XChess1971 wrote on 06/07/11 at 00:49:02:


My endings are weak compared to the rest of my game, but my tacts seems ok . Well its more that weaker opponents can opt for such unambitious lines to minimise winning chances, making the position harder to win, of course yes the objective with the white pieces is to win so, maybe i should stop whining about the endings

bragesjo wrote on 06/06/11 at 15:07:35:


OK thanks, the previous post linking to another forum originally seemed to think black was doing fine after 25...c5 or something, but yeah now it looks as if that isnt good  .

still, how does black play for the win in the Bxd4 line after for example:

12.Bd4 Bxd4 13.Qxd4 Qb6 14.Na4 Qc7 15.Bc4 Rd8 16.Bb3 Bf5 17.g3! Rd6 18.Rhe1 Rad8 19.Qc5 Qd7 20.c4! (a possible improvement over Qg1 played in Grischuk-Motylev

I think that both Bxd4 and Nxc3 lines are fully playable. If need to win play Bxd4. If draw is ok Nxc3 is an option (has tons of forced draws). I dont like e5 becouse of

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.
Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O d5 10. exd5 Nxd5
11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bd4 e5 13. Bc5 Be6 14. Ne4 Re8 15. h4 h6 16. h5 g5 17. c4 *

Also I think Dearings Qb7 has some other drawback, white could get a much better position by some move. There was something better for black earlier that Golubev has not mentioned that leed to a drawish endgame.

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1122802309/0

XChess1971 wrote on 06/05/11 at 22:58:54:


Yeah, i guess so, sometimes i want more than survival and 12...Bh6 in which position? here the Q is still on d2 ^.^

finally im sure the whole "mainline" after 12...e5 cant be refuted? I imagine somone has done some more recent analysis on this line: 12...e5 13.Bc5 Be6 14.Ne4 Rb8!? my fairly dated database gives several moves for white here such as 15. Bc4 15.h4 15.g4 and 15.c4. Ill avoid posting reams of analysis here, but this position seems just consistently better for white, and black doesnt seem to get sufficient play, I hope i am wrong anyone got any analysis on this line? thanks

Spree K wrote on 06/05/11 at 19:07:09:

although these Bxd4 lines do seem to equalise, they generally seem to go into a fairly level ending, maybe a minute advantage for black in some lines. The problem personally is that when playing such a variation as the dragon, i'd like somesort of complex middle game as oppose to a rook endgame :/.

Maybe Im being a bit lazy for not searching around these forums but at the moment every one seems to be focusing on the 10.Kb1 variation, anyway, what is the current evaluation of the 9.0-0-0 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Bd4 line?
Ive looked down the mainlines for example 12...e5 13.Bc5 Be6 14.Ne4 Re8 15.h4 h6 16.g4 Qc7 17.g5 h5 18.Bc4 Red8 19.Qf2 black now has a variety of options namely 19...Qb7 (given in Dearing's book), but it just seems white has a small, but persistent edge due to blacks lack of pawn breaks and hemmed in g7 bishop. for example 20.Rhe1 Nf4 21.Bxe6 Nxe6 22.Bd6! Dearing only considers 22.Nf6+?! Bxf6 23.gxf6 Qa6! which is good for black. After Bd6, im finding it difficult to make progress as black and it also seems white may now have the threat Nf6+ followed by Bxe5

Are people deviating earlier on? Or does black have more chances in this line than it seems?
Help would be brilliant 

thanks.

note by MNb: added the complete moves from 9.0-0-0 until 12.Bd4.