A while ago I offered a post in praise of an old issue of the Informant (issue 26, from 1978), but really it was in praise of the actual physical volume as compared to a computer database. (Not that I have anything against databases!) This time I'd like to return to that issue and note another gem excavated therein.
Many of you have been around chess long enough to know who Tony Miles (1955-2001) was, and some of you are probably familiar with at least one of the two games that saw him butcher Boris Spassky with his pet line (4.Bf4) against the Queen's Indian Defense. I don't know if it ever caught on among other strong players, but by the time I started playing tournament chess in the 1980s it had pretty well disappeared in favor of the standard 4.g3 and the suddenly hot 4.a3 (thanks to Garry Kasparov's very successful advocacy).
Until I started leafing through Informant 26 the 4.Bf4 line was just a historical curiosity, forgotten the moment after finishing my look at the aforementioned Miles-Spassky games. But here, there are nine consecutive Miles games in this variation, and his score against mostly elite opposition was a stunning 7-2 (+6 -1 =2). Not bad for an insipid line that hardly anyone plays, and that I can't remember seeing in a super-tournament my whole adult life.
This may therefore be a worthwhile surprise weapon you can try against QID-wielding opposition, and to help get you started here are all nine of Miles' games from Informant 26. Some brief comments are included, occasionally based on those from the book. Have a look!