End of September. My apologies to the subscribers.

The stupid move 15.Kxg2 perhaps?

Hi Pagageno, 

Bored, I decided to start this thread off a bit. I am sure there are improvements lurking in there, but to me, it looks that White has just enough - no more.

-Tony

Hi,

I really like Marin's book and especially his explanations on the typical strategical themes of the variatons. I would like to hear your opinion on a concrete variation though. Marin gives the following variation in the chapter about the Karpov variation.

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Bc5 5. Nf3 d6 6. d3 O-O 7. O-O h6 8. a3 a6
9. b4 Ba7 10. Bb2 Be6 11. Rc1 Qd7 12. e3 Bh3 13. d4 exd4 14. Nd5 Bxg2 15. Nxf6+
gxf6 16. Kxg2 dxe3 17. c5



He evaluates the position as +/- because the black bishop is shut out of the game and white has attacking chances based on moves like Nh4, Qh5, Rc4. To be honest I can't see any attacking chance and in fact it seems to me that White is struggling for a draw after 17... Rad8. 18. Bxf6 is just a blunder because of 18...Qe6. 

Black is threatening to play dxc5 liberating his bishop. The white king seems to be more in danger than his counterpart. A sample variation: 18. Qc2 Ne5! 19. fxe3 Ng4 20. Rfe1 dxc5 21. bxc5 Re8 22. Bd4 Qc6



White managed to keep the black bishop shut out of the game, but because of the weakness of c5, e3 and the a8-h1 diagonal I don't see any chances for him for an advantage at all.

Am I missing something? Looking forward to your ideas.

After working through a couple of chapters intensively, I feel my initial opinion about the quality of Marin's work confirmed. 

It is often very shallow.

Just one typical example of many:



This is another line from the Karpov variation. On page 27 Marin continues with 21.Qg6 Qf7 22.Qf5, commenting "Black is under strong pressure on the kingside, while his bishop is many tempos away from reaching a reasonable square."

Although this is not just a random game, but his own analysis, he misses the killer 21.Ng6! +-, winning immediately.

White simply picks up the exchange, as 21...Rxe1 fails to 22.Nxf8 attacking the queen, while 21...Rf7 runs into the beautiful 22.Rxe8 Qxe8 23.Re1 Qd7 24.h4!! Ne6 25.Qe2 Nf8 26.Qe8 Qxe8 27.Rxe8, which is a massacre. White is winning the black bishop with Ra8 now.



While one can say even better, this line is winning for white instead of just being clearly better, it again leaves the impression that Marin did not make use of proper computer validation at all. On the first 80 pages alone, I found numerous (at least 10) indications for this assumption.

I also have the clear impression that he has the tendency to just show the black moves he likes to see for white, sometimes omitting clearly stronger alternatives for black.

Chapters 20-25 are dealing with the Reversed Dragon, which is of paramount importance for the English opening.



One of the best lines for black is:

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.0–0 Be7 8.a3 0–0 9.b4 Be6 10.Rb1 f6 11.d3 a5 12.b5 Nd4



"For many years, this line was considered to offer Black comfortable equality. I wish to thank IM and ex-Romanian champion Ovidiu Foisor for helping me to understand the subtleties of the position long time ago." (Marin, page 310).

Reading this, I thought great, he has found a way to crack this tough nut and will show it on the next pages.

But instead, another disappointment.

There was the famous game Carlsen-Kramnik in December 2009, which Carlsen won convincingly in this variation. Kramnik played 13...Qc8, which is covered on page 310 in the book. Marin continues with 14.e3 Nf5 15.Bb2 Rd8 16.Qc2 a4 17.Rfd1



Marin about 17.Rfd1(?): "Quite a subtle move. Black's predicable rook lift to a5 will leave his back rank vulnerable, which justifies the idea of trading a pair of rooks along the d-file."

He then simply continues with 8 moves, offering no alternatives for any side: 17...Ra5(?) 18.Nc4! Nxc4 19.dxc4 Bxc4 20.Rxd8 Bxd8 21.Nxa4

"The recent exchanges have left Black poorly coordinated, which offers White a dangerous initiative."

So true, but this is what I meant with "showing the Black moves he likes to see for White".

The only idea of 17.Rfd1(?) is to play Nc4 in case of a black Ra5. But Black can simply refuse to play into White's hands with the strong 17...Nd6!



Black takes control of c4 and suddenly White has no useful move anymore. Please note that the rook on d1 is vulnerable to a possible Be6-b3 shot, so White is pretty paralysed.

Not by coincidence Carlsen played the better move 17.Rfc1, keeping his knight on d2 free to move to e4 after 17...Nd6.

I have to mention that even with Carlsen's better rook move, Black is not worse in this line. Kramnik made several small mistakes (18...Ne8?!, 22...c6?!, 24...Nc4?!) which accumulated to a bad position.

Instead of 16...a4, 16...Nd6!? is also a very decent alternative for black (which occured in Marin-Arizmendi Martinez and was an effortless draw in 23 for black). Also not covered in the book.

So the white players are being left empty handed in another critical variation. Marin's conclusions that "11...a5 causes Black strategic problems on the queenside" and "objectively, the whole line should be evaluated as slightly better for White" are not convincing at all.

I would rate the book 7,5 / 10. The explanations are very good and useful to get a feeling for this opening. But from a theoretical point of view, this is surely not a repertoire which can be used on GM or correspondence chess level.

You'd be surprised at what authors can miss. I'd hold back on the "snake oil...etc" comments, as you don't know what Marin was thinking or his motives when choosing this line. It's certain that it's a mistake, but to bash one of the best chess authors of our time because of your speculations is a bit wrong. 

Probably 22. Kg2!? Ra7 23. Re1 Re8 24. Bxd6 b6 25. c5 is an easy draw, with Black the one not willing to play on. We could go on and on in such a position, and since we're in agreeance about the missing line, we should just leave at what it is - a hole in an otherwise awesome book.

TonyRo wrote on 08/14/10 at 00:32:40:


Tony, this is an interesting variation. But in the end it still gives White nothing at all, unfortunately.


[position after 21.Bd5] play might continue 21...Bd4 22.Rf1 Ra7 23.Bxd6 Rh8 24.Kg2 b6 25.c5 Rd8



If black has to, he just returns the exchange and it is a perfect draw, as TonyRo mentioned. But black might also decide to play for a win, it is not white's decision at all. At least this is not a line you want to prepare at home for any important tournament, just hoping for a draw while defending a slightly inferior endgame. Let alone building a coherent repertoire on it.

I don't have any problem with a forced variation that only leads to a draw if black plays perfectly. Every opening has them. The problem is rather that Marin is massively advocating this particular line, giving 10.Bg5 and 12.Nd4 exclamation marks, and 13.Nfxg5 even two of them. This is downright ridiculous, especially as he can't have missed the spoiler 14...hxg5!, which is more or less the only move for black in this position. 

In my opinion he was too attracted by the beauty of the line with 14...Nxg3? which is nice indeed. But as an author he should be objective and not try to sell snake oil.