Dink Heckler wrote on 01/21/09 at 15:43:07:
I used to play the OI a fair bit.
Markovich mentions the Bg5, e3, Qc2 idea, which I think gives quite easy play for White, and thus I would always meet Bg5 with ed followed by g6, to avoid those lines.
Re the ...c5 question, its conceivable that White plays a decidedly suboptimal anti-Czech setup and then Black could try to finesse it by segueing into a Czech Benoni a tempo down. After all, tempi tend to get thrown around with gay abandon in the CB anyway. But in practice, this is rarely appropriate.
Re the OI in general, my opinion is you need a certain sensibility to play it well; knowing when to make an audacious space grab on the Q-side w. ...b5 (after all, W has more space and is usually reasonably set up to counter same), and when to just cockroach and await events.
I suppose my OI epiphany came when I opted for the cockroach approach versus a (very) strong GM. He opted for a g3 setup, I made all the obvious moves and had a perfectly serviceable position. But then I set to thinking, what next...and the 'obvious' answer was to play Be7-f8, g6, Bg7, which is a fairly common manouvre. Then I thought, I'll be ****-ed if I'm going to play the KID several tempi down vs a super-GM, set about looking for 'alternatives', came up with some rubbish, and went down in flames. Which would have happened anyway, no doubt, but the whole thing just felt so...contrived, I guess is the word I'm looking for. I never played it again.
For what it's worth, Kraii in one of his lectures, didn't seem overly impressed with the g3 setup versus the Old Indian. He said Black had good play with the ...c6, ...a6, ...b5 plan aiming to attack c4 or push to b4 and allowing the Bishop to go to b7. Perhaps he was too quick to dismiss the White setup though as it still looks pretty solid despite those ideas.
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Old Indian? (Read 56496 times)
