Thanks MNb,

I realize that the position I asked about could just as easily have arisen from Bird's Opening and therefore readily understand your point that it is a colors-reversed Classical Dutch and not a Nimzo-Indian (I didn't claim that it was, but this is beside the point).  Your comment about delaying ...c5 and your ...c6/...Bf5 suggestion look like good advice.

Black can also do well by playing 1...e5 followed by 2...d6 by the way...

But none of this anything to do with the question I was asking, which was whether Black was OK in the position which arose from the example line that I gave.

(the question was prompted by Jonathan Tait's very brief comment suggesting that Black has no problems in these types of positions - i.e., what I described as colors-reversed Nimzo-Indian/Queen's Indian/Dutch type positions which I suggested that Black should avoid.)

Quote:

Really?

I'll admit I hadn't thought this through in any depth, so maybe it's just a bias I have which turns out to be incorrect.  The bias is based on liking the Nimzo-Indian as Black and the assumption that White could do a lot with the extra tempo.  

This may not be an ideal example, but 1. b3 d5 2. Bb2 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. f4 c5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bb5 illustrates the type of colors-reversed position that I thought Black should avoid.  To me this position doesn't look comfortable for Black (i.e. I worry that Ne5 is coming to put pressure on the pinned c6-knight).

Here 6...a6 looks like bad idea, but I guess Black could be OK after something like 6...Bd7.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Ostap

Black has no problems if he avoids colors-reversed Nimzo-Indian/Queen's Indian/Dutch type positions.

1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 d6 seems like a pretty simple remedy, and supporting e5 with 2...Nc6 is also fine (even 2...f6 is good I think).

TopNotch wrote on 06/30/05 at 17:10:32:


no need for the "e5!" part I think

1.b3 = will do

Quote:

Something like this:  1. b3 b6 2. Bb2 Bb7 3. e3 e6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Be2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. d4 d5 8. Nbd2 Nbd7 9. c4 c5 10. Rc1 Rc8 and then the mirror gets taken away with 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. a3, but it's still dead even.

- Lost Highway

Quote:

Well, good luck.

- Lost Highway

Just to give you an idea I post some of the games mentioned in the book about this Bird-like set-up:

[Event "Muenster op"]
[Site "Muenster"]
[Date "1991.??.??"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Vokac,Marek"]
[Black "Vepkhvishvili,Varlam"]
[Result "1/2"]
[Eco "A03"]
1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5 4.f4 e6 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Nc3 Nbd7 7.Ne2 h6 8.Ng3 Bh7 
9.Bd3 0-0 10.Bxh7+ Nxh7 11.0-0 Bf6 12.Bxf6 Nhxf6 13.d4 c5 14.Ne5 Rc8 15.c4 cxd4 16.Qxd4 dxc4 
17.Nxc4 Nc5 18.Nd6 Rc6 19.Rad1 Nd5 20.Nc4 Qh4 21.Ne5 Rcc8 22.Rc1 b6 23.b4 Na4 24.Ne4 Rcd8 
25.g3 Qh3 26.Nf2 Qh5 27.Rfd1 Nac3 28.Rxc3 Nxc3 29.Qxd8 Rxd8 30.Rxd8+ Kh7 31.g4 Qh4 32.Nxf7 g6 
33.Rd7 Kg8 34.Ne5 Nd5 35.g5 hxg5 36.Rd8+ Kg7 37.Rd7+ Kg8 38.Rd8+ Kg7 39.Rd7+ Kg8 1/2

[Event "Ceske Budejovice op"]
[Site "Ceske Budejovice"]
[Date "1993.??.??"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Vokac,Marek"]
[Black "Dranov,Aleksandar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "A01"]
1.b3 c5 2.Bb2 b6 3.e3 Bb7 4.f4 e6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Bd3 d6 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Nc3 Be7 
9.e4 0-0 10.Qe2 e5 11.fxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 dxe5 13.Kh1 Kh8 14.Bc4 Qd4 15.d3 Qd7 16.Rf5 Bd6 
17.Raf1 a6 18.a4 Bc6 19.Qf3 Qe7 20.g4 Ra7 21.g5 Nh5 22.Qxh5 g6 23.Qh6 gxf5 24.Rxf5 Qd8 
25.Rf6 Rd7 26.Bd5 Bxd5 27.Nxd5 Re8 28.Rf5 Bf8 29.Rxe5 f6 30.Rxe8 Qxe8 31.Nxf6  1-0


Btw, the Jacobs Tait book is very good; Packed with analysis & ideas