In this week's ChessVideos show, I take a look at a fascinating battle between Zoltan Almasi and Gadir Guseinov played earlier this year. The game began as a normal (hyper-) Accelerated Dragon: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Nxd4 7.Qxd4, but took a twist when Black played 7...Bg7 rather than the usual and obvious 7...d6.
Guseinov's move invites - practically begs for - the push 8.e5. But should White play that way? It's an obvious move, but surely Black realized that too, and very likely prepared the move in advance. So what's the right way to react? It's a question not only for Almasi on this occasion but all of us when we're faced with similarly provocative moves by our opponents. I offer some answers to this general question, and show how Almasi handled it as well. It turned out that Guseinov's idea isn't as bad as it looks, but Almasi found a great way to pressure Black. Home prep or not, Guseinov was soon taken by surprise, and proved unable to solve his problems at the board.
Have a look for yourself. As always, the show is free (one-time only free registration is required) and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.