The Berlin Defence

Publisher: Chess stars, 2012, Pages: 276, Paperback

Igor Lysyj "In this book Roman Ovetchkin and I have decided to illustrate the theoretical section with model games and thorough analysis of these will undoubtedly help the reader to gain a better grasp of the finer points of this system and orientate himself among the enormous amount of  information available."

PREFACE
Every grandmaster who intends to begin defending the black side of the open games must first find the right answer to the question - which line to choose against the Ruy Lopez? I was no exception to this rule. I was taking a walk once with my friends Alexander Riazantsev and Igor Kurnosov and they came up with a wonderful idea: “You’ve always been an excellent endgame player; study the Berlin Wall!” I liked that advice very much and it gave me a clear direction for studying a new repertoire.

I worked hard at mastering 1...е7-е5 for Black and the results were very fruitful in the 2011 World Cup, where I had no problems at all after 1.e2-e4. I was especially happy with the outcome of the opening battle against the outstanding theoretician M. Kobalia. In fact, in one of the main tabias of the anti-Berlin system I found an order of moves which I believe to be among my best analytical achievements.

In this book Roman Ovetchkin and I have decided to illustrate the theoretical section with model games and thorough analysis of these will undoubtedly help the reader to gain a better grasp of the finer points of this system and orientate himself among the enormous
amount of information available.

My co-author and I very much appreciate the help, in the creation of this book, of our friends, GMs I.Kurnosov, P.Ponkratov and A. Riazantsev, and my life-long coach N.Ogloblin. We should also like to thank its editor, Sergey Soloviov, without whose invaluable advice this book would probably not have come to fruition.

Igor Lysyj
Ekaterinburg, February 2012

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Part 1. Anti-Berlin
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6
1 Rarely-Played Moves; 4.Bxc6; 4.Qe2; 4.d4
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . 12
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 34
2 4.Nc3
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . 39
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 58
3 4.d3 Bc5. Rarely-Played Moves; 5.Nc3
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . 60
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Complete games . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . 73
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 83
5 4.d3 Bc5 5.0–0; 5.c3 0–0. Rarely-Played Moves; 6.Qe2;
6.Bxc6
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 105
6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0–0 6.0–0 d6. Rarely-Played Moves;
7.Bg5
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . 108
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 110
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 121
6
7 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0–0 6.0–0 d6 7.Nbd2
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 124
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 126
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 140
8 4.0–0 Nxe4. Rarely-Played Moves; 5.Qe2; 5.Re1
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 145
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 146
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 158
9 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6. Rarely-Played Moves; 6.Bg5;
6.dxe5
Quick Repertoire . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Step by Step . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 173
10 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5. Rarely-Played Moves; 8.Qe2
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 177
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 178
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 180
Part 2. The Berlin Endgame
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8
11 Rarely-Played Moves; 9.Bg5; 9.h3; 9.Rd1; 9.Nbd2
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 184
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 186
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 196
12 9.Nc3 Ke8 w/o 10.Rd1 and 10.h3
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 199
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 201
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 210
13 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.Rd1
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 213
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 215
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 221
14 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5. Rarely-Played Moves; 11.b3; 11.Ne2
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 235
15 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Rd1 Be7 12.g3; 12.Ne4; 12.Ne2
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . 239
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 246
16 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Bg5
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 249
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 261
17 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Bf4
Quick Repertoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 263
Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Complete games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 272