Hi!

I would like to add a few words about the similar line 16. Rb1 Qa6 18. de6 Bxg2 and now 19. Re1, which we considered it in the game Veingold - Fridmans, Tallinn (zt) 1998. Taken by surprise, Black reacted badly - 19. ..Ne5? - and White won in brilliant style.

I have just commented an interesting game Pitkaenen - Iaselli, ICCF email 2000 in the July2003 update. Black played 19. ..fe6, which is also not so bad but perhaps the principled 19. ..bxc3! is the best continuation - see the message above for some details.

With best regards,
Ruslan Scherbakov

En route to winning the verystrong 1.999 open of Benasque in 1.999, Davor Komljenovic uncorked the following novelty against unsuspecting Agopov, scoring an easy victory...

Benasque organizers don't publish bulletins or have nothing to do with TWIC, so only in an article of Spanish Magazine JAQUE, IM Leontxo García analysed to detail the novelty... (his conclussion: very strong...)

Here is my own recollection of it...


(I also mentioned it to Tibor Karolyi, who said that it was possibly strong, but that he was no longer interested in engaging main line Botvinnik...)



Komljenovic Novelty - Semi-Slav [D44]
[Semprun,Fernando]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 c5 [ 12...Qb6 13.Bg2 0-0-0 14.0-0 Bh6 15.Bxh6 Rxh6 16.Qd2 Rg6 17.Rad1 Pogorelov-Vera, Sevilla 2.001, 81/362] 13.d5 Qb6 14.Bg2 0-0-0 15.0-0 b4 16.Rb1 Qa6 17. Re1  Komljenovic [ 17.dxe6 Bxg2 18.Re1 ( 18.e7 Qc6 ( 18...bxc3 19.bxc3) ; 18...Ne5 19.Qxd8+ Kxd8 20.e7+ Bxe7 21.fxe7+ Ke8 22.Rxe5 f6 23.Rd1 fxe5 24.Rd8+] 17...bxc3 [ 17...Nb6 18.Qg4 Nxd5 19.Nxd5 Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Rxd5 21.a3 Rd4 22.Re4 Qc6 23.Rxd4 cxd4 24.axb4 Bxb4 25.Qxd4 Komljenovic-Agopov, Benasque op 1.999] 18.dxe6 fxe6 [ 18...Bxg2!? 19.e7 ( 19.bxc3 Nb6 20.Qg4 Bh3) 19...Qc6 ( 19...Bb7 Fritz8) 20.exd8Q+ Kxd8 21.bxc3 Bd6 ( 21...Bh1 22.Rb8+ Kc7 23.Bf4+) 22.Qd2; 
18...Ne5 Fritz8] 19.Bxb7+ Kxb7 20.bxc3+ Line