Analysis Center.

young - shabalov 1996 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0  The other main lines for Black here are 4 ... c5 giving White a choice between 5 Bd3, 5 Ne2 and 5 Nf3, and 4 ... b6, which gives White pretty much the same options. 5.Nge2 c5  Not very popular now, because White obtains the bishop pair under favorable conditions. Contrast this with ... c7-c5 on Black's fourth, when 5 Ne2 is met by 5 ... cxd4 preparing a potential bishop retreat. Instead of the text, Black usually relies on 5 ... d5 here, but I have had good results with 5 ... Re8!? 6 a3 Bf8, when it looks like Black is ready for a game of shuffle-chess. 6.a3 cxd4 7.axb4!  Not allowing a transposition with 7 exd4 Be7. dxc3 8.Nxc3 d5 9.b3  In Schweber - Inkiov, Thessaloniki 1984, play featured 9 b5 b6 10 Be2 Bb7 11 O-O Nbd7 with reasonable play for Black. Four years later, Beliavsky tried 9 cxd5 against Inkiov. The game continued 9 ... exd5 10 Be2 (more agressive was 10 b5!? Be6 11 Qd4 a5 12 Bd3 Nbd7 13 f4 as in Gulko - Gamboa, St. Martin 1992) Nc6 11 b5 Ne7 12 O-O with a slight but persistent edge for White. Qe7 10.Ba3 Rd8 11.Qb1 DIAGRAM b6  A very strange situation arises after 11 ... Nc6?! 12 b5 Nb4 13 Na2! Nc2+ 14 Qxc2 Qxa3 15 b4 and the Black queen is locked in.  12.Be2 Bb7 13.0-0 Nbd7 14.Rd1 Ne5 15.h3  He wants to eliminate ideas based on ... Qe7-c7 followed by a knight leap to g4. Ng6 16.c5  Finally resolving the tension on the a3-f8 diagonal, and ceding the center in return for a menacing queenside majority. Qd7 17.Bf1 e5 18.Bb2 Qe7 19.Ba3 Qe6 20.Nb5 Ne8 21.Nc3 Nh4 22.Ne2  Young's new careful style of play has earned him great results recently. Here he has established his queenside initiative, and it will not be at all easy for the Grandmaster to crash through on the other wing. f5 23.b5 bxc5 24.Bxc5 Nf6 25.b4 Kh8 26.Ra3 g5 27.f4!  A deadly positional blow, puncturing all of the dark squares in the center. Because of Black's weakness on the long diagonal, he cannot get a g-file attack off the ground. gxf4 28.exf4 d4 29.fxe5 Nh5 30.Nxd4 Qd5 31.Qb2 Rg8 32.Rd2 Qxe5 33.Ne6 Qxb2 34.Rxb2 Rg6 35.Bd4+ Kg8 36.Bc4 Rc8 37.Nc5+ Kf8 38.Re2 Rd8 39.Ne6+ Rxe6 40.Bc5+ Red6 41.Re6  1 - 0