Quick attacking repertoire against the Pirc

A little introduction to the Austrian attack against the Pirc. Even though this blog is primarily focused on tactics, the following opening primer is geared at creating tactical and sharp positions from White's perspective.
It also gives supporting material to the tactical puzzle Nakamura-Smirin presented in an earlier post ( look for tag Nakamura to see previous Naka puzzles !)
http://www.top10chess.com/2008/05/tactical-quiz-easy-medium-level.html

1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 f4 Bg7 5 Nf3



A) Black can simply castle here 5..0-0
6 e5 Nfd7 7 h4 !?
Start of the attack.



7..c5 8 h5 cd4 9 hg6 dc3 10 gf7+ Rf7 11 Bc4
This is the tabiya (key position) in this variation.


Here Black can play 11..Nf8 or 11..e6. Current theory suggests the latter is better.
The Nakamura-Smirin Foxwoods 2005 game featured 11..Nf8 with a spectacular win for White ( 22 moves !).

B)

5..c5 Black delays castle to react in the center

6 Bb5+



After 6..Bd7 7 Bd7+ Black can recapture in two different ways

B1)7.. Nbd7 8 d5 0-0 9 0-0 Ne8 10 Kh1

White has attacking prospects with f4-f5. See Le Quang-Gurevich 2008 for more.

B2)7.. Nfd7 8 d5 Na6 9 Qe2 0-0 10 0-0


White has a pleasant position. See Shirov-Hulak 1992 for more.



NOTE:
In Variation B ( 5..c5 6 Bb5+ Bd7 ), I chose 7 Bd7+ but the main theoretical move is 7 e5. Here's an important game for this continuation ( 18 f5 and 20 f6 are typical of this variation ):

[Event "Dortmund"]
[Date "1994.??.??"]
[Round "9"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Artur Yusupov"]
[Black "Michael Adams"]


1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.e5
Ng4 8.Bxd7+ Qxd7 9.d5 dxe5 10.h3 e4 11.Nxe4 Nf6 12.Nxf6+ Bxf6
13.O-O O-O 14.Be3 Na6 15.Ne5 Qd6 16.Ng4 Bxb2 17.Rb1 Bg7 18.f5
Nc7 19.Rxb7 Nxd5 20.f6 exf6 21.c4 h5 22.Nh6+ Kh7 23.Nf5 gxf5
24.cxd5 Kg8 25.Rxf5 Qa6 26.Qb1 Rfe8 27.Bf2 Re5 28.Rb8+ Rxb8
29.Qxb8+ Kh7 30.Qb1 Kg8 31.Qb8+ Kh7 32.Qb1 Kg8 33.Rxe5 fxe5
34.Qb8+ Kh7 35.Qc7 Qxa2 36.Qxf7 Qb1+ 37.Kh2 Qg6 38.Qxa7 c4
39.Qc7 Qd3 40.d6 c3 41.d7 c2 42.Be3 Qxe3 43.Qxc2+ e4 44.Qc7
1-0

Anand-Wang Yue, Linares 2009 Variation

The game Anand-Wang Yue 1-0, Linares 2009 can be replayed here.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1535930

Instead of 25..Kf6? losing to 26 Rf3+, Wang could have chosen 25..Kf8 26 Rc7! f6 leading to the following position.

White to play and win (Anand-Wang Yue 2009 Variation)

Tactics in Amber 2009

Position I
Karjakin-Topalov (round 2) White to play and win



Position II: Morozevitch-Topalov (4). White to win.


Position III ; Black to move
Topalov-Morozevich (4). Why didn't Black take on g5 with the queen but played 1..Qb7 here ?

Answer for III:

1..Qg5? 2 Qf7+ Kh7 3 Re3 Bd7 4 Rg3! Qf6 5 Qg8+ Kh6 6 Qh8# would be a neat finish. 4..Bg4 may

be better in this variation but 5 Ne3 answers it. If Black tries 5..Re7 then 6 Qg8+ intermediary check wins.

Black avoided it by playing 1..Qb7 but lost eventually. Game followed with 2 Ng3 a4?! while 2..b4 was an interesting alternative ( 3 ab4 ab4 4cb4 Ne6!, bringing the knight to the defense ).

Official site: http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Amber 2009 Rapid round 1

Leko-Anand (Rapid, Amber 2009)
White to play and take the advantage

Full game replayable here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=67594&crosstable=1

Official Site: http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Anand's tactics explained - First exercize

We will analyze a combination from the game Reinderman-Anand 1999 next.

Black to play and win

(Reinderman-Anand 1999 )

Solution & Hints given below

How to find the best move:

We notice that the White king is weak and under attack, as all squares around him are controlled by him. At the same time, the white knight is loose on d6 and Black would like to active his rook in h8. Anand managed to created a double attack by playing the elegant 1..Bg3!

Position after 1..Bg3!

Now 2 hg3 hg2+ 3 Kg1 Rh1 #.

and after 2gh3 Bd6! winning the knight, White resigned.