Botvinnik Semi-Slav, The (Pedersen)

18 Odds and Ends
A few things need to be mentioned as
a final note. First of all, white-players
who have built up their courage to play
S .tgS may be in for a disappointment
if faced by S ... ttJbd7 or S ... .te7. Both
lines may lead to a Classical Queen's
Gambit Declined (though Black's early
... c6 is a slight concession) or a Cambridge
Springs in the case of S ... ttJbd7.
Here this book will not be able to help
as these systems are really outside the
scope of it.
It is worth mentioning that S ... ~b6?!
leads Black into some trouble. After 6
~c2, Black has no good way to justify
the queen move, as after 6 ... ttJe4 7
ttJxe4 dxe4 8 cS! he loses a pawn for
inadequate compensation.
Finally, there is the line 1 d4 dS 2 c4
c6 3 ttJf3 ttJf6 4 ttJc3 e6 S .tgS dxc4
(S ... h6 6 .th4 dxc4 7 e4 gS 8 .tg3 bS 9
eS leads to the same thing) 6 e4 bS 7 eS
h6 8 .th4 gS 9 .tg3 (D).
This has not been covered so far in
the book, and might not be that good
but has the practical advantage from
White's viewpoint that it can be used
against both the Botvinnik and the
Moscow Variation.
B
Black's best is probably 9 ... ttJdS 10
h4 ~a5! 11 :c1 .tb4 12 ~c2 (after 12
~d2 g4 13 tiJh2 hS Black has achieved
a very good version of the Alatortsev
Variation!) 12 ... gxh4 13 .txh4 'ii'xa2
and White did not have compensation
for the pawn in Gerber-Shabalov,
Geneva 1992. There are quieter attempts
for White, such as 10 .te2 or
10 ttJd2, but neither promises anything.
For a better feeling of this type
of position, the reader is invited to
'study Chapter 14, The Anti-Moscow
Variation. Here White is very often reluctant
to play eS since this loses a lot
of his dynamism, whilst it is not that
easy to exploit the dark squares.