Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

168 THE BOTVINNIK SEMI-SlAV
as IS ':'adl, IS f4 or IS 'ii'hS gives
White good compensation according
to Yusupov, and Black cannot play
13 .. :ii'xd4? in view of 14 .thS 0-0 IS
.l:[ad I! lDxd 1 16 ':'xd 1 'if'b6 17 lDxf7
':'xf7 18 'if'g6+ ':'g7 19 'ii'e8+ 'it'h7 20
.teS and Black cannot prevent mate,
beginning with .tg6+ - Yusupov.
b2) 12 ... lDd713.thS 0-0 14lDxf7!?
':'xf7 IS .txf7+ 'it'xf7 16 'if'c2 lDdf6
17 .teS with some compensation, Yusupov-Akopian,
Ubeda 1997. White
ideally wants to open the f-file; in the
game this was carried out after the preliminary
g4, so as to avoid Black answering
f4 with ... g4.
B
10 •.. g4!?
After this White has to show compensation
for two pawns, and it is clear
that if Black survives the middlegame
he will be in a position to cash in the
full point without much trouble. A
safer option is 1O ... .tb7 11 0-0 lDbd7
12lDeS hS 13 h3 h4 14 .th2 lDhS IS
.txhS .l:[xhS 16 .l:[adl 'if'e7 17 lDxd7
'if'xd7 18 dS!? cxdS 19 exdS .txc3 20
'ii'xc3 i.xdS 21 ':'fel 1/2_ 1 /2 B.LaliC­
Zhu Chen, Ubeda 1998. The oppositecoloured
bishops mean that White has
adequate counterplay for the two-pawn
deficit.
11 tDeS!
This is much stronger than 11 lDd2
'ii'xd4 12 0-0-0 'ii'b6, after which I
doubt that White has enough compensation
since the knight makes a rather
clumsy appearance on d2 and thereby
lessens White's pressure and influence
on the centre substantially. In
Ikonnikov-Prie, St Affrique 1994,
White may have realized that Black
can complete his development without
too much trouble and hence went for
13 .txc4?! bxc4 14lDxc4 and now instead
of 14 ... 'if'a6 Black should play
14 ... 'ii'cS, which Prie thinks is extremely
good for Black; e.g., IslDd6+
'it'e7 16 eS (or 16 a3 .txc3 17lDxc8+
l:txc8 18 .td6+ 'if'xd6 19 .l:[xd6 ..ti>xd6
20 'if'xc3 lDbd7 and Black is about to
consolidate) 16 ... lDdS 17 .th4+ 'itd7
18lDxf7 ':'f8 19lDd6 (19 'ii'h7 ..ti>c7!)
19 ... 'it'c7 20 'if'h7+ lDd7 21lDde4 WaS
+.
11 .. :ii'xd4 12 0-0
12 lDxg4!? is maybe stronger; for
example, 12 ... lDxg4 13 .txg4 lDd7
140-0 (14 .l:[dl Wg7 IS .te2 .tb7 16
0-0 looks more promising for White)
14 ... .tb7 IS .thS?! lDcs 16 .l:[fel
O-O-O! 17 .txf7 'if'f6 18 .thS lDd3
leading to an unclear game, Mellegers-Cifuentes,
Dutch Ch (Enschede)
1998.
12 ... .txc3