IMJohnCox wrote on 11/29/06 at 12:45:56:


Hmm, that may explain it. As I could imagine that a draw offer from black in that position would otherwise be seen as an insult. Though I doubt it is acceptable behaviour sportsmanwise, since such a statement can be interpreted as a draw offer on every move albeit silent but still influencing the opponent...

- Anyway, if Euwe had dared to win by 2, he might have had a better reputation these days than 'the guy who barely could beat a drunkard and then got squashed like a bug in the return match'..


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Well, you're both right probably, though I haven't seen H&C, this line has extremely good stats for white! 

But the following Godes' set-up seems OKish for black

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nd7 3.c4 dxc4 4.e4 Nb6 5.Bxc4 Nxc4 6.Qa4+ c6 7.Qxc4 Nf6 8.Nc3 Be6 9.Qd3 g6 10.0-0 Bg7 11.h3 0-0 12.Be3 Ne8 13.Ng5 Qd7 14.Nxe6 Qxe6 Sapundiev,G-Godes,D/corr Markov mem 1987 (0-1 50)


Inn2
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But here black seems to score quite well with 5/6 ...g6 turning 'the Slav' into a Grünfeld... 

TalJechin wrote on 11/29/06 at 12:17:03:

Hmm accepting a draw which wins the WC is a blunder? If you want to run the risk of pulling a Kramnik, AFTER you had the WC in your hands, feel free

But the variation doesnt look as bad as I thought.

I recently noticed an interesting off-beat line in the QGA 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nd7!? (which isn't mentioned by Ruslan btw, so maybe a quick look at it in the next update please?)

Glenn Flear gives some coverage of it in SOS 3.

So far the only game I've noticed that claims to achieve something big for white is Mikhalevski-Zilberman according to the white player of that game. Who gives '6.h3!' - with the idea of shutting out Bc8.

Funny enough, Zilberman played 5.h3 ('?!' Flear) against Godes in 1975...


Mikhalevski,V (2520) - Zilberman,Y (2465) [D21]
ch-ISR, Tel Aviv ISR (7), 2002

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nd7 3.c4 dxc4 4.e4 Nb6 5.a4 a5 6.h3 g6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.Bf4 c6 9.Qd2 Nf6 10.Be2 0-0 11.0-0 Ne8 12.Rfe1 f5 13.Bf1 Nc7 14.Bh6 looks like very good comp for the pawn at the very least.

But 6...g6 seems the real reason black got into trouble. 6...e6/Nf6/Bd7/e5/ and even 6...f5 are all roughly equal according to Fritz.



Btw, what made me interested in the first place was probably that I recognised the Nd7-b6 idea from the KG (i.e. Ne7-g6) and since a4 a5 doesn't weaken the k-side as h4 h5 in the KG my first impression was that it might be a better idea vs the QG, especially since QGeers aren't used to being denied Bxc4...

Btw2, the idea even has some historical significance as Alekhine used in the last game of the WC 1935. And Euwe accepting a draw offer at move 40 in a clearly winning position 2 pawns up seems a blunder at least as big as Kramnik's recent Qe3?? imo - no wonder he lost the rematch when he ended with such a sign of weakness!