winawer77 wrote on 11/02/07 at 11:57:40:
I've recently switched from the Winawer to the Classical. But before doing so I had to solve the problem of 4Bg5.
Firstly, 4e5 is ok for Black, his play is natural and his centre solid. Think of a opposite-side castling Sicilian pawn storm position with a blocked centre, thats basically what you get.
4Bg5 is much more difficult to generate chances against. For a long time I had played the Burn variation, which is not as dull and passive as you might think. After 1e4 e6 2d4 d5 3Nc3 Nf6 4Bg5 dxe4 5Nxe4 Be7 6Bxf6 I started out with 6...gxf6 and often got active play. However, these positions (to me, at least) are quite difficult to handle for Black as you both have to keep an eye on your exposed King, as well as being careful not to allow an awful endgame where the broken K-side pawns will suffer. After this I decided that the MacCutcheon was the way to go. I've only played it 6 or so times in the past few months I've taken it up, but so far I have no losses and plenty of wins. I'm also holding out theoretically and practically against stronger players. I think it is an excellent variation, and well worth the time invested studying it. Its a nice mixture of the Winawer and Classical, with the pawn structure and activity of the former, and the solidity of the latter.
About the Classical proper. On a personal level, not only have I never much liked these positions, but I also think that they give White the position he desires. From tournaments I've played at, White mostly goes for the Alekhine-Chatard attack. If you want to take up the Classical proper, then take a look at Zeigler's Chessbase DVD, its a good introduction.
My experiences are similar to yours. I think the MacCutcheon is really the only way for me to play against 4. Bg5. But recently I lost miserably to a FM in a few rapid games starting with 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Be3 Ne4 7. Qg4 g6 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Nxc3 10. Bd3 Nc6 11. h4 Ne7 12. h5 g5 13. Ne2! (much better than 13. f3 which is unclear) where after 13.. Nxe2 14. Qxe2 I think Black is slightly worse.
Black is up a pawn, but ironically, the more pieces Black exchanges, the easier for White to use the open b file or exploit Black's kingside weaknesses. Later I found out from the database that Nepomniatchi also lost to Najer in this line (Najer-Nepomniatchi Moscow 2006), but he was willing to repeat it in Spoelman-Nepomniatchi Corus 2007 so who knows. This was also recommended by Watson for White in Dangerous Weapons.