The file (I use chesspositiontrainer)where I have put so many hours of works for 4 years has been damaged, and I don't know if I can recover it. So I won't give the completes lines for the moment, but here are 2 of my games, against the same opponent, he lost the first game, he retried the same line and lost again. I may complete these games with somes samples lines later.

[Corr]
[Date "2007.09.20"]
[Round "1"]
[White "ArKheiN"]
[Black "Mueller-Toepler,Michael"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 d5 3. e4 dxe4 4. Nc3 exf3 5. Nxf3 e6 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Bd3 c5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. O-O Qxc5+ 10. Kh1 Nbd7 11. Qe1 a6 12. Qh4 Qb4 13. Ne4 Qxb2 14. Nfd2 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 f6 16. Rab1 Qe5 17. Bf4 Qd5 18. Rbd1 Qa5 19. Qg4 e5 20. Qxg7 Rf8 21. Be3 Qxa2 22. c4 Qb2 23. Qxh7 Kd8 24. Bb1 b6 25. Bh6 Bb7 26. Bxf8 1-0 

[Corr]
[Date "2008.07.01"]
[Round "1"]
[White "ArKheiN"]
[Black "Mueller-Toepler,Michael"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. f3 d5 3. e4 dxe4 4. Nc3 exf3 5. Nxf3 e6 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Bd3 c5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. O-O Qxc5+ 10. Kh1 Nbd7 11. Qe1 a6 12. Qh4 Qb4 13. Ne4 Qxb2 14. Nfd2 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 f6 16. Rab1 Qe5 17. Bf4 Qd5 18. Rbd1 Ne5 19. Qg3 g6 20. Nc3 Qa5 21. Bxe5 Qxe5 22. Qxe5 fxe5 23. Nb5 Bc5 24. Nc7+ Ke7 25. Nxa8 Bd7 26. Rb1 Rxa8 27. Rxb7 Bd4 28. Rfb1 Rd8 29. Rb8 Rxb8 30. Rxb8 Kd6 31. Rd8 Kc7 32. Ra8 Bc6 33. Rh8 e4 34. Rxh7+ Kd6 35. Bxa6 Bd5 36. a4 Kc5 37. Rh6 e3 38. Rxg6 e5 39. c3 Bxc3 40. Kg1 Bc6 41. Kf1 Bxa4 42. Ke2 Be8 43. Rg5 Kd4 44. h4 Bb4 45. h5 Be7 46. Rg8 1-0 

So I believe that after 13..Qxb2 14.Nfd2!, White is already very close to win if that's not objectively the case. I think my opponent was too much confident into computer's evaluations where it's evaluation come from something -+ in the beginning, but... it's change to +- after somes moves.

nyoke wrote on 05/25/09 at 18:34:58:


Chessbase competes with NIC for the high end market of serious chess players. Customers expect a high level of quality analysis and in this case they didn't get it. The Chessbase magazine article on the BDG was more like something you'd find in the scholastic section of Chess Life geared for beginners. And yes, I was "openhanded" with my money and I'm writing of it to warn other BDG players not to waste their money. Seems reasonable to me.

Typical for ftacnik at chessbase. Always produced simplistic dross.

Insufficient QC at chessbase with regard to their annotations. See also Gallagher taking the machete to a hapless Tsesarsky in his KID book.

For those BDG fans that haven't heard, Chessbase magazine 129 has an article on the BDG by Ftacnik. 

Here is their promo on it.

"This gambit is still justified at specific level of play, because it is not easy for Black to neutralise White's initiative nor to make the most of his extra pawn."

Is the BDG finally getting some respect? Or is Chessbase just fishing for BDG fanatics money? No doubt nay-sayers like Mnb will emphasize the "justified at specific level" part.

No problem at all - with the work you do on this forum, on ChessCafe and in Kaissiber in actually looking at interesting lines (rather than looking for the latest TN on move 47 of the Chigorin Ruy), it seems the least I can do to join in!

With the 7...Nbd7 8.Qe2 line - I agree completely that Bb4 will now be too slow and 10.d5! is a nice shot. Black has to buckle up for the long haul with the solid 9...Be7 I think - white has a lead in development and some pressure in the position, but it is very hard to see any real weakness in the black position (though 10.Bxf6 might give black a little headache in working out how to capture, with Ne5 and d5 as possible threats.

