English Chess Forum

I think that 6 Rg1 was first tried in the 1980s if not earlier?

I think there's almost no legal (non outright blunder) move that hasn't been played against the Najdorf now. Many of them are only specifically useful depending on whether black players prefer classical (e5) or Scheveningen (e6) setups. And how comfortable they are with Dragon (g6) set ups. If a black player is comfortable with all of them then many of the possible sixth moves lose their point/value, because the 'move order' tricks tend to end up in relatively harmless (from a theoretical perspective) variations.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 19, 2020 4:39 pm

I think that 6 Rg1 was first tried in the 1980s if not earlier?

I didn't find anything before 1990, a Yugoslav (Serbian) player by the name of Todorovic being an early adopter.

It became a bit more popular later in the decade with Ivanchuk and Conquest giving it a go.

It was played in the recent Hull Norm event by Greet against Eggleston.

The strategically similar line with 6. h3 and 7. g4 would appear to date back to the 1960s with Fischer v Reshevsky in the 1962 US Championship an early example.

Duda chalks up another win for Black and it's possible that the last two games to finish may go the same way, White fighting for a draw in each. Kovalev's game reminds me a little of that one in Think Like A Grandmaster where Kotov's ex-trainer says "is that how I taught you to play".

(Although Anand is now losing what was previously a winning position against Caruana.)

Total swindle from Fab there

Firouzja v Carlsen today, in a game which the World Champion might well need to win with Black if he wishes to win to win this tournament again.

Magnus playing the correct 4...d6. I'd normally favour the underdog but I do like to support my own openings so I might back Carlsen today.

Firouzja heading into in time trouble (half an hour plus the increments for 23 moves). Is this usual for him?

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:21 pm

Magnus playing the correct 4...d6. I'd normally favour the underdog but I do like to support my own openings so I might back Carlsen today.

Notwithstanding the Berlin move order, they've transposed back into a Zaitsev. White lost a tempo by first playing d2-d3 and then d3-d4, but got it back by playing Ba4-c2 in one move instead of two. Perhaps provoked by Carlsen's Nc6-b8 Firouzja is playing it for White in a similar manner to facing a Breyer. chessbomb's Stockfish doesn't like White's plan.

I've been tuned into Svidler and Gustaffson on Youtube for half an hour. Do they ever talk about the games at all?

To quote from the Chessbomb comments (at move 33):

alireza is completely toasted

The “Future World Champion” (ahem) managed to get himself a position around move 12 that I had many times in Majors as Black in the early 90s.

It was the sort of thing White chessers circa 140-160 ECF (old grades) used to try against the Zaitsev when they didn’t know what they were doing. Compared to the main line Black saves a tempo not having to play ... h6.

It was a surprise, to put it mildly, to see it crop up today in Magnus’s game against the supposed next champ.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:18 pm

Firouzja v Carlsen today, in a game which the World Champion might well need to win with Black if he wishes to win to win this tournament again.

You made that sound hard

Four rounds to go, and Caruana (who drew) is leading on 6/9, with a chasing pack of four players on 5.5/9 (Carlsen, Van Foreest, Firouzja and So). Duda may yet join the group on 5.5. The game by Van Foreest was interesting - one of those tablebase draws by the looks of it, where Van Foreest looked close to winning.