Download PGN of June ’25 Daring Defences games
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English Defence: 3 e4 Bb7 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Bd3 f5 [A40]
1 d4 e6 2 c4 b6 continues to remain a decent fighting choice for Black, with unsurprisingly one of the main lines still being 3 e4 Bb7 4 Nc3 Bb4. After 5 Bd3 f5 we’ve tended to focus on 6 Qe2 and 6 Qh5+ g6 7 Qe2 on the site before, but 6 Nge2!? fxe4 7 Bc2 Nf6 8 0-0 has been championed of late by Boris Gelfand:
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As such, we must take notice and here Black is best advised not to hang on to the extra pawn, as we’ll see in Gelfand, B - Nihal, S, which was a hard fight in which Black eventually prevailed thanks to a small tactic in the endgame.
English Defence: 3 a3 Bb7 4 Nc3 f5 5 d5 [A40]
Another critical test of 1 d4 e6 2 c4 b6 is 3 a3 Bb7 4 Nc3 f5 5 d5 Nf6 6 g3 Bd6 7 Bg2 0-0 8 Nf3 (8 Nh3 is another important line) 8...Na6 9 0-0 Nc5 10 Nd4.:
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Black has tried a few moves in this tabiya, as we’ll see in the notes to Kozusek, D - Harsha, B, where 10...a5!? was logical enough.
Leningrad Dutch Defence: 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0 6 Re1 d6 7 Nc3 [A81]
Via 1 g3 f5 2 Bg2 Nf6 and then 3 d4 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0 a Leningrad arose in Gledura, B - Shabalov, A, where 6 Re1!? d6 7 Nc3 saw White doing away with c2-c4 to focus on that key pawn break, e2-e4:
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Black has a few options here, of which 7...d5 looks the most sensible and 7...Nc6!? might have been OK in the game had Black then met 8 e4 with 8...e5!.
Leningrad Dutch: 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0 6 c4 d6 7 Nc3 c6 8 Qc2 [A88]
Somewhat more mainstream is 1 d4 f5 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nf3 g6 4 g3 Bg7 5 Bg2 0-0 6 0-0 d6 7 Nc3 c6 when 8 Qc2 has seen a bit of recent attention. After 8...Na6! 9 a3!? Black must decide how to best to support ...e5.
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I suspect that 9...Qe8 is best, since 9...Qc7?! feels a little slow and might allow 10 b4, which White rejected before getting destroyed on the kingside in Di Benedetto, G - Moussard, J.
Dutch Stonewall: 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 e6 4 Nf3 d5 5 c4 c6 6 0-0 Bd6 7 Nc3 0-0 [A90]
After 1 d4 f5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 c4 e6 4 g3 d5 5 Bg2 it was very interesting to see the world no.1 opting for 5...Bd6 6 0-0 0-0 in Ehlvest, J - Carlsen, M, holding back on ...c6. Admittedly 7 Nc3 c6 did then become a main line, one where we haven’t previously given too much coverage to the thematic 8 Bf4:
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The latest engines approve of 8...Bxf4 9 gxf4 here, if not so much Carlsen’s 9...Bd7, heading for e8 and Black’s light-squared bishop would later play a key role in another pretty instructive positional encounter.
Exchange Grünfeld: 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Bd2 c5 [D85]
After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Bd2 it took a long time for 5...c5!? to become established, but the move most definitely now has been. One critical line runs 6 e4 Nxc3 7 Bxc3 cxd4 8 Bxd4 e5! 9 Bxe5 Bb4+ 10 Bc3 Bxc3 11 bxc3 Qa5:
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Black’s easy development and queenside pressure would appear to grant him enough for the pawn, as we’ll see in Vitiugov, N - Vachier-Lagrave, M.
Exchange Grünfeld: 7 Bc4 c5 8 Ne2 0-0 9 0-0 Nc6 10 Be3 b6 [D87]
After 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 an even more important line, of course, runs 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Bc4 0-0 8 Ne2 c5 9 0-0 Nc6 10 Be3 when 10...b6 remains quite popular, as then does 11 h4!?:
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Here 11...e6 still looks best, with the idea of 12 h5 Qh4, whereas after 11...Qc7?! Black was quickly unpleasantly worse in Balaji, A - Rudd, J, eventually losing a topsy-turvy but far from uninstructive encounter.
Will Simon cover the Dutch once again next time? Do enjoy it when he does! Richard
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