After 9.h5 Bf5 10.Qe2 e6 11.Bd2, I agree that 11...Bxc2 is not great (in addition to your 12.Ng5, white can consider 12.d5 with huge counterplay). 11...Nd7 was my first try, but 12.Nh4! looks rather strong there. Sticking with 11...Nf6 though, 12.O-O-O Nbd7 13.d5 cxd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Bxd5 Rc8!? might be interesting, 16.Nd4 Nc5 and now Rybka gives 17.Qb5+ Qd7 18.Qxd7+ Kxd7 19.Nxf5 exd5 - seems that white will get one of his pawns back and have pressure for the other, but I'm hoping white has something more convincing here.

Yep, can't fault your analysis of 10...Qh4 11.Qe2+, much stronger than the immediate Bf4 - black might be able to hang on but I'd be happy as white there.

Again, after 8...Bd7 9.Ne4 Nf6, 10.Rf1 again looks most accurate. 10...e6 would be my preference for black, but after 12.Qh5 it is quite hard to find any constructive moves for black... the retrograde 12...Bc8 might be strongest, which just concludes the original point that 8...Bc8 is stronger. Still, black again can possibly still hold after 12...Bc8 13.Be3 Nd7. 

Regarding the Qxg5 line, I agree that it's the only way to play for more than a draw, whereas mine is a bona fide drawing line.... but I think playing for a win in that position is stretching resourcefulness. I'm not sure 9.Rg1 is a big cure, there are still a lot of questions, not least whether the compensation in the simple 9...Nf6 10.Nxf5 gxf5 11.Be3 is enough. Rybka likes 11...Ng4 12.Rxg4 fxg4 13.Qxg4 here, leaving white an exchange and pawn down for definite compensation (but it needs to be a lot of compensation to be enough). 11...e6 is likely to be a bigger problem, however, since 12.Qe2 Bb4 leaves white struggling to justify his material deficit, unless I'm missing something.

Buecker's article on ChessCafe is very interesting indeed. However, what if, after 7.Bg5, black replies not with 7...e6, but with 7...Nbd7! ?

This seems to knock the Nh4 plan on the head (Bg4!) and now white's pieces will have some trouble getting to optimal squares (Bg5 prevents Alchemy, Nbd7 stops Ne5). I'm not sure of how critical 7...Nbd7 is in this line, as I'm not sure of what white's standard response is (Qd2 maybe? Maybe Qe2 and O-O-O is an improvement? Still, I opened my f-file to get a rook on it immediately on castling, so I'm not overly impressed with this at the moment).

Another issue is with 7.g4!??! - Buecker quickly dismisses 7...Bg6 as not critical with 8.h4. However, since he is intending to follow up 7...Nxg4 with 8.Nh4, I'm interested to see what he proposes for white given 7...Bg6 8.h4 Nxg4, where black's extra move (Bg6) defends the weak f7 point (albeit temporarily depriving the Ng4 of support) whereas white's extra h4... well... leaves white's kingside somewhat missing in action. The best I've found for white so far is 9.Ng5 (utilising the undefended Ng4 to further his own attack, but after 9...h5! 10.Rf1 e6, black looks to be surviving with his extra loot. Perhaps 10.Bf4 is an improvement, preventing Qd6 ideas and holding up ...e5 (if black is trying to organise this), but still on 10...Nbd7 the Bf4 is now blocking the f-file, and perhaps play will continue with something like 11.Rf1 e6 12.Qe2 (12.Bxe6/Nxe6 ideas do not seem to work due to the pin on the e-file) Qe7 and black can look to go queenside if necessary.

However, 13.O-O-O Ndf6 might allow 14.Nxe6! rather insanely... and 13....Ngf6 14.Nxe6 seems to also provide an attack after 14...fxe6 15.Bxe6 Bf7 16.d5!, though whether it's a sound attack is a different matter. Therefore black probably has to commit to long castling immediately with 13.O-O-O O-O-O 14.Rde1 (Rybka's suggestion, I rather wanted to keep this rook on the d-file for future d5 thrusts) Qb4, with a rather complex position.

Is this the sort of thing Mr Buecker had in mind perhaps? Or does he have something stronger for white after 8...Nxg4? My sole idea in interpolating Bg6 h4 is to create one extra k-side weakness for white, which can be possibly taken advantage of at some point with Qd6. It also rules out this interesting Nh4 idea. Black might have (if 9...h5 is too loosening) 9...Nh6 as an alternative, but I will leave this for the time being to allow someone else some space to explore.

