Hoppers, JEH

For other ...d6 themed stuff for your repertoires, also check out SOS 4 - Rogozenko if I remember. I mix and match depending on who I am playing, what day it is, humidity levels (summer in Japan is nasty), colour of opponents T-shirt, presence and extent of facial hair etc.

Hoppers: Yes - agree the Palliser - Sedgwick game convincing in itself. But also a big rating gap between the players. (btw - Mr Sedgwick if you are out there - thanks for inviting me on to the arbitration panel at Hastings that time for the joyfully absurd German & Teddy Bear Default saga. still makes me laugh to remember.)
Yet Black has other ways to play that stuff....

For 2 e4 - its all in Dr Jim Vigus' new Pirc book. Check the great reviews in e.g. JeremySilman, chesscafe. 

tara for now,

Bibs

Bibs wrote on 06/08/07 at 01:09:34:


1. ...d6 is a great move, as long as you can handle 2. e4, but then some of us are in the know 

Hey, Bibs,

Have you realized that the value of playing unorthodox openings is getting the edge against your opponent?  If you know your lines and he does not, why,
you have the better chances.

Fischer, Stefanova, Bucker, Gerard Welling, all played or still play, unorthodox lines.

I only had the opportunity to play against the Englund Gambit in tournament chess a few times. Contrary to what is said here, in the hands of an experienced player it can be a dangerous weapon. Me, I have had to play Grob Variation, 1 d4 e5 2 de5 Nc6 3 Nf3 Qe7 4 Bf4 against the Englund Gambit. That line is very complicated.

Play might go 4...Qb4+ 5 Bd2 Qxb2 6 Nc3 Bb4 7 Rb1 Qa3 8 Rb3 Qa5 and now
9 a3 Bxc3 10 Bxc3 gives White an edge. Still, Black can fight back, even in this position.

Regarding the 4 Nc3 line, I think it poses no real problem for Black... provided he is careful! 4 Qd5 just makes the Queen a sitting duck for attack by Black pieces. Possible is something along the lines of 4...b6, 5...Bb7.

Keep in touch.

Quote:



7. Nd4 c6 and now beside 8. a4, 8. e4 is perfectly good.

jeupham wrote on 10/10/06 at 21:24:35:


01. d4 e5
02. de Nc6
03. Nf3 Qe7
04. Qd5
Englund Gambit, Stockholm Variation
04. … f6
Another interresting line is 4…h6; 5.Nc3 g5 6.Nb5 Kd8 7.h3 Bg7
05. ef Nxf6
06. Qb3 d5
07. Bf4 Bd7
08. e3 0-0-0
09. Nbd2 h6
10. 0-0-0
Black is not completely dead here:
10. … g5
11. Bg3

And now you can either go:
A) 11. … Ne4
12. Qxd5 Nxg3
Stefan Bűcker gives 12…Nc3 13.bc Be6 as winning, but misses the simple 14.Qb5  
13.hg Bg7
Black is two pawns down not dead

Or you can go for:
B) 11. … Bg7
And then 
12. … Rhf8
A pawn down, but not dead

One could also conclude that there is definitely something very wrong with 1. ...e5

Scholar wrote on 10/11/06 at 05:40:27:



i don't think that 10...Kd8 is the best move there. i played a tournament game once that went 10...Qxa2 11.Nxc7+ Kd8 12.Nxa8 Qa1+ 13.Qd1 Qc3+ and my opponent repeated the position with me. i'm not really sure why though. 13.Nd2 Nd4 14.e3 Nxb5 15.Bxb5 looks fine for white to me. i feel like both myself and fritz are really missing something here though, and that there was something seriously wrong with that Nd5 line for white. it might take me a bit to recall. i'm not used to people actually responding to my englund threads!

as far as 4.Nc3 Nxe5 5.e4 goes, this is probably the most practical choice for a d4 player that doesn't want to spend much time looking into such an obscure opening. what happens a lot of times in these early e4 lines is that white gains a time advantage and black usually maneuvres his queen to f6 early to make it a bit of a hassle for white to keep things saucy. there's no doubting its an edge for white though, but it can be very difficult to keep black from catching up in a dull position.

i haven't looked at that link to Buckers analysis yet, but i'm sure that it is good. almost all existing englund analysis that's worth anything was done by him. the smith and hall book that came out years ago was basically just an english translation of his analysis with a couple of changes here and there. i will see what he has to say about it.