Quote:Just a few observations on opening philosophy against risky gambits (that may not necessarily apply to this particular situation).
In Bonsai's game against Sevenviolets, he chose very direct and forceful play to force at least equality. In my eyes, the problem with this strategy is that in order to nullify your opponents chances in such a forceful way, you also nullify you own chances to an extent. This reminds me of a comment of Korchnoi to a strong younger player after he drew against opponent with an inferior position. I think it went something like: "Why did you play so forcefully? You could have given him chances to make his own mistakes."
Against openings like the BDG, I think a good strategy is to play solidly (not passively, but not too forcefully either), in order to give White the chance to overpress in order to maintain an active position. I think in such situations, this also gives Black a psychological edge. I think Markovich's approach follows this characterization of solid play against a gambit. I think this approach is very practical in an over the board situation (in longer time controls, not necessarily blitz).
Leaving aside the question of my play in this game, I fully agree with the broad ideas that you express here. Take the pawn and then defend soundly, shifting your pieces around and looking for ways to simplify the position.
ArKheiN plays a principled but rather risky move. Now taking the h-pawn will pretty well ensure a won ending, if only I can reach one; White will have to stake everything on some sort of attack. But Black's ending is probably won even without taking the h-pawn, and spending a tempo simply to win a second pawn is not always the best way to defend this kind of position. No, the best reason for taking the pawn is to conquer g6, thus contributing activity to my bishop and my rim-knight. White will perhaps use his extra tempo to strengthen his battery on the f-file or create one on the g1-a7 diagonal (which he would eventually like to open with d4-d5).
Although I am not terribly impressed by White's activity even then (I can see only one plan, which is c2-c4, d4-d5), I will have to commune with the gods of chess for awhile to see what they would like me to do.
In an earlier CC game, I faced 15. Rdf1 and did indeed play 15...e5!, which immediately activated my rim-knight. I haven't been able to find the full score of that game, but as I recall, it went 16. Bc4 Nf4 and Black was fine. Indeed, I think Black is =+ after 15...e5.
If White wants his d-rook on f1 while avoiding this possibility, he could also have tried 13. 0-0-0 and if 13...Qe7, then 14. Rdf1, after which 14...e5? allows 15. d5. Of course, Black might consider 13...Qc7 instead of 13...Qe7.
P.S. ArKheiN, in CC, your "clock" runs while your opponent is on leave. That is why, I suppose, I expected you to produce a move sooner than this. Since you are now taking 10 days to produce your moves, I assume you will not complain if I do so, too.
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ArKheiN - Markovich, 2005, BDG Challenge Match (Read 10925 times)