The idea of 7.g4 is certainly interesting, however - from my analysis so far I have more confidence in this than I have in the Ne5 lines. However, after 7...Nxg4 8.Nh4, I feel that Buecker is a little over-dismissive of some black tries.

8...e6 9.Nxf5 exf5 10.O-O Qh4! is far less cooperative - though I think white can get at least equal play after 11.Bf4, it is certainly more complex than 10...Nf6 and allows white some chances to go wrong.

8...Bd7 is certainly not optimal, but after 9.Ne4 Nf6! (not the weakening ...b5) 10.Qe2 (10.Nxf6+ exf6 appears to achieve little apart from exchanging a set of pieces) e6 11.Nf3 (Of course there are other possibilities, but the Nh4 is white's worst piece so I have played a la Buecker) Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Na6!? and while black's position is passive and his Bd7 is not great, he is two pawns up, and can hope to play Nc7-d5. White has free piece play but is it worth two pawns?

In the 'main line' 8...g6 (probably strongest), white has an interesting try in 9.Rg1, discouraging black from Bg7 tries. Since black is unlikely to want to give up his N and B for white's R (though, with the two pawns, this is most likely okay for him), 9...Nf6 seems most logical, whereupon 10.Nxf5 gxf5 11.Be3 might give some compensaton, though again I'm not sure if it is enough.

The problem with 9.Bg5 seems to be 9...h6!, which looks to only give white drawing chances, and he has to play accurately even for them (albeit black can also go wrong, but it seems more likely that white's attack will dissipate). Also, in the 9...Qd6 line, after 10.Qd2 b5 11.Bb3 a5 12.Bf4 e5! 13.h3 ef 14.hg Bxg4 15.Ne4 Qe7 16.Qxf4 f5 17.Kf1, black has the cute 17...Nd7?! with the nice point 18.Nxg6?! hg! 19.Rxh8 fe! and now 20.Qxg4 is met by Qf6+ winning the rook back. However, white might have 18.Ng5 here, with 18...Be2+ 19.Kf2 Bh6 20.Bf7+ Kd8!? 21.Ne6+ Qxe6 22. Bxe6 Bxf4 23.Nxg6 becoming a total mess with perpetuals abounding - I'm nowhere near a strong enough player to work out whether black can actuall find his way through this maze, but I suspect that 18.Ng5 creates enough problems to put a hole in 17...Nd7?!, at least in a practical sense.

On the other hand, following 17...fxe4 18.Qxg4 Kd8 19.Ke2 Bh6 20.Raf1 Rf8 21.Ng2 Rxf1 22.Rxf1 Qg5, white might be able to force a draw with 23.Rf8+ Kc7 24.Rf7+, for example 24...Kb6 25.Qc8!! Qxg2+ 26.Ke1 Qg1+ 27.Ke2 - any attempt to deviate from the perpetual fails, e.g. 27...Qxd4 28.Qb7+ Kc5 29.Qxa8 and, with the Nb8 unable to escape, black has nothing better to now acquiesce to the perpetual. 25.Qxe4 tries for more, but after 25...a4 26.Be6 Ra7! 27.Rxa7 Kxa7 28.Bg8, the opposite-coloured bishops are not enough to aid either colour's attack and this looks more or less drawish. Still, 23.Qxg5 also leads to a pretty stale position.

So, 9...h6 has to be the critical move in this variation, and black will have to see whether he can win the resulting position after the quite forcing lines there. Or else he has to look at 8...Bc8/8...Bd7 and try to make those passive positions work.

Of course, the probalem for white is that the elusive forced win that we know to be there after 4.f3 is still not found.   

flaviddude wrote on 04/14/09 at 10:25:06:


I have extracted games from my database which I have attached as a PGN file so that everyone has something to work from.

My initial thought are that after Nb-d7 white should play Qf3 

Great article by Stefan Buecker that references this thread at http://www.chesscafe.com/kaissiber/kaissiber.htm. ; I didn't know that White had a better move than 6.Bc4 after 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 c6 (making the O'kelly with 4...c6 the better move order).  Only 6.Ne5 was mentioned in the article but I thought this was supposed to be met by 6...Nbd7.  Perhaps someone could explain to me what White should do and mention any other good sixth moves for White.  Hopefully all of this will be covered in the forthcoming book by IMWisnewski.