Spanish Defense ..g6,Bg7

a popular plan for Black is to play d6,g6,Bg7 in the Spanish Defense. We will see how White should respond 

 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 g6

There is no obvious refutation, White should continue development.

7. O-O Bg7 8. Re1 O-O 9. Nbd2 

This is a key position for this variation. Black has a lot of options here to continue. The best way is to illustrate all the possible 9th moves with arrows. white usually plays Nf1-g3

in the next diagram. This is a lot of ground to cover.

Variation A: Black plays 9..Nh5 right away.

9..Nh5 10Nf1 f5 

11. exf5  11... Bxf5 12. Ng3  12... Nxg3 13. hxg3 b5  14. Bb3+  d5 

Here we are in the game Miton-Shirov 2009, but I recommend 15d4!with 15..e4 16 Ng5 followed by f2-f3 which is very strong for White.

Variation B: Black plays ..h6 to prepare a future f7-f5

 9..h6 10. Nf1 10... b5 11. Bc2 

11... d5 12. Bd2

12..Be6 13. a4 13... Qd6 14. b4 Nd7 15. Bb3 

15..dxe4  16. dxe4 Nb6  17. a5 Nc4 18. Ne3

Nepomiachi-Akopian 2010, White is slightly better 

Variation C: 9..Nd7 10Nf1 Nc5 11Bc2 (11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. d4 Anand-Caruana 2018)Ne6

12. Ng3 Bd7 13. h3 Kh8 (13..f5? 14ef5 gf5 15d4! with threat d4-d5)

14 Ne2!? (14Be3) Ne7 15. d4 with ideas Be3 and a2-a4

Areshchenko,A (2673)-Matta,V (2246) 2009

Berlin Wall destroyed: Hikaru Nakamura wins in 22 moves against Magnus Carlsen day 3 chess24.com finals

 Berlin Wall is the position after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 in the www.chess24.com finals.

Hikaru chose anti-berlin 4 d3 on which Carlsen plays the most popular and active 4..Bc5 

6. Nbd2 O-O (6..Bg4 was played by Carlsen before)  7. Qe2

White hasn't decided where his king will castle

7..Re8 8. Nc4 Nd7 9. Bd2 b5 10. Ne3 Nf8 11. h4 Ne6? (11..a5 was safer) 

White to play , what did Magnus miss with Black ? I am sure he intended 12..Nd4 but white has 13Nf7! Ne2 14Nd8 with  2 pawns up

12. Nxe5 a5? 13. Qh5! g6 14. Qf3 f6 15. Nxc6! Qd7 16. Qxf6 Qxc6 17. Bc3 

Position after 17 Bc3!

White threatens 18 Qh8+ and h7, and has already 3 pawns for the piece. White can continue the attack with h4-h5 as well as 0-0-0 followed by d3-d4

17...Rf8 18. Qh8+ Kf7 19. Qxh7+ Ke8 20. Qxg6+ Kd7 21. d4 b4 22. dxc5 1-0

very convincing win by Hikaru today in the berlin 

Spanish Defense d3 variations

in light of the second game Karjakin-Carlsen, posting key variations from the d3 spanish

spanish d3 variation

pgn file here. pgn file for d3 variations , click here

Key position after
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6

Here White has three options

A) 8 a4

This forces Black to choose between ..b4 and ..Rb8?!. Carlsen won against Topalov a key game in the latter in 2010. For the former, White can play Nd2-c4, or Nd2 followed by Bc4.

For the beautiful win from Carlsen against Topalov ( Nanjing, 2010) in the Rb8 variation click here.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1599150

Please note that Karjakin has experience with White 8a4 and has faced 8..Bd7!? after 8a4; see pgn file for details.


B) 8 a3

Chosen by Karjakin in game 2. I think he may go with A) or C).  This move  saves the white bishop which can retreat on a2. But Black can develop ..Na5,..c5 and this is a bit slow. see
Vachier Lagrave,M (2798)-Svidler,P (2759) Biel 2016 

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1826305

C) 8c3

This allows white to play Re1, Nd2-f1 and later d3-d4. Very flexible set-up.

see  (40) Carlsen,M (2876)-Aronian,L (2780) Stavanger 2015

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1795016