The Safest Grünfeld A Complete Repertoire for Black Alexander Delchev Evgenij Agrest Chess Stars www.chess-stars.com Current Theory and Practice Series The Safest Grünfeld Translation and editing by Semko Semkov Cover design by Kalojan Nachev Copyright © 2011 by Alexander Delchev Printed in Bulgaria ISBN: 978-954-8782-81-4 Contents Foreword 5 Introduction 10 Part 1 The Fianchetto System 11 Part 2 The Bf4 System 61 Part 3 The Bg5 System 103 Part 4 The e3 System 139 Part 5 The Qb3 System 157 Part 6 Rare Systems I 175 Part 7 Rare Systems II 197 Part 8 The Exchange System 7.Be3 209 Part 9 The Exchange System 7.Nf3 225 Part 10 The Exchange System 7.Bc4 257 Part 11 SOS Systems 305 Part 12 Anti-Grünfeld – 3.f3 313 Part 13 The English Anti-Grünfeld 329 Index of Variations 343 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 Foreword My first book, The Safest Sicilian, the exchange sacrifice: 10...Bg4 11 has been very well received and f3 Na5 12 Bd3 cd 13 cd Be6 14 d5!. readers often asked me if I was writ- Although there is not a forced win, ing something new. So when in the Black’s defence is far from trivi- beginning of 2010 Chess Stars of- al. White can develop his initiative fered me to continue our collabora- in different directions, and Black tion, I did not hesitate long. I chose must be able to find only moves in the Grünfeld Defence, because it is all of them. one of the most quickly developing We were both of the same opi- openings and, like the Sicilian, of- nion about the popular system with fers fair chances to play for a win. 10...Na5 and 11..b6. It is playable, but risky, and also requires memo- I have been studying the Grün- rization of tons of variations. As feld for years. I often used it in deci- we later saw, even World champi- sive games as Black, but I also have on Anand failed to cope with these extensive practice as White. problems and was crushed in the In 2009, Topalov’s assistant GM first game of the match in Sofia Cheparinov invited me to help him 2010 against Topalov. prepare for the World Cup tour- We reached the conclusion that naments and the World Champi- only the Classical system with onship in Khanty Mansiysk. Dur- ...Qc7 gives Black fair chances to ing our work, we made a general play sound positional chess. In it, examination of various openings. it is of paramount importance to be I was surprised by the extraordi- well acquainted with its strategic nary working capacity of Chepari- ideas. The focus is shifted towards nov and also by the powerful arse- pawn structures and plans, rath- nal of his opening ideas. We often er than move-by-move forced play. discussed the Exchange line in the That makes it much safer from a Grünfeld. He did not need too much practical point of view, because the effort to convince me that Black was role of calculation and home prepa- in real danger in the main line with ration is reduced. 5 Foreword I have also learned how to or- XIIIIIIIIY ganise effectively the joint work of 9rsnl+-trk+0 two grandmasters, and how to dis- 9zp-wq-zppvlp0 tribute tasks in order to reap the 9-zp-+-+p+0 best harvest from it. 9+-zp-+-+-0 My duties were to seek original 9-+-zPP+-+0 ideas which significantly differed 9+-zP-+N+-0 from established theory, and mark 9P+-+LzPPzP0 the main pawn structures, plans 9+RvLQ+RmK-0 and move order tricks. Then we xiiiiiiiiy both put the idea under the micro- This development practically scope of different engines. Final- eli minates all the theory and lets ly Cheparinov decided whether the Black play in the centre without idea deserved a practical test. running any risk of being crushed “by the book”. I used the same method with my co-author Evgenij Agrest. He We followed this approach plays the Grünfeld only as White throughout the whole book. In eve- so he provided the necessary criti- ry major system, we tried to offer at cal view on my analytical work. At least two alternatives. That should first I prepared a general survey of a bring about flexibility in our rep- given system, with an approximate ertoire, and allow a variable ap- evaluation of every branch. Zhen- proach to opponents according to ya’s task was to find a decent way their strength or playing style. With for Black to deviate from the es- our backup lines, you should be able tablished theory. When