Download PGN of July ’25 Flank Openings games
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Réti Opening, Reversed Benoni [A09]
Last October David looked at the move 7...Nd7 in Daneshvar, B - Erigaisi, A, and in the recent World Rapid Teams Erigaisi tried it again, but this time his opponent had prepared a sharp novelty, 8 b4!?:
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I like this idea, and in Gelfand, B - Erigaisi, A Boris obtained a good position but then messed it up with one careless move (these things can happen in rapid games, of course). However, he soon came right back into the game when he sacrificed his king's rook twice on the same f6 square.
Réti Opening 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 d4 3 b4 f6 [A09]
I have been wanting to look at this critical line for quite a while, as David last covered it nearly 6 years ago. Fortunately, Anton Guijarro, D - Duda, J from the World Rapid Teams featured one of the key lines, 4 e3 e5 5 c5 a5 6 Qa4+ Qd7 7 Bb5 c6 8 Bc4:
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Black is close to equality if he knows what he is doing, but it is tough to remember all the complicated lines, as demonstrated in this game where Black soon went astray and was crushed!
Réti Opening 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 d4 3 b4 c5 4 a3 [A09]
We have already looked at a lot of more popular 4th moves here in the past. 4 a3 is rare, but perfectly logical and something of a speciality of Anton Guijarro. In reply, in Anton Guijarro, D - Sevian, S, his opponent played a Stockfish suggestion, the sensible novelty 4...Nd7 and after 5 g3 e5:
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This is fine, but soon Black was tempted into grabbing the b4 pawn, Benko-style and this quickly gave White a big endgame advantage.
Just one day later this novelty was tried again and the players reached the following position with White to move:
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Can you guess the next two (odd but strong) symmetrical moves?
Anti-QGD System 4...Bd6, 6...Nc6 [A17]
David looked at the position after 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 d5 4 e3 Bd6 5 b3 0-0 6 Bb2 Nc6 7 a3 last March, where Gajewski played the interesting pawn sacrifice 7...d4!? In Muradli, M - Movahed, S Black preferred the preparatory 7...Re8 and only after 8 Qc2 d4!:
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This novelty seems very strong and Black was soon on top, winning a nice game.
King’s English, 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 h6 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 e4 [A20]
Following 7 h3 in Moussard, J - Pranesh, M Black played the novelty 7...a6, followed by 8 d3 b5, immediately countering on the queenside:
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The game then took an unexpected and exciting turn, Black opening the kingside then offering a piece to castle queenside. White was winning, but accepting the piece only led to a draw, and then not accepting a second piece actually led to a loss! Spectacular stuff!
I enjoy playing Botvinnik structures in general, and this is a line in which it seems I have scored 100%, so there is a little nostalgia trip for me in the notes!
King’s English, Four Knights 4 g3 e4 [A29]
I was taken aback in a recent blitz game when my opponent played the apparently ridiculous 4 e4!? 5 Ng5 Ng4!?:
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Following 6 Ngxe4 f5 the e4 knight is attacked and has nowhere to run. How should White handle this? I actually had to go all the way back to 2011 to find the refutation, which is far from obvious. Don't miss Kiltti, J - Sulskis, S.
I also take a look at 5...d5!? in the notes, which might also be worth a punt in a blitz game.
Symmetrical English 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4 h5 [A38]
Subscriber Klaus emailed me with an interesting question: «Recently, after the opening moves 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4, my opponent played 7...h5!? against me. I didn't know this move, overlooked a tactical trick and quickly lost.
Later I saw that Javokhir Sindarov has recently played 7...h5 several times and with good success even against very strong opponents; Magnus Carlsen didn't manage more than a draw against him either. Rudik Makarian was even more successful than Sindarov with 7...h5. And of the games in MegaBase 2025 in which 7...h5 was played, White didn't even score 40%»
Indeed, 7...h5 is a good move, White's knight no longer controls the h4 square so ...h5-h4 is a real threat, how should White react?
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First, as Klaus mentions, both Sindarov and Makarian play this line successfully as Black so it seemed logical to pick the game Makarian, R - Sindarov, J to examine White's most common, and possibly best, reply 8 h3:
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In Sydoryka, V - Sindarov, J, from this May, we will cover 8 h4 and the other replies. In this game Black unleashes a surprising but strong novelty on move 9, gets a good position, but then gets into trouble before coordinating his pieces and turning things around.
One important point to note is that White can avoid all this by playing the mainline 6 0-0 and only after 6...0-0 then 7 d4.
Until next month, Tony.
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