Grandmaster Repertoire by Boris Avrukh

today i had the opportunity to glance through "Grandmaster Repertoire 11: Beating 1.D4 Sidelines" by the famous GM Boris Avrikh. I was delighted to see some great analysis on the Blackmar Diemer gambit. It is so good to see that such a recognized chess player takes the time to look at this so called inferior opening. The bottomline of his analysis is that Black is better when playing the corretc lines. But he is quick so say that the opening complications are not to be underestimated. Guess we already knew that :-)

In any case, GM Avrukh suggests the trusted O'Kelly defense 5...c6 and comes up with some in depth analysis. I havent had to opportunity to go through all of it, but it sure seems he points out some of the weak spots in white's armory.

Thnaks Boris for giving our opening this much prime time coverage !!!

Annoying defenses should be forbidden.

Yesterday evening, I was confronted with an annoying defense, I was confident I got it right, but found myself without any advantage.

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 Bb4
Not the strongest black continuation in the Euwe

7.Bd3 h6 (diagram)

The analogy with the lines after 6...h6 forced me to exchange on f6 without any thought, as white gets a great attack on the f column.

8.Bdf6 Qxf6 9.0-0 Bxc3 10.bxc3
With a pawn ahead, black decides to exchange another piece.

10...0-0 (diagram)
"Life can be simple, even when faced with the complicated Blackmar Diemer gambit"... That's sort of blakc's thinking here. Another one could be "Show me what you have for the pawn".

11.Ne5 Qe7 (diagram)

 I had been playing on automatic up till this point, under the impression that I would have a simple game. However, now I realised that things aren't that simple as I believed... I played 12.Qg4 in the above position and lost in the resulting endgame.

With silicon assistance, it seems 12.Qe2 is best here.

a/ 12...Nd7 13.Rf3 Nxe5 14.dxe5 (+=)

b/ 12...Nc6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Rf5!!! (+=)

c/ 12...Bd7 13.Qg4!!!! (++)

So it seems that every annoying defense has some great refutation - but you have to find it !!

Reminder on the Pietrowsky lines

In 2011, I covered the Pietrowsky lines and concluded that 5...Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd7 was not simple to deal with. White has to be carefull in order not to overextend.

The main line is 5...Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.0-0 e6 8.d5 (diagram)

White is ahead in development at the expense of a pawn. The easiest way for black is to exchange a few pieces :

8...Nb4 !!
Forces the exchnage of the light coloured bishop, doesnt it ?

9.dxe6 (diagram)

9...Bxb5 10.Nxb5 Qxd1 11.Rxd1 (diagram)

Mission Exchanging is completed ! But does black have an advanatge ? Absolutely not, since black still needs a move to recapture the pawn on e6, but this is not possible since c7 is under attack.

So we can safely conclude that the Pietrowsky line does not offer any advantage for the defender, proviuded white plays is quitely - a task not easy for the Blackmar Diemer gambiteer.

Mea Culpa

It seems my last post on the Queen's Indian Euwe contained a mistake as pointed out by Maximilien from France.

I indicated that white gets a confortable play after 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 b6 9.Qe1 Bb7 10.Qh4 h5 (diagram) 11.Bxf6

White is indeed better after 11...Bxf6 12.Qxh5 g6 13.Bxg6 fxg6 14.Qxg6+ Kh8 15.d5 (diagram)

a/ 15...exd5 16.Qh5+ Kg8 17.Qg4+ Kh8 18.Nh4 (++)

b/ 15...Bxd5 16.Qh5+ Kg8 17.Qg4+ Bg7 18.Ng5 (++)

c/ 15...Qe8 16.Qh6+ Kg8 17.Ng5 (++)

d/ 15...Qe7 16.Ng5 (=)

So is seems i missed black's best continuation 15..Qe7 and 11.Rad1 is the only move that gives white an advantage.

Queen's Indian Euwe

when playing blitz games, I get lately a lot of Euwe defenses where black fianchettos his queens bishop - a horrible strategy.

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 b6 9.Qe1 Bb7 10.Qh4 (diagram)

Many of my blitz opponents play these moves rather quickly, as if the Blackmar Diemer behaves like a normal opening...

In the above postion, black is hopelessly lost, eg 10...Nbd7 11.Bxh7+ (++) or 10...h6 11.Bxh6 (++)

Black's best ( if this word can still be used in this position ) might be to remove the target on h7 :

10...h5 ( diagram)

White's best reply here is 11.Rad1, but also an inferior move can bring white victory :

11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Qxh5 g6 13.Bxg6 fxg6 14.Qxg6+ Kh8 15.d5 (diagram)

White opens up many lines and has by far the most promising game.

The defender becomes the attacker.

The immediate 7.g4 is a rude answer to black's trustowrthy O'Kelly defense. But is it correct ? Probably not, but that wont keep me from winning with it.

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 c6 6.Bc4 Bf5
The O'kelly, which can lead to the Ziegler defense, but white has other plans.

7.g4 !!! (diagram)

7...Nxg4 8.Nh4 g6 9.Nxf5 gxf5 10.h3 Nf6 11.Bg5 e6 12.d5
A key move for the attacker

12...cxd5 13.Bxd5 (diagram)

13...Nbd7 14.Bxb7 Rb8
probably not the best move. 14...Be7 15.Qf3 Rb8 16.Rd1 would give black a small advantage, but it very unlikely any defender would have been able to get this far without mistakes.

15.Bc6 Qb6 (diagram)
best

let's look at the situation : white is a pawn down and his king is defenseless. Black on the other hand has whaethered the storm and is now starting to deploy his forces. So it seems white can safely resign here, isnt it ?

16.Qf3 Be7 17.Rd1 Rd8 18.Ke2

White is desperately trying to get some space as to centralize his pieces

18...h6 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 20.Rxd7 Rxd7 21.Rd1 0-0 22.Rxd7 23.Qxb2 Kd2

White is a piece ahead for two pawns, but it is black who has the safer king and the king. White may be able to survive but it wont be easy. But then again, chances are low that black will be able to get this far against a well prepared white berserker.

An interesting novelty

Today I faced an interesting novelty, something I never encountered before in my 15-year Blackmar_Diemer experience ( ok, maybe I forgot a few less memorable games, but it wont be a many ). In any case, black tried to exchange a few pieces but quickly lost the way in the labyrith of moves.

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 Ng4 (diagram)

This is the novelty, black tries to exchange a few pieces as to use his pawn majority in the endgame.

9.Ne4
My silicon assistant indicate sthat both 9.Bxe7 and 9.Qd2 might be slightly better, but 9Ne4 is good enough.

9...Bxg5 10.Nfxg5
I gave this a 30 minutes thought, but I could not find a good move after 10.Nexg5 h6. I was hoping somehow that black would try 10...Ne3 ??, but I guess the white refutation 11.Qh5 was too obvious.

10...Qxd4+ (diagram)
And now I played a great move... can you find it ?

11.Nf2
Creating three different threats :
> the attack of h7
> the knight on g4
> the queen is undefended after Bxh7+
My opponent noticed the chances were turning and hoose the only reasonable defense

11...f5 12.Bxf5 Qxd1 13.Bxh7+ Kh8 (diagram)

Here I choose 14.Raxd1, resulting in an equal game, but 14.Nxd1 would have been better after 14...Rxf1 15.Kxf1 Nxh2+ 16.Ke2 Ng4 17.Ne3 (diagram) with nasty threats along the h file.

Black has no other option than 17...Nf6 18.Bg6 and white is leading the dance, despite being a pawn down.