Wednesday 2 September 2009

Not so drawish

At the top level the Petroff is considered a tough nut to crack, although that may have more to do with the players who play it as Black (eg Kramnik) than the merits of the opening. Nonetheless there is a degree of truth to the notion that the Petroff involves swapping off the major pieces on the e file and then heading to the bar for a drink.
However at the current Montreal Open, GM Mark Bluvshtein discovered that White can still whip up quite an attack, even with most of the pieces gone. After Black's novelty on move 16, White chose a few direct mate threats to reposition his pieces, before creating a few weaknesses in Black's position. Even with queens gone White maintained the initiative, and when Black blundered on move 20, control of the e file proved decisive.

Naiditsch,Arkadij (2697) - Bluvshtein,Mark (2558) [C42]
10th Montreal International Tournament Montreal (2), 28.08.2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Re1 Bf5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Nc3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Bxd3 13.Qxd3 Nc6N (D)
14.Ng5 g6 15.Qh3 h5 16.g4 Qd7 17.gxh5 Qxh3 18.Nxh3 gxh5 19.Rb1 b6 20.Kh1 f6? 21.Re6 Rad8 22.Bf4 Bxf4 23.Nxf4 Na5 24.Re7 1-0

2 comments:

Thomas said...

To be fair, Bluvshtein's total score with black in the Petroff against reasonably strong opponents is now +4 =3 -1 (based on games in chessgames.com). Check out his game against Shirov (0-1, 23):
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1349033

Paul said...

Club players can play the Petroff and feel good about it...