Yearbook 137

New In Chess Yearbook, which appears four times a year, contains the latest news in chess openings. Each issue brings you dozens of new ideas on the cutting edge of modern chess opening theory. Have a look at what this issue has to offer.

Forum
The experiments have continued in the many online events held during the OTB lockdown. That makes excellent Forum material! Han Schut writes about Magnus Carlsen’s 7.g4 in the QGD (it gets played earlier and earlier) and René Olthof was pleasantly surprised by a Vasily Ivanchuk win with the King’s Gambit – an opening on which we also have a Survey, for the first time in ages, by Bogdan Lalic. And be sure not to miss Krishnan Sasikiran’s amazing analysis of a recent correspondence game featuring the Anti-Sveshnikov Sicilian.

From Our Own Correspondent
This time Erwin l’Ami presents a mixture of standard and non-standard openings. You’ll be surprised to know that From’s Gambit seems to hold up even in correspondence games! That is an encouraging thought for all those gambiteers out there. The Catalan and the QGD are also extensively scrutinized, the latter with a correspondence game by the Dutch GM himself, and he concludes with a study of two nice offbeat openings.

Reviews
The same juxtaposition as in the Correspondence column can also be found in Glenn Flear’s reviews this time. A Complete Opening Repertoire for Black after 1.e4 e5! by new author Yuriy Krykun (who will be awarded the IM title soon and has also written Surveys for us) features some fresh out-of-the-box ideas, and this is even more so in the case of Unconventional Approaches to Modern Chess Volumes 1 and 2 by Alexander Ipatov, whose middle name seems to be ‘Unorthodox’. More classical approaches can be found in Martyn Kravtsiv’s thorough work The Italian Renaissance (also 2 volumes!) and Squeezing 1.e4 e5: a solid strategic approach by Alexander Khalifman and Sergei Soloviov.

1.e4 openings
Sicilian Defence - Najdorf Variation 6.Rg1 - Bosch
Sicilian Defence - Najdorf Variation 6.Bd3 - Külaots
Sicilian Defence - Scheveningen 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 - l’Ami
Sicilian Defence - Rossolimo Variation 3.Bb5 e5 - Pavlovic
Sicilian Defence - Taimanov Variation 5.c4 - Fogarasi
French Defence - Advance Variation 4.h4 - Ris
Caro-Kann Defence - Two Knights Variation 3...Nf6 - A. & K.Juhasz
Caro-Kann Defence - Advance Variation 6.Be2 Nh6 - Vilela
Alekhine Defence - Four Pawns Attack 5.f4 - Jones
Petroff Defence - Jaenisch Variation 6...Be7, 7...Bf5 - Saric
Italian Game - Giuoco Piano 8...a5 - Karolyi
King’s Pawn Openings - Centre Game 4.Qc4 - Fogarasi
Vienna Game - 3.Bc4 Nc6 - Szabo
King’s Gambit - Schallopp Variation 3...Nf6 - Lalic
Various Openings - Owen Defence 1...b6 - Olthof

1.d4 openings
Queen’s Gambit Declined - Alatortsev Variation 3...Be7 - Sokolov
Queen’s Gambit Declined - Classical Main Line 6...h6 7.Bf4 - Ikonnikov
Catalan Opening - Open Variation 6.Nc3 - Krykun
Nimzo-Indian Defence - Ragozin Variation 5.cxd5 - Timman
Grünfeld Indian Defence - Exchange Variation 7.Nf3 - Olthof
Grünfeld Indian Defence - Exchange Variation 7.Bc4 - Gupta
King’s Indian Defence - Sämisch Variation 6.Be3 - Golubev
Queen’s Pawn Openings - London System 3.Bf4 - Panczyk and Ilczuk

Others
English Opening - Reversed Sicilian 4.e4 - Ponomariov
English Opening - Reversed Sicilian: Other Lines - Adams