In the position arising after

1.e4 e6
2.d4 d5
3.e5 c5
4.c3 Qb6,

I have three things to comment on:

A) If black wants to avoid the sharp c4!? variations (where the white player accentuates that Bd7-b5 is a rather time wasting maneuver in the resulting transformed position), he has to take first on d4, as previous posts have already mentioned. Alas, White retakes with the Knight (!), preventing the initial Bb5 idea. Giving up d4 is not a problem, the inclined reader will notice the similarities to the variation 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 Qb6, when white has good prospects after taking on c5 (either now or after O-O, not fearing cxd4 cxd4 Nge7 -> f5 because of the standard defensive resource Nc3-a4).

A recent high-class encounter in this variation was fought out in Grischuk - Morozevich in the current World Cup tournament.

B) After 4...Nc6, the first player usually goes for 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3!. Out of this reasoning, the first player is well advised o go for

4...Qb6 5.a3!?

As the queen is already on b6, the white player will not get into transposition problems to Bd7 lines, which are considered harmless (i.e. 4..Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.a3?! (6.Le2) and now either f6 or c4 give black enough play). White achieves two things by this seemingly harmless move, both being connected with the move "won" by not having moved the Ng1 yet. First, White can speed up the counterplay on the c-file, preventing the white square clamp that black often tries to establish. Moreover, the f1-a7 diagonal is not as appealing for the black queen anymore, as white can easily castle following Ng-e2. Finally, black will not be able to overload white's defence of d4 due to the time consuming bishop trade. Hence white does not have to put his knight on f3 anyway. In my opinion, he is good advised to put his knight on the strategically most lucrative square, which is h5.

In a recent rapid game played by myself two days ago against a 2350 FM, play continued

4...Qb6
5.a3!? Bd7
6.b4 cxd4
7.cxd4 Bb5
8.Bxb5 Qxb5
9.Nc3 Qd7 (Qc4/c6 stumbles into a swift Rc1, Qb6 lacks the punch as d4 will not get into pressure and grants white a tempo by the means of Na4)
10.Nge2 Ne7
11.Nf4! and the threat of Nh5, putting pressure on the vital dark squares, forced black to continue with 11..g6, which already gives white some weaknesses to play against. After

12.h4!? (Nd3 -> Bg5 is also very interesting) Bg7
13.h5 Nc6
14.O-O O-O-O
15.Bb2 Kb8
16.Nd3! b6
17.a4! Nxd4
18.a5 ->

White enjoyed quite an advantage, eventually converting his dangerous initiative into a full point.

It should be added that 4...Qb6 5.a3!? c4?!, despite being played twice against me in tournament games by players around 2100, is IMHO an inaccurate move order. With the knight still on g1, white has more freedom on the kingside, and can utilize this in several ways (e.g. an easy f4).

C) Sadly, somewhere in this post I forgot the third point I wanted to address.

Cheers,

Geck0

yes, the idea of 6.Be2 is to prevent the immediate ...Bb5, which 6.Bd3 allows.

kylemeister wrote on 07/21/11 at 22:26:24:



Sorry, just went to bed and started thinking about it. It was against Jonathan Westeberg iirc. He is the Swedish junior Champ I think. Against Berg it was the Najdorf. A big crushing home prep with a knight sac at b5.

After 6 ...a5, White can probably play Bd3 and argue that he gets a better version of the Barry-Milner gambit since he has access to the b5-square.

An old idea, that was played by Jonny Hector (he has 4,5/5 in this line after 7 ...Bd7) just the other day against Emanuel Berg is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. 0-0!? Here most Black players have transposed into more regular lines with 7 ...Bd7, instead of taking on c3. Apparently, he has also played the same line, with 5 ...Bd7 instead of 5 ...Nc6. This has only occured in one game against a player sub-2000, though.

What do you think about this gambit?

dom wrote on 07/21/11 at 11:00:35:


I checked the line at home and I am pretty sure the line is NOT in Harding's book....but...there is one good system for Black (I always try to give Black good lines  )

7.oo Qb6 and now

A) 8.Qe2 Nge7!? (instead of dxc3 ; Stets-Malykin,Pavlograd 2000) and now White has no better than enter the Millner Barry with cx4 because:

9.a3 (Garcia-Cardenas Serrano, La Havanne 1991) Ng6

9.Kh1 Ng6 10.cxd4 Nxd4 11.Nxd4 Qxd4 12.f4 Bc5

9.Rd1 dxc3 (Flitney-Baider, 2007)

Ng8-Ne7-Ng6 plan is less known than Ng8-Ne7-Nc6

B) 8.Re1 Nge7 and White has no better than transposition to line Millner Barry with Re1 after 9.cxd4 Nxd4

C) 8.a3 Nge7 (Garcia-Huerta,La Havanne 1992) 9.b4 Ng6 or 9.cxd4 Nxd4 with an improved Millner Barry (because White lost tempo with a3)

D) 8.Nbd2 dxc3 (only now...since b1 knight has moved to not so active square)

@orangeCounty : you are totally right in saying that ...Bb5 is not forced in the mentioned line. It is a warning to the original poster, since ...Bb5 was Black's primary goal. Moreover ...Bb5 becomes less and less feasable as White develops, for instance 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.a3 a5 7.Be2 a4 (seizing space and preventing Qb3) 8.0-0 Bb5? 9.c4 dxc4 10.Nbd2 is ideal for White.

The "third setup" Bd7/Nc6 without Qb6 is an important line. Here a3 wastes tempo and Bd3 leads to a gambit, so White often plays Be2 at once. 

[off-topic] The gambit itself 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.0-0 [instead of the standard 7.cxd4 Qb6 8.0-0 Nxd4] 7...dxc3 Nxc3 makes wonders in blitz, it could be labelled a "dangerous weapon". Has it been discussed here or in chess litterature?

Note that White can also play with a3, which is never wrong against ...Qb6 lines.

For instance 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6/Bd7 5.Nf3 Bd7/Qb6 6.a3 Bb5 7.b4 cxd4 8.Bxb5 Qxb5 9.cxd4 Nd7 10.Nc3. Here Black can't really dominate the a6-f1 diagonal with 10...Qa6 due to White's slow but effective plan of Bd2,a4,b5 (or Nb5). 10...Qc4 is not advisable either, because White can regroup with e.g. Bb2, Ne2,Nd2, Rc1. Perhaps 10...Qc6 11. Na4 is simplest, with an equalish game. You may want to play 6...a5 to prevent b4, but beware of the trap 7.Be2 Bb5? (7...Nc6 is normal) 8.Qb3 c4 9.Qc2 ruining your plans.

As for White playing an early Nf3, this is for the sake of simplicity. Black has 3 basic setups in the Advance : Bd7/Nc6, Qb6/Nc6, Qb6/Bd7. White wants to react differently against each one, for instance a3 is more effective against Qb6 and Be2 is more effective against Bd7. But in all cases Nf3 is part of his setup, so it is played first, waiting for Black to commit. Black in turn can play ball with Nh6, but this is another story.

Welcome to the difficult world of the French Advance!