snakebite wrote on 07/04/06 at 11:15:53:


Yes, I would very much like to see this covered, since 3. g3 is my standard move for White.   


Personally, I like 4. Nd2, which often introduces a gambit that was discussed in a series of three articles in recent NIC Yearbooks.  My limited experience has been that White gets good compensation after 4...d5  5. Bg2 O-O (5...dxc4?  6. Qa4+) 6. Nf3 dxc4  7. O-O c3.

Of course, Black doesn't have to capture on c4.  I have an ongoing game on www.net-chess.com (which offers server-based correspondence chess) where play went 4...d5  5. Bg2 0-0  6. Nf3 b6  7. 0-0 Bb7  8. Ne5, which apparently is a transposition into the Queen's Indian (I am not too familiar with the theory of that defense).  He played 8...Bd6, and I chose 9. cxd5 expecting 9...exd5  10. Ndc4 +=.  But he chose 9...Bxd5 and play has continued 10. e4 Bb7  11. Qe2.  I'm not sure that I have any advantage, but at least the position is somewhat dynamic.   

I've found that 3...Bb4+ versus 3. g3 is quite popular, but I'm not sure why.  It seems to me that it offers White play that is by no means worse than otherwise.  3...c5 is strangely unpopular, I suspect because not many players are prepared to handle the Black side of a Modern Benoni, Fianchetto Variation.

By the way, I think this may be a question for John Watson in Flank Openings.  The question of where early deviations against 3. g3 should go is very fuzzy; those who devised the original ECO classification seem to have gotten confused.