Nimzo-Indian Saemisch/Botvinnik variation

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Nimzo-Indian Saemisch/Botvinnik variation

Post by Paul McKeown » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:17 pm

Hi everyone,

Is Yusupov - Karpov, Linares 1993, really the last word on this variation [1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. Bd3 0-0 6. a3 Bxc3 7. bxc3], as Kasparov seems to say in Vol. II of "My Great Predecessors". I having been thinking of taking up the Nimzo as Black and playing the Saemisch as White, but my sources are all quite old now....

Karpov continued 7... Nc6 8. Ne2 b6 9. 0-0 Ba6 10. e4 Ne8! 11. f4 f5 12. Ng3 g6! 13. Be3 cxd4! 14. cxd4 d5! against Yusupov in that game. The exclams are Kasparov's.

Regards,
Paul McKeown.

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Nimzo-Indian Saemisch/Botvinnik variation

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:20 pm

Paul McKeown wrote:Hi everyone,

Is Yusupov - Karpov, Linares 1993, really the last word on this variation [1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. Bd3 0-0 6. a3 Bxc3 7. bxc3], as Kasparov seems to say in Vol. II of "My Great Predecessors". I having been thinking of taking up the Nimzo as Black and playing the Saemisch as White, but my sources are all quite old now....

Karpov continued 7... Nc6 8. Ne2 b6 9. 0-0 Ba6 10. e4 Ne8! 11. f4 f5 12. Ng3 g6! 13. Be3 cxd4! 14. cxd4 d5! against Yusupov in that game. The exclams are Kasparov's.

Regards,
Paul McKeown.
With the exception of Carlsen v Aronian from Elista in 2007, no-one really at the top has played these lines in the recent past. One might conclude that although there are numerous alternative moves for both players, the fundamentals are still Ok for black.

Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Re: Nimzo-Indian Saemisch/Botvinnik variation

Post by Paul McKeown » Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:39 pm

Carlsen - Aronian, Elista 2007 being:

[Event "WCh Candidates s/f"]
[Site "Elista RUS"]
[Date "2007.06.03"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Carlsen,M"]
[Black "Aronian,L"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2693"]
[BlackElo "2759"]
[EventDate "2007.05.27"]
[ECO "E29"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Bd3 Nc6
8. Ne2 b6 9. e4 Ne8 10. O-O Ba6 11. f4 f5 12. e5 d6 13. d5 exd5 14. cxd5
Bxd3 15. Qxd3 dxe5 16. Qd2 Ne7 17. Rd1 Ng6 18. fxe5 Nxe5 19. Nf4 Rf7 20.
Qe2 Ng6 21. Ne6 Qd7 22. c4 Nd6 23. Bb2 Re8 24. Qh5 Nf8 25. Ng5 Rfe7 26.
Rac1 Re2 27. Bc3 R2e7 28. Rf1 h6 29. Nh3 Re4 30. Nf4 Qf7 31. Qh3 Rxc4 32.
Nh5 Ne4 33. Bxg7 Ng5 34. Qb3 Rxc1 35. Nf6+ Kxg7 36. Nxe8+ Qxe8 37. Qb2+ Kg6
38. Qxc1 Qe5 39. Rd1 Ne4 40. Qe3 Nd7 41. d6 h5 42. Qb3 c4 43. Qxc4 Qc5+ 44.
Qxc5 bxc5 45. Rb1 Kf6 46. Rb7 Ke6 47. Rxa7 Kxd6 48. Kf1 c4 49. Ke2 c3 50.
Ra6+ Kd5 51. Kd1 Ne5 52. Ra5+ Kd4 53. Kc2 Nc4 54. Ra8 Ne3+ 55. Kb3 Nc5+ 56.
Ka2 c2 57. Rd8+ Kc3 0-1

Note that this was rd. 12, which was a blitz tie-breaker.

Interesting that Carlsen played 12. e5 rather than 12. Ng3; White certainly didn't seem to get any value at all.

Thanks!