Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

208 THE BOTVINNIK SEMI-SLAV
a) 11 'iWe2 a6 12 ':'acl f5 13 ttJd2!?
ttJf6 14 f3 J.d6 15 'iithl e5 16 c5 J.c7
17 dxe5 J.xe5 18 f4 J.c7 19 ttJf3 J.d7
20 ttJd4 g6 21 ':'f3 'iWe7 22 b4 with an
edge for White, Yusupov-Kramnik,
Moscow rpd 1995.
b) 11 e4!? dxc4 (ll...dxe4 12 ttJxe4
c5!? looks about equal) 12 J.xc4 c5
(12 ... b5 13 J.d3 b4 14 axb4 J.xb4 15
e5 ;I; P.Nikolic-M.Gurevich, Tilburg
1993) 13 dxc5 (13 d5 also allows Black
to equalize comfortably: 13 ... ttJb6 14
J.a2 exdS 15 ttJxd5 J.e6 16 'iWc2 J.xdS
liz-liz Haba-Grabarczyk, Koszalin 1999)
13 ... J.xc5 14 'ii'e2 a615 e5 b5 16 'iVe4
l:.a7 17 J.d3 g6 with a roughly equal
position, Dolmatov-Sveshnikov, Moscow
1985.
c) 11 l:.c 1 a6 12 e4 dxc4 13 J.xc4
b5 14 J.a2 c5 15 d5 c4 16 e5 exd5 17
'ii'xd5, Kramnik-Illescas-Alcobendas
(2) 1993, and now 17 ... l:.a7 is fine for
Black, with the idea 18 e6 ttJc5 19
exf7+ ':'xf7 20 ttJe5 'ii'xd5 21 ttJxd5
:'f5 22 f4 J.d6, which is assessed as
unclear by Kramnik. Black's main
cause for concern is whether White
has something direct; otherwise the
bishop-pair and queenside majority is
in Black's favour.
11 ... a612 b4 f5!? (D)
Black adopts the solid Stonewall
set-up to restrict White's space advantage.
These kind of positions are usually
slightly in White's favour due to
his promising queenside pressure and
the fact that Black has a horrible lightsquared
bishop that is very hard to activate.
A few other options:
a) 12 ... b5?! 13 c5 as 14 e4 dxe4 15
j.xe4 ':'a6 16 l:.adl axb4 17 axb4 'iWc7
18 l:.al ttJb8 19 ttJe5 ;I; Rogozenko­
K.Miiller, Hamburg 1998.
b) 12 ... dxc4 13 J.xc4 as (13 ... J.f6,
intending ... e5, is worth considering)
14 'iVb3! ttJb6 15 ~e5!? (White does
not mind giving up his bishop for a
knight as long as it means that he can
maintain his space advantage and
avoid Black's bishops getting more
scope) 15 ... ttJxc4 16 'ii'xc4! J.d7 17
ttJe4 j.e8 18 ttJc5 'iVc8 19 bxaS!? (this
slightly anti-positional move is played
with the aim of avoiding having the
knights kicked back after a possible
... b6 and .. .f6 by Black) 19 ... .:.xaS 20
'iWc3 l:.a7 21 ttJc4 f6 22 ttJb6 'iWc7 23
l:.abl ;I; Kramnik-Bareev, Novgorod
1994.
w
13 ttJa4!?
It is interesting that Kramnik was
willing to take the black side of a position
he had played as White a year earlier.
Kramnik-Illescas, Alcobendas (4)
1993 had continued 13 c5 J.f6 (13 ... g5