[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Two Miniatures

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Two Miniatures
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1178320048.shtml


   Every now and then, I find myself interested in the Modern Benoni.
   It's a fun and dynamic opening, but it has its drawbacks, too. One
   well-known problem is the Taimanov Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6
   4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+!), which has led many
   Benoni fans to either give it up or to try various move-order tricks,
   like 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6. If White plays 3.Nc3, Black will go for the
   Nimzo-Indian, but if White avoids it with 3.Nf3 Black plays 3...c5 and
   avoids the Taimanov. (This approach was pretty effective in the 1980s,
   when 4.Qc2 was unpopular and White players feared the so-called
   Hübner Variation against 4.e3. Since the early 90s, though, it hasn't
   worked as well.)
   It's not as if the Taimanov Variation is fatal, but it's still nice to
   avoid it, and thus the search for move-order tricks continues. One
   idea I had one night, as I waited for sleep to overtake me, was 1.d4
   Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 a6. White often (but not
   always) plays a4 in response to ...a6, so this looks at first like a
   very simple solution. On the other hand, there's the variation 1.d4
   Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.e5, which
   is okay for Black - but just barely. Returning to my pre-sleep musing,
   I continued, after 6.e4 a6, with 7.f4 b5 8.e5. There was a little more
   mental analysis (on 8...Ng4, I think), but that was the end of it.
   To my surprise, the position after 8.e5 showed up in a game from last
   night's Chess Today: Lalic-Laurent, from a recent open tournament in
   France. Black, a player with the very decent FIDE rating of 2399,
   chose 8...b4, and you can figure out the rest for yourself. (The
   mystery is why Laurent didn't figure it out in advance, since the line
   through 8.e5 isn't hard for a 6...a6 player to figure out. Even I
   did!)
   The second game seems more successful innovating from the lower-rated
   player. In a sharp line of the Open Sicilian where White normally
   castles long, our hero castled short instead and still hacked his
   opponent to pieces. (Quite well, but it could have been even more
   beautiful - see the notes.)
   [1]Here are the games.

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/2miniatures_may2007.htm