dom wrote on 04/21/08 at 22:05:18:


In the “MacCutcheon” thread http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1103243162 , HgMan mentions that Psakhis gives: 16... Ne7!? 17.Nh5 Nf5 18.Qf4 b4!. Black’s 18th move seems to be an improvement on 18…Rg8 of Golubev-Hess.

I played 16…b4 in a 4NCL game a couple of years ago:

A.Wilson (2101) v P.Cumbers (2123), 4NCL 2006
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Ne4 8.Qg4 Kf8 9.Bd3 Nxd2 10.Kxd2 c5 11.h4 Nc6 12.Rh3 c4 13.Bf1 b5 14.a3 a5 15.Ne2 Bd7 16.Nf4 b4 17.Rf3 bxc3+ 18.Kd1 Qb6 19.Ng6+ Kg8 20.Nxh8 h5 21.Qxh5 Qxd4+ 22.Bd3 cxd3 23.Qxf7+ Kxh8 24.Qh5+ Kg8 25.Qf7+ Kh8 draw

As you can see, I knew about 18...Qb6! 19.Ng6+ Kg8 20.Nxh8 h5 (which I’d seen in Schipkov’s analysis here: http://www.chessib.com/lutkor2.html ), but unfortunately White can force a draw (as indeed happened). I recently had a look at some alternatives for Black on move 20, and you can see my analysis on Neil McDonald’s January ChessPublishing update! My latest thoughts are that 20…Kxh8 21.Rxf7 Rg8 22.Rxd7 Nxe5! 23.dxe5 Qxf2 24.Qe2 Qd4+ 25.Ke1 Rf8 and 20…Rf8 21.Rxf7 Rxf7 22.Nxf7 Kxf7 23.Qf3+ Kg8 24.Qxc3 Nxd4 probably just delay the draw for a few more moves. However, I think 20…Nxd4! is good for Black, and possibly better than 16…Ne7  . After 21.Rxf7 Nf5 22.Rxd7 Qxf2 23.Qe2 Qd4+ 24.Ke1, let’s try 24…Kxh8 25.Rf7 (25.g4 Rf8!) 25…Qxh4+ 26.Qf2 Qe4+ 27.Qe2 Qf4! (intending  28…Qg3+ 29.Qf2 Qxe5+). I reckon Black has more than enough compensation…

P.S. Klick gave another useful link in the “MacCutcheon” thread: http://www.chessgate.de/training/games/02training_eroeffnung_12.htm

P.P.S. Against 18.Kxc3, Schipkov’s 18…Qb6! is an interesting alternative to Psakhis’ 18…a4 19.Nxe6+! Bxe6 20.Qxe6 Qa5+ 21.Kb2 Rb8+ 22.Ka2 Qc7! “with chances for both sides” (cited by HgMan in the other thread).

Ok, next time I have the chance to face the Mc Cutcheon at corr. I will probably retry 6.Be3 and if I reach again the same position, I will try 13.exf6 where it's true that the position is good-looking for White, but still not advantageous to me, so I want to explore that.

13.Qh5!? Qe8!? (adviced by Golopashov in NiC survey 72) 14.Qh3 Qg6 15.oo Qg4 16.Qxg4 fxg4 17.Nd4 Nxe5 seems to be equal

and

13.exf6 Qxf6 14.Qh5 e5 15.Bg6! is hard to assess because full of tactical tricks but I like  to deal with the most dangerous theats for White: open the f file...thus 15...e4 16.Nh4 Be6 (important to protect d5) 17.oo Kg8 and now opening the f file is not so easy. 18.f3 Ne2+ 19.Kh1 Rf8 20.Rae1 Nf4 21.Bxf4 Qxf4 22.c4 Ne5=

******

Alternative is to wait White castle:  14.Qh5 e5 15.Bg6 Kg8 16.oo Ne2+ 17.Kh1 Nf4 18.Bxf4 Qxf4 when a draw occured in ending of game Filipenko-Volkov,Moscow 1999

Well, after my try with 6.Be3, I reached that important position:

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Be3 Ne4 7. Qg4 Kf8 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 c5 10. Bd3 Nxc3 11. dxc5 Nc6 12. Nf3 f5  where the most played move is the logical 13.exf6, opening lines for the bishop pair, but corr. games in chesslive, and my little exploration in this territory make me think that White has 0 advantage. So I wanted to give a try with the good scorer 13.Qh5!? where Black is just losing in somes lines (after 13..d4), even my opponent played 13..d4?!  in a previous game against someone else, but luckily he won because his opponent forfaited before getting winning. So I tought my opponent would try that move again, and was "excited" to see if he had find an improvment to survive with 13..d4 or no, but then he played 13..Qe8, where I think it's logical to continue with 14.Qh3 and after 14..Kg8, the position become quite strange, but I don't find any advantage for White, it's even more dangerous for White than for Black here...

So my final conclusion is: I think White has 0 advantage with 6.Be3 because of the line with 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Be3 Ne4 7. Qg4 Kf8 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 c5 10. Bd3 Nxc3 11. dxc5 Nc6 12. Nf3 f5 until someone can prove that White is still better.

MNb wrote on 07/14/08 at 22:49:26:


Moskalenko wrote a letter to NIC in NIC YB 87 (because in NIC YB 86 was an Article about the Be3-line that resumed it was very dangerous) where he said that he analyzes that line in his new book and that simply in this line black does not have any problems. 
For the Bc1-lines, I do agree with you. 
I guess we simply have to wait for some users that confirm or do not confirm Moskalenkos variations.

Hey MNb, why do you believe that the gambits does at the moment better results than the main line? In fact I am beginning to study the MacCutcheon because Iam facing it on corr. but it's hard to see where are the criticals lines. I really wonder which line does give the most difficult game to Black at correspondance.

@dom: about your game against Juglard, It seems that White has nothing better than a draw if you take his bishop, with Qxe6+ - Qc8 - Qe6+... Or maybe Juglard think he ca play for a win against Qxg6+ instead of Qxe6?

The related gambits 9.Be3 (iso 9.Bd3) and 6.Be3 Ne4 7.Qg4 g6 (Kf8!?) 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 are thought to give White better prospects than 6.Bd2 and 9.Bd3 these days.