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Black strikes back this month. We have plenty of new ideas, and we revisit a couple of old lines as well. We also have a special guest contribution!

Download PGN of December '15 KID games

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Smyslov Variation 7...c5!? [E61]

In Grigoryan - Jones, Black takes an unusual approach against the Smyslov System. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Bg3 Black usually plays 7...Nh5 here, but Gawain tried 7...c5!?:











There followed 8.dxc5! Qa5 and now rather than 9.Nd2 Qxc5 when Black was ok, I think grabbing everything with 9.cxd6!? looks critical.



Fianchetto Variation - Panno 8.Bf4 a6 9.Rc1 Bg4 [E63]

Two well-known authors square off in Schandorff - Berg. 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 Rb8 8.Bf4 a6 9.Rc1 and now 9...Bg4 is a new move for ChessPub:











After 10.d5 Na5 11.b3 White has chances of an edge, but there is play for both sides.


Main Line 9...Qb6 10.Re1 [E69]

6.0-0 Nbd7 7.Nc3 e5 8.e4 c6 9.h3 Qb6 is a big main line. The further 10.Re1 exd4 11.Nxd4 Re8 12.Re2 Qb4 13.Rc2 Nc5 14.Bd2 Qb6 15.Be3 Qc7 16.f3 a5 17.b3 has been seen on our site before, and now 17...a4 is provocative:











The game Narayanan - Gupta will probably be useful for white proponents of this line.



Classical - 6...Bg4 [E91]

Once in a while we look at 6.Be2 Bg4. This line should not equalize, but it gets mostly 'out of book' and leads to complications. After 7.Be3 Nfd7:











8.h4!? is a surprising move which is actually not so uncommon. It always looks a little strange to push a pawn past a bishop like this, but there is some logic as Black just moved the f6-knight away. The details can be found in Damaso - Gareev.


Petrosian 9.Be3 [E92]

We bring you Parker - Rowson with Jonathan Rowson's notes (and I added a few). After 6.Be2 e5 7.d5 a5 8.Bg5 h6 9.Be3 (Kramnik's idea.) 9...Ng4 10.Bd2 f5 11.h3 Nf6 12.exf5 gxf5 13.Qc1 f4 14.g3 e4 15.Nh4 e3 16.fxe3 fxg3 17.Ng6 Re8! and now 18.Rg1 is new:











Previously White had tried 18.Qc2 with horrendous results, but even here 18...Na6! still gives Black good play.


Gligoric 7...exd4 [E94]

The game Rombaldoni - Kozul makes one wonder who was zooming who in the opening. After a very unusual move order 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 c6 7.0-0 e5 8.Be3 exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.f3 d5 11.cxd5 Nxd5! we have a line of the Gligoric which is supposed to be harmless for Black. Following 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Qb3 Nc6 14.Rad1 Nxd4 15.Bxd4 Bxd4+ 16.Rxd4 Qf6 17.Rd2 Qf4 18.Qc3!? Rombaldoni turns out to be well prepared! I think Black is still ok though.


9.Ne1 Nd7 Main line [E99]

7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Rc1 h5 is another unusual move order. After 14.Nd3 Ng6 15.c5 Nf6 Black has played ...h5 instead of ...Rf7 compared to Shirov-Vocaturo below. Now 16.cxd6 seeks to take advantage of Black's omission of ...Rf7. 16...cxd6 17.Nb5 Rf7 18.Nxa7 Bd7 19.Qb3:











All computers love White here, so it's about sizing up Black's counterplay. It was hard to pinpoint where White went wrong in the middlegame in Smirnov - Savchenko, and after a back and forth struggle Black has the last laugh in a messy endgame.

9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Nd3 Nf6 14.c5 Ng6 15.Rc1 Rf7 16.Kh1 Bf8 17.a4 17...h5 18.a5 g4 19.cxd6 cxd6 20.Nb5 has all been played before, most notably in a well-known Shirov game!











In Shirov - Vocaturo Black varies with 20...h4 which is almost a novelty 21.Nxa7 Bd7 22.a6! seems to give White the upper hand, but then Shirov has a meltdown.



Until next month, David

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Don't hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions with me. Any queries or comments to the KID Forum, or to me directly at david@ChessPublishing.com (subscribers only) would be most welcome.