Good evening.
Here is the Harikrishna game as a PGN:
Michael Ayton wrote on 05/27/16 at 14:27:49:
Just off the top of my head I'm tempted to be sceptical about Black's seventh move! With a4/a6 in I always thought Black should be putting the Knight on c6. (Something which Nigel Davies likes doing in lots of Pirc-Modern positions, as I recall ...)
(7...Nc6) looks more normal to me as well. Every time Nc6 can not be met by a favourable d5 push it tends to be a very reasonable way of setting up as black.
Still the more I look at the position the more reasonable (7...Nbd7) seems to me. How does one really play as white to show the deficiences of black's setup? Harikrishnas way (with 8.h3 and dxe5 against e5 by black) is certainly one of the reasonable tries as white often gets some kind of very minor pull in positions with this structure. Still (9...Nxe5) looks like an obvious improvement, when after (10.Nxe5 dxe5) the exchange of an extra pair of pieces along with the immediate issue of a threatened queen swap makes me think white should have some problems getting meaningful pressure. Not that fun to play black though
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alyechin wrote on 05/27/16 at 15:56:24:
In my opinion the Pirc is an opening to beat weaker players, especially on club level, because many club players have antitodes against the sicilian, but they have no idea against the Pirc.
The Pirc can often be played in way which draws in the opponent into a strategic fight and creates fairly interesting positions. This is the way I personally think the Pirc is best used and of course you can beat a wide array of players playing like this.
One can often also play in a way where you try to hit back at white fairly forcefully. This this tends to work best when white has made one or two imprecisions though.
Also there tends to be setups where you manage to get your pieces out reasonably as black yet with some kind of minor positional disadvantage; which you then try to slowly diminish.
AJWZ wrote on 05/27/16 at 16:44:59:
Must say I'm a bit disappointed to see (6...Na6) and (8...Bg4) and what looks like nothing else against (6.Bd3).
AJWZ wrote on 05/27/16 at 16:44:59:
2nd & 3rd moves alternatives are also included.
Many pluses for this though
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Have a nice day.
Edit: Clarified a part of the text where I had written a chess move badly.