Download PGN of January '15 Flank Openings games
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The Van Geet (or Dunst Opening) 1...c5 [A00]
1 Nc3 is a tricky little move. Many can sensibly counter with 1...d5, but if you prefer 1...c5 or 1...e5, be careful and know your stuff! After 1...c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 we reach a position not really covered on ChessPub before. Unfortunately for Taimanov players, 4...e6?! cannot be recommended in view of 5 Ndb5!:
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The problem is 5...d6 6 Bf4 e5 7 Nd5!, as we'll see in Ibarra Jerez-Sanchez Dengra.
The Van Geet 1...d5 2 e4 [A00]
A very sensible approach after 1 Nc3 is 1...d5 2 e4 and then 2...dxe4 3 Nxe4 followed by 3...Nd7 or even 3...Qd5!? if you're a Scandinavian player. More ambitious and also quite reasonable is 2...d4 3 Nce2 e5:
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Here White can't easily make good use of his f-pawn, but neither is 4 Nf3 Bd6 5 Ng3 Be6 an amazing reversed Tango for him with Bc4 ruled out. We'll check out the type of manoeuvring game which tends to ensue in Genocchio - Altini, which ended with an impressive stalemate construct.
The Nimzo-Larsen Attack 1 b3 g6!? 2 Bb2 Nf6 [A01]
Ever since seeing, in David Norwood's classic book on the Modern, that Black can get away with 1 b3 g6!? 2 Bb2 Nf6, I've dabbled in the move. Even for non-Modern players the line isn't so hard to learn and might suit the creative type if you've nothing in store for the vaguely trendy 1 b3.
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Vladimir Kramnik recently played this way as Black and there certainly isn't anything to fear after 3 e4 or 3 g4 Bg7 (3...h6!? is also quite reasonable) 4 g5 Nh5, as we'll see in Safarli - Mamedov.
Bird's Opening, reversed Leningrad 7 Qe1 [A03]
1 f4 was seen twice in the Russian Superfinal at the end of last year. Svidler - Jakovenko was a pure reversed Leningrad after 1...d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 g3 g6 4 Bg2 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0 6 d3 c5 7 Qe1 Nc6:
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It's long been known that 8 e4 dxe4 9 dxe4 e5! is an easy equaliser, so Svidler tried a slower approach with 8 h3!?, but never really got anywhere against Jakovenko's ultra-solid play.
Réti Opening 3 b3 Be7 4 Bb2 Bf6 [A13]
The line 1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 e6 3 b3 Be7 4 Bb2 Bf6 always looked a bit wrong to me, although when I've had this line as White I can't ever remember getting any advantage! So, I was intrigued by the game Kramnik - Shyam which continued with 5 Nc3 dxc4 6 bxc4 c5 and this was met by the sharp thrust 7 g4!?:
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Black played pretty well and managed to hold on against the ex-World Champ, although he needed a little bit of luck.
Two things to look out for here: firstly, when analysing this I realised that White has a route to an advantage after the normal 7 g3, and secondly, don't miss Kramnik's 11th move!
Réti Mainline with ...c5 and ...dxc4 [A14]
Kramnik - Mista reached the following standard, and very solid theoretical position:
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Here Kramnik played the interesting 16 Ba1 followed by 17 Na4 and won with a brilliant attack. Don't miss this!
King's English Reversed Dragon 6 e3 [A22]
One highlight of the 2014 London Chess Classic was the match between Romain Edouard and Gawain Jones, sponsored by Brambles Administration Ltd. The English GM chose 1 c4 in all his white games and was allowed to employ one of his pet lines in the opening encounter, 1...e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 g3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Bg2 Nb6 6 e3!? Nc6 7 Nge2 Be7 8 0-0 0-0 9 f4:
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Here 9...f6 is very sensible and was once proposed on these pages by John Bartholomew. We'll take a look, including at the novelty 10 f5 a5 11 b3!? in Jones - Edouard.
Symmetric - Nimzovich's 5 e4 Nb4 6 Bc4 with 9 b4 [A34]
We've already looked at the position after 3...d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nb4 6 Bc4 Nd3+ 7 Ke2 Nf4+ 8 Kf1 Ne6 9 b4 g6 10 bxc5 Bg7 a few times on this site:
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However, we'd only previously considered the most popular line, 11 Bxe6 Bxe6 12 d4, which is probably OK for Black. Instead, in Jakovenko - Nepomniachtchi, White didn't worry about the d4-square and simply hung on to the c5-pawn with 11 Ba3!. After thoroughly analysing line this I think it is the strongest, and offers White good chances of an advantage.
Till next time, Tony.
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