Smyslov_Fan wrote on 03/20/11 at 18:26:06:
I know the Winawer is a good practical OTB challenge, but I never had much faith in that as a correspondence game either.
Actually I drew four games with Black after 3...Bb4. That's my biggest problem at the moment: I hardly ever win after 3.Nc3. My score against other setups is excellent though.
Anyhow, I played the Black Queen Blues a la Hook twice. I think 8...g6 rather ugly. Maybe I have to rethink this again, as the weaknesses evaporate if Black castles Queenside and advances the g- and h-pawn. In that case I'm not sure what the Queen is doing on a4 though.
In the other two games I played 7...Kf8 iso the more regular 7...0-0 (which I think way too risky) or 7...Qc7. I have had an unfortunate experience with the PP two years ago and did not did not want to risk it again in a team competition.
Though I am satisfied with not losing (the previous time I lost several games using the Open Ruy Lopez) I also felt I had almost zero winning chances.
So perhaps I have to go back to the PP after all, though that h-pawn quite worries me - more than the pawn deficit. Some middle ground would be nice. I have considered Botvinnik's ...Qc7 and ...f5, but again don't like the lines in which Black has to castle kingside.
Perhaps 4...Ne7 and 6...b6 is a solution, though I agree with Psachis that 7.Nh3 Ng6 8.a4 c5 9.a5 causes a few headaches.
I don't see myself walking in the footsteps of Petrosjan with 4...b6 and x...Bf8, no matter how amusing this stuff is.