The ICCF tournament now is really on its way and I am defending the honour of the chesspub team:
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1188401025I though some might be interested in some games from us (note that the game is already 3 moves further as it seems not done to have whole forums analyse your next move). After all from the chesspub team one might expect some major opening fireworks. I think the game below has some merit theoretically as white follows the theoretical lines, but imo gets nothing as opposed to the analysis in various places. I'd be interested to see some comments from other forumites on the opening line as I myself play the catalan about as often as the Netherlands win at skiing.
In my one and only game against 1.d4 I somehow got myself in a supposedly bad catalan. In the chesspub theory I am supposed to go for a queen sac, but imo it is just bad so I decided to deviate.
[Event "Champions League 2007 Fast Track Group 1"]
[Site "ICCF"]
[Date "2007.9.1"]
[White "Petukhov, Vasily"]
[Black "Mullender, Willem"]
[Board "2"]
[WhiteTeam "Zhivoj Zhurnal"]
[BlackTeam "
CHESSPUBLISHING.COM"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 {Here I thought I was a move further ahead for some reason, but this is luckily still decent}
5.Nf3 c5 {What else?}
6.O-O Nc6 7.Qa4 {this is the problem move}
7...cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 9.Bxc6+ Bd7 10.Rd1! {This is the move chesspub and others agree is best. I see no reason to disagree yet}
10... Bxc6 {And here I had a disagreement. Chesspub and others suggest the queensac with Qxd1, with a rook, bishop and pawn for the queen. I looked a lot at the position and felt it would be a nightmare to play as black. Luckily I saw the game Markowski-Mamedyarov Plovdiv 2003 and it confirmed my feeling that not sacking the queen was better.}
11.Qxc6+ bxc6 12.Rxd4 c5 13.Rxc4 Be7 {So far so good, I think I am slightly worse here, but have some major chances in the endgame due to white having difficulty finding a plan.}
14.Bf4 {Bad imo, though it had success in Vladimirov-Ghaem Kelamabakkam 2000. 14.Bg5 looks better to me}
14...Nd5 {And this is the first new move and in my very humble and unpretentious opinion a very good one}
The game is now at move 18 fow white, but I think I already have an advantage in the endgame. I will post here as the game progresses.