Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

BLACK'S 8TH MOVE ALTERNATIVES 205
B
This fairly typical move of such
Semi-Slav positions marks White's
space advantage further. Black is never
really able to exploit the hole that
arises on d5 and will be fighting to activate
his light-squared bishop.
10 ... .i.c7 11 e4 dxe4 12lDxe4
I would probably capture with the
knight automatically, but 12 .i.xe4!?
has some point. The reason is that after
Black plays ... lDf6 at some point in
reply to lDxe4 White usually avoids
the exchange of knights, and retreating
the knight to c3 might be best. Hence
White here argues that taking with the
bishop opens the opportunity to improve
the position of the bishop after
the same kind of sequence, that is retreating
it to c2. Here is an example to
back up a slightly confusing explanation:
12 ... 0-0 13 b4 .:ld8 14 l:tel
lDf6 15 .i.c2 (if White had taken on e4
with the knight and retreated it to c3,
White's bishop would now have been
on d3) 15 ... b6 16 .i.a4! i.b7 17 'ii'e2 a5
18 a3 with an edge for White, Polugaevsky-Mecking,
Lucerne Ct (I) 1977.
12 ... 0-013 l:tell:td8 14 'iVc2
Of course this contradicts my comment
to 12 .i.xe4!? above, but line 'b'
gives an idea of what I mean:
a) 14 'ii'e2 b6 15 b4 .i.b7 16 .:lac1
l:tac8 17 a3 .i.b8 18l:tcdl a5 19 g3 axb4
20 axb4 i.c7 21 h4 ~ Hjartarson-Bjarnason,
Icelandic Ch (Reykjavik) 1995.
b) 14 b4lDf8 15lDc3!? (Black did
not play ... lDf6 but White reckons that
retreating the knight is still the best decision
since Black could consider
playing ... lDg6 next) 15 ... 'ii'f6 16lDe4
'ii'e7 17lDc3 'ii'f6 18lDe5!? (18 'ii'b3)
18 ... i.d7?! (this is too passive; Sakaev
suggests 18 ... l:txd4!? 19 .i.h7+ ~xh7
20 'ilVxd4lDg6 21lDf3 'ii'xd4 22lDxd4
e5 23 lDb3 .i.e6 with compensation)
19lDg4! 'ii'g5 20lDe4 'ii'h4 21 g3 'fie7
22lDef6+! ~h8 23 d5 ± Sakaev-Neverov,
St Petersburg 1995.
14 ... lDf8
Or 14 ... lDf6 15 :'adl (Granda suggests
15 lDed2 with the idea of lDc4-
e5) 15 ... lDxe4 16 .i.xe4 .i.d7 17 lDe5
i.e8 18 g3 :'ac8 19 'ii'c3 .i.b8 20 b4
with an edge for White, lonov-Thorhallsson,
Cappelle la Grande 1996.
15lDed2
15 'ii'c3 .i.d7 16 .i.c4! i.e8 17 .i.b3
f6 18 lDed2 .i.f7 19 :'e2 is slightly
preferable for White due to the pressure
against e6 - Granda.
15 ... .i.d7 16lDc4 .i.e8 17 .:ladl f6
18 'iVc3 :'d7
In this position the chances are approximately
equal, Bareev-Granda,
Groningen peA qual 1993. White's
pressure against e6 is not as strong as