Zebedee Jones (1342) - Spanton (1743)
Sicilian Hyper-Accelerated Dragon
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Nc6 4.Nc3!?
There are 472 examples of this move in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database, but far more popular is 4.d4.
4...Bg7
 |
| Thanks to this position often arising from the Symmetrical Variation of the English, there are 993 examples in Mega24 |
*****
*****
*****
*****
5.Be2 d6 6.0-0 e5!?
As Fide master Richard Britton pointed out afterwards, this is very committal. He suggested 6...e6, while most popular in Mega24 is 6...Nf6!?, although the latter allows 7.d4, eg 7...cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nxe4!? 9.Nxc6 Nxc3 10.Nxd8 Nxd1 11.Rxd1 Kxd8, with a completely equal position, according to Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1.
7.d3 Nge7 8.Bg5!? f6 9.Be3
 |
| It might seem manoeuvring the bishop from c1-g5-e3 loses a tempo, but Black will almost certainly play a later ...f5, returning the 'lost' tempo |
*****
*****
*****
*****
9...Nd4 10.Nd5!?
Possibly a novelty. Known is 10.Qd2.
10...Nxd5 11.cxd5 Nxe2+!?
Winning the bishop-pair, but giving up a good knight for a bad bishop in a position with 16 pawns still on the board.
12.Qxe2 0-0 13.Nd2 f5 14.f3 f4 15.Bf2 g5
 |
| How should White proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
16.b4!?
An interesting positional pawn sacrifice that gives the white bishop a diagonal to work on, but leaves Black with a queenside pawn-majority. Also interesting is 16.a4!?, trying to secure the c4 square for the knight.
16...cxb4 17.Rad1?!
Better than the text is Britton's suggestion of 17.Rfb1. However after 17...a5 18.a3 the engines point out the strength of 18...b5!?, intending to meet 19.axb4 with 19...a4. They prefer 17.a3!? bxca3 18.Rxa3, treating the position in Benko Gambit-style.
17...b6 18.d4?
Consistent but bad. The engines give 18.Rc1, albeit awarding Black at least a slight edge.
18...a5 19.Nc4 Ba6 20.Rc1 exd4 21.Qd3 Qf6 22.Rfd1 Rac8 23.Bxd4?
This speeds the end, but White is lost anyway, according to the engines.
23... Qxd4+ 24.Qxd4 Bxd4+ 25.Rxd4 b5 0-1
No comments:
Post a Comment