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Averbakh Variation 6...Nbd7 [E73/E94]

The first game we'll look at is Byron, A - Hebden, M from the English 50+ Championships. After White's 10.Be3:

it transposed into a game Quintillano, P - Markus, R, that I looked at in my October 2024 update. There is, however, a big difference in that this time it was Black to move. This made Black's position rather comfortable, but the tables were turned several times when some errors were made.

Petrosian Variation 7...Na6 8.Nd2 [E92]

Staples, D - Hebden, M featured the trendy 7...Na6 8.Nd2 plan:

with Hebden using his usual choice of 8...h5. White tried to push through with g2-g4 anyway with the rare 9.h3, and now Black should play the immediate 9...Nh7. His choice of 9...Bd7 would have run into trouble had White chosen 12.Nf3 instead of 12.Nf1.

Gligoric System 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5 f6 9.Bh4 Nc6 10.d5 [E92]

In the final round of the English Senior Championship, Peter Wells played the Gligoric System and the game followed known theory until his interesting novelty with 14.h4:

Black ran into trouble in Wells, P - Hebden, M because of his insistence on getting counterplay, 16...Kg7 was better than the nonchalant 16...a6.

Gligoric System 7.Be3 Qe7 [E92]

When I was reviewing this game I realized that these two players had a Gligoric System in the same tournament last year. On that occasion Hebden chose 7...Qe7:

which has never had much of a following despite having been originated by Garry Kasparov in a World Championship match. Wells improved on Karpov's play with 13.Qd3 and then the main problem was Hebden's choice of 13...Nc5 rather than 13...Nd6. This is a risky line for Black, to say the least, but it might be worth an occasional outing, see Wells, P - Hebden, M.

Classical Main Line, Bayonet Attack with 9.b4 [E97]

In the Classical main line (7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7) it has become almost obligatory to play 9.b4:

with Black's main choice being either 9...Nh5 or 9...a5. After 9...Nh5 10.Re1 f5 11.a4, Black has to be careful to avoid White getting a bind with a4-a5. This happened in Caruana, F - Taboas Rodriguez, D, which went 11...Nf6 12.Nd2 Bh6 13.a5!, with Black's position looking rather grim. One thing that I found curious about this game was that Caruana did not play 12.a5, which is well known to theory. Black then needed to play 12...a5 himself, he could also have moved this forward to moves 10 or 11.

Another recent game in this line is Kosteniuk, A - Paehtz, E in which Black chose to play 10...a5:

and after 11.bxa5 Rxa5 12.a4 go 12...h6. This avoids the issue of having a White knight arrive on g5, though Black's kingside is then structurally compromised and left her in trouble after 18...gxf5?! 19.Nh4.

Personally, I would prefer to play 9...a5:

and this was the choice of Stanley Badacsonyi against Vitiugov in the British Rapidplay Championships (Vitiugov, N - Badacsonyi, S ). Black's 16...c5 was new but very sensible, but maybe he should follow up with 17...Bh6.

Classical Main Line with 9.Nd2 a5 10.a3 Nd7 [E97]

As I mentioned above, the so-called Bayonet Attack (9.b4) appears to have pushed the other lines aside, so it's good to see one of White's less fashionable moves make an appearance in Maksimenko, A - Shabalov, A. The most interesting thing about this game was Shabalov's engine approved choice of 12...Nf6:

in previous games Black has mainly chosen 12...Kh8. The most curious thing was the finish, which might either be explained by time trouble or the game being recorded incorrectly.

That's all for now! Nigel

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