MicahSmith wrote on 08/13/17 at 02:34:58:
Exchanging queens on b6 doesn't give White any advantage, despite Black's doubled pawns.
Does it not? I do think the 'standard' line 6.Qb3 c4 7.Qb6: ab6: is better for Black or at least easier to play for him; but surely it must be a magnitude better for White (by comparison) after c4 is exchanged for e3?
The entire gameplan (in the other line) of pushing the b-pawn down the board is almost impossible with the White lsq Bishop controlling b5, so instinctively this looks to me like Black barely has any play, while White can slowly improve his position and either trade down into a winning endgame or.. well, kinda do whatever.
Quote:When analyzing this line, I just happened to see what the engine thought of 8.Qxf5 (instead of 8.Qb3) and the engine doesn't like 8.Qxf5 at first but to my amazement it eventually thinks White is better! What are your thoughts on 8.Qxf5?
Actually a rather curious try. I can't really find something that I would rate as an advantage if I just tab through, but I won't claim this to be perfect play from either side, and it most certainly is a fresh position.
I landed at this:
Which is rather difficult for me to evaluate.
Just looking at it, I think I would very slightly prefer Black; the engine gives 0.0 for the top 5 White moves; but it does look unbalanced enough to give chances to either side, in particular if White has actually spent some time analyzing this deeper.
Does he promise some kind of advantage against 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.c3 Qb6 6.Qc2 g6, btw? Never really understood what White is doing in this position