The history of me finding pet defences
The Leningrad Dutch and Modern Benoni were two defences I wasn't keen on playing against, so I finally decided to take up the latter one.
Now I am fascinated how active Black can be and how little mistake by White is enough to turn the tables. Playing it is a very good way of training calculation. And one can always choose to play 3..Bb4+ (Bogo-Indian) at the last moment (2.c4 e6 3.Nf3) when he is afraid of the opponent's theoretical preparation or superior tactical abilities.
I realized that in unbalanced positions it was more likely that I outplayed many opponents who had drawn/defeated me in defences where I kind of suffered inside because of not having any kind of early initiative. It was strange, because I was said to be a cautious player of the positional kind and I believed that. But many of my games had been won on tactics, when in well built-up positions the active pieces found their targets.
I missed active Black defences that I was familiar enough, that's why my results had been considerably better as White...
I had been playing the Caro-Kann and the Slav Main Line and my intention was to have an extra defence against all the four most common 1st-moves by White.
I wanted to find something more active. I was hesitating between
* the French + Stonewall (with familiar center-pawn structures surviving throughout most of my games) combo and
* the more subtle/elastic Sicilian Kan + Nimzo-Indian (Modern Benoni/Bogo-Indian) + English Hedgehog combo.
Eventually I excluded the French because for playing "simple chess" I already had the C-K in my repertoire, which is of a similar character and the Exchange Variation is always available for White... So my choice fell on the Sicilian Kan, where I don't accept clear positional weaknesses, still giving White plenty of room to commit errors.
And striving for early impact on the game I found the Nimzo + (MB/BID) better suited for my style than the Stonewall.
So, among my choices are now one combination of defences in which I can play a little passive/simple chess,
* Caro-Kann + Slav + 1.c4 c6 + 1.Nf3 d5 ( all of a similar character, not involving serious positional concessions (weak squares/pieces), therefore could be played more intuitively )
and a more active/complex one, which includes
* the Sicilian Kan + NID (complemented with the MB/BID) + English Hedgehog with the "1..Nf6 2..c5" move-order ( each is complex, and apart from the MB, can be of a similar character )
and I am contented.
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couple questions on black's defences (Read 13980 times)
