The Pawn was Poisened again in Cap d’Agde
Yesterday a very old variation decided the Cap d'Agde rapid tournament. It was the Poisened Pawn of the Najdorf (6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2) and after 9.Rb1 Qa3 not even 10.f5 but the older move 10.e5. Radjabov had already played this before (two months ago against Anand in a blitz game) so Karjakin was warned. Still, he hit one of the many land mines Radjabov had placed at home. Today an extensive analysis, including coverage of theory.We're talking about the second game of the final, because the first was an easy draw by Radjabov with Black with his now rock-solid Sveshnikov.Radjabov-Karjakin
Cap d'Agde, 2006
After 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Nfd7 12. Ne4 h6 13. Bh4 Qxa2 (13...Qa4 14.Be2 Nc6 15.Nxe6 g5 16.Nf6+ was 1-0, Radjabov-Anand, Israel 2006) in the diagram position White played the important and quite new move 14.Rd1. This had been played only once before, by Nataf. The game continued 14...Qb2 15. Qe3 Bc5 16. Be2 Nc6 17. c3 Qa3 
and here White played 18. O-O!? which involves an exchange sacrifice: 18...O-O (taking on d4 immediately might be more accurate - see the analysis) 19. Nf6+! Nxf6 20. Bxf6 Nxd4 21. Rxd4 Bxd4 22. Qxd4 gxf6 23. exf6 Qa5 24. h4! and White won.The Poisened Pawn is such a fascinating line, from a theoretical as well as an esthetical point of view. That's way I enjoyed making a thorough analysis this morning, including the theory as far as I could find it. Additions are welcome!
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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