Ametanoitos wrote on 07/09/10 at 09:54:36:
As i see it now, i'm wondering what is the problem for Black after 12.b4 c6 13.O-O Re8 (no Ne5 for White!) 14.Qb3 a5! 15.bxa5! (now 15.b5? c5! is strong for Black) 15...Rxa5 16.a4 Nd7 (Sokolov doesn't say much for this position in his book) 17.Rfe1 (this is NCO's proposal, Atalik's games and analysis in Megabase shows that no other mov e is critical) 17...Ba6! 18.Bxa6 Rxa6 and now 19.e4 is supposed to be better for white but Dautov gives 19...dxe4 20.Nxe4 Re6 21.Ra2 (this is given as '!' in many sources) and now 21...Ra8 is Dautov's improvement with the sign "=" given by him. This makes me wonder if ...Re8 and then ...a5 is more accurate after all so as to sidestep this Ne5 issue
Ametanoitos, a small favor if you please. It would help if you could give the opening moves of the lines you want to discuss, as I think your move order may be a little off (in your earlier post you had 11..c6 already in). But whatever the move order, yes, I agree with you that ..Re8 is the way to go so as to avoid White's Ne5 lines. This, btw, is what Kasparov recommends in his Modern Chess series. After
11. b4 c6 12.0-0, he even calls
12..a5 "slightly premature" presumably due to the
13.b5 c5 14.Ne5 line.
After
11.b4 c6 12.0-0 Re8 13.Qb3 a5 14.bxa5 Rxa5 15.a4 Nd7 16.Rfe1 Kasparov gives
16..g6 as best and then
17.e4 c5 with equality, following the rapid game Karpov-Short, Amber 1993.
Kasaprov doesn't examine
17.Rab1, which led to a good position for White in Epishin-Lutz, Dortmund 1994, but Black's play can be improved in that game, and I don't think Black is worse.
As for your line with
16..Ba6, after
17.Bxa6 Rxa6, as far as I know, it is thought that the plan of doubling on the c-file is slightly better for White, so play may go instead
18.Re2 (and not 18.e4)
18..Re6 19.Rc2 Be7 20. Rc1.