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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Smyslov Variation, QGA (Read 32911 times)
IMJohnCox
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Re: Smyslov Variation, QGA
Reply #29 - 07/08/11 at 17:25:41
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Hah - this thread brings back memories. Some time in about 1979 I played Julian Hodgson in a junior event. The game began 1 Nf3 d5 2 g3 c5 3 Bg2 Nc6, and now it occurred to me that by 4 d4 I could obtain a reversed Grunfeld, which must be fine for White, I thought. Julian played 4...Nf6 and now I remembered (from Hooper's QGA book) that there was this little-known Smyslov variation of the QGA. So I played 5 dxc5 e6 6 00 Bxc5, and now 7 Nd2?!

Julian, for all his geniality, had a bit of a presence at the board as a young man, and he gave this something of the Kasparov lip-curl treatment. Eventually though he managed to write it down and get on with the game, in which I was crushed.

Afterwards he suggested that as White I had managed to play the Grunfeld a tempo down even on where Black would have been, and it wasn't surprising I'd lost. I replied spiritedly that I had done nothing of the kind; on the contrary I had been playing the Smyslov variation a tempo up, and either the variation must be no good or else I had somehow unluckily gone wrong later on.

It wasn't Julian's practice to continue this sort of fruitless debate, but once I had had the chance to do a little counting on my fingers in private I saw he was right, and my interest in this variation - at any rate with colours reversed - rather disappeared.
  
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Markovich
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Re: Smyslov Variation, QGA
Reply #28 - 07/08/11 at 15:36:04
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The last 10 Posts were moved here from 1. d4 d5 [move by] Markovich.

Both threads were about the Smyslov QGA.
  

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Markovich
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #27 - 07/08/11 at 01:11:00
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John Bartholomew wrote on 07/07/11 at 19:54:42:
Odd variation to devote an entire book to.  The ...Nf6-d7-b6 maneuver and accompanying ...Nc6/...e5 is way more Grunfeld than QGA.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 g6 5. Bxc4 Bg7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 Nfd7 8.Qe2 looks natural.  Several games have gone Nb6 9. Bb3 Nc6 10. Rd1 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 +=

I dunno, I tend to think that when Black plays non-critical ...g6 systems (like this or the Schlecter Slav), the best he can hope for is +=.


I think the Smyslov QGA is one of those systems where Black hopes for += but some degree of dynamism to give him a little something to fight for.  I noticed this system a year or two ago and played it in a few cc games, mostly with good results, but I always thought that with best play it would be objectively +=.  Objective evaluation and scoring points in this game are rather separate things, of course.

I don't think this compares to the Schlechter Slav at all, this being more dynamic.

Part of the appeal of the Smyslov QGA is that Black obtains a Gruenfeldy sort of game while avoiding reams of complicated theory and also the fianchetto system.  I probably wouldn't play it against a White loaded for bear, however.

My opinion. 
  

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kylemeister
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #26 - 07/07/11 at 20:15:32
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This has come up here before, by the way ...
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1233689621
  
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John Bartholomew
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #25 - 07/07/11 at 19:54:42
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Odd variation to devote an entire book to.  The ...Nf6-d7-b6 maneuver and accompanying ...Nc6/...e5 is way more Grunfeld than QGA.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 g6 5. Bxc4 Bg7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 Nfd7 8.Qe2 looks natural.  Several games have gone Nb6 9. Bb3 Nc6 10. Rd1 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 +=

I dunno, I tend to think that when Black plays non-critical ...g6 systems (like this or the Schlecter Slav), the best he can hope for is +=.
  
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #24 - 07/07/11 at 15:31:13
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I think we safely can assume that Evans and Smyslov wouldn't have missed Rxd5 in the final position, so there is no need to verify a print source. They can have typo's too.
  

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Smyslov_Fan
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #23 - 07/07/11 at 13:03:19
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Yeah! Good catch. I don't have a print source to verify it, but Nf6 makes far more sense in the context.
  
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #22 - 07/07/11 at 11:22:00
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Nice game by Smyslov!

Surely he played 27.-Nf6 and not 27.-Kf6  Shocked
  
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Smyslov_Fan
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #21 - 07/06/11 at 13:03:12
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That link doesn't work. Here's another link to the Amazon.com page:

http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Gambit-Accepted-Smyslov-Variation/dp/4871878880/ref...

I had to look up to see which QGA line was the "Smyslov Variation". It's a rare line with g6. This is a rare line, but it makes sense that Smyslov's name is associated with it since he was one of the few GMs who played it more than once. He was also one of the first to analyse it. Here's one of Smyslov's earliest games with that line. 

