Marvellous Meran

THIS is the second in an occasional series on How The Openings Got Their Names.
The Meran System, aka the Meran Variation, is a series of lines, many of them very sharp, in the Semi-Slav arising after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5.

Start of the Meran … the early moves, especially Black's second, third and fourth, can be played in various orders

The Meran is named after a town-sized city in the South Tyrol that was part of Austria but was given to Italy, and renamed Merano, after World War One.
The city hosted a tournament in 1924 in which Rubinstein used the "Meran System" as Black to beat Grünfeld, who later in the same tournament switched to the black side of the system to beat Spielmann.
It probably will not surprise anyone to learn that the Meran had been played long before it got its name, including by Bernstein to draw with Capablanca in 1914.
When I discovered that an international tournament, the Gold Cup, is still played for in the city, I could not resist going. That was in 2013, and I have been back twice since.
Meran(o) - the linguistic split in the wider commune is apparently almost exactly 50% German, 50% Italian, but with the latter dominating in the city itself - has a beautiful setting amid snow-capped mountains whose lower slopes are covered in vineyards and apple orchards.
The modern Gold Cup is organised as part of the German-based ChessOrg.de series of tournaments, which includes Bad Wörishofen and Malta.
The Gold Cup is that rarity of modern tournaments of being a nine-rounder that is not Fide-rated.
I never managed to play the Meran in Meran(o), not least because 2.c4 is a rare follow-up to 1.d4 d5 at club level.
But here is a double-d pawn opening from round two of the 2014 Gold Cup.
Franz-Josef Schleime (1749) - Spanton (1949)
London System
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 e5!?
As is usual in the London System, White has two pawn breaks - e4 and c4. Black is using a pseudo-Chigorin set-up in which he has only one pawn break, ...e5, but White's move-order has allowed Black to get in his pawn break first, albeit at the cost of moving a man for the second time in the opening.
7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Be2 Ng6?!
White was threatening to win a piece, but probably a better way of meeting that was to exchange on f3.
9.Bxd6 Qxd6 10.Nd4
Stockfish10 and Komodo9 want to dissolve Black's little centre with 10.c4, as grandmaster Nigel Davies played against me in a similar position in this month's South Wales International (https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/07/grandmaster-crush.html).
10...Bd7 11.Nb5 Qb6
I cannot recall why I did not play the simple 11...Bxb5 12.Bxb5+ c6.
12.Nc3 Nf6 13.Rb1 0-0 14.Nf3 Rad8 15.0-0
Not 15.Nxd5? Qa5+ 16.Nc3 Bh3.
15...Be6 16.Nd4?!
White's kingside proves surprisingly vulnerable after this. The engines suggest 16.b4!?
16...c5 17.Nxe6
Best, according to the engines, as 17.Nf3?, for example, runs into 17...d4.
fxe6 18.Bf3?
White is in big trouble after this, which is why the engines give 18.Bd3, albeit with a slight edge to Black.
18...Nh4 19.Bg4??
19.Be2 would have been met with the same move as in the game, so it seems best was 19.g3, but Black has the initiative after 19...Nxf3+.
19...d4
White loses a piece. The game finished:
20.exd4 Rxd4 21.Bxe6+ Qxe6 22.Qc1 Nxg2 0-1