It is 1.d5 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.Bg5 and now the old main line 9...Be6

In my post above i showed how i think that Avrukh's suggestion could be met. Not something terribly new though. I just think that Black is OK if he knows what he is doing. In fact Avrukh didn't realise that he had 2 recommendations against this line (!) because another line transposed to this and this line was also what Khalifman suggested. I'll cover this line now and share with you my (old) thoughts. It's been a while since i looked at this, so please be gentle with your critics. This line (9...Be6) will not be covered in the book but i like it as a secondary weapon. So, this is Khalifman's line:

9. Bg5 Be6 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. Rc1 Be7 12. Nd4 
As i said this is what Khalifman likes and this is covred also by Avrukh in a sideline. Black should play now:
12...Qd7!

(12... Nxd4 13. Qxd4 Qa5 Rubinstein played this way for Black but after 14. Qd3! White has an edge)

(12... h6 does not satisfy either after 13. Bf4 Qd7 14. Nxe6 {else Black plays ...Bh3!} fxe6
15. e4! (15. Bh3 Bd6 {and Black equalizes}) 15... d4 16. e5! and White is better) 

13. Nxe6

(13. Na4 
This was recommen ded by Avrukh. He believes that White has a big advantage but the following game (played after his book was published) questions this evaluation:
13...Nxd4 14. Qxd4 b6 15. Rfd1 Rfd8 
(15... Rac8! was simpler 16. Nc3 h6 17. Bf4 Rfd8 18. Qd3?! d4!) 
16. Nc3 Rac8 17. Qd3 d4 and Black is OK 
(17... Qe8?! 18. Nb5 Avallos Para (2267)-Benko Francisco (2044), 2008.is better for White) 

13... fxe6 14. Na4 Rac8 15. Nc5 Bxc5 16. Rxc5
Qf7=

And i don't see why Black shouldn't be OK here. White has the Bishop pair but it is known that Bishops are not the best minor pieces for taking advantage weak squares (these are the Knights) and in this case the Bg2 is restricted by the d5 pawn. Also the typical idea with e2-e4 is very difficult to achieve without exchanging the Nf6 with the Bg5 which means that White no longer will have the Bishop pair. Also, a very important practical feature in many positions is how easily they can be played. What i mean is that in this
position Black has an easy plan to continue with ...Qh5, doubling Rooks on the 'f' file and play eventually ... Ng4 while White's plan is not so easy to spot.

17. Rc1 Qh5 18. Bxf6

With the typical idea to continue with e4
(18. Bf4  invites ...e5 which Black can prepare with Kh8) 
(18. Qd2 Rc7 19. Bf4 Rcf7 20.h3 Ne4 21. Qd3 Rxf4 22. gxf4 Rxf4 and Black has at least adequate
compensation for the exchange) 

18... gxf6 

(18... Rxf6 is not good because 19. e4 Qxd1 20. Rfxd1 d4 21. e5) 

19. e4 Qxd1 20. Rfxd1 d4

and Black will play ...e5 with fine play

Matemax wrote on 04/27/11 at 10:56:13:


Do you mean to add no more weight?


OK, this is my frst piece of analysis after Avrukh's proposal for White in the variation with 9...Be6. This analysis is a year old, so please be gentle!

9. Bg5 Be6 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. Bxf6
(11. Ne1! is the move for White in my opinion! More on this next) 
(11. Na4 Be7! and not 11...Bb6 as Keres has played a couple of times, is fine for Black) 
11...Qxf6 12. Nxd5 Qxb2 13. Nc7 Rad8 14. Qc1 Qxc1 15. Raxc1 b6 16. Nxe6 fxe6

White has without doubt a small advantage in this ending. Black has a weakness on e6 and White has none. But is this enough for winning? Khalifman believes that it is not and we have to understand why. It is known that generally a single weakness is not enough to bring the win. The side with the weakness can easily defend it. It requires a second weakness (the "longer" the distance of the second weakness from the first the better) so that the defencive powers can become anelastic and break eventually. Black's strategy should be the avoidance of the creation of the fatal second weakness. The good thing is that e6 is not on an open file and very close to Black's camp so that it can protected easily and with economy (f. e. with the King on f7). If we forget about e6 we can see that there are positive elements in Black's position also. The open 'f' and
'd' files, the d5 square which can be ised for the Knight and the 2-1 Q-side majority that can become a serious weapon especialy if all the rooks are
exchanged. So, with care Black can defend this position easily. I should say at this point that Jacob always disagreed with me on that. I can understand why he doesn't feel comfortable to defend this position against GM opposition, but i think that for a typical club player the situation is not so bad.