  
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #20 - 07/05/11 at 19:48:11
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On the American Amazon site you can take a look at some pages. At the risk of judging a book by its cover (and layout), well, ..., it doesn't look like a quality book.

http://www.amazon.com/Queens-Gambit-Accepted-Smyslov-Variation

Smyslov is one of my favourite chess players and I'm learning the QGA (from the Starting Out book), so I'd be interested in a book on this variation, but I really don't think this particular book is worthy of our time.
  
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Re: QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #19 - 07/05/11 at 19:03:01
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I don't anything about this book in particular, but Schiller is widely considered the worst chess author out there, at least writing in English.  I doubt this book will cause his reputation to change.
  
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LostTactic
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QGA Smyslov Variation by Eric Schiller
Reply #18 - 07/05/11 at 18:53:06
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I just came across this book in Amazon as I'm looking to add the QGA to my repertoire. Just wondering if anyone has bought this book yet? If so, what did you think of it? I've read a few reviews on some of his other books and some have criticised him for lack of explanations. I'm hoping that it won't be the case with this 1.

Here's a link to it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Queens-Gambit-Accepted-Smyslov-Variation/dp/4871878880/r...
  
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Markovich
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Re: Smyslov Variation, QGA
Reply #17 - 07/08/11 at 01:21:23
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Holbox wrote on 02/12/09 at 07:59:36:
Can you explain me why the knight, well posted on f6, should start a tryp to b6? What is the knight doing there? Here white is not provoqued in advancing the center pawns.

Thx


This having come up in another thread recently, I'll respond (for a second time) at this late date and say the question overlooks a big part of Black's idea with the Gruenfeld and related setups, which is to bear down on the dark diagonal.  There is also that the b6 knight impedes White's use of the Italian diagonal, something that comes up in another Gruenfeld namesake, 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Nb6!?.

Apart from that, Smyslov played it.
  

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Re: Smyslov Variation, QGA
Reply #16 - 05/11/09 at 09:06:17
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Hi to all,

I tested a similar idea in the smyslov with Ne8 instead of Markovich´s Nfd7. 
Background were especially games of GM Najer:

d4 d5 c4 dc Nf3 Nf6 e3 g6 Bc4 Bg7 00 00 Nc3 Ne8 h3 Nd6 Bb3 b5 a4 b4 Nd5 Na6 Bd2 c5 Rc1 ....

I guess that Nfd7 - Nb6 has the same drawback as Ne8-d6 - one defender less on the kingside. And - at least for me - I couldn´t make enough of the the uncovered diagonal fire power of the g7-bishop. In the long run my figures only stood in each others way on the queen side. 
The "wandering" knights´idea for me just looks a bit artificial. Had the most problems with white playing a3 to secure a nice haven for the c4-bishop, leaving out h3 not fearing black pinning the Nf3; then standard white moves Qe2; Rd1, with later ideas of b2-b4 to take away squares from black queenside knights. 
Black may hold up or delay e3-e4 but what active ideas does he have on his own ? 

Regards

Gilmour

  
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Markovich
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Re: Smyslov Variation, QGA
Reply #15 - 05/08/09 at 19:01:21
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I thought I would just post the one game I have played with this system.  It was played against inferior opposition in server-based CC.  However it does show something about the play of this line.  

After starting this game, daunted by the idea of giving up two tempi, I stopped playing this.  But recently I've had second thoughts, and I've started a game against a roughly equal opponent which I hope will be of better quality, and which I will show later.  White has already opted for the setup with h3.

The game given here is amusing (to me, anyway) because after 22...Nd6, Black has everything he could possibly have hoped for.  

[Event "m1233760616"]
[Site "net-chess.com"]
[White "sisterofmercy"]
[Black "gospodin"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 Ng8f6 4.Bf1xc4 g6 5.Ng1f3 Bf8g7 6.0-0
0-0 7.Nb1c3 Nf6d7 8.Qd1e2 Nd7b6 9.Bc4b3 Bc8g4 10.h3 Bg4xf3 11.Qe2xf3
Nb8c6 12.Rf1d1 e5 13.d5 Nc6a5 14.Bb3c2 Qd8e7 15.e4 Ra8d8 16.b3
c6 17.Bc1b2 cxd5 18.exd5 f5 19.Qf3e2 a6 20.Rd1d2 Nb6c8 21.Ra1d1
e4 22.a3 Nc8d6 23.Nc3a4 Bg7xb2 24.Na4xb2 b5 25.a4 Qe7f6 26.Rd2d4
Na5b7 27.b4 Rd8e8 28.Bc2b3 f4 29.f3 exf3 30.Qe2xf3 Re8e3 0-1

  

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