Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Caveman Squeeze at the Alekhine Memorial


For those interested in the Caveman Caro-Kann, the game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave -- Ding Liren, Alekhine Memorial 2013 is a must-see treat.   Ding Liren, who played the best game of Informant #114 (an incredible attack out of an IQP position) and is no slouch (he beat Aronian in the first round after all), essayed the line 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h6 (rather than 4...h5 5.Bg5!? perhaps) and after 5.g4 Be4 (5...Bd7 is best) 6.f3 Bh7 7.e6! he tried the novel 7...Nf6!? (instead of the standard 7...Qd6 8.exf7+ Kxf7 9. f4!? discussed by Alexey Kuzmin in CBM #152).  Vachier-Legrave sacrificed two pawns to put his opponent into a bind after 8.Bf4! Qb6 9.Nc3 Qxb2 10.Kd2! Qb6 11.Nge2 a6 12.Rb1 Qa7 13.Na4 b5 14.Nc5 Bg8 15.Be5 fxe6 16.Nf4 and then played an incredible game to exploit his positional advantage. Well worth seeing, with notes at several sites (see below).

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