NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK series continues to stay fresh and relevant after twenty-five years of publication. YEARBOOK 91 is no exception with material ranging from an in depth analysis of the classic Kieseritzky Gambit encounter Rosanes-Anderssen, Breslau 1863, to important theoretical duels played at Linares 2009.
Most of the surveys in the Yearbooks tend to concentrate on lines that are presently popular in top level Grandmaster chess and YEARBOOK 91 is no exception as one can see from a list of the contents. This preference for topical systems is not surprising as these are the lines that the best players in the world feel are most important:
Queen’s Indian Defence, Nimzowitsch Variation 4...Ba6
Grünfeld Indian Defence, 3.f3
Grünfeld Indan Defence, Accelerated Russian System 4.Qb3
King's Indian Defence, Sämisch Variation 6...Nc6
Queen’s Pawn Openings, Colle System 4.dc5
English Opening, Symmetrical Variation 4.g3
Still, what is popular for those over 2600 FIDE and what holds court among mortals are not quite the same. The Forum section, where readers and authors offer feedback on previous Yearbook articles as well as offering fresh material, tends to balance things out with a lot of examination of double king pawn openings.
Sosonko’s corner also helps to even the slate. In YEARBOOK 91 he pays tribute to Roman Dzindzichashvili who still is searching for new discoveries in the openings at age 65. Teaming up with his good friend Rybka, Roman has found an interesting novelty in the Max Lange Gambit used earlier this year by Sergey Movsesian at Wijk aan Zee to defeat Michael Adams. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d4 Bxd4 6.Nxd4 Nxd4 7.f4 d6 8.fxe5 dxe5 9.Bg5 Qe7 10.Na3 and now instead of the traditional 10...Be6 that has been in use for well over 100 hundred years (and was Adams choice) check out R and R’s suggestion – the mysterious 10...Rg8! anticipating Bxf6 …gxf6.
Another R and R rehabilitation in museum openings occurs in the Giuoco Piano line favored by Rossolimo – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 where 10...Na5 11.Qa4 Nc6 12.Qb3 Na5 13.Qa4 Nc6 of Miles-Korchnoi, Johannesburg 1979, was long thought to be the last word. R and R offer 12.Qa3 when 12...Qe7 13.Qxe7 surprisingly leads to a much better ending for White as his activity more than compensates for the isolated pawn.
Returning to the Surveys, those that like to play chess and not worry about long forcing lines will appreciate the contribution by GM Sergey Tiviakov, who examines the position that is reached after several move orders but principally 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 c6 5.Bg2 d5 6.0-0 Be7 7.Nc3 Bb7. As Tiviakov points out, Black avoids the popular 7.d5 in the main line of the ...Bb7 QID Fianchetto and the moves ...c6, ...Bb7, ...Be7 and ...d5 can be played using different move orders. Tiviakov often delays the development of his QB until White has committed his QN and even more importantly delays committing his QN as long as possible retaining the option to develop it at a6 or b7. This is particularly relevant in the Closed Catalan variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6. 0-0 c6 7.Qc2 b6 8. Nbd2 Bb7 9.e4) independently advocated for White by GMs Avrukh and Davies in their respective books 1.d4 - VOLUME ONE and PLAY THE CATALAN. Both do a fine job of analyzing the lines after 9...Nbd7 but fail to consider 9...Na6. This move, used by both Tiviakov and the young Argentine-Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov, is much better in this position keeping d7 free for the KN in the event of e4-e5.
I must confess that the survey on the English Hedgehog by Mihail Marin and Valentin Stoica has me mystified. The line the two Romanians focus on reaches its tabiya after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0-0 a6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Ng5 Bxg2 11.Kxg2 Rc8 12.Nge4 Rc6. The authors’ final conclusion is that after 13.Bf4 “Black does not have an obvious route to equality.” This would seem to be great news for those seeking a strong weapon to combat the tough to crack Hedgehog but unfortunately it leaves unanswered the question of how to answer 11…Be7 (in place of 11...Rc8). Black’s idea, as shown by Gavrikov and Adorjan close to thirty years ago, is to meet 12.Nge4 with 12...0-0 13.Nxd6 Qc7. Does White have something new here?
English GM Glenn Flear has been the closer for the Yearbooks for some time, his book reviews appearing at the very end of the volume. This time around he looks at Alexander Beliavsky and Adrian Mikhalchishin’s THE PETROSIAN SYSTEM AGAINST THE QID, Andrew Greet’s PLAY THE QUEEN’S INDIAN, Lars Schandorff’s PLAYING THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT, and Valentin Bogdanov’s latest effort, CHESS EXPLAINED: THE GRUNFELD.
NEW IN CHESS YEARBOOK is highly recommended to all those with a strong interest in opening theory.
Though we seem to be out of NIC YEARBOOK 91, we do have earlier ones and also the latest ones:
