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Chessville
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First up is “A Harmless Little Bishop Move” in the Four Knights Game: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Be2!? Author John van der Wiel trotted this wrinkle out back in the 1980s, when it scored 5-1 for him. In SOS #7 he annotates a win with it from Wijk aan Zee 2007 as well as two more of his significant games. Jeroen Bosch then provides a tutorial on the “Sicilian: O’Kelly Variation” 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 for Black. While he worries that it may be “in a way too mainstream” he includes it because “it is highly annoying for loads and loads of players.” He recommends that Black have another variation to back it up, though, say answering 3.c4 with 3…e6 and a transposition into the Kan. Noteworthy is Bosch’s point that 3.c3 transposes into a volume six SOS after 3…e6 4.d4 d5 5.e5 Bd7 while 3.c3 Qa5is the kind of thing reviewed in volume one. Glenn Flear recommends “Really Accepting the QGA” with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 e3 Be6! and provides eight games to back up his contention that while “there are a few lines which are challenging for the second player” the risks are “no more than in many ‘respectable’ opening variations.” Friso Nijboer advocates “The Shirov Gambit versus the Philidor” – a shot in the arm for White, as Black has been of late transposing into the defense with the indirect 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7. How about now 5.g4!? That’s direct! Later on Bosch explores a similar tactical idea in “Bayonet Blow in the Bogo” 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 c5 5.Bxb4 cxb4 6.g4!? Or there’s that “Early Surprise in a Classical Nimzo,” as Dorian Rogozenko dusts off the Rubinstein Variation: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 Ne4!? He provide many ideas, although in summation he admits that “the bad news is that a well-prepared opponent with white should be able to emerge with some opening advantage” against the line. As with many unorthodox openings, they work best at the right time, against the right opponent, with the right time control. Speaking of surprise value, Adrian Mikhalchishin re-introduces “The Caro-Kann of Bukhuti Gurgenidze” 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 b5!? Ah, you thought that one was dead and buried, right? SOS! SOS! Arthur Kogan reflects upon his preparation for a game against Boris Alterman, and his decision to rely on “Inspiration versus the Dragon” showing two of his games reaching the same position after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Ncd4 g6 6.Bc4 Bg7 7.Nf3 as well as the game Tal – Hansen, Reykjavik 1986 which provided the inspiration. Should one be “Chasing the ‘Trompowsky’ Bishop” with 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 f6!?. Bosch thinks so. “This ugly move is what this SOS is all about” he reassures us. Slow positional play can follow 3.Bh4 Nh6, but he recommends playing for …e5 after 3.Bf4, including mentioning a sideline which reaches a reversed Blackmar Diemer Gambit after 3…Nc6 4.Nf3 e5!? His more sedate move is 4…Bg4. Dimitri Reinderman suggests an “Edgy Knight against the Bird” – 1.f4 Nh6!?, when play can reach an unusual Scandinavian Defense after 2.e4 d5. If White plays more sedately, Reinderman shows how the offside black knight can fit into reversed Leningrad, Classical and Stonewall Dutch formations. Want “a simple idea with some bite”? Flear recommends “The Semi-Slav with 6.a3” for the first player: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.a3!? reaching positions “where Black has to make the difficult decisions early on.” He’s played the line five times and won with it five times. On the other hand, Alexander Finkel offers the “Modern for Advanced Players” with 1.Nf3 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.e3 c5!? This offers ideas for the second player who doesn’t want to meet the move order 1.d4 d6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 with a transposition to the King’s Indian after either 4…Nf6 (4…e5 is covered in SOS #4). Readers who took Bosch’s suggestion in the O’Kelly chapter and found themselves transposing to the Kan variation of the Siclian 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Ncd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 still have a rabbit to pull from the hat: “Taimanov’s Surprise Sac in the Kan,” 7…Nxe4!? Here Bosch illustrates the idea with the wild affair Morozevich - Svidler, Moscow-St. Petersburg 2002. What could be simpler than Mikhalchishin’s suggestion for an “Anti-Grünfeld and Anti-Volga” line 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.d5!? Of course, Black can still try 3…b5 – or 3…d6, 3…Bg7 or even 3…e5 – but White has ways to deal with it. Igor Glek and Jean-Olivier Leconte highlight the latter’s novelty in “French: the Gledhill Attack” 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Qg4 c5 6.dxc5!? I think it’s kind of cool to see in one of the notes that “In a training game, my wife – WGM Maria Leconte Nepeina – played…” Finally, Hikaru Nakamura shares his experiences in “Not Going for Scholar’s Mate” by analyzing his game against Sasikiran at Copenhagen/Malmö 2005, which began 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5. Other games are referred to in the notes. Nakamura tips his hat to Bernard Parham, who has done a lot of work with 2.Qh5 against a number of defensive setups. As in previous SOSs, the SOS Competition continues: “play the best SOS game, send it to us and win € 250, - (or 275 US dollars).” The winning game from SOS #6 is Habden - Hennigan England 2006/07, featuring the Tarzan Attack: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.Qd2, etc. There are also updates from individual lines given in SOS #1, #5 and #6. New In Chess does its usual fine job in presentation – double columned text, a couple of diagrams per page, good use of fonts, bold and white space, with no noticeable typos or dypos. You might fuss
over individual chapters or openings, some of which have lines that you may
never want to use or which you’d love to face, but this latest edition of
Secrets of Opening Surprises is another toolbox full of monkey wrenches
to throw into the opening plans of your opponents. Club players up to
masters will be reminded again just how much fun chess can be. From the Publisher's website:
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