Opening Lanes 
by Gary Lane

Mind Games

The psychology behind the choice of openings can arguably be
sometimes just as important as knowing the latest new move in
a variation. There are many cases where someone complains
that their mean opponent avoided their favourite line by playing
something boring but good. When Kasparov started playing the
Scotch against Karpov in the World Championship Match,
Lyon 1990 he surprised the chess world and more importantly
his opponent. Kasparov personally created a surge of interest in
the opening which has remained ever since. The main lines
have been extensively analysed so the neglected variations are
under investigation.

Ms Kanwal Bhatia (England) wants to know more about such
a line. "After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3
Qf6 6 c3 Nge7, how should Black respond to 7 Qd2 intending
8 Nb5?" 

The standard move as played by Kasparov is 7 Bc4 but the
variation with 7 Qd2 can be tricky. The idea is the obvious 8
Nb5 but in some cases 8 f4 is also good. An old example
demonstrates the long history of the line but also what happens
if Black plays passively: Paulsen-Bier Nuernberg 1883 1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Qd2
(See Diagram) 7...Nd8? This does little to help Black's
position and allows White to easily develop. 8 f4 d6 9 Bd3 Ne6
10 e5 dxe5? Straight from the opening Black is destined to lose
a lot of material. 11 Nxe6 Bxe3 12 Bb5+ Nc6 13 Nxc7+ Kf8
14 Qxe3 Rb8 15 Qc5+ Qe7 16 Qxe7+ 1-0

A reflex action is to play 7...a6 to stop the knight coming to b5
but this deservedly has a poor reputation because after 8 f4 d6 9
Be2 White has a pleasant space advantage. The game
H.Schneider-H.Kaulfuss, Hessenliga 1994 continued: 9...Qg6
10 Nxc6 Bxe3 11 Qxe3 Nxc6 12 0-0 0-0 13 Nd2 Re8 14 Qf3
f5 15 Bd3 Bd7 16 exf5 Qh6 (16...Bxf5 17 Qd5+ Be6 18 Bxg6
Bxd5 19 Bxe8 gives White a winning position) 17 Rae1 Kf8
18 Qg3 Ne7 19 Qg5 Qf6 20 g4 and the extra pawn gave White
an excellent game.

I remember being at a tournament in Northern France where
Miles played against 7 Qd2. The English grandmaster later
remarked that his opponent was under the impression that the
best line was a drawing variation. However, as Miles was one
of the first people in the tournament to win he was obviously
wrong.

M.Lupu-A. Miles Cappelle la Grande 1994 1 e4 Nc6 2 d4 e5 3
Nf3 exd4 4 Nxd4 Qf6 5 Be3 Bc5 6 c3 Nge7 7 Qd2 0-0 8 Nb5
Bxe3 9 Qxe3 d5! (See Diagram) An energetic continuation
which rightly ignores the concerns over the odd pawn in return
for active play. 10 Nxc7 Rb8 11 Nxd5 Nxd5 12 exd5 Nb4! A
key move to make sure White has no time to consolidate his
position. 12...Bg4?! was seen in I.Rothman-J.Curdo,
Philadelphia 1995. The idea is to exploit the exposed king but
is not convincing: 13 Nd2 Rbe8 14 Ne4 Qg6 15 f3 Bf5 16 Bd3
Ne5 17 0-0-0 Nxd3+ 18 Rxd3 Bxe4 19 fxe4 Rxe4 20 Qd2
when White's extra pawn should ensure victory. 13 Qd2 It is
tempting to snatch the knight with 13 cxb4 but it leads to
instant ruin after 13...Qxb2 14 Qc3 Re8+ 15 Kd1 Qxf2 with a
vicious attack for Black. 13...Re8+ 14 Be2 Bg4 15 f3 Nxd5!
An improvement on the game Lupu-Solozhenkin, Spain 1993
which continued 15...Bxf3 and led to a draw after 16 gxf3 Qxf3
17 Rg1 Nd3+ 18 Kd1 Nf2+. 16 0-0?! This allows Black to have
all the fun. A sterner test is 16 Qxd5 Rad8 17 Qxb7 when
Wells suggests 17...Bc8!? 18 Qxa7 Ba6 19 0-0 Rxe2! 20 Na3
Red2! with the threat of ...Qg5 giving Black the advantage.
16... Nf4 17 Bd1 Rbd8 18 Qf2 Bh3 (See Diagram) 0-1

