Download PGN of August ’25 Flank Openings games
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Réti Opening, Reversed Benoni 2...d4 3 e3 Nc6 [A09]
First up, in Ernst, S - L'Ami, E we have a line I mentioned in my notes a couple of months ago, 6 Be2, where White refrains from playing Nc3 but instead intends to bring the dark-squared bishop to c3. Often the queen's knight will also join the fight for the d4 square. The game continued 6...Nh6 7 d3 Nf5 8 0-0 g6 and now 9 Bd2 Qd8 10 Bc3 Nd4 11 Na3 Bg7 12 Nb5:
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Play was balanced, but Black played a slightly risky ...f7-f5 break and after a couple of imprecise moves his position fell apart.
Of course, if you don't want to play this line for White then there is always the exciting 4 b4 pawn sacrifice (which is more like a reversed Blumenfeld Gambit than a reversed Benoni) that we looked at two months ago in Erigaisi, A - Van_Roon, S. This time, in Erigaisi, A - Grigoriants, S Black played the mainline 6...c5 and after 7 d4 e6 8 a3 Nc6 9 d5! White's central pawns sweep all before them. Black is already much worse, despite his extra pawn:
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This is not the first time that Erigaisi won this way as he'd already reached this position 3 years ago. In the notes I also had a look at another recent game of his involving the alternative 3...c5 4 b4 which can also be reached with the move order 3 b4 (instead of 3 e3) 3...c5 and only now 4 e3.
Neo-Catalan, 3...dxc4 4 Qa4+ Nd7 5 Qxc4 a6 6 Qb3 [A13]
I personally prefer to place my queen on b3 rather than c2 in this line, so I was interested when I saw the game Van Foreest, J - Hagner, B, which continued 6...Ngf6 7 Nf3 c5 8 a4:
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White will play a4-a5 to hinder Black's queenside development, and this game was a perfect example of White's positional ideas, right up till the endgame where White was a solid pawn up with a strong bishop pair. However, this wasn't the end of the story as Black fought manfully to make it as difficult as possible for White, and was rewarded when White put his light-squared bishop on a mined square.
Reversed Benoni 5 0-0 0-0 6 b3 d4 7 d3 [A14]
Another Benoni structure, but this time Black waits for White to play b2-b3 before advancing his d pawn. Following 7 d3 Nc6, in Liang, A - Lissillour, B, White played the surprising novelty 8 h3:
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This is a sort of prophylaxis as control of the g4 square can be useful in all sorts of later positions. Black played well, but got his queen trapped after hunting the rook on a1. He could have escaped but instead preferred to swap her majesty for two rooks and reach an unclear position. Unfortunately, a few imprecise moves then led to a quick slaughter.
King’s English, Keres System 2...c6 3 Nf3 e4 4 Nd4 d5 5 cxd5 Qxd5 6 e3 [A20]
A Keres System where Black defers ...Nf6 took on a whole new meaning in Lagarde, M - Bazakutsa, S as after 6...Bc5 7 Nc3 Qe5 8 d3 exd3 9 Qxd3 Black spurned the obvious 9...Nf6 which had always been played here in the past, and instead went for the novelty 9...Na6:
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10...Nb4 could be an annoying threat, so White played 10 a3, and Black avoided playing ...Nf6 altogether with the unusual 10...Ne7, possibly aiming for f5. Despite playing fairly natural-looking moves White was soon in a bad way, and Black missed several chances to bring home a full point, but instead did manage to make a flashy draw! Black to play:
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A very exciting, and theoretically important, game.
King’s English, 2 Nc3 Bb4 3 Nd5 Be7 4 Nf3 d6 5 d4 [A21]
In this common line we have previously looked at 5...e4, 5...Nc6 and 5...c6 but not at 5...Nf6, offering the e pawn:
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White rarely accepts the pawn, for practical reasons I suppose, but perhaps he should. In Artemiev, V - Sargsyan, S White played a series of precise moves and then transposed into a winning endgame.
King’s English 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 g3 Bc5 4 Bg2 d6 5 e3 a6 [A25]
I don't actually know why Christiansen was playing in the 2025 Scottish Chess Championships, but he won the event by a country mile, as you probably would expect him to, scoring 9/9, which is pretty impressive even if he did out-rate the other competitors by quite a margin. In the game Grant, J - Christiansen, J the Norwegian GM played the 3...Bc5 line where Black delays his kingside development and plans to play ...h7-h5-h4, and/or ...Nge7, ...f7-f5 depending on White's setup. Here is the position after Black's ninth move:
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White played very well, castled queenside, doubled rooks on the g file and had a good position, but one slip allowed a sharp tactic and after that there was no way back.
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Black to play and win.
I like these sort of opening positions for White in general, and I've tended to score very well with them in the past, but I was happy to be able to examine this game more closely as I wanted to see the best way to handle them and Stockfish offered some very interesting ideas, indeed.
King’s English, Four Knights 4 e3 Bb4 5 Qc2 Bxc3 6 Qxc3 Qe7 7 a3 d5 [A28]
In Carlsen, M - So, W after the standard continuation 4 e3 Bb4 5 Qc2 Bxc3 6 Qxc3 Qe7 7 a3 d5 8 d4 exd4 9 Nxd4 Nxd4 10 Qxd4 c5 11 Qh4 Wesley So first played the most common 11...dxc4 12 Bxc4 and only then the surprising novelty 12...g5:
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The World number one responded quite well and gained a clear advantage, but Black defended well, and could even have won towards the end.
When I saw this game it reminded me that John Watson had mentioned the move 11...g5!? (without the capture on c4) a couple of times in his ChessPub annotations 20 years ago, saying that he remembered this as “an idea from the mid-1970s or so”. So, I have had a look at this line in the notes, and, although Black has scored abysmally, it's actually rather interesting and deserves to be seen more often.
Until next month, Tony.
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