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This December update covers recent developments in the classical Slav Defence. Some important discoveries have been made recently and theory is developing rapidly. Just a couple of months ago Magnus Carlsen, playing white, was caught in a deep line by Wang Yue, who came up with a clever improvement, but it seems that Abhijeet Gupta has already found a better way for White during the recently finished World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. A nice technical victory (and a surprising novelty on move 22!) by Shakriyar Mamedyarov, again over Wang Yue in the same World Cup, and in the same Morozevich variation, should not be missed, as well as other interesting encounters.

Download PGN of December '09 1 d4 d5 games


Mainline Slav [D17]

Firstly, two of the Mainline Slav ChessPub Guides have become huge so please note that I have divided them into two ChessPub Guides each.

Eljanov - Giri: Pavel Eljanov came up with an energetic pawn sacrifice and even the exchange of queens couldn't extinguish his initiative. However, Black could have defended better and the discussion in this rare opening line will be continued...

Ruck - Perunovic: Milos Perunovich confidently defended a position which was supposed to be suspicious for Black. It seems that White has got something to think about...

Giri - Cuijpers: Anish Giri's choice 10.Nxd7 is recently not White's most popular option but perhaps it is just underestimated:

By a series of energetic moves White achieved a certain advantage but then he got over-enthusiastic and only escaped with the full point thanks to his opponent's inaccuracies.

Tregubov - Akobian: Pavel Tregubov introduced an interesting innovation, 16.b5:

and this helped him to secure the advantage in an ending in which White had not shown anything really promising up till now...

Gupta - Negi: Parimarjan Negi defended one of the critical positions without any serious problems. White got both his major pieces to the 8th rank but it only led to a perpetual...

Mamedyarov - Wang Hao: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov treated the same position which we have just considered, in the game Gupta - Negi/Kolkata 2009, rather slowly. Instead of trying to immediately get some benefit he retreated both his knights, and even placed one of them on the edge of the board, but it helped him to secure a small advantage! The position remained defendable for Black but one serious inaccuracy was sufficient for Mamedyarov to eliminate his opponent with surgical precision.

Carlsen - Wang Yue: It is very rare to see Magnus Carlsen getting caught in the opening. Wang Yue came up with a clever improvement - he "forgot" to include the exchange of pawns, and instead played the immediate 20...h5!:

but this small "omission" seriously limited White's attacking chances and gave Black a strong initiative. Nevertheless, under such unfavourable circumstances Carlsen found the best chance to keep the position complicated and then step by step turned things in his favour.

Gupta - Vitiugov: Abhijeet Gupta introduced a logical improvement over the previously considered game, Carlsen - Wang Yue/Nanjing 2009. Since thematic pawn push b2-b4 is one of White's main trumps to bother his opponent's king on the Q-side he immediately put his rook on b1 - not on c1 as many players did before. Strangely enough, this straightforward approach gave White the better chances, which he rather unfortunately spoiled very soon. However, Black has certainly got work to do here ...



See you next month, Ruslan

 

If you have any questions, then please post a message at the 1 d4 d5 Forum, or subscribers can email me at ruslan@chesspublishing.com.