Jonathan O'Connor (Ireland) writes: "I was playing a game
the other day. It went: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5
O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 O-O 8 a4 [Anti Marshall] 8...Bb7 9
c3 d6 [9...d5 is apparently better] 10 d4 Qd7?! 11 Nbd2 Kh8?!
12 Nf1 Ng8? 13 dxe5 (See Diagram) and I eventually pulled in
the full point. I looked up the line in a book on the Spanish, but
there isn't much on these lines, and I remember Kasparov
played it a lot against Short in their World Championship
match. So is the anti-Marshall any good for White, or did
Kasparov just play it to annoy Short?"

Kasparov certainly had success against Short and handled the
mind games well by avoiding his preparation in the Marshall.
In his book on the match The Inner Game Dominic Lawson
noted how Short thought this was initially a moral victory but I
suspect that faded after he lost his first two games with Black
against the opening. The match received enormous publicity
which has certainly inspired plenty of club players to avoid the
mass of theory associated with the Marshall and to employ the
shortcut to success. The Anti-Marshall is still popular at the
highest level with generally good results for White. For
example Shirov played it against Blatny at the Elista Olympiad
in 1998.

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7
Bb3 0-0 8 a4 Bb7 9 d3 (See Diagram) This is the main anti-
Marshall position. 9...d6 10 Nbd2 Nd7 11 c3 Nc5 12 Bc2
Nxa4 13 Bxa4 bxa4 14 Qxa4 Kh8 15 Nc4 f5 16 Ne3 fxe4 17
dxe4 Qe8 18 Nf5 Bd8?! In his notes to the game Shirov
suggests 18...Qg6 is unclear. 19 Bg5 g6 20 Ne3 Kg7 21 Nd5
Qf7 22 Be3 h6 23 c4 g5 24 c5 Ne7 25 Nc3 Qe6 26 Rad1 Bc6
27 Qc2 Ng6 28 Nd2 h5 29 cxd6 cxd6 30 Nf1 h4 31 Qd2 h3 32
Ng3 hxg2 33 Qxd6 Qc8 34 Nd5 Ba4 35 Nf5+ Rxf5 36 Rc1
Bc2 37 exf5 Qxf5 38 Bd2 Nh4 39 Re3 Rc8 40 Bc3 Kh7 41
Qxe5 Qxe5 42 Bxe5 Rc5 43 Nb4 Bb6 44 Nxc2 Rxe5 45 Rxe5
Nf3+ 46 Kxg2 Nxe5 47 Ne3 Nd3 48 Rc6 Bd4 49 b3 1-0

In your game the reason why it is difficult to find information
on the position after 9...d6 is because it has transposed to a
closed Spanish line that normally occurs after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3
Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-
0 9 a4 Bb7. In the game D.Prasad-G.Joshi, India Ch 1994,
White used his space advantage to good effect by making
progress on the queenside. The game continued: 10 d4 Re8 The
main alternative is 10...Na5 when after 11 Bc2 Nd7 12 Nbd2 c5
13 dxc5 dxc5 14 Nf1 White has a slight advantage. 11 Nbd2
Bf8 12 d5 Nb8 13 Qe2 Qd7 14 c4 A classic way for White to
lessen the impact of the forthcoming ...c6. The point is that
with the queen on d7 a normal move such 14...bxc4 is met by
15 Nxc4 when ...c6 is ruled out due to Nb6. 14...c6 15 dxc6
Nxc6 16 axb5 axb5 17 Rxa8 Bxa8 18 cxb5 Nb4 (See
Diagram) For the price of a pawn Black has some temporary
piece activity but it is not enough compensation. 19 Rd1 h6 20
Ne1 Rc8 21 Bc4 Qa7 22 b3 d5 23 exd5 Nbxd5 24 Bb2 Re8 25
Ra1 Qd7 26 Nf1 Nf4 27 Qd2 Qg4 28 Ne3 Qg5 29 Rxa8! The
attack is snuffed out and White can go on the offensive.
29...Rxa8 30 Nf3 Ne4 31 Qc2 Nh3+ 32 Kf1 Qf4 1-0

Of course, the Anti-Marshall is not to everyone's taste as the
positional lines gives Black plenty of opportunities to create
counterplay. Is the Marshall really to be feared? In the world's
elite Michael Adams has often had the chance to play his
beloved opening usually after his opponent has prepared a
novelty around move 25! At the recent Dos Hermanas
tournament, Adams maintained the honour of an opening that
sacrifices a pawn in return for extraordinary complicated
variations.

