kylemeister wrote on 08/26/23 at 18:50:12:


Thanks emary and Kylemeister for the additional resources. After move 9, Kuljasevic writes:

"Black is not thrilled about having to play Bd7. As we will see in 6.d4 
exd4 7.Nxd4 variation, he would much rather play c6-c5 and Bb7 to 
quickly obtain counterplay in the center. Yet, we will see that even in 
this apparently passive position black has sufficient resources for 
counterplay."

GM Matthias Wahls has done a free video about the "Steinitz Deferred" 
at his youtube-channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEbfd2AtRqgANVBvpEo85kw ;
(Have a look at the second row of the video-list.)

Wahls tries to prove a  White advantage against 
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 with an early ...d6. ,
He investigates a few plausible White tries for an advantage. 
Wahls concludes that in most cases a well prepared Black player can get interesting equality.   
Nethertheless Wahls thinks there is a way to a slight White advantage 
(but not more than that). 

If someone studies the course of Gawain Jones 
then a crossreading with Wahls' video could be interesting early on.

FreeRepublic wrote on 08/25/23 at 17:26:33:

Incidentally the first alternative reminded me of (yes, an old game) Karpov-Spassky 1986. I notice that Demchenko (who has figured prominently in Chess Publishing coverage of some ...Nge7 stuff) has followed in Spassky's footsteps with 9. Be3 O-O 10. Nbd2 Qe8 11. Bb3 b6. In a 1986 book, Raymond Keene and David Goodman described that as "a curious move that seems to serve no apparent purpose." (I recall thinking maybe it could serve to prevent Bc5 after an exchange on e5.)

Michael Ayton wrote on 08/24/23 at 13:02:44:


That is my conclusion as well.

After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. d4, Michael states "Black can, should he wish, avoid the 6 ...b5 7 de ending with 6 ...Bd7 (i.e. transpose into 4 ...d6 5 0-0 Bd7 6 d4 Nf6!)." 

The ending after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O d6 6. d4 b5!? 7. de5 de5 8.Qd8 Nd8 9. Bb3 is perfectly good for Black. However, you might not want an ending.

Instead after 6...Bd7 we get to a position covered by Tim Taylor (from 4...d6) in three games (Tal-Ivkov, Stellwagen-Tomashevsky, and Hermlin-Keres) with analysis of additional 7th moves.



Taylor covers several moves for white, but not 7d5. I like 7d5 because White will later be able to play c4 in one move. After 7d5, Black can consider ...Nb8 in addition to ...Ne7.

AOC mentions 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. c3 Bd7 6. d4 g6 7. Bg5!?. Kuljasevic continues with 7...f6 8Be3 Nh6 with interesting play.

AOC also mentions 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. c3 Bd7 6. d4 Nf6 7. Qe2. Now 7... Be7 8. O-O O-O is an option. It should be noted that such natural moves as 9Rd1 or 9Nbd7 can be answered by 9...Nxd4! with advantage to Black. 7...b5 can also be tried. As AOC notes, Black may not be able to play ...g6. Interesting play seems to be the constant result.

Michael Ayton wrote on 08/24/23 at 13:02:44:

Is that the case? After 4...Nf6 5.Qe2 black is usually advised to play more actively with ...Bc5, or else ...Be7 and later ...d7-d5 in one go. 5...d6 6.c3 Bd7 looks very passive, 7.d4 Be7 8.Nbd2 black already has to take evasive measures, and white scores almost 100% in the database. 7...g6 is more interesting, but hardly played, there may be a concrete reason. This also calls into question whether black can get the ...Nf6 ...d6 ...g6 setup via 4...d6, for example 4...d6 5.c3 Bd7 6.d4 now if 6...Nf6 7.Qe2, while if 6...g6 7.Bg5!?.

Michael Ayton wrote on 08/24/23 at 13:02:44:

Another old book move is 8...Ne7. Back in the '70s it was given as "!" by Larsen (annotating Hartston-Olafsson, a near-miniature won by the Icelandic lawyer) and played a couple of times by Keres.

Can't say if it's a problem, but playing 4...Nf6 rules out the Siesta Variation (with c3 f5) as well as the Portisch setup with d6, Bd7 first and then Nge7, Ng6, Be7, h6, Bg5. However, these lines are irrelevant if Black wants to play d6+g6 lines, That's why I wondered if 4...Nf6 is more accurate than 4...d6 when Black intends to play a ...g6 Deferred Steinitz?