GI 3.5 (D80)
Jeroen Bosch
Vadim Shishkin
Deizisau 2012 (9)
Notes by Jeroen Bosch

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Game of the Month May 2012: [SOS-6, Chapter 2, p.16] In SOS-6 Ian Rogers wrote an interesting 'triptych' on surprising lines after 4.g5 e4. More recently Baadur Jobava has adopted one of these lines 5.h4 with considerable success. See Game of the Month December 2011 for his victory over Hans Tikkanen. The present game is a note of warning. In the last round of Germany's biggest open (Neckar open in Deizisau) I was lost after a mere ten moves. To my mind Vadim Shishkin's set-up more or less refutes White's idea.

1.d4 f6 2.c4 g6 3.c3 d5 4.g5 e4 5.h4

I am now inclined to adorn this move with a '?!' mark. Ian Rogers wrote on this line in an article called 'Triple Trouble for the Grunfeld' in SOS-6. The subject being lines in which White allows Black to take his bishop, such as 5.cd5!? g5 6.h4 and 5.c1 and of course the aggressive text. For 5.e4 de4 6.d2 see SOS-9, Chapter 6, p.45.

5...g7

In combination with what follows I now believe that this is Black's best. 5...c3 6.bc3 dc4 was the main line in SOS-6, when 7.e4 (Jobava) was a very logical novelty over 7.e3. 7...b5 (After 7...g7 8.c4 c5 White would have two extra tempi compared to the main line of the Grunfeld Exchange) 8.a4 c6 9.h5 White has ample compensation for the pawn. And, what is more, this is a fun position to play. I refer the reader to Game of the Month December 2011 for an analysis of the game Jobava-Tikkanen, Porto Carras 2011.
Another sound reply is 5...c5 6.cd5 c3 7.bc3 d5 when White can play 8.e3. Instead also possible is 8.f3 c6 9.e3 g7 and now 10.b3 is slightly better for White according to Rogers. Rogers condemned 10.e2 in SOS-6. A verdict that was more or less confirmed by the crazy course in the following game: 10...cd4 11.cd4 0-0 (11...e5 12.de5 a5 13.d2 d2 14.d2 e5 15.e5 e5 was just equal in Teplyi-Smith, Odense 2011) 12.h5 h6 Black is doing well, White now decided to burn all his bridges behind him with 13.c1 hg5 14.c5 d6 15.g5 b6 16.hg6 bc5 17.gf7 f7 18.c4 e6 19.f7 f7 20.h5 e7 21.h7 d7 (21...f8! and White has insufficient for his two sacrificed pieces - Black wins) 22.g7 e7 23.0-0 b7 24.dc5 c5 25.d1 d5 26.d5 ed5 27.g4 c7 was agreed drawn in Handke-Ris, Bundesliga 2011/12. Black will find it difficult to make any progress with his unsafe king.

6.cd5 c3 7.bc3 d5 8.e3 a5!

Instead White will obtain a slight edge in the endgames arising after 8...h6 9.f4 e5 10.e5 e5 11.de5 e5 12.d4 when Black has to suffer a little: 12...c6 (12...d7 13.f3 f6 14.b5 (14.e2) 14...c6 15.c4 c5?! 16.f6 f6 17.e5 Goganov-Klimov, St Petersburg 2011) 13.b5 d7 14.f3 d4 15.cd4 and White won in Jobava-Safarli, Aix-les-Bains 2011;
8...d7 9.f3 a5 looks similar to the game, but Shishkin's move order is more accurate. 10.d3 h6 (10...c3 11.f1 c6 was a more materialistic approach) 11.f4 e5 (11...c3!?) 12.g3 ed4 13.ed4 0-0 14.0-0 f6 15.c2 with a slight edge for White, but Black won in Nguyen-Svidler, Khanty-Mansiysk 2011.

9.d2 d7!

A very clever idea. It is not too common to place the knight on d7 in the Grunfeld when the more typical ...c5 and ...c6 is available. Black plays for ...f6-e4, and for ...h6 and ...e5, and he has one other surprising manoeuvre in mind... 9...c5?! 10.f3 c6 11.b1! a6 12.c1 g4 13.e2 cd4 14.cd4 d2 15.d2 e2 16.e2 White is better in the ending. 16...h6 17.f4 0-0 18.c5! ad8 19.b1 d7 20.c4 d4?! 21.b6! c7 22.cc1 e5 23.d5 ef4 24.c7 fe3 25.fe3 f6 26.b7 1-0 Sedlak-Schneider, Amsterdam 2011.

10.e4?

This is a blunder. I first started calculating 10.f3 but decided I did not like the combination of 10...h6 (10...e5 11.e5 e5 12.de5 g4!? 13.f3 e5! 14.0-0-0 f6 15.fg4 fg5 is presumably equal after 16.d7 (16.a6 0-0! favours Black while 16...ba6 17.d7 f8 18.df1 f4 19.d4 a3 20.d1 e7 21.e4 d7 22.ef4 leads to a perpetual) 16...f8 17.d3; 10...c5 is not bad either. Play is approximately equal) 11.f4 and now 11...e5! 12.e5 e5 13.e5 e5 14.de5 d7!ÿ; (14...e5 15.d4; 14...0-0 15.f4. 10.b1!? was probably best. It foregoes any problems along the long diagonal, and White adopts a waiting policy before deciding how to develop his kingside pieces. My remedy for avoiding 10.f3 was worse though as Black has

10...c5! 11.d3?!

Preferring to sacrifice the exchange to something unappealing as 11.e3 h6 12.f4 e6 when White will be just a pawn down in a bad position.

11...b3 12.ab3 a1 13.e2 e6 14.c2 b2

14...c5!-+ would have been stronger.

15.b4 b3 16.d3 d2

16...a1!.

17.d2 a5 18.ba5 a5 19.f3 e6 20.f4

20.b1 was more tenacious.

20...c6 21.g5

21.b1.

21...c8 22.c4 0-0 23.h5?! gh5!

Black is now completely winning. There followed:

24.f3 h6 25.h3 c5! 26.d2 b5 27.b3 a3 28.b1 b4! 29.cb4 a6 30.d1 d3 31.c2 c2 32.c2 cd4 33.f4 c8 34.d1 a2 35.b5 cc2 36.c1 e5 37.d3 g2 38.b2 f4 39.f4 gb2 0-1