Quote:I have only looked at it recently; I haven't studied it. Provisionally, I am fairly happy with Black's game. It seems that Black has quite good winning chances. I don't have a board in front of me at the moment, but I'll try to get back soon with some specific ideas, both in this and in Polovodin-Hazai.
Evidently Markovich doesn't have a copy of my book. If he did, he could answer a lot of the variations he is having difficulty understanding, such as in this 14...Qxh4 and 15...Kf7 line; and particularly the line 5...Nxe4 6.Bc4 Ne7 7.Ne5!, in which it would be an understatement to say that black has serious problems that persist to a white edge even if he manages to feel his way through the tactical mindfield.
One example (from my book) is a game between two of my good friends, Tim McGrew and FM Marcel Milat, in which Tim (as white) employs an original idea from GM Lev Gutman after: 5.Nd5 Nxe4 6.Bc4 Ne7 7.Ne5 Nd6 8.Qf3! Nxd5 9.Bxd5 Qf6 (9...Qe7? 10.Kd1! c6 11.Re1 [11.Bb3 is also possible] 11...cxd5 12.Qxd5 Qe6 13.Nf3 Be7 14.Rxe6 dxe6 15.Qxd4 +/-) 10.Qe2 Be7 11.h4! (threatening the deadly 12.Bg5) 11...h6 12.Rh3! (the crux of Gutman's idea, renewing the threat of Bg5 since the rook cannot be captured with check on h1 by the Rh8, along with the additional threat of Rf3) 12...O-O (castles into it, but then 12...c6?, 12...Nf5 and 12...Rf8 fail to either 13.Bg5 or 13.g4) 13.g4! c6 14.g5 Qf5 15.Rf3 Qh7 (black could hold out longer with 15...cxd5 16.Rxf5 Nxf5, but after 17.gxh6 Bxh4 18.Nf3! Bf6 19.hxg7 Bxg7 20.Bf4 d6 21.Ng5 and white can soon take his chips to the cashier.) 16.g6! 1-0
I should also remind people that in the Main Line with 5...Nxe4 6.Qe2, white has a choice of continuations after 6...f5, to include my revitalized idea of 7.Bg5!? which has brought me great success, as well as 7.Nd2!? d3 8.Qf3!, which has been almost completely ignored by theory, wrongly in my view. There is also 7.Bf4, which is fully playable.
Moreover, while both 6.Qe2 and 6.Bc4 are strong options after 5...Nxe4, white does have a couple of interesting options in 6.Bd3!? and 6.Nxd4!?, neither of which were covered in my 1997 book, but will be in the 2nd edition.
Finally, in the Main Line 5...Nxe4 6.Qe2 f5 7.Ng5 d3 8.cxd3 Nd4 9.Qh5+ g6 10.Qh4 c6 11.dxe4 cxd5, it appears that white can play 12.exf5!? (instead of the usual 12.exd5) if he likes.
Bruce Monson