Benjamin Finegold vs Renier Gonzalez (2006) A Slav to Fashion

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Benjamin Finegold vs Renier Gonzalez
"A Slav to Fashion" (game of the day Mar-20-2009)
United States Championship (2006), San Diego, CA USA, rd 5, Mar-07
Slav Defense: Quiet Variation (D11) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Mar-20-09		mike1: I think White is much better after move 17 but does not do anything for the next 30 or so moves.18.b4 comes to mind with the idea a4 + b5 sometime after that.The rooks could be used to support the passed pawns on b1+c1.If White achieves this setup he and not black is close to win.

Mar-20-09		al wazir: White spoiled a fine game. 40. d6 would have kept up the pressure. If 40...Be5, then 41. Rd3, and now the only way to stop the ♙ is by 41...Qd7 42. Qxd7 Nxd7 43. Rxa5, winning.

Mar-20-09		Samagonka: What a game! White almost had it all but messed it up somewhere near the end.

Mar-20-09		UnsoundHero: If 40 d6 Re6. Then maybe 41 Qa6.

Mar-20-09		solskytz: Not very far from yesterday's rapid Carlsen - Aronian (in Amber tournament), in the material rapport and the inability of the white player to arrange his forces - aside brilliant regroupings of black (48...h4!) which rob the white pieces of good squares or lines.

Mar-20-09		kevin86: Nothing really special about this one except for the pawn gobbling episode on moves 13-15-then white grabs the exchange in exchange for the piece lost to the pawns.

Mar-20-09		MaxxLange: "quiet variation"

Mar-20-09		Morphyisgod: Renier is my chess coach, i take lessons from him on Sundays, he's a really great guy, and a really good teacher.

Mar-20-09		Sneaky: <Samagonka: What a game! White almost had it all but messed it up somewhere near the end.> <kevin86: Nothing really special about this one> Obviously some varied opinions on this one. I am more in Samagonka's camp, I found it very curious, I thought White was winning throughout the game, even when "down a piece" (i.e., two pieces for a rook) I thought his extra pawns were more than enough compensation. Then when White plays 49.Rxd7 it appeared to me that he was committing suicide. Then I looked at that position at move 49 and I can't suggest anything better, he's going to lose the exchange at least, because the threat of ...hxg3 is so strong. White is compelled to blow his kingside open with gxh4, and the results are ugly. So that leaves the question, where exactly did White leave the path?

Mar-20-09		Sneaky: The pun "Slav to Fashion" is obviously a reference to the fact that it's so common to see a Slav with an early ...a6 these days, the so-called "quiet variation". It's one of the opening trends of the past 10 years. My question is: What exactly makes an opening trend happen? It's as if all the GMs get together for lunch one day and Topalov says, "I think we should all start playing ...a6 really early in the Slav Defense" and then Anand says, "Yeah you know we all started playing an early ...a6 in the Sicilian and that really worked out, it can't be a bad move" and then Kramnik says "I love it, you could even double rooks with ...Ra7 sometimes" and then the fix is in. The next tournament you see it on half the boards. The classic move order becomes called "old-fashioned" as if it's the King's Gambit or something. Next thing you know, Informant comes out with a giant tome on "Slav Defense with 4...a6". The instinctive answer is that a trend happens because a very good move has been overlooked for a long time. While true, I don't think that's a complete answer--because there are LOTS of very good moves that aren't played much. Here's my explanation: I think there is some sort of feedback relationship. One or two GMs start to play a Slav with an early ...a6 and that forces all of the GMs to study it, at least from White's point of view, at least the ones that open with 1.d4. They can't be caught unprepared if they should run into somebody who plays this move! Then the GMs who study it from White's point of view find themselves playing the slav one day, and they figure they should play it, since they've learned so much about it lately.

Mar-20-09		Sneaky: I said "last ten years" but after checking the stats I see that it really started gaining ground in 1992. So that's over 16 years. Out of 1,732 games in this database, only 34 of them were played before 1992. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

Mar-20-09		WhiteRook48: horrible

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