1) I have asked the moderator Willempie to Change the forum title to a lower case
format.  Thank you Willempie for this favour for me!


2) The game from my first posting was made up and derived from a Watson annotation of the
Rubelevsky, S.  – Carlson, M  Moscow RUS, 2007, World Blitz (25) game. The move
9…. Bd6 was not actually played and Carlson played 9…. Be7.

     The move 12. Ne5 was played because it looked  very natural and I could not
find a reply, which looked logical.  During the time of analysis, I was skeptical of
12…. N6h5.


3) A  line queried in the forum was  1.e4 Nf6  2.e5 Nd5  3.d4 d6  4.Nf3 dxe5  

   5.Nxe5 c6   6. Bc4 Bf5  7. Qf3 e6   8.Nxf7 Kxf7  9. g4 Qf6  10.gxf5  Qxf5  11. Nd2

Watson assesses the above final position as that white has the advantage due to the
bishop pair and that black as more targets. The reference is Chess Publishing 2007
during his annotation of the Shirov, A. – Carlsen M. Moscow, Rus, 2007 World Blitz (16) game.


4) I will try to adapt to a friendly format for the presenting of games. (ie. replacing of

1) e4 Nf6   2) e5  with  1. e4 Nf6  2. e5   etc.)

Actually, I wonder what is the refutation (I am use this word since
the line below is seldom mentioned) of

4. Nf3 dxe5  5. Nxe5 Bf5

The only place I see this "analised" is in Khalifman's Volume with

"5...Bf5?! 6. Qf3! e6 7. Bd3 Qf6 (Qc8??) 8. Bxf5 Qxf5 9. Qxf5 exf5 and
White gets a classical pawn majority on the queenside.

Is this enough to win?

At some point I'll look at the analysis and come back. 

I don't mean to throw cold water, but I wish we could avoid posting topics in all caps, which is a little too much like shouting.

ALEKINES DEFENCE – MODERN with 4) Nf3 dxe5  5) Nxe5 c6.  DYNAMIC PLAY AND CURRENT TRENDS
AND DEVELOPMENTS AGAINST      6) Bc4   6) Bd3  6) Be2  6) g3 and OTHERS.                                                                                                                          

I hope to have a few concurrent topics occurring and all discussions are welcome.

Some of the key themes I intend to investigate are

a) Active development of the black light square bishop to g4 or f5.

b) The emergence of the the move Bd6, which supports the Nf4 manouvre. Such modern
deployment of the bishop appears more active than the predecesor Bg7 systems and it is not possible
with the Alburt or Flohr Variations, due to the central presence of the white e5 pawn, which attacks the d6 square
and blocks the h2-b8 diagonal.

c) Strategic castling. Can black defer castling and utilise the extra tempo to his advantage?

d) Tactics involving Nb4.

e) Activating of the kingside pawn majority. This often happens in the end game, but
    can it occur at an earlier stage of the game?

f) Pawn sacrifice for space. This does not occur very often, but is very useful to know.


     What could be more reassuring in choosing a repertoire for black, than to see
your pet variation win convincingly in a middle game battle?  Well, this is such a situation.

Analysis Game 1.

1) e4 Nf6  2) e5 Nd5  3) d4 d6  4) Nf3 dxe5  5) Nxe5 c6  6) Bc4 Nd7  7) Nf3 N7f6

8) h3 Bf5  9) 0-0 e6  10) Bb3 Bd6  11) c4 Nf4  12) Ne5 (a) N6h5  13) g4? (b) Bxe5

14) dxe5 Qh4 15) Bxf4 Nxf4  16) Qf3 Nxh3  17) Kg2 Bxg4  18) Qg3 Nf4  19) Qxf4 Bh3+  

20) Kf3 Qh5+  21) Ke3 Bxf1  -+.  Black is the exchange and two pawns up!



a) White usually plays 12) Nc3 O-O  13) Bc2 Bxc2  14) Qxc2  Ng6  15) Re1 h6  16) a3 Qc7 etc

or 12) Bc2 Bxc2  13) Qxc2 O-O  14) Nc3 Qa5  15) c5 Bc7  16) Qb3 Rab8  17) Ne5 Ng6 etc.


b) 13) Qf3 Qg5  14) Nc3 f6  15) Ng4 Qg6  16) Rd1 O-O-O and there is a fierce struggle.