In my recent tournament in Nova Gorica, I noticed that the veteran Croatian GM, Nenad Fercec, was still playing the Chigorin Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6). As this was one of my favourite openings in my teenage years, it prompted me to check its current theoretical status. I also wondered if it helped to have White include Nf3 to make 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nc6 a viable option for Black. I decided to check the Baltic Defence (2...Bf5) as well, with both the 2.c4 and a preliminary Ng1-f3 by White.

Chigorin Defence
Baltic Defence

Chigorin Defence: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 [D07]

During my Chigorin research, the first thing I noticed was that the line 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.Bg5:

resulted in a catastrophic loss for Baadur Jobava in his FIDE Grand Swiss game against Boris Gelfand (Gelfand, B - Jobava, B ). I suspect that he turned to the Chigorin because of general concerns about playing Black against the well prepared Gelfand and then improvised the disastrous 6...e5?.

What should Black play there instead? It looks like 6...a6:

is Black’s best bet, though here too Black must play with great accuracy to stay on the board. In the game Pert, N - Signorelli, G Black played well until his mistaken 9...Bxf3. Black seems to be on the board if he plays 9...Nfd7 instead, but only just!

What is the most dangerous line for Black if White must have his knight on f3, for example via 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nc6 and only now 3.c4? It seems that the most dangerous line for Black is still 3...Bg4 4.cxd5 Bxf3 5.gxf3, aiming for a huge pawn centre with backing from the two bishops. I have no doubt that White is better in these positions, but in practice the position is very tricky because White’s position is quite extended. Yu, K - Wang, Y is a recent example of White being hit by a brutal tactical shot.

Chigorin Defence
Baltic Defence

Baltic Defence: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Bf5 [D06]

Igors Rausis used to play this a lot with Black, which surprised me because of the two-result endgame arising after 3.cxd5 Bxb1 4.Qa4+ c6 5.dxc6 Nxc6 6.Rxb1 Qxd4 (Markus, R - Miladinovic, I.)

As with the Chigorin I then wondered if this is more interesting for Black with Ng1-f3 included, for example via the move order 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 3.c4:

The critical line arises after 3...e6 4.Nc3, and now 4...c6 and 4...Nf6 have previously been covered here. The move 4...Nc6 had not, so I decided to investigate it.

White’s standard response is the developing move Bc1-f4, either before or after exchanging on d5. In Aronian, L - Li, C, Black answered the immediate 5.Bf4 with 5...Bd6, which is probably better than the more popular 5...Nf6 though Black must know that 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Nxd5 is answered by 7...Be4, which is what happened in the game:

The resulting positions seem OK for Black but my concern, from a practical point of view, was that they may not offer great winning chances. It’s mainly about whether Black can neutralise White’s strong light squared bishop.

In Piorun, K - Moiseenko, A and Kramnik, V - Nepomniachtchi, I, White played 7.Bg3 instead:

with Moiseenko immediately exchanging the bishop (7...Bxg3) and Nepomniachtchi delaying this with 7...Nf6 and meeting 8.e3 with 8...Ne7. Both these approaches seem playable for Black, though he’s hardly setting the World on fire.

Finally, in the game Jumabayev, R - Erdos, V, we have an example of White omitting the capture on d5. Again it seems that White is marginally better, though I liked the original way Black got counterplay with 12...Na5

To sum up I’d say that the Chigorin is just about playable, but you probably need to love it to keep playing it! As for the Baltic Defence, it still looks miserable to me in the 2.c4 Bf5 3.cxd5 version and unexciting if White has committed himself to Ng1-f3. Still, either of these lines could be useful surprise weapons if your opponent is genuinely surprised.

Chigorin Defence
Baltic Defence

See you next month! Nigel Davies

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