07 August 2011  Annotated Game #4: GM Alex Yermolinsky simul
The following game was played at the 2002 National Open in Las
Vegas.  This was my first simultaneous exhibition game and I was
very much interested in playing against GM Yermolinsky, due both
to his record in the U.S. Championship (having won twice in the
1990s) and his authorship of the excellent book The Road to
Chess Improvement (Gambit Publications, 1999) which I had
recently read.  Similar to what occurred in my game vs. GM
Walter Browne, I was able to successfully prepare the opening
prior to the game.  I determined that Yermolinsky was likely to
play 1. d4 and that we would therefore end up in a Slav Defense.
 The Geller Gambit (5. e4 in the main line Slav progression)
seemed to suit Yermolinsky's style, especially in a simul, and
he had played it before.  This swashbuckling gambit line is
White's primary choice for aggressive play, at least in the main
lines of the Slav, and Black has to know it cold.  However, if
Black rides it out, he ge