Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

164 THE BOTVINNIK SEMI-SLAV
thus it avoids Black winning it with a
... b4 followed by ... lDxe4 sequence,
but since this is often too risky for
Black, I prefer 9 J.e2.
Nevertheless, it is not unusual in the
main lines for White to adopt a set-up
with the queen on c2 and while I could
have gathered all the 'iVc2 set-ups together
here, I have decided rather to
cover them in later branches where appropriate.
Here, though, are three independent
attempts for Black that do
not fit in elsewhere:
cl) 9 ... g4 (with this Black goes for
another pawn but it looks too risky) 10
lDeS 'iVxd4 11 ':'dl 'ii'b6?! 12 J.e2
hS?! 13 lDg6! (an instructive motif;
White deflects the pawn from f7 and
thus ruins the cover of Black's king
with the aim of following up with eS,
opening an entrance for the queen)
13 ... fxg6 14 eS ~f7 (Black cannot allow
White's queen to capture on g6
with check) IS exf6 eS 16lDe4 J.b4+
17 ~f1':'eS IS a3 J.fS 19 ':'d6! with a
winning attack, Gabriel-Zhu Chen,
Bad Homburg 1995.
c2) 9 ... b4!? 10 lDa4 b3 11 'iVxc4
lDxe4 12lDc3 lDxg3 13 hxg3 bxa2 14
':'xa2 as! with an unclear position,
Bellon-Bator, Stockholm 1999.
c3) 9 ... J.g7!? 100-0-00-0 11 eS
(it is a bit unusual for White to castle
queenside in the Anti-Moscow Variation,
and following up with eS looks
inconsistent; I would prefer 11 h4 g4
12 lDeS) 11...lDdS 12 lDe4 (White's
play seems a little primitive and in the
following it is obvious that the white
king is the more exposed) 12 .. :ii'aS
(threatening ... lDb4!) 13 a3 b414 J.xc4
bxa3 IS bxa3 J.a6 16 ':'d3 J.xc4 17
'ii'xc4lDd7 IslDfd2 cS 19lDxcs ':'fcS
20 lDde4 J.f8, Yurtaev-Shirov, Elista
OL 1995. White's attack never really
got going and hence Black already has
a winning position.
Now we return to 9 J.e2 (D):
B
We shall now consider four main
options for Black:
A: 9 ... b4?! 164
B: 9 ... J.b4!? 167
C: 9 ... J.b7 169
D: 9 ... lDbd7!? 177
9 ... lDhS had a successful outing in
Oll-Liiva, Estonian Cht (Tallinn) 1995
but is not worth repeating. After 10
J.eS ':'gS 11 J.xbS ':'xbS 12lDe5 lDf4
13 lDxc6 'ii'b6 14 lDxbS lDxg2+ IS
~f1 lDf4 White could now have got a
winning position with 16 J.xc4!.
A)
9 ... b4?!