I deemed to avoid long forced variations and that his proposed setup had a solid surprise your opponents. Even for positional background and the risk our main lines, we aimed to focus was reasonably low, we started ana- (whenever possible) on positional- lysing with engines. Our best assis- ly sound and less forced variations. tants were Firebird and the current number 1, Houdini. The result of We are convinced that the stud- our effort was a number of so lid al- ying of an opening should not be- ternative setups which could serve gin with a memorization of varia- as good backup lines or even as a tions. We should first understand main repertoire. what our positional aims are, what to pursue and what to avoid. Then For instance, in the Exchange we should examine the typical System 7.Nf3 c5 8.Rb1 0-0 9.0-0, in pawn structures and plans that en- addition to the main line with 9... sue from them. Only then should we Nc6, Agrest ana lysed in detail 9... choose a system which best fits in b6 10.0-0 Qc7!. with our style of play. 6 Foreword Here are some examples from fully gained space on the queenside. the practice of my students. Now he could have applied anoth- We had studied the typical ide- er typical method – a pawn sacri- as and a few classical examples, so fice – to seize the initiative: 15...f6 when Kadric got into the position of 16.e6 ¤b6 17.¥xc5 ¤bc4 18.£c1 f5 the following diagram, he did not 19.0-0 ¦c8ƒ, instead of the timid get crushed, despite the fact that he 15...¦c8. However, later he got the did not know the best move order: upper hand, but failed to convert his advantage. Drenchev-Kadric Plovdiv 05.02.2011 When we studied the ideas of the XIIIIIIIIY g3-system, I showed the game Ben- 9r+-wq-trk+0 ko-Smyslov, Budapest 1949 (given 9zppzp-zppvlp0 in the intro of Part 1) which intro- 9-+n+-snp+0 duced for the first time the attack on 9+-+P+-+-0 the queenside by the a-pawn. 9-+Q+P+l+0 During the following game, 9+-sN-+N+-0 Kad ric recalled it and, inspired by 9PzP-+LzPPzP0 Smyslov’s example, followed up by: 9tR-vL-mK-+R0 xiiiiiiiiy G.Szabo-Kadric 9...Bxf3?! Plovdiv 03.02.2011 Correct is 9...Na5! 10.Qa4 Bxf3. XIIIIIIIIY 10.gxf3 Na5 11.Qd3! c5! 12.Be3 9r+lwqr+k+0 Nd7 13.f4 a6 14.e5 b5 15.Qd2 9+pzp-zppvlp0 XIIIIIIIIY 9-snn+-+p+0 9r+-wq-trk+0 9zp-+-+-+-0 9+-+nzppvlp0 9-+-zP-+-+0 9p+-+-+p+0 9+PsN-zPNzP-0 9snpzpPzP-+-0 9P+-+-zPLzP0 9-+-+-zP-+0 9tR-vLQtR-mK-0 9+-sN-vL-+-0 xiiiiiiiiy 9PzP-wQLzP-zP0 11...a4!? 9tR-+-mK-+R0 Consistent, though probably not xiiiiiiiiy best (11...e5!=). White is 150 Elo points high- 12.Nxa4 Nxa4 13.bxa4 e5! er rated (2521) than his opponent 14.Bb2 exd4 15.Bxd4 Nxd4 16.Nxd4 and much more experienced, but Bxd4 17.Qxd4 Qxd4 18.exd4 and he was forced to think concrete- Black easily drew against the 185 ly in an unusual position. Black re- Elo points favourite. membered that I advocate ...a6 and I would also like to call your at- ...b5 in the Grünfeld and success- tention to a thematic manoeuvre 7 Foreword in the Grünfeld – ...Nc6-a5-b7-d6, mend in the book to resort to this blockading the advanced d5-pawn. plan mostly after having gained I first delved into this idea dur- space on the queenside first with ing my work with Ivan Saric, a ...b5. World and European champion un- der 18, and now the leading Croa- My advice is: study the main tian grandmaster. One of my stu- stra tegic ideas, before drawing your dents liked it so much that he strived conclusions. Play according to the to reach a similar pawn structure position – do not overestimate your in every game, thinking that Black chances. After all, we have Black, was even better. I spent some ef- so reaching comfortable equality fort to convince him that the eval- should not upset us. uation of such a position depended on the placement of the other piec- To save you time and help you es. Here is a fresh example from my quickly achieve practical results, I own practice: have used a slightly different struc- ture than in The Safest Sicilian. This Naumkin-Delchev time I borrowed the style of pres- Cappelle la Grande 27.02.2011 entation of my colleague in the Bul- XIIIIIIIIY garian national team, Kiril Geor- 9r+-+-trk+0 giev, from his book Squeezing the 9zppwq-+pvlp0 Gambits, Chess Stars 2010. Again, 9-+-sn-+p+0 every part is divided to 3 chap- 9zP-zpPzp-+-0 ters.