J.Polgar-Adams Dos Hermanas 1999 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5
a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 c3 d5 The move
that signals the Marshall. Of course, it is named after Frank
Marshall who played it against Capablanca in the New York
tournament 1918. 9 exd5 Nxd5 10 Nxe5 Nxe5 11 Rxe5 c6 12
d3 12 d4 is a major alternative. 12...Bd6 13 Re1 Qh4 14 g3
Qh3 15 Re4 Qf5 16 Nd2 Qg6 17 Re1 f5 (See Diagram) 

17...Qxd3?? has been played here and after 18 Bc2 Black can
put the pieces back into the box. 18 Qf3 In round two Anand
had tried 18 a4 against Adams but had made little progress; The
game continued: 18...Rb8 19 axb5 axb5 20 Nf3 f4 21 Ne5
Bxe5 22 Rxe5 fxg3 23 fxg3 Bg4 24 Qe1 Bh3 25 Be3 Rf1+ 26
Qxf1 Bxf1 27 Rxf1 Rf8 28 Rxf8+ «-«. 18...Kh8 19 Bd1
Black has good compensation after the greedy 19 Bxd5 cxd5 20
Qxd5 Ra7 when Black's light-square bishop will be a menace.
19...f4 20 g4 h5 21 h3 Nf6 22 Qg2 hxg4 23 hxg4 Bxg4 24
Re6! (See Diagram)

This would appear to be a star move. The pin on the bishop
means that the rook cannot be taken and Adams will suffer a
material loss. 24...Qh5! An inspired idea to give up a piece in
return for maintaining the pressure on White's exposed king.
The alternatives seem to dictate the decision: a) 24...Rad8 25
Ne4 and the twin threats of Nxd6 and Nxf6 followed by taking
on g4 looks decisive. b) 24...Rae8 seems to be in the spirit of
the opening by activating but is tactically flawed after 25 Qxg4!
when 25...Nxg4 26 Rxg6 Re1+ 27 Kg2 Rxd1 28 Rxg4 leaves
Black busted. 25 Bxg4 Nxg4 26 Rxd6 Rae8 27 Ne4 Ne5 28 f3
Nxf3+ 29 Kf2 Nh4 30 Qh1 g5 31 b4 g4 32 Bb2 g3+ 33 Kg1
Nf3+ 34 Kg2 Nh2 35 c4+ Kg8 (See Diagram) 36 Qd1? Jon
Speelman suggests that White can improve with 36 Kg1 when
his analysis continues 36...f3 37 Nxg3 f2+ 38 Kg2 f1Q+ 39
Qxf1! Rxf1 40 Nxh5 Re2+ 41 Kh3 Rxb2 42 Rxf1 Nxf1 Rxc6
when White has the better chances for victory. Therefore,
Adams should be content to settle for a draw with 36...Nf3+ 37
Kg2 Nh2 38 Kg1 Nf3+ repeating the position. 36... f3+ 37
Kxg3 Qg4+ 38 Kf2 Qh4+ 39 Ke3 Qf4+ 40 Kd4 Qe5+ 41 Ke3
Ng4+ 42 Kd2 Qxb2+ 43 Qc2 Qxa1 44 Rg6+ Kh7 45 Rxg4 f2
0-1

Finally, Michael de la Maza (USA) asks a question that has
been puzzling generations of players: "Why do GMs who are
playing White sometimes sit down at the table and then spend
ten minutes thinking about their first move? What are they
thinking about ? Haven't they had hours and hours to prepare?
Isn't this a waste of time? Are they trying to psychologically
outmanoeuvre their opponent?"

All your reasons why have an element of truth in them but you
can guarantee that if they lose it will be blamed on time-
trouble.