilst after 10...Bg7? a topsy-turvy game followed where both sides squandered large advantages and eventually Bibisara came out on top.
Instead the most critical try for White is returning the pawn with 8.Nc3 Qxe5 9.Qxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4, when Aronian, L - Bu, X saw the rare 10...f6!? 11.0-0-0 Bd7:
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Here 12.Nb5! will leave Black defending some version of an unpleasant ending, whilst after 12.Bb5?! c6 Black was completely fine and made a comfortable draw. In general a draw can be the limit of Black’s ambitions in this variation, but this game shows how it can be a good lower-theory alternative to the main Petroff if Black is well-prepared.
Giuoco Piano 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.Nbd2 a6 7.Bb3 [C54]
Next we see a plan which I think was new to me in this Giuoco Piano positions, of Black preparing to castle queenside against this Bb3 line. Following 7...Ba7 8.h3 Qe7!?:
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Black swiftly followed up with 9.Nf1 Bd7 10.Be3 0-0-0!? and won a nice game en route to her board 2 gold medal in Van Foreest, M - Yip, C, although more practical tests are needed to see whose position is easier to play here.
Giuoco Piano: 5.0-0 d6 6.c3 h6 [C54]
Again we see a slightly unusual treatment of a Giuoco Piano line in Korobov, A - Robson, R. Following the space-grabbing 7.b4 Bb6 8.a4 a5 9.b5 Ne7 10.Be3:
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Here I’m not a fan of Robson’s 10...Bxe3, giving White a nice setup with Bb3/c4/Nc3 after recapturing. Instead my recommendation would be 10...Ng6 and only meeting 11.Nbd2 with Bxe3! now that this aforementioned setup is ruled out.
Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.Bg5 [C54]
Onto the main body of this month’s update, which includes four games from this topical variation. First let’s consider the position after 6...h6 7.Bh4 a5!? 8.Nbd2 Ba7 9.a3!? g5 10.Bg3 which can arise after several move orders, but Black seemed to be favouring this ...a5 plan recently from the games that I saw. Firstly we have the typical trick 10...Nh5? 11.Nxe5! of Gukesh, D - Suleymanli, A:
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The tactics simply all work out for White here, with 11...Nxg3 12.Bxf7+ Kf8 13.Ng6+ Kg7?! 14.fxg3! making matters even worse for Black as he went down against the World Championship Challenger.
Instead 10...Qe7! is better, when after 11.0-0 we first see 11...Bd7!? 12.b4 0-0-0 13.b5 Nb8 14.d4 in Kadric, D - Yilmaz, M:
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Here 14...Nh5? fell to a similar tactical trick again after 15.Bxe5! dxe5 16.Nxe5 with a significant advantage for White. Instead however 14...Bg4! preparing ...Nbd7 to reactivate this knight seems completely acceptable for Black and the position remains very complicated.
Instead another crucial game in the Uzbekistan-China matchup saw 11...Bg4!? 12.h3 Bh5 13.Bb5 0-0 14.Re1 Nd8! 15.d4 Ne6:
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Here we get a slightly more stable position with castling on the same side, but it was White who didn’t manage to show the precision needed to hold the balance in Sindarov, J - Yu, Y.
Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 a5 6.Bg5 [C54]
Finally a slightly different approach for White to the same positions was seen after 6...d6 7.Nbd2 h6 8.Bh4 Ba7 9.a4!? g5 10.Bg3 0-0:
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The pawn on a4 may have lost White some chances of b4 breaks but Black’s perhaps slightly premature last move allowed White to focus on the kingside with 11.h4! g4 12.Nh2 in Anton Guijarro, D - Blomqvist, E. A complex game ensued where White ended up castling queenside and came out on top in the complications.
See you next month, Harry
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