Ametanoitos wrote on 04/26/10 at 19:18:48:


He did not like it at all, and he also preferred ...Nc5 over Nf6.

I had noticed yes!
The whole game was quite wonderful for Catalan players. As well, Peter Svidler's commentary on ICC was like getting a free Catalan endgame lesson from a 2700+ GM. Fantastic stuff.

I look forward to thr coverage of the KID in volume 2 where I expect the explanations should be a great supplement to Avrukh at the least.

Ametanoitos wrote on 03/31/10 at 18:44:51:


Absolutely, if we do a second addition we will have to update the analysis. I thought we provided a bibliography several times better than what's currently on the market in terms of chess books--for instance, a lot of books just offer seven or eight total in their bibliographies. We really tried to go in depth--both Dean and I bought several new books and read the analysis. Sometimes, though, books will slip past us. This was definitely the case with Semkov.

they didnt find any advantage in tarrasch
im dissapointed...


1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 c5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. b3 Ne4 10. Bb2 Bf6 11. Rc1 !? is a recommanded viariation, but in my opinion 11.Na4!? is more testing . The idea is to save a tempo not movin a1 rook as 11..b6 is bad now because of 12.dxc5 and this variation is not good for black without rook on c1 and black bishop on a6. Black does not have pressure on e2 pawn and d5 is weak.

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 c5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. b3 Ne4 10. Bb2 Bf6 11. Na4 b6 12. dxc5 Bxb2 13. Nxb2 bxc5 !? is better for white (14.Na4!?) and


1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 c5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. b3 Ne4 10. Bb2 Bf6 11. Na4 b6 12. dxc5 Bxb2 13. Nxb2 Nxc5 * is also not dangerous, white can play Nd4 or Nd3 with good game.

Any ideas? It looks like black dont have active game if white delay Rc1. I didnt check these variations with computer so they might be wrong...

Ametanoitos wrote on 03/31/10 at 07:50:56:


Topalov's play in the 7. Re1 Ne4 was interesting, but not critical. Instead of 11. h4, 11. Nd2 is better, which was Khalifman's recommendation in a similar position (and likely to transpose), ie: 10...0-0 11. Nd2 Bb7 12. e4 (+=, Khalifman)

Also, in the 7. d4 Hedgehog white has nothing in any of the 9. Bg5 lines from what I can tell, even 10. Rfd1 has been okay for black for awhile as you've noticed. 9. e4 is equal, but it's still a highly complex game that keeps the pieces on.

What's the Averkin KID? That's a name I haven't seen attached to it.

Anyway, we've sidetracked this thread. Let's pick up Hedgehog analysis in the flank openings forum.

See Averkin-Golubev (i dont remember the year) in the Megabase

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Qc2 Na6!? was recommended by Kogan in a SOS issue (i don't remember the number) but it is not mentioned in the book also! A solution i found is 5.a3 g6 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.e3! but i don't know if this can be called an adcvantage for White. I'll check Kogan's analysis tomorrow.

Also, an improvement on Vigus analysis in the Slav was recommended to be. That is
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Qc2 dxc4 5. Qxc4 Bg4 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. e4 Bxf3 8. gxf3 e5 9. Be3
exd4 10.Bxd4 Bd6 11.O-O-O Qc7 12.Ne2!? with interesting play (Kb1, Qc2 is the idea) but maybe again not something serious. But matches the spirit of the book.

The publishers need for sure someone with knowledge on recent bibliography, otherwise every new book can be seriously low on quality. I really wanted to sincerelly say that this book is of a high quality because members of this foroum will accuse me of being to crude on every new book hits the market because i have personal issues! But i can't! This book would be really really good if it used ALL the available bibliography exist around! And this is not very difficult thing to do! I like the fact that the authors try to be sincere with their readers but i cannot imagine they didn't know that there is analysis around that they have to check if they want to respect their readers. Semkov's QGA is another example of a book they didn't checked.


As for the Closed Catalan issue and the transpositions after Bb4+ or without it. I have recommended in this foroum but in another thread the approach used by Kaidanov. That it play Bg5 and Nbd2. If Black plays Bb4+ and Be7 White will play Bd2 and Bg5 and if Black plays Be7 then Bg5. The idea is simple: to exchange this "bad" Bc1 bishop with Black's Be7 bishop or his Nf6 knight. This idea is correct but it is very difficult to prove an advantage even though i think that White can press for something small.