Anti-Moscow Part 2 by GM Arun and GM Magesh

Last week we had left off with the interesting Knight sacrifice on f7 in the Anti-Moscow Variation. Today we will continue our discussion and take a look at several other options that have been tried out over the last few years. This opening in particular is very well analyzed and constantly updated by the top level grand masters. However complicated a position can get, we believe chess is still inherently quite logical, so if we can understand the ideas or as people would like to call it “get a feel for it” then it helps a lot in finding the right moves in positions where it is impossible to calculate all the moves. This ‘feel’ comes a lot with experience and hard work. The more good and bad things we find out in a given positions, those patterns get registered in our brains and are used when we play the same position next time. We may not notice all this as it can happen at a subconscious level.

Anyways getting back to the board, our first game today is an encounter between ex-world champion Kramnik and the current world champion Anand. Like we mentioned earlier, we will take a look at other alternatives for white today instead of the knight sacrifice on f7.

A very interesting game; the material imbalance makes it even harder at times to understand the logic of the situation, but in the end black was able to hold on quite well. In the previous game we studied 14.Bh5, this time the ex-world junior champion Mamedyarov plays another alternative for white with 14.Re1.

White had to settle for a draw in that game, but the pursuit for that minute but lasting advantage continues as in the last game Kramnik demonstrates his class in outsmarting his rival Leko.

We hope our readers have gained more insight into this ever growing complex opening. It might not be a bad idea to check the moves with your computer before any critical game in this opening, because one thing that humans are prone to in such positions are blunders!