Opening videos
Zwirs: Najdorf
1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♞f6 5.♘c3 a6 6.h3 e5 7.♘f3 ♝e7 8.g4 b5
At the European Club Cup 2023, Aryan Tari faced Jules Moussard in the final round. In his analysis, Nico Zwirs looks in detail at the opening, in which the Frenchman opted for 8…b5, a variation that has hardly been played until now. Black normally tries to defuse or even completely halt the ♙g advance with 8…h6 or 8…g5. The game continued with 9.g5 ♞fd7 10.♗e3. Zwirs explains that after 10…♞b6! 11.♘xb6 ♛xb6, Black could obtain a playable position and shows why after 10…♝b7 Moussard’s White obtains a slight but stable advantage after 11.a4 b4 12.♘d5 ♞c5 13.♗xc5.
Mikhalchishin’s miniatures (Part 1)
In this issue and the next two to come, Master Trainer Adrian Mikhalchishin presents a variety of ideas. The main theme of this issue is dedicated to the Gambit ♕.
Anti-Meran variant
1.d4 ♞f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘f3 d5 4.♘c3 c6 5.e3 ♞bd7 6.♕c2 ♝d6 7.e4
Adrian Mikhalchishin took a clear advantage twice in fast games against Andrei Volokitin with the somewhat old-fashioned variant 7.e4 dxe4 8.♘xe4 ♞xe4 9.♕xe4. “In my opinion, the move 6.e4 is still alive! (…) I hope some youngsters will continue our work in this direction and bring some really powerful new ideas!”
Gambit ♕ Accepted I
1.d4 ♞f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘f3 d5 4.♘c3 dxc4 5.e3 a6 6.a4 c5 7.♗xc4 ♞c6 8.0-0 cxd4 9.exd4 ♝e7
The above moves lead to a standard Gambit ♕ position. White is faced with the question of how best to place his pieces and how to use his isolated ♙d4.
Gambit ♕ Accepted II
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.♘f3 a6 4.e3 b5 5.a4 ♝b7 6.b3 ♞f6 7.bxc4 bxc4 8.♗xc4 e6 9.0-0 ♝e7
About fifteen years ago, Black thought he could equalize directly with 3…a6. Mikhalchishin shows that White can, however, retain a slight advantage.
Gambit ♕ Accepted III
1.d4 ♞f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘f3 d5 4.♘c3 dxc4 5.e4 ♝b4 6.♗g5 h6 7.♗xf6 ♛xf6 8.♗xc4 c5 9.0-0 cxd4 10.e5 ♛d8 11.♘e4
In this variation, White sacrifices the ♙d4. Their plan is not to recover it as quickly as possible – which would be easy – but to launch an attack on the wing-♚ after ♕e2, ♖ad1 and some very simple means…
Anish Giri, Ivan Saric, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Romain Édouard, Lubomir Ftacnik, Michal Krasenkow and many others comment
This time, “The Pearl“Comes from Ivan Saric, who first took the initiative with the lead of his ♟g – 8…g7-g5 and 11…g5-g4 – against Haik Martirosyan at the 2023 European Team Championship:
Afterwards, he still castled short and went after the ♔ of his opponent, who had castled into the opposite corner!
After 26…a3! the pressure on White’s position is too great.
47 other in-depth games await you in the “Lucky Bag.
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