IM Sandeep Annotates - #8 - Grace Goes Modern

This week’s article will feature a game from the weekly Wednesday MCA Arena, which was played by Grace, along with a couple of grandmaster games. Grace played the Modern Defense in all her Black games against 1.e4 and we think this is a great way to build an opening repertoire.  By specializing in an opening, at least for a while,  you get to know all the key plans and pawn structures.  And you can always add another opening to your repertoire later. 

The Modern is a very interesting opening; some of your favorite players, like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura regularly employ it in their games with huge successes. Our selected master games show the versatility and resilience of the Modern Defense.  Studying master games in your chosen opening is vitally important.  

Grace is playing very well recently, with a 1st place finish in the K3 u700 section at the K-6 Nationals and an increase of her lichess rating to over 1600. She might well join the top players one day.  We hope that Grace, and all our students, will review these games carefully to learn some key ideas in the Modern Defense. 

Grace Shows Us The Ropes

The first game was against Timmy in a Modern Defense where Grace equalized easily from the opening. She was on the defensive for a lot of the game, but a small series of mistakes put her right back in the game, and she even went on to win. Check out the game to see how things ended up:

 

 

Some key takeaways from the game:

1. The Modern Defense can be used at any level with success, and we can all learn some lessons from Grace on how to use it correctly.
2. Striking in the center can be a very powerful tool, especially in openings where you generally don’t have as much space.
3. In the endgame, especially King and Pawn endgames, it's important to activate the King and save the pawn moves for later.

Test Your Knowledge 

Try to solve these positions and then check out the answers in the annotated game.

How should Black take advantage of White’s miscoordination for the time being?

What is the evaluation, and how should White play?

How The Masters Do It

In this game, we’ll take a look at one player everyone should know, GM Wesley So. He plays as Black against the current world #3 GM Hikaru Nakamura and manages to eke out a win in an endgame with the Modern. It’s very important to study these games, because we can take inspiration and learn important lessons from these experienced competitors. Check out the game here:

 

 

Some key takeaways from the game:

1. Even top players make mistakes just like us, so don’t be too hard on yourself when you make a mistake
2. Conversion is the most difficult part of the game no matter what level you’re at
3. Passive play rarely leads to fruition, even in the driest looking endgames.

 

Tell Us What You Think

When we review master games, sometimes we notice important differences in the opening. This is one of the ways we can find new ideas and refine our openings. 

Grace played e6 on move 4 but Wesley played d6.  How did d6 support Wesley’s plan?  Did e6 help or hurt Grace in her game? 

Tell us what you think by commenting on this article or sending us an email.

Test Your Knowledge 

Try to solve these positions and then check out the answers in the annotated game.

How should White react to the central tension in an effective manner?

How should White take advantage of the chance Black has given to him? 

The Counter to the Brute Force Method

In this master game, we will see how GM Gledura deals with a brute force attack.  When we study master games in our opening lines, we not only learn how to attack but we also learn how to deal with aggressive but dubious attacks. Get ready to play the Modern soon! Check out the game here:

 

 

Some key takeaways from the game:

1. Sometimes flank attacks are not as dangerous as they seem: all they require is careful defense and an eventual counter-attack
2. Always be looking for tactical opportunities; they can arise out of seemingly nowhere
3. Finally, because it’s so important, Never give up!

Test Your Knowledge 

Try to solve these positions and then check out the answers in the annotated game.

White to move and turn the tide of the game.

White to move and take advantage of a tactical opportunity.