| Started by d-pawn | Post by doefmat |
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MarkG wrote on 01/09/25 at 20:02:10: Finally, as an Alekhine's Defence player, I would like to thank Nikolaos for his recommendation there. I can only hope it becomes fashionable  I'm curious; why do you hope this?
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| Started by Michael Ayton | Post by Michael Ayton |
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Marvellous stuff, AOC -- thanks for it.
Totally agree re engine assessments, obv., but I was, albeit not LEU, LBFS (lazy blighter full stop) in not following through on the Nxe4 sac variation without h4/h5. (Actually, the cause was a rather more specific failing of mine. I have this strange tendency to indulge in 'abstract' thought iso concrete analysis/objective assessment, coupled with -- often powered by! -- 'guilt' about my own thinking, as in "Trust me to enthuse over an opening like the Tango. This dynamic Nxe4 is my, as well as its, punishment!" -- iso just analysing the damn position and realising that it may well be defensible after all! I'm still smarting here over a pertinent recent game I should never have lost, grrrr ...)
Meanwhile the Tango is still looking playable, even if slightly dodgy. Maybe the 'Paradox ' line is the biggest challenge, or one of them? -- but I'm defo not yet in a position to know anything!
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| Started by GMTonyKosten | Post by GMTonyKosten |
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I'm in the process of having the site modernised (again, but let's hope more successfully than the last time!) Any thoughts on what you would find useful - it will probably be based around the Position Search page.
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| Started by boki | Post by GMTonyKosten |
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| Started by GMTonyKosten | Post by GMTonyKosten |
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Nernstian59 wrote on 12/15/24 at 23:57:07: When I search for the position arising after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.exd5, I get six results, but the games from 2001 and 2002 aren't accessible when I click on the list. Instead, a page opens with a yellow box containing the message: "The page you've asked may have been removed, or perhaps never existed. Please check your spelling or try another page on our site from the navigation bar." Yes, interesting, I think it is because we didn't use the popup games 24 years ago. We will be linking the position search directly to the games archive in the near future, and using a different PGN games reader, so this shouldn't last long.
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| Started by Michael Ayton | Post by an ordinary chessplayer |
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My thoughts on the Tango after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.d5 Ne7 5.e4 Ng6.  It's an exemplar anti Lazy-Engine-User ("LEU" for short) opening, because - The engine "loves"
 the space advantage with the pawn on d5, so is prone to overestimate white's position in general. If the Tango is just one of many openings to prepare against, LEU might feel safe here and skip to the next one. - The engine doesn't "understand" strategy at all, so often (at least at low depth) recommends moves like 8.f3, as in Ivanisevic - Praggnanandhaa. In fact Stockfish was just now recommending f2-f3 in a similar Tango position, but I let it run and it "found" two better (e.g. positionally sounder) moves. Again LEU could be punished for not taking enough time.
- There's a time to win material, and a time to sacrifice material. But an engine evaluation like "+1" gives no indication of whether "the reason" is because of the space advantage, because of winning a pawn, or because of a pawn sac with two pawns worth of compensation. LEU is vulnerable here if they don't investigate the lines deeply enough to find out the correct followup. It took me a while to understand the 10.Nxe4 Exchange sac --11.d6!. Although part of that is I usually do interactive analysis using a decrepit (like me!) engine. For the record, the moves are 6.h4 h5 7.a3 Bc5 8.b4 Bd4 9.Nge2 Nxe4 10.Nxe4 Bxa1 11.d6. White still needs a clue here on how to attack afterwards.
All that said, the Tango is a little dodgy from the diagram after h2-h4 ideas and even LEU can read chesspub. From the white side, each suggested move from the diagram, 6.h4 and 6.a3, has its slight drawback - 6.h4 h5 7.a3 a5 8.Be3 (Unfortunately the direct 8.Bg5 trying to bag the h5-pawn doesn't work out. 8...Bc5 9.Be2 d6 10.g3 Bd7 and black is hanging in there.) 8...Ng4 -- the paradoxical line, made possible by ...h7-h5.
- 6.a3 Bc5 7.b4 Bd4 8.Nge2 Nxe4 9.Nxe4 Bxa1 10.h4 d6 is not crushing like when black has played ...h7-h5.
I would be inclined to choose 6.h4 because after either move black can "require" white to sac, and the followup to the sac is easier after 6.h4. The paradoxical line is difficult to understand but that applies to both colors and at least white is not down in material. |
| Started by Michael Ayton | Post by Michael Ayton |
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Quote:I expect a work that's more inspirational than perspirational.
Indeed, I fear my expectations were and are similar! But maybe there are some Tango players on here? -- though it does look to me to under a big cloud at the mo ...
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| Started by loquat1 | Post by loquat1 |
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Possibly, but I somehow doubt it.
However, your chances of seeing it in the USA might be improved if you wrote to the head of BBC Programming. They might well look kindly on a request for a BBC America listing.
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| Started by Michael Ayton | Post by Dink Heckler |
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If you examine the author's recent oeuvre https://shop.chessbase.com/en/authors/andrew_martin, you will notice that he often seems to prioritise having fun over theoretical rigour (Elephant Gambit, anyone?). So I expect a work that's more inspirational than perspirational. And that's absolutely fine. But I think you will be disappointed if you're hoping for the answers to these questions. |
| Started by najdorfslayer | Post by kylemeister |
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Regarding that English Attack line with 9...d5, I recall that 10. Be2 was considered slightly better for White in a NIC Yearbook article quite some years ago. That was also the case in the yellow ECO reboot about 4 years ago.
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