After 5.Ng3 Black can play 5..c5 which equalizes immediatly because White has no advantage in development and Black can easily attack the pawn center.

Useful is to compare with main line of Tarrasch with c5 for Black: in the main line, White has an advantage in development using an attack versus Black queen.

Okay, 5. Bd3 and 5. Nc3 are possibilities for White however what does Black do if White plays 5. Ng3?

I've got the SOS book, got it two months ago. Two things about it, I'd like to mention. The Katalymov variation (3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Qd5!?) runs into 5.Bd3. Black cannot take the d pawn because of the cheapo discovery. The article by Bosch then gives 5...Nf6. If white takes the Knight, there follows gxf6 will play somewhat similar to the Bronstein-Larsen Caro. Black will try to mate white along the gfile, or at least pressure him. 

The problem is that white can thrown in 6.f3! I know, looks weird. Believe me it works out somewhat nicely for white. Black doesn't want to take because it'll strengthen white's center. White will also develop the dark squared bishop to e3 and everything is hunky-dory as white's development gives him a plus. Basically all he'd need do is find the correct plan. That's if black plays my idea of Nbd7. Fritz seems to like Be7, but that makes little difference, I think. Only a computer could really defend these positions as they are really passive and difficult, and white might even get in c4. No tactical crush, just a big white center and development. The master praxis is even worse. Bosch recommends 6...Na6 in response (look it up@chessbase) as in Vorotnikov-Dvoretsky, Beltsy 1972. He neglects to mention that black lost. Black was down a pawn and white was very active. Black is trying to mate white in that variation but doesn't quite have enough. 

Frankly, it offends me that writers put the most challenging lines down as side lines, or give them scant analysis. 

The second issue is that he doesn't really analyse 6.Qg4 either. He gives 6...Nc6. White can't take the g pawn because then Black would take the d pawn. I figured that out, he didn't mention why Nc6 stops Qxg7 -- a minor point perhaps but representative of Bosch's problems. He then says if white plays ***Qg4, after black plays Nc6 7.Nf3 Nge7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 e5 with Bf5 and 0-0-0 "to follow" for Black. I don't what you guys think but he could have put a little more original analysis there, gone a little longer.

Plus, this line could be really useful in the exchange French move order, where the knight doesn't go to e4, and Bb4 pinning the knight on c3 gives more unbalanced positions. Unfortunately, he doesn't deal with the specifics or the differences from that move order, such as 4.c4.

I was looking in the book store the other day and saw that the latest volume of SOS (NIC about surprised in the opening) #4 gave this line. I did not pick it up, but maybe it has some info.

8arms wrote on 05/27/06 at 19:23:00:


I played this line as Black, but stopped. Because of 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Qg4!? 
Do you know how to survive as Black in that line?