After 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 5.O-O Bd6 6.c4 c6 7.Nc3 O-O 8.Qc2 Ne4 9.Rb1 Nbd7 10.b4 b5 11.cxb5 Nxc3 12.Qxc3 cxb5 13.Qc6 Qb6 14.Qxa8 apart from Bb7, Bb8 and Nb8 Black can also exchange Queens with 14...Qc7. Alas this leads to a bad  ending, e.g. 15.Bf4!? Bxf4 16.gxf4 Nb6 17.Rfc1 Nxa8! (17...Qxc1+? 18.Rxc1 Nxa8 19.Rc5 a6 10.Rc6 +-)  18.Rxc7 Nxc7 19.Rc1 Na6 and Black is struggling for a draw.

This is clearly not attractive for Black but the Qc7 idea can be used to try to improve on the gambit line 13...Nb6:

After 13...Qc7!? 14.Qxb5 both 14...Rb8 15.Qa4 Nb6 16.Qa5 Rf7! with quite a bit compensation and 14...a5 15.Bd2 (15.bxa5 Ba6) 15...axb4 with good chances for an equal game, e.g. 16.Rfc1 Qd8 17.Bxb4 Bxb4 18.Rxb4 Rxa2, come into consideration.

TonyRo wrote on 02/14/10 at 16:08:46:


And I thought the younger generation had a better adaptability.

TonyRo, the colon is an old standard way of indicating captures.  You might see it in chess literature of German or Yugoslav origin, for example.  It can occur in the form N:d4 as well as Nd4:.

It's dollar signs and other computer effluvia that make me want to gouge my eyes out ...

TonyRo wrote on 02/11/10 at 13:33:34:


Perhaps you noticed that for every 'x' you have made there corresponds a "randomized" ':'
What a "weird" 'coincidence'... 

Ametanoitos wrote on 02/10/10 at 18:23:21:


Besides taking back with the knight, black has a second possibility :

1. d4, f5 2. Nf3, Nf6 3. g3, e6 4. Bg2, d5 5. 0-0, Bd6 6. c4, c6 7. Nc3, 0-0 8. Qc2, Ne4 9. Rb1, Nbd7 10. b4, b5 11. cb5:, Nc3: 12. Qc3:, cb5: 13. Qc6, Nb6 14. Qb5:, Nc4 15. Ne5, Be5: 16. de5:, a5! seems to be playable too for black.

Ametanoitos wrote on 02/10/10 at 14:50:01:

I saw the line too yesterday but didn't find it very impressive. Black gets too easy his sacrificed pawn back and keeps counterplay via f4 which isn't the case in the lines Avrukh is showing. Anyway the whole variation is still in its first childeren shoes so new ideas will keep on popping up which will shift the pendule often between the camps. I am also interested to know what he mentions against 8.., Qe8; 8..., Qe7; 8.., Nbd7 even if it is just to know where the overlap with my own analysis is and where he diverts.

Ametanoitos wrote on 02/09/10 at 23:06:55:


As often has been the case in history, different people are finding the same things at approximately the same time. I am not really surprised because we all have the same hardware, software and databases so it is quite logically that with some deduction we come to the same conclusions.

Yesterday I saw the same article via a comment on the blog of Sverre Johnsen (author of ''Win with the Stonewall Dutch) and immediately contacted the author directly because it concerns one of the critical mainvariations of the book. The same evening I started to review the novelty.

1. d4, f5 2. Nf3, Nf6 3. g3, e6 4. Bg2, d5 5. 0-0, Bd6 6. c4, c6 7. Nc3, 0-0 8. Qc2, Ne4 9. Rb1, Nbd7 10. b4, b5 11. cb5:, Nc3: 12. Qc3:, cb5: (This was one of the mainreasons why I preferred 9.Ne4: i.s.o. 9. Rb1) 13. Qc6N (However Avrukh comes up with a new idea and tries to show that whites chances should be preferred.), Qb6 14. Qa8:!!, Bb8 (His mainline but 14..., Nb8 is also very interesting with quite some potential that Avrukh didn't touch. I am thinking of e.g. 16.., h6 i.s.o. 16.., Bd7 and 18.., Be7 i.s.o. 18..., a5) 15. Ng5!, Bb7 16. Qb7:, Bb7: 17. Ne6:, Re8 18. Nc5, Qc6 Rybka and Fritz still think things are comfortable even for black but I tend to disagree as does Avrukh because black is completely lacking counterplay while white can easily build up the pressure further.

So 9. Rb1 is also good for a small advantage? Maybe but the following interesting pawnsacrifice he doesn't discuss:

1. d4, f5 2. Nf3, Nf6 3. g3, e6 4. Bg2, d5 5. 0-0, Bd6 6. c4, c6 7. Nc3, 0-0 8. Qc2, Ne4 9. Rb1, Nbd7 10. b4, b5 11. cb5:, Nc3: 12. Qc3:, cb5: 13. Qc6, Nb6N 14. Qb5:, Nc4 (White is a pawn up but black has quite some counterplay for it) 15. Qa4, Bd7 16. Qb3, Rb8 17. a3, a5 18. Ne5 (It seems white has to give the pawn back.), ab4: 19. Nc4:, dc4: 20. Qc4:, ba3: 21. Ra1, Qf6 22. Ba3:, Bb5 23. Qc2, Ba3: 24. Ra3:, Qd4: and black finally equalised.

Long analysis, wrong analysis of course but the line clearly shows that the author wasn't able to cover everything so there is still room left for imagination.

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 02/10/10 at 04:45:12:


http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/GM2-excerpt.pdf