Responsabilidades

6. ♗g5

a) 6... O-O 7. ♗_xf6 ♗_{xf6 8. h5} ♗_{f5 9. e3}+/= I think Carlsen was in a lot of trouble here. At one point, according to the post-match press conference, he was going for a line that was losing by force. That gives you an idea of just how dangerous his position

was. 9... e6 10. hxg6 (10. ♘e5⁉ ) 10... ♗xg6 11. ♗d3 ♘d7 12. ♕e2 e5 13. ♗xg6 hxg614. dxe5

♘xe5 15. cxd5 cxd5 16. ♖d1+/= Grischuk-Carlsen, London 2013

b) dxc4⁉ A very sensible option for Black as it's very difficult for White to justify the sacrificed pawn. It's not going to be easy to win it back and Black is ready for the potential attacks on the kingside - after all, the king isn't even on g8 yet. I'd be very interested to know what Grischuk's plan was against this move as in general I think Black is just fine.

b1) 7. h5 ♘xh5 8. e4 b5∓

b2) 7. e3 even gives Black a choice. 7... ♗e6 ( 7... b5 ) 8. ♘d2♘d5 Creating the important threat of

...h6. 9. ♗xc4 ( 9. h5 h610. ♗h4 g5 11. ♗g3 OO=/+ ) 9... ♘xc3 10. bxc3 ♗_xc4 11.♘_xc4 ♕_d5=/+ Once again Black emerges with an extra pawn and obviously shouldn't be doing that badly.

b3) 7. a4 O-O 8. e4 ♗e6 9. h5 ♘xh5∓ b4) 7. ♗_xf6

b41) 7... ♗xf6 8. e4 b5 9. h5 ( 9. a4 b4 10. ♘a2 ♗e6=/+ )9... ♗g4 10. e5

♗g7 11. h6 ♗f8∞

b42) exf6⁉ 8. e3 ♗e6 9. ♘d2 b5∞

b5) 7. e4 7... b5 8. e5 ( 8. ♗e2 ♗g4 ) 8... ♘d5 This is clearly a pretty decent version of the Slav

Gambit. 9. h5 ( 9. ♘e4 f6!∓ )9... h6 10. ♗d2 g5 11. a4 ♘xc3 12. bxc3 ♗e6=/+

6... cxd5 7. ♗_f4 ♘c6 8. e3 Once again Morozevich is aiming for the positions he made very popular in the Exchange Slav. Those used to be considered a complete draw but now, mainly due to his original efforts, everybody plays them and Black has to be very careful.

8... O-O 9. ♘_e5

9. ♗e2 ♗g4 10. O-O e6 is pretty much completely

equal: 11. ♖c1♖c8 12. ♕b3 ♕e7 13. ♘d2 ♗xe2 14. ♘xe2 ♖fd8= Melkumyan-Erdos, Berlin 2013

9... ♘xe5 This proposed improvement might look a bit cynical to some of you, but otherwise I think you might not equalise.

9... ♕b6 This was Anish Giri's somewhat imprecise move against

Morozevich. 10. ♕b3!♕xb3 11. axb3 ♘b4 ( 11... ♗f5 12. ♘xc6 bxc613. b4+/= ) 12. ♔d2 h5 13. ♘d3 ♘c 6 14. f3+/= Morozevich-Giri, Beijing 2012

9... ♗_f5⁉ 10. ♗_xe5

10. dxe5 ♘e4 11. ♘xe4 dxe4 12. ♗c4= 10... ♘e4 Swapping off as many pieces as possible.

11. ♗_xg7 ♘xc3 12. bxc3 ♔xg7 13. h5 If White allows Black to play this himself then I simply don't see why Black should be worse.

13. ♗d3 h5 14. ♕b3= 13... ♗_f5

13... ♕_{a5 14.} ♕_d2 ♗_{f5 15. c4}+/=

14. ♗_e2 ♕_d6! Black is aiming to play ...Rac8, ...Rc7 and ...Rfc8. In some positions he'd also be happy to play ...e7-e5 if an opportunity arises to do so without material loss.

14... ♖_{c8 15. g4} ♗_{e6 16.} ♖c1 ( 16. ♕d2 ♕d7 17. f3 ♕c7 ) 15. g4 is how the game might continue, and after

15... ♗_{d7 16. f4} ♖_{ac8 17.} ♖_c1 ♖c7 it looks as though White has made some advances on the kingside and will mount an impressive attack any day now. As a matter of fact, though, it's very difficult to swing any pieces over to the h-file apart from the one rook which is already there. The pawn on c3 is a constant nagging worry which will require a lot of attention. The queen will normally be stuck somewhere on d2, from which point it will be very difficult to transfer it to anywhere attacking.

So I think in general Black should be fine here and we've covered all you need to know about the two Bb5+

variations and 5.h4. The latter is a very interesting and trendy recent addition to White's repertoire. I expect we'll see more of it in future but the somewhat pragmatic approach - going for symmetrical positions - should be safe enough and enable Black to equalise reasonably comfortably.

This will be a slight detour from the normal fare of my Grünfeld series. Most of the videos I'm making will be purely theoretical and very theory heavy, or at least I hope they will be, but here I want to show you a couple of my junior games. First of all, because they're very memorable, but secondly because I think they show at least glimpses of why I like this opening so much and why I stuck with it despite on occasions losing a lot of painful games and in general suffering at the hands of strong players. The games were played in the early 1990s in the World Juniors, one in 92 and the other in 94. Some theory will be mixed in but I mainly just want to show you the state of play in the early 90s and try and instil in you some of the fondness for the opening that I already had in those years.

Ioannis Papaioannou 0:1 Peter Svidler World Juniors U16Duisburg, Germany, 1992

So let's begin with the game I played in 92. It was the last round of the World U16 Juniors, and there was a 3-way tie for first place between myself, Daniel Fridman, who now represents Germany, and Ronen Har-Zvi, an Israeli who many of you will know as a commentator on ICC. It was clear I needed to win because they were likely to do the same. In the final analysis even a win didn't prove enough for the title, but I'm still very happy with the way I played. I was paired with the Greek chess player Ioannis Papaioannou, who also became a strong grandmaster.

Obviously I was Black:

1. d4 ♘f6 2. c4 g6 3. ♘_{c3 d5 4.} ♗_g5 ♗g7 This was my signature move in those years. I can't lay claim to having been the first one ever to play it, but judging by the way they would proceed most people before me played it with the idea of blundering a pawn and losing, whereas I wanted to get compensation and a double-edged position I could play for a win perhaps, eventually. People would just take the pawn, and I think they still should, but after

5. ♗_xf6 ♗xf6 6. cxd5 c6 the more sophisticated lines starting with e.g. 7.Rc1 or 7.e4 were completely unknown back then.

7. dxc6 People played this automatically and only then started to think, reasoning that if you didn't take the pawn