MCC Openings Group 13/4/2011

What inspires us to take up an opening? How many of us really work out the openings which would be best for us? Or in reality, do we see an amazing game, follow an exciting player, or get inspired by an article or book promoting a certain opening?

When I was young I remember being inspired by Lev Polugayevsky's "Grandmaster Preparation" which gave loads of advice about game analysis, but also promoted Polugayevsky's mad line in the Najdorf. Of course, I simply had to play it, and spent much time patchworking a repertoire with the black pieces against 1.e4 with heavy emphasis on the Polugayevsky Variation. In hindsight, I can see how wrong this might have been, but I had a lot of fun analysing, playing and generally thinking about the game. I was inspired and became a lifelong devotee to the game of chess!

Tonight we looked at one of the most inspirational games of all time, the Evergreen game. We then had a look at an interesting move discovered by Nigel Short in a similar line of the Evan's Gambit. If you haven't seen the Evergreen Game before, then here it is:

The position we looked at was from the game Short-P H Neilsen Samba Cup 2003:

In this position Short played the amazing 12.Nb5! which created an unbelievably complicated position with great attacking chances for white! What would you play as black if White played 12.Nb5? Most of us in the group looked at 12..Bxa1 but black came under massive pressure in most of those games.