Hello,

There are several old threads on this line. After 5.Na3 e5 played by Keres amongst others an interesting response.

Bye John S

nyoke wrote on 11/20/08 at 21:10:23:


First, Donaldson labels it !? not ?!, and writes: "a line that isn't currently favored, but hasn't been fully researched".

Second, it's nothing to do with the Catalan.

This position can also be reached by 1 c4 Nf6 2 g3 c6 3 Bg2 d5 4 Nf3, so it's an important one for players who use Kosten's "Dynamic English" repertoire, and its recent reincarnation (in great part) on Nigel Davies's English DVD (and also in the relevant sections of Davies's "Dynamic Reti" book).

Kosten and Davies recommended this way of playing for White (i.e. without b2-b3) because it gives White some interesting options involving Qb3 or Qa4 against attempts by Black to develop the c8 bishop to f5 or g4 on move 4.

The snag is that Black can just capture with 4...dxc4 and White has serious problems regaining the pawn whilst maintaining his white initiative.

If you are a subscriber you will find some example games in the archives and, now I think of it, I am sure there's another thread on this somewhere here at the Forum, but briefly, both Kosten and Davies give 5 Qc2, when White has very some interesting gambit ideas against 5...b5, based on taking over the centre and blockading Black's huge queenside majority at the cost of a pawn. In this materialistic age, though, this type of game is not what most players of 1 c4 or 1 Nf3 are looking for.

The other snag is that White has been experiencing problems against the strange-looking but seemingly very effective move 5...Qd5! It seems to me that Davies's DVD had little new to offer against this. [I should perhaps add that overall I consider this DVD to be really enjoyable and very instructive!]

5 a4 is safer and perhaps 5 Na3, also with some interesting gambit possibilitiers, deserves more attention than it has received recently.

That was also the annotation of Raymond Keene in his very interesting 1970 book "Flanck openings", he called it : "a dubious gambit" after dxc4, Black can hold the pawn. White is often struggling to get enough play for it.

The puntuation marks are Donaldson's. He mentions this line in his second foreword to ASOR, briefly enough to leave the mystery intact. Anybody a clue (one would expect this to lead to a catalan, no ?)?