Download PGN of October ’25 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games

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Main Slav Defence 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4, Sokolov’s 7...Nb6 [D17]

The first thing that caught my attention was the astonishing 8.g4!?:

which reminds me a bit of an Evans Gambit! It’s actually a very dangerous move which makes Richard Rapport’s defence against it even more impressive, see Mamedyarov, S - Rapport, R.

Main Slav Defence 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne3 [D17]

A less speculative option is 8.Ne3:

after which 8...e6 9.Nxf5 exf5 10.g3 a5 11.Bg2 was discussed in Aravindh, C - Murzin, V, and 11.Bh3 in Salem, S - Tabatabaei, M. These two moves can lead to similar position types unless White follows up 11.Bh3 with the dodgy 13.f3.

Main Slav Defence 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 a5 9.h4 [D17]

The line 8.Ne5 a5 9.h4 has previously been covered here by David Vigorito:

but there have been some new games and ideas for both sides. In Yakubboev, N - Maghsoodloo, P, White introduced the move 9...e6 10.f3 h6 11.e4 Bh7 12.Be3 Nfd7 13.Nxd7 Nxd7 14.Bc4 Bb4 15.Kf2, but it looked far from impressive despite White subsequently building (and losing) a winning position.

I agree with Vigorito that keeping the knight with 13.Nd3 seems more logical, given that White has a space advantage:

In Salem, S - Murzhin, V, Black varied from an earlier blitz game between these two with 13...Bd6 14.Rh3 and now 14...Nc4. Murzhin’s 15...e5 looks like a clear error, which makes me wonder how much home cooking was done. Salem in turn did not find the strong 16.Nc5!.

Korobov’s 13...Nc4 (Keymer, V - Korobov, A) might have been improvised to sidestep preparation, but Black might have had decent chances had he played for ...f7-f5 instead of ...b7-b5. In the end Keymer provided a superb demonstration of how to play White’s kingside attack in this line.

Main Slav Defence 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 a5 9.f3 [D17]

Moving on to 9.f3:

Sevian, S - Giri, A featured the line 9...Nfd7 10.e4 Nxe5 11.exf5 N5d7 12.d5 g6 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.Qd4 and now 14...Nf6 instead of 14...Rg8. The novelty came after 15.Be3, in that Giri played 15...Nbd7. This has also been covered by Vigorito, and it seems that the position gives Black a lot of practical chances, either here or after 15.Qc5.

The final game, Gnojek, P - Ernst, R, features 9.f3 Nfd7 10.Nxd7, which is a way to try and play more simply for White:

After 10...Nxd7 11.e4 e6 he chose the somewhat unusual 12.Bf4 but Black was doing well after his 15...c5 novelty. As with many new moves, I think this might have been invented at the board.

It seems that the Sokolov line is keeping its rep for being very tough, and the positions can also burst into life in the middle game.

See you next time! Nigel

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