New in Chess 21/1991 [antikvár]

NIC DATABASE Vadim Ruban Sicilian Defence S11.6 Gambit after 3.Aii5 The initial position of this survey arises after 1 .e4 c5 2.ihi3 d6 3.±b5 -acS 4.0-0 .?d7 5.c3 ®f6 6.He1 a6 7.1.c6 Ac6 8.d4 l.e4. Black wins an important central pawn, but on the other hand he opens lines against his own king, which has no immediate prospects of castling into safety. White follows with 9.Ag5 and more than once we see that he saddles Black with doubled f-pawns and secures the square f5 for his knight, as in Barle-Quinteros. In spite of his extra pawn Black stands badly. The classic continuation is 9 1.d5 10.'abd2 e6, but the game Kalegin-Tiviakov suggests that White has a slight edge here. In Mainka-Rogers (see YB/16) Black was successful with the novelty 10 c4, but the game Fette-Ruban casts a shadow on Black's prospects in this line. If this is really problematic then Black still has the alternative 9 d5 at his disposal, which, as it seems, should be given preference over moves like 9 1.b1 or 9 1.g6. The conclusion must be that the pawn sacrifice, though it appears to give White good chances, shouldn't unduly worry Black.