At the risk of being chastised for yet more silly moves by TopNotch (
), I wish to bring peoples attention to a TN found by Shirov in 2003, which won the best novelty award in, I think, informator's top 10 novelties.
The line runs
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.g4!? (I have used the pirc move order, but the philidor move order is just as viable. I'm sure people are currently asking who I think I am to pollute this thread with such garbage, but if you take a close look, 5.g4 may well be deserving of a ! in future philidor manuals. First, let's post the Shirov game which started all this nonsense
[Event "EU-chT (Men)"]
[Site "Plovdiv"]
[Date "2003.10.10"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Shirov,Alexei"]
[Black "Azmaiparashvili,Zurab"]
[Result "1/2"]
[Eco "C41"]
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.g4 Nxg4 6.Rg1 Ngf6 7.Bc4 h6 8.Be3 c6 9.Qd3 Qc7 10.0-0-0 b5 11.Bxb5 cxb5 12.dxe5 dxe5 13.Nxb5 Qa5 14.Qc4 Rb8 15.a4 Qb4 16.Nxe5 Qxc4 17.Nxc4 a6 18.Nbd6+ Bxd6 19.Nxd6+ Kf8 20.f4 Bb7 21.e5 Ne8 22.Nxe8 Kxe8 23.Rxg7 Bc8 24.Rd6 Kf8 25.Rg1 Rg8 26.Rxg8+ Kxg8 27.Rxh6 Nf8 28.Rd6 Ra8 29.c4 Be6 30.b3 Kg7 31.Kb2 Kg6 32.h4 Kh5 33.Kc3 Ng6 34.b4 Nxh4 35.Bc1 Rc8 36.c5 a5 37.Rb6 Nf5 38.Ba3 Ne3 39.bxa5 Nd5+ 40.Kd3 Nxb6 41.axb6 Bd5 42.a5 Ra8 43.Kd4 Bc6 44.Bb4 Kg6 45.e6 f6 46.f5+ Kxf5 47.e7 Ke6 48.a6 Kxe7 49.b7 Rd8+ 50.Kc4 Kd7 51.Bc3 Rf8 52.Bxf6 1/2
Okay, so he only draws it, but there are improvements, albeit for both white and black. 6.Rg1 seems fine for white, as the astute reader may have noticed, the Bf8 for black doesn't leave home until move 18, and black evidently didn't fancy castling queenside. Also, it hasn't been essayed yet in the 7 games I can find in this opening, but 5...Nxg4 6.Bg5!? seems quite deserving of attention too.
Any thoughts people?
Regards,
Craig