Ametanoitos wrote on 11/16/09 at 17:45:13:


After 14...Nc6 15.Nxc6 Qxc6 16.f3 Nxb3 17.Qxb3 Bc5+ 18.Kh1 Qc7 19.Rfc1 0-0 20.Nd6 Bd5 as given, it seems to me that with 21.Qxb4 Qxd6 22.Rxc5 Qxe4 23.Bf4, White obtains queenside play and Black has no obvious counterplay.

Knight is on c4 and not on e2. So the move 17.N2xb3 is not legal.

The best Rybka can find for White (on my PC) is 14...Nc6 15.Nxc6 Qxc6 16.f3 Nxb3 17.Qxb3 Qc7 18.Rfc1 Bd5 19.Be3 and now both 19...Be7 and 19...Qxe5 are evaluated as better for White.

So the best move order seems to be 17...Bc5+! 18.Kh1 (18.Be3 Bxe3 19.Nxe3 Qc5! is good for Black) 18...Qc7! and now Black is ready to castle and avoid some discomforts of the other move order. Now Black can play 19.Rfc1 O-O 20.Nd6 Bd5= or 19...Bd5 20.Nd6+ Qxd6 (maybe after 19.Rfc1 O-O and after 19.Rac1 Bd5!)

I was searching for a solution to Avrukh's recomendations against the QGA and the solution was not hard to find at all!

In Raetsky's Staring Out book the main line given in the "theoritical" section is the same as the line given in page 77 of the Rizzitano's excellent book: 7.Bb3 b5 8.a4 b4 9.e4 cxd4 10.e5 Nd7 11.Nbd2 Bb7 12.Nc4 Nc5 13.Bg5 Qc7! 14.Nxd4 and now Rizzitano gives 14...Nxb3 15.Nxb3?! h6 as better for Black and proposes instead 15.Qxb3 Nc6 16.Nxc6 Qxc6 17.f3 Qc7 18.Rac1 Bd5 19.Qd3 Bc5+ 20.Kh1 O-O 21.Rfd1 Qa7 with equality. This seems correct if only 16.Nxc6 was forced, but Avhrukh gives an improvement over the game Kachiani- Muhren, 2006 (the game was played after Rizzitano's book was published) where the stronger 16.Rad1 was played.

But i noticed in a sidenote that Avhrukh writes: "White has a positional advantage after 14...Nc6 15.Nxc6 Qxc6 16.f3 h6....."

but we can play 16...Nxb3! 17.Qxb3 Qc7 and transpose to Rizzitano's analysis above!

So, is this a nice solution! A quick check with Rybka supports Rizzitano's opinion that Black is equal. Do you see something wrong with that? Or do you think there is another improvement over Avrukh;s analysis in the QGA?