The Fabulous 00s: North American Open 2008
unknown wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
Let’s see my 7th round game vs GM Slavko Cicak. Shortly after this interesting game concluded, we could both be found at the Bally’s poker table. GM Varuzh Akobian could be spotted at the next table over.
GM Slavko Cicak - M. Ginsburg Round 7 NAO Las Vegas 12/28/08.
Sicilian Defense, 3. c3 4. Bc4 irregular
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Bc4!? A pet line of Cicak’s that he employed in a prior round (not known to me at the time of this game).
4…e6 After lengthy reflection I could not work out the ramifications of 4… Nxe4!? 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Qxe4. But more insight reveals the surprising 7…Qd7! overprotecting the light squares (less convincing is 7… h6 8. O-O e5 9. Na3 Qf6) and black is fully confident with the bishop pair. For example, 8. O-O Qf5 9. Qe3 e5 10. Re1 [...]
Read the rest of this great post here