cynima wrote on 04/28/11 at 14:48:00:


No incentive really since in all my years playing experience nobody has ever played this ...Nh6 line and I've never felt inclined to myself either. If you believe in it then by all means go ahead, I admire your confidence.

Glenn Snow wrote on 04/30/11 at 21:57:19:

At least the systems are very different. With 5...cxd4 Black seems to be happy with solid equality, so it's nice for aggressive Winawer players to have an alternative that gives more winning chances (5...Nh6).

I suppose the attack is going zith something like this:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Bd2 Ne7 6.Nb5 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 oo 8.f4 a6 9.Nd6 cxd4 10.Nf3 Nbc6 11.Bd3 f6 12.oo Bd7 13.Qe1 

and if 13...Nc8 14.Nxb7 Qb6 15.Qh4 h6 16.exf6 Rxf6 17.g4 Qxb7 18.g5 Rf7 19.gxh6 Nd6 20.Ng5

This line is quite dangerous and under-rated by Watson (ignore his ridiculous over the top review of Dzindzi, quite sure there must be some history between them).

Ok Love the contempt there: "Objectively, this seems one of the worst of White's standard alternatives to 5a3"!

I must admit the one time I faced this I went Nc6 x d4, liquidating the b5 knight (as black has to do in the 5 a3 Ba5 6 Bd2 line) which should I suppose be safe but dull when compared to 5..Nh6 and friends.
(Psakhis good on such 'dull' ways to neutralise some of whites side lines.).

Although I did subsequently proceed to totally thrash a markedly stronger player. Who then got some rather drastic revenge next time out via the main line. A moral there perhaps

Yes, Moskalenko advocates the Nh6 line for black. He includes Watson's analysis on TWIC, with some additions of his own.

kylemeister wrote on 04/20/11 at 03:22:05:


Even after I read this review I have struggled against the 5.Bd2 line in blitz (my usual choice is 5...Nh6!?).

My impression is that Black is theoretically OK and maybe even White has to be careful, but only if Black knows some pretty concrete theory.

If both sides are out swimming (as I often am in online blitz games) I still think it's much easier to play White. It's also perfectly possible to try to do some analysis and improve on Watson, so I wouldn't discount this Dzindzi line just yet. If all else fails White can also meet either 5...Ne7 or 5...Nh6 with 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Bxc3, but that's very different of course.

Psakhis' chapter on 5.Bd2 was good, though now slightly out of date. If someone has studied the lines in Watson (Play the French 3), Dzindzichashvili/Perelshteyn (Chess Openings for White, Explained) and Watson (the above review) I don't think s/he needs Psahkis. For ICC subsrcribers Perelshteyn also did a video or two where he summarized their 5.Bd2 lines.

So the OP rather should stay away from this source of info. Btw my impression of DPA's treatment of the Caro-Kann was exactly the same.
Rather buy Psachis' book on the Winawer. He has a chapter on it. It's a bit outdated, but theory in this line doesn't develop that fast.