Lessons From South Wales V

IN round five at the South Wales International I had white against a 1754.

The full game can be seen at S5 but here I want to concentrate on the gambit I played against my opponent's Sicilian.

The game began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6, which I met with a kingside fianchetto that has been played by at least four reigning or future world champions, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen.

After 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 the main move is 4...Nf6, but my game saw 5...d6, which is narrowly the second-most popular continuation in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database.

Following 5.0-0 Nf6 6.Qe2 Qc7 I played to build a centre with 7.c3, when Stockfish15 and Komodo13.02 agree with the game's response of 7...e5.

How should White proceed?

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A 2572 played 8.Rd1, which occurs eight out of 21 times in Mega22, while a 2510 chose 8.Na3, which occurs five times. The engines like the latter, and also 8.h3.

I preferred 8.d4!?, hoping the uncastled state of the black king would justify my pawn offer. The game continued 8...exd4 9.cxd4 Be7?! 10.dxc5 dxc5 11.Bf4 with a clear advantage to White.

Critical is 9...cxd4, transposing to Qingyu Yuan (2373) - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2627), Chess.com Blitz 2021. That game ran 10.Na3 Be7!? 11.Nb5 Qb6 12.Rd1, when 12.Bg4 would have been fine for Black. Abdusattorov played the inferior 12...0-0? but won anyway.

The engines prefer a more-direct approach with 10.Rd1, although note White is not threatening 11.Nxd4?? as that loses to 11...Nxd4 12.Rxd4 Qxc1+.

The engines fluctuate between two main replies for Black, one indirectly defending d4 and the other getting on with kingside development.

A) 10...Bg4, which they reckon should be met with 11.Nbd2. Now 11...Qc8!? (better than 11...Qd7, according to the engines) stops h3, but White can instead play 12.Nb3, after which the sacrificed pawn will be regained with a slight edge, eg 12...Be7 13.Nbxd4 0-0 14.Bf4.

B) 10...Be7 is possible because, as explained above, White is not threatening Nxd4. Instead White can play 11.h3, preventing ...Bg4. After 11...0-0 12.Na3 White is again ready to recapture the sacrificed pawn, emerging with at least a slight edge.

CONCLUSION: 8.d4!? seems a fully sound sacrifice. If the sac is not accepted, White can gain space without loss of tempo with 9.d5, so Black probably needs to find an improvement earlier in the opening.