Mortal Games wrote on 12/19/07 at 11:12:36:


Obviously after 6...gxf6! this is no longer Anti-Chess (heaven forbid, as I have played it with success myself!) so the game doesn't belong on this thread   

Seriously though, thanks for posting! I find "fractured pawn structure with the bishop pair" a very interesting imbalance that many opponents don't understand well. Hence the fighting nature of openings like the Winawer, the Richter-Rauzer, various Nimzo-Indian lines.

kalle99 wrote on 12/16/07 at 09:18:36:


Top-players do not play that.

TopNotch wrote on 12/15/07 at 22:35:11:


As favoured by Morphy (when giving odds of Queen's Knight).  Somehow, though, I don't think this will stand up to modern day scrutiny. 

TopNotch wrote on 12/15/07 at 22:35:11:


I think this variation is the  repertoire choice in IM Bangievs chessbase CD Repertoire for white   1.e4

And according to my base the choice of top players seems to be

1.e4 e6 2. f4 d5 3.e5  c5 4.Nf3 Nc6

Today I saw this game in German Bundesliga.

GM Naiditsch,Arkadij(BAD) (2639) - GM Degraeve,Jean-Marc(REM) (2546) [C10]
German Bundesliga Baden-Baden Baden-Baden (3), 15.12.2007

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6 8.Be3 Nd5 9.Bd2 c5 10.Bb5+ Bd7 11.Qe2 Bxb5 12.Qxb5+ Qd7 13.Qxd7+ Kxd7 14.c4 Nb6 15.b3 cxd4 16.0-0-0 Bc5 17.Be3 Ke7 18.Nxd4 Rac8 19.Kb2 Kf6 20.h4 Rhd8 21.Nb5 Bxe3 22.fxe3 Rxd1 23.Rxd1 a6 24.Nd6 Rd8 25.c5 Ke7 26.Rf1 Rf8 27.Nxb7 Nd5 White wins  1-0

A simple white set up against this system could look something like :

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ Qxf6 6. Nf3 Qd8 7. Bd3 b6 8.
O-O Bb7 9. b3 c5 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. Bb2 O-O 12. c4 Nc6 13. a3 Qc7 14. Qe2 Rfd8
15. Bc2 *

This set up is quite simple to learn and I have even managed to beat titled players online with it. (blitz games)

What do white have here ? As I see it...white does not have much more than black. I like the white bishop pair who are aiming against the black king. But the black bishop are good too. Perhaps the tiny white edge consists of the e5 square and some space advantage on the kingside where the white pieces can operate. When you place the knight on e5 many times black exchanges it. But before black has exhanged it somtimes white can play f4 to reinforce the e5 square. After the exchange white has the bishop pair. After that white must load himself with a great portion of patience and try to keep his tiny edge as long as possible. Sometimes build up an attack.

This has worked for me from time to time. I kind of get used to the position that arise but I feel that in some way this setup feels too simple.

After I had beaten a titled players more than three times with this system in blitz it seemed that he started to study this position. He changed the strategy and started to try to exchange off my bishop on b2 by trying to get his own black bishop to a3. And then i repeled this strategy by playing a3 myself. But then I have to have my rook on a1 to protect the pawn on a3. So I had to start playing b4 to be able to move my rook on a1. 

This setup can be adopted to different black french...dxe4 setups.

I have never tried this kind of setup in a long time game. It would be so simple if it worked.

I agree. This is really the distinction we should make.

I do not think that it is the opening at fault here. The Colle/London/KIA/Torre etc all have their place in chess, to disregard these openings as inferior is faulty thinking. They may not test Black's position to the maximum, but have other virtues, which we need to go into here as any decent player will know what they are.

Employing these openings is not a reason in itself to criticise. After all, how many times have we seen a GM game with a sharp Sicilians/Kings Indians peter out to a drawn position after a forcing sequence? At least these so called simple openings offer the prospect of a game, and all its phases.

I believe that it is often the motivation behind choosing these openings that is wrong. If you know and like the positions, and they allow you to play positions that you are comfortable with, then fine, no problem. but to play these against a stronger opponent, for example, in the hope of clinging on to a draw, is wrong.