The Vos variant (1.32-28 18-23 2.33-29 23x32 3.37x28 20-25) seemed to have in recent years gradually disappeared from the opening repertoire of top grandmasters. But suddenly this variant is back in the foreground this year. Before we get into a game played from this opening, I would first like to answer the question why grandmasters with black play this opening in the first place. Surely they know that white has a better position? Personally, I see the following advantages to play the Vos variant with black: - White cannot quickly exchange pieces. - White cannot switch to an equal classical game. - White has to play active and principal to avoid getting a passive position. - The positions resulting from the Vos variant are complicated and require a lot of calculations (which will be evident from the game I am about to discuss). - Grandmasters who play this opening with black can prepare themselves well for their opponent's counterplay (again, see the game below). Draughts has a large draw margin. The aim of an opening is therefore often not to get a better position, but rather exciting and complicated play, where the opponent cannot exchange pieces quickly. The Vos variant is an excellent variant for this.

Let's take a look at the statistics. Anikeev played this opening with black in only 3.5 per cent of his games (by comparison, I like the Vos variant and used this in almost 8 per cent of my black games). The first tentative conclusion we can draw is that if someone does not play the way he is used to in an important tournament, it may mean that he has prepared this variant well at home. It is also interesting to compare how Anikeev plays with white in this position. His duel with Arnaud Cordier (European Championship 2022) went as follows:

I prefer the much played alternative

The difference between 4...12-18 and 4...17-21 becomes clear if white stays on its own territory. After

Black can, of course, play old-fashioned without attacking the outpost on 24, as in the 1964 game Anatoly Pylaev - Andris Andreiko. But that is not really promising for black. The last time Martijn van IJzendoorn played that at a high level was against Hein Meijer (2022), but honestly it was not a success for the black player. Black has to attack, but the question is whether to do so with 14-19 or 14-20 and whether to do so once or twice. The attack 14-19 looks less attractive because the white passive piece on 45 then comes into play, but Black really has no choice if he has done 4...12-18.

White now makes a strategically important decision. The alternative is to abandon the march from 46 to 37 by playing on the other wing. Kingsrow has no preference. Personally, I usually don't like it when my opponent, as in this game, moves piece 46 to square 37.

Against C. Leontiev, Dibman played

This second time attacking piece 24 with 14-20 is more or less mandatory.

This move was the subject of a long discussion between Dibman and me forty years ago. I was not in favour of this construction, because I think that with 3-9 black plays up his important piece on 3 too quickly. Moreover, I think this base piece is going in the wrong direction, because black might be able to make good use of piece 3 later for an attack on the other wing. But there are also good reasons to do 9-14 and 3-9: black might be able to go with 18-23, but more importantly, in 3-9 black has a final waiting move. Had black played 17...10-14, he would have had to make a decision immediately afterwards.

Let's take a closer look at the structure chosen by black. Of course, Anikeev is not the first to play like this with black. Remarkably, he suddenly started regularly adopting this structure about six months ago. For example, look at the position from his game against Sven Winkel (World Championship 2023) after 17...3-9. The black structure is the same (except that piece 10 is on 1)! Therefore, we can conclude that such a structure has general significance and cannot be used only in the Vos variant. Shvartsman also chooses such a structure in positions where white has a piece on 15.

Not a mistake, but this move forces white to make serious and crucial decisions later. After

Another step to loss. Two holes (38 and 43) in the center are not pretty, but the white center looks strong and it is now impossible to see how black can use these open squares. But the position on the board is very dangerous for Dolfing. He is under the illusion that his position is better. Therefore, he keeps playing for a win. More compact is

In the game Hein Meijer - Yuriy Anikeev, Riga Open 2023, this position also came on the board via a small indirect route. Meijer now made a terrible mistake with

Let's look again at the move

Still white does not make the decisive mistake, but the correct sequence is 42-38 and only then 36-31.

Now white had to make use of the open square 9 again, which can be done with 32.47-41/48-43, but there is a difference between the two moves.

Another method to prevent 17-22 is

Dolfing chose to move to an endgame. During the game, he thought his king cost three pieces instead of four. In the variant

Indeed, the first impulse is to play 3-8 to destroy the position 2-13, as that could potentially be used to capture White’s kingout. We also started with this move each time in the post analysis of the game. However, correct is

This looks like a weakening. In reality, black goes for a capture position with piece 11.

Another attempt with

Anikeev tries to play safe and maintain his advantage of three pieces. Black could make things relatively easy for himself by opting for a clear endgame with

Dolfing was able to create much more problems for his opponent with the seemingly strange move

White gives up. Did Dolfing play badly? I don't think so. The position he got was very attractive and invited him to counterplay. But at the same time, the position was treacherous for him. White went to the center, neutralised elementary threats in time, but found no adequate defense against the basic threat: the combination to square 45. The position turned out to be too complicated for the human brain. We can also note that Anikeev (a strong positional player, who likes to navigate, see e.g. his win at the World Championship against Heusdens) looked for an active opening with black and found it in the Vos variant. With white he also found such an opening some time ago: he uses 1.35-30 to do so.