17. e3
(17.Rc4?! This is the right idea but with wrong execution. White's rook stands very well on e4 where it can attack e6 but this idea has to be prepared
17...Nd4  and Black is equal according to the informant analysis by Geller 18. Nxd4 Rxd419. Rxd4 Bxd4 20. e3 Bc5 and the opposite coloured bishops lead the game Petrosian-Spassky, Moscow
1969 to the draw)
 
(17. Bh3 This is Geller's recommendation from chess
informant Rf6 18. Ng5 (18. Rfd1 e5!) 18... Nd4 19. Kh1 and now Black is
equal after 
(19. Kg2 Rg6 20. e3 Rxg5 {1/2 : 1/2 Sosonko - Hort, Tilburg 1979)
19... Rg6 20. e3 Rxg5 21. exd4 Rxd4 22. Bxe6+ Kf8) 

17... h6 18. Rc4 g6! 19.Rb1
this prevents the possibility of ...Nb4

(if 19. Nh4 Black has to play Ne7 but this is part also of his general strategy where he plans to put this
Knight on d5 the right moment 20. a4 Kg7 
(20... a5!?) 21. a5 Rd6 and Black can feel sequre enough) 

19... Kg7 and Black can think of the manouvre
Ne7-Nd5 after first improving his rooks 
20. h4?! Rxf3 21. Bxf3 Ne5 22. Be2 Nxc4 23. Bxc4 e5
and Black seems completely out of danger because he has the 'd' file and the exchange or rooks will lead to the opposite coloured bishops
ending which is of course drawn.
24. Kf1 Kf6 25. Ke2 e4 26. Bb3 Ke5 

The Netherlands used to have conscription (18 months I think), but I ducked it 30 years ago. You already know I am not a nationalist, except when it comes to football, which is much better than war anyway. Moreover my political views are close to pacifism. Finally I never felt that fighting a conventional wars against the Red Army made much sense with all the nuclear stuff around.

Ametanoitos wrote on 04/26/11 at 20:01:49:

Always. You can never know when this line becomes important.

Paddy wrote on 04/26/11 at 19:59:14:

welcome.

Ametanoitos wrote on 04/26/11 at 20:01:49:

ah yes that annoying requirement for all citizens... whats the service requirement now 6months? a year? I forget.

At any rate, you should always believe in yourself. Don't let others put you down. A certain IM taught me that.

trw wrote on 04/26/11 at 17:27:53:


Many thanks trw for your effort in compiling the pgn - it's much appreciated.

Thank you for your kind words. I line in Patras, a city 200 km away from the capital Athens and the 3rd largest city in Greece (after Athens and Thessaloniki). 

As for questions regarding books of QC you can ask them in their blog http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/ and there Jacob always tries to answer everything. I have no news about the French book but i know that they have some fantastic books to announce soon.

As for the 6.dxc5 chapter i can ensure you that it is going to be one of the best chapters of the book. The analysis posted here of course is a good starting point but i believe that after hours and hours of analysis (not only computer assisted) i have discovered the correct solutions and i'll thank in the book all the members of chesspub that helped a lot. 

The 6.dxc5 line is not the only "new" move that we are going to put special attention to. Other dangerous ideas that we analyse with care will arm the White players with good weapons against the Tarrasch. But of course we went ahead and suggested solutions that we like at the end. Untill now (when the 99,99% of he analysis is over) there is not a single variation that i feel that our solutions are not 100% adequate. If you know me from my past posts here you'll know that i am usually very hard in the critisism of analysis in opening books. What you can be sure about this book is that both authors will be entirely sincere of what they write. We'll not hide analysis, we will not hide potential problems, we will not tell things that we don't believe. We'll use every source that is humanly possible to find. 

And of course i hope that together we'll find the mistakes (humanly impossible to avoid) in this foroum and try to fix them so that everybody can use the Tarrasch with confidence.

Ametanoitos wrote on 04/22/11 at 22:13:37:


I can really - perhaps not well at this point. But I lived in Athens for 6 months. I studied Greek before and tried to keep up with it after. However, once you leave the country its hard. I did run into a couple from Crete though a few months back. I was able to fluently converse with them.

Anyways, I do have a Greek keyboard somewhere as well. If the analysis is out of date then 

Ametanoitos wrote on 04/01/10 at 06:47:42:


Did this book get finished? I can read Greek.