Stigma wrote on 01/11/09 at 21:59:04:


Curses, the conspiracy has been discovered 

I'm really surprised that nobody points that the 4.Bg4 variation is really nasty to meet. I don't have Vigus work..., is there something new?

Thx

HgMan wrote on 01/10/09 at 21:34:06:


My current thinking is the latter. I play it sometimes OTB to ensure unbalanced positions and winning chances, but when I want to play for theoretical equality I do something else.

In that spirit I meet the Austrian with 5...0-0 to avoid the forced draw after 5...c5 6.Bb5+, but I suspect 5...c5 is objectively the best move, and black should be OK there.

4.Be3 is the real problem. I've always played 4...c6, but either of 5.h3, 5.Qd2 b5 6.Bd3, 5.Qd2 b5 6.f3 and 5.Nf3!? require hard work and theoretically I'm really worried about the first. In http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1169821247/15#15 I debated 4...c6 5.h3 followed by f4 with Vigus and others; I still consider this a big threat to black. White can also throw the h3-g4 "Archbishop Attack" in; I think this is particularly strong when Black has committed to Nbd7 (no ...d5 break). White is also scoring extremely well with 5.Qd2 b5 6.Bd3 Nbd7 7.Nf3 OTB lately whether black goes for 7...e5 or 7...Qc7, but I don't know the theoretical status of this.

After 4.Be3 Bg7 the lines with W 0-0-0 versus B 0-0 were discussed by JEH and MNb in this thread (and the one above): http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1174659643/30
To me this looks scary for Black. But maybe there are improvements to be found.

Incidentally, according to Vigus, Colin McNab has used the Pirc quite a bit in CC.

My second question: is there room for finding novelties for Black in these mainline systems?

One observation is that, although the Pirc has been pretty unpopular at high level since, oh, I'd say the mid-80s at least, encyclopedias have long thought rather well of it.  At least the last four incarnations of ECO/NCO/MCO (published from 1999 to 2008) thought that the best-play lines should be equal or unclear -- i.e. no path for White to "+=".        

I've been reading through a number of the Pirc threads, all of which seem to share a consistent refrain: the opening is fine, but White has so many viable options to make Black's life uncomfortable that it's become a difficult task to stay on top of things.  But I'd like to ask a deeper question about the Pirc's theoretical status. 

Is it a viable option for correspondence chess?  With some advance preparation and a good library/database/etc., can a correspondence player successfully navigate the more difficult variations and achieve a decent score with the Pirc? 

My sense is that Black surrenders space and White can determine the nature of the ensuing game, but that the unbalanced positions can yield some rewarding results for the second player.  Or is the Pirc objectively an inferior opening and Black will always be playing catch-up?