Black repertoire Fritz17-Stockfish13

modern defense g6,Bg7,d6,a6

hikaru repertoire

 

Italian prep

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.c3 d6 6.Nbd2

if black castles 6..0-0, here's a sample line 

6...0–0 7.0–0 (7.Nf1!?) 7...Bb6 8.Bb3 Ne7 9.h3 Ng6 10.Re1 c6 11.Nf1 d5 12.Ng3 h6 Radjabov-Le 2020

Radjabov continued 13.Bd2 Be6 14.Qc1!?  dxe4 15.dxe4 Bxb3 16.axb3 Kh7 17.Nf5!

White wants to play Nf1-g3 quickly.

6..a6 7.Nf1!?  h6 8.Ng3 0–0 

This is the tabiya for the entire variation. White has played Nbd2-f1-g3 before castling.Sometimes, Black plays Ba7 before castling with similar positions.

White has a choice, 9 Bb3!? delaying castling or 9 0-0

Variation A: 9 Bb3!?

9.Bb3!?   Ba7 (9..d5 10 ed5 Nd5 11 0-0 Re8 12 Re1!? -instead of h3- Nf6 13 h3 Be6 14 Bc2 Bd5 15 b4 transposes in a key line) 10.h3 

10..Be6  (10..d5 directly 11ed5 Nd5 12.0-0 Re8 games by Bologan,Chigaev,Tkachiev 13 Re1 Be6 14Nh5!? ) 11Nh2!? starting the attack right away (Ng4,Nf5 and Qf3 are common ideas) , see next diagram

on 11..d5 12 Qf3 is very strong keeping the tension Morozevich-Adams 2008 12...Na5 (12...dxe4 13.dxe4 Na5 14.Bc2) 13.Bc2 dxe4 14.dxe4 Nc4 15.Ng4! Nd7 (15...Nh7 16.b3!) 16.0–0 Qh4 17.Nf5! with attack

on 11..Ne7 12 Ng4 Ng6 13Nf5 Re8 there is on the diagram below 14Nxg7!

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Variation B  9.0-0 

9...Ba7 (9..Be6 10 Be6 fe6 11 d4!?) 10.Bb3 

We reach the tabiya for Variation B

Here Black tried 10..Be6 11.h3 (Luke Mc Shane 11Be3) 11...Qd7?! 12.Be3 Ne7 13.Nh4 Ng6 14.Nhf5! Carlsen-Nakamura 2011 with strong attack for White 

Please note 10..d5!? is possible right away. white takes on d5 and plays Re1. 

10..Re8 11h3 Be6 is more natural for Black. Black wants to play d6-d5. White to play in the next diagram

after 11..Be6 (Variation B)

Here White can try 12 Bc2 like in Duda-Carlsen 2020 or 12 Nh2!? like Jakovenko in 2019

B_1) Duda Line 12 Bc2 

12...d5 13.exd5 Nxd5 14.Re1 Qd6 15.Nh4 Qe7 

 

16 Qh5!? Rad8 17 d4 Nf4= or 16 Nhf5 Qf6! Duda-Carlsen 2020 Tata Steel

B_2) Jakovenko 12Nh2!? 

12.Nh2!? Bxb3 ( critical line is 12...d5!? 13.Qf3 dxe4 14.dxe4 Bxb3 15.axb3 Re6 16 Rd1 Qf8 17 Nf5 Ne7! 18 b4 Rd8=) 13.axb3 Ne7 14.Qf3 Ng6 15.Nf5

 Re6 16.Ng4 Nxg4 17.hxg4 Nh4 18.Qh3 Nxf5 19.exf5 Re8 20.Bxh6 gxh6 21.Qxh6 f6 22.Qg6+ Kf8?? (22...Kh8) Jakovenko-Zou 2019

Agressive blitz repertoire against the Scandinavian main line 1e4 d5

 A lot of players play the scandinavian online, i.e 1e4 d5

This is a interesting sideline which is promising for white, especially in speed chess and online.

 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Bc4 

Typically, Black develops the knight on f6, plays c7-c6 to move the queen back to c7.

4..Nf6 5. d3 c6 6. Bd2 Qc7

Here White can either play positionally with 7 Nf3, or decide to be more ambitious with 7 Qe2 preparing 0-0-0 and advancing f,g and h pawns.

Visually, I am representing in the next diagram the possibilities for White

The main line is as follows with 7 Qe2

 7. Qe2 Bf5 8. h3 e6 9. g4 Bg6 10. f4 Be7 11. Nf3 Nbd7 12. O-O-O

Black must find counterplay as White is already threatening  f4-f5! in the diagram above.

If you want to play more positionally, the line with 7 Nf3 goes like this:

7. Nf3 Bg4 8. h3 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 e6

White can still play g2-g4 in this line, attacking f7 after g4-g5. White can castle 0-0 or even 0-0-0.

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Game replay above

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Attacking with the sicilian kan

Here's an interesting set-up for Black, leading to double edged positions.

You can see Black's preparing to attack white's kingside. This is especially effective as White tends to castle kingside at least 50% of the time against the Sicilian Paulsen/Kan.

Judit Polgar was one of the first to use this set-up

But this was used more recently by J.Xiong 

and also Fabiano Caruana

and Anish Giri

Alekhine defense ed6 variation

Here Black is playing ed6 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. exd6 exd6

6. Nc3 Be7 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Nge2 Bf6

9. Be3 O-O 10. b3 Re8 11. O-O

Benko ideas

 Here's a blitz game where I sacrificed a pawn in the Benko, then the exchange and finished with 2 small tactics to achieve a win with Black pieces.

After 4..a6 Benko Gambit

After 12..Ne8 going to c7, activating Bg7

Here Black to play , 21..Qb5 = ok but tried Rxc4 to win a5 pawn

This is an exchange sacrifice with Knight going to e5.

Trying to create imbalances and active play 

Position after ..h5, the engine says the position is dead equal 0.0 despite black being an exchange down.
the strong knight on e5 + c-pawn guarantees equality. my opponent plays for the win though with white

    

Black to play

can you guess which move I played with Black to take a decisive advantage
answer is Ne3+!!, if white takes fxe3 I get c1=Q+ promoting my pawn. therefore on Ne3+ my opponent rightly played Kf3  but I get to capture the rook on c4 as this is also a fork.

                                                                Black to play

How would you continue here ?

answer in the final diagram of the game

my opponent resigned after I played ..Ra3! reaching the diagram above. I offered a full rook but if white does Rxa3, c1=Q gives me a queen. tactics based on pawn promotion !