Welcome to the latest opening project of GM Boris Avrukh – Arkhangelsk Variation. Having worked on this opening with Fabiano Caruana, Avrukh is one of the biggest Arkhangelsk experts in the world.
Arkhangelsk Variation – Lifetime Solution for Black
Welcome to the latest opening project of GM Boris Avrukh – Arkhangelsk Variation. Having worked on this opening with Fabiano Caruana, Avrukh is one of the biggest Arkhangelsk experts in the world.
About the Author
World-renowned chess Grandmaster Boris Avrukh (peak rating 2668, September 2009) has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning over three decades.
At the age of 19, Boris earned the title of Grandmaster, and since 1998, he has been a permanent member of the Israeli National Team, with whom he has participated in seven Chess Olympiads, five European and one World Team Championships.
GM Avrukh’s Individual achievements include:
- 1990 Soviet Union Champion under 12. World Champion 1998
- Gold medal – Olympiad in Elista, Russia – 6th Board
- Bronze medal – Olympiad in Calvia (2004), and Turin (2006).
- 2000 and 2008 – Two-time Israeli Champion
- Top Prize at several other International Chess Tournaments, including Paris (1998), Biel (2001, 2002), Politiken Cup (2010) and Zurich (2010).
GM Avrukh has trained some of the world’s elite players, including Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Teimour Rajabov and Wesley So.
He has also trained Israel’s National Team, and England’s National Team. The silver team medal at World Team Championship 2019 Kazakhstan is the biggest accomplishment so far.
Boris is also a well-renowned published author.
What will I learn from the course?
The tricky line 7.Nc3.
As Avrukh explains, “Instead of the normal Ruy Lopez with c2-c3 followed by d2-d4, White tries to get his knight to the d5-square. This sideline is very easy to prepare for White players.” After 7… 0-0 8.d3 the recommended repertoire choice is 8…h6 in order to avoid the pin with Bg5.
7.d3 line
Avrukh: “A very important line, which can also arise through the 5.d3 move order, if Black responds with 5…b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.0-0 etc. With this positional approach, White avoids heavy theoretical variations while playing some standard Ruy Lopez/Italian ideas. This is the main reason why this approach has a lot of followers.
On the other hand, from my personal experience, I have to admit that Black’s play is much easier and more straightforward compared to other Ruy Lopez variations, where the dark-squared bishop is developed to e7.
Not surprisingly I have witnessed a lot of examples where Black played Be7-c5 in d3-systems, wasting tempo and at the same time believing it’s worth it.” 7…d6 “In this chapter, I decided to avoid examining White’s a4-idea, except for 9.a4 in the mainline, since it will be covered with the 7.a4-move order.” (Avrukh).
And more, in 6 hours of video instruction on how to play with Black in the Arkhangelsk Variation of the Ruy Lopez.
Content Outline
Chapter 1 – 7.Nc3 Closed
Chapter 2 – White’s Rare 7th Moves Closed
Chapter 3 – 7.Nxe5 Nxe5 8.d4 Closed
Chapter 4 – 7.d3 Closed
Chapter 5 – 7.c3 d6 8.d4 Bb6 Closed
Chapter 6 – 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.d4 without axb5 Closed
Chapter 7 – 7.a4 Rb8 8.axb5 axb5 9.Nxe5 Nxe5 10.d4Closed
Chapter 8 – 8.d3 with the insertion of 7.a4Closed
Chapter 9 – 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6 10.a5Closed
Chapter 10 – 10.Qd3 and 10.axb5 axb5 11.Qd3Closed
Chapter 11 – 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6 10.Na3 0-0 11.axb5 axb5 12.Nxb5 Bg4 Alternatives to 13.Bc2 Closed
Chapter 12 – Alternatives to 17.Kh1 Closed
Chapter 13 – 17.Kh1 Closed
Test Section
