Btw: Williams gives the same line for black in his book and concludes (page 46): "the pressure on d4 and on the a1-h8 diagonal gives Black an easy game".

MNb wrote on 07/30/06 at 02:22:58:


I'm fairly convinced that 7...Ne4 is better than 7...Qe8, but we don't need to argue about that!  I'm not so sure that it's better than 7...a5, though, but it's more forcing and easier to play as Black, so it's been my weapon over the last year or so.   

Anyway, I replied because I would "second" MNb's question: is there anything wrong with 9.Nd2 d5 10.f3 e3 for Black??

On a practical level, as White, I relish Black's 7...Qe8. The ideas behind the move have been worked on since at least the 1960s and I feel comfortable as White.  I know that 7...Ne4 has a high pedigree, but it seems fresher than the other two moves Mr. Williams mentioned.   

I'd be very interested in some concrete analysis, more to help White than Black.  But if it turns out that 7...Ne4 is going to start showing up more I'm still going to need to know why.

Thanks for bringing it up, Richard!

Ever since Simon Williams gave 7...Ne4 an '!' (after 1 d4 f5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 e6 4 c4 Be7 5 Nf3 0-0 6 0-0 d6 7 Nc3) it seems to have become more and more popular at the expense of the probably inferior 7...a5!? and 7...Qe8?!. 
Simon wrote a pretty decent article in NiC YB 78 to update coverage of the line, but it does seem Black might be struggling after 8 Nxe4 fxe4 9 Nd2 d5 10 f3!. He could do with something concrete here, but 10...Nc6 11 fxe4 Rxf1+ 12 Nxf1 dxc4 13 Be3! may favour White. W's 13th there was Cox's improvement (from 'Starting Out: 1 d4') over the 13 e3 given by Williams. Unfortunately for Dutch fans Black didn't last too long after 13 Be3! in Cox-Williams, 4NCL 2006. Perhaps Glenn might cover this game or is this line not actually so bad for Black?