I suspect the gap since playing OTB was even longer for many participants at Crete - certainly none of us could complain about a lack of time to prepare new openings or to fine-tune old ones.
In round one I had black against a Belgian, Rudy Van de Wynkele, who has a Fide rating of 1908.
He has 27 games with the white pieces in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database, and each time played 1.e4.
I decided to play the Sicilian 1...c5, for which there were seven games: four with 2.Nf3, two with 2.g3 and one with 2.a3.
The complete game can be seen at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2021/06/crete-round-one.html but here I want to look in some depth at the opening.
Van de Wynkele - Spanton
Sicilian b3
1.e4 c5 2.b3!?
What I failed to take into account is that Mega21, as well as having Rudy Van de Wynkele, also has Rudy Van de Wynkele1. The latter entry has just two games, one of which as White, from 1980, began 1.e4 c5 2.b3.
The text is White's eighth-most popular move in ChessBase's Mega21, but even so there are more than 11,000 games. White's idea is to pressurise the black kingside, and it may be RW was aware I like to play ...g6 on move two in the Sicilian. However, 2.b3 does not prevent 2...g6 - Magnus Carlen is just one strong grandmaster who has played it.
2...Nc6
Easily the most-popular reply, and fairly non-committal in that Black will almost certainly want to play the queen's knight to c6 at a fairly early point.
3.Bb2 e5
This could be seen as providing the fianchettoed bishop with a target, but is aimed at blunting the bishop's power. In the Nimzowitsch-Larsen 1.b3, which this game partly resembles, Black's most-popular response is 1...e5. A big difference is that here Black has created a hole at d5.
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| Position after 3...e5 |
I think White has three major plans:
1. Attack the e5 square with f4 and Nf3, keeping in mind the possibility of pushing on with f5.
2. Blast open the centre with c3 and d4.
3. Play on the light squares in the centre.
4.Nc3
RW opts for the third plan.
Van de Wynkele - Jan Delabie, Belgian Championship (Sint-Niklaas) 1980, saw 4.Nf3 d6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3, which does not follow any of the three plans I have outlined, The game was drawn in 21 moves.
4...Nf6
Grandmasters have also played 4...d6 and 4...g6.
5.Bc4 Na5N
This is not liked by the analysis engines Stockfish13 and Komodo12.1.1.
Mega21 has 58 games with 5...Be7 and 57 with 5...d6.
The sequence 5...Nxe4 6.Nxe4 d5 7.Bd3 dxe4 8.Bxe4 has been seen in four games of Evgeny Romanov. He scored +3=1-0, albeit his average rating in those games was 2478 against his opponents' average of 2298. The engines reckon the position after 8.Bxe4 is equal.
6.Be2
White preserves the bishop-pair. If Black were now to play 6...Nc6, which is Stockfish13's choice, it would be as if White had been given the move Be2 for free. On the other hand, Black could point to the fact that e2 is a lot-less active square for the bishop than c4.
However, the engines reckon White should leave the bishop on c4. Stockfish13 rates 6.f4 Nxc4 7.bxc4 d6 8.Nge2 as being much better for White; Komodo12.1.1 similarly likes for White 6.d3 Nxc4 7.dxc4!?
6...Be7
6...d5?! seems premature, the engines giving White the upper hand after 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Bb5+ Nc6 9.Qe2.
7.Nf3
The engines reckon White should switch to plan one above with 7.f4 d6 8.fxe5 dxe5 8.Nf3, slightly preferring White.
7...d6 8.h3
This obviously prevents ...Bg4, but also might be part of a plan to castle long (after Black castles short) and launch a pawn-and-piece attack on the kingside.
8...0-0
Castling early in an open position is usually good because it reduces the opponent's tactical opportunities, while castling early in a closed one is often bad because it gives away the king's address too soon. Here the position is neither closed nor yet open, but I felt queenside castling was an unlikely option for Black and so decided to commit to the kingside.
9.d3 Nc6
Reaching a position that occurs five times in Mega21, all with Black to move. So Black has lost a tempo with the manoeuvre ...Nc6-a5-c6. But despite this, the engines slightly prefer Black.
10.g3?!
True, there have been no pawn-exchanges, but the position is not closed enough to allow for this time-consuming redeployment of White's light-square bishop.
10...Nd4
This was probably a good time for ...d5.
11.Bf1 b5
Playable because 12.Nxd4 cxd4 13.Nxb5?? loses to 13...Qa5+.
12.Bg2 b4 13.Ne2 a5
Expanding on the queenside is often a good plan for Black in the Sicilian, especially in Closed Sicilians, which the position much resembles.
14.a4 Ra7!?
Taking the rook off the diagonal of White's light-square bishop, and hoping to eventually double rooks on the f file. 14...bxa3?! leaves the a5 pawn weak.
15.Nd2
The knight heads for the c4 outpost.
15...Be6
The engines are not keen on this, reckoning Black is better after 15...h5 (Komodo12.1.1) or 15...d5 (Stockfish13).
16.Nc4 Qc7
I usually regard the opening as ending when one player has cleared the back rank sufficiently to connect rooks. Here Black has so cleared the back rank, although the rooks are not actually connected. However I feel it is fair to say the middlegame is underway.
How to assess the results of the opening? White has a strong knight at c4 and his position is without weaknesses. Black has an even stronger knight at d4 and can claim his light-square bishop is the only one with any real activity in that it pressurises h3. Black also has more queenside space, but has to keep a constant watch on the a5 pawn.
To me, Black is very slightly better. The engines' evaluations change the more time they are given, but they generally consider the position equal, although with a slight tendency to inch towards favouring White.
I think it is fair to say this is a game in which the outcome has by no means been decided in the opening, but it can be regarded as a success for Black in that Black has nullified White's advantage of moving first.
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