Ametanoitos wrote on 10/22/11 at 14:11:53:
Against the Ne5 main line i always liked the piece sac variation which is at best slightly better for White (there are different opinions on that) but at club level it would be impossible to win with White but very possible to win with Black!
Interesting statement. I've just made some little statistics for the following position:
Data Set 1: Elo between 1000 and XX = 2000: 4 / 50 %
X = 2100: 10 / 45 %
X = 2200: 22 / 48 %
X = 2300: 55 / 55 %
X = 2400: 104 / 59 %
Data Set 2: Elo between 0 and XX = 2000: 30 / 53 %
X = 2100: 39 / 50 %
X = 2200: 54 / 49 %
X = 2300: 99 / 54 %
X = 2400: 148 / 56 %
Both data sets are based on my database of appr. 5 mio. games. I only considered those games where
both players are rated between the lower (1000 resp. 0) and the upper margin ("X"). I would like to draw the border between "club player" and "(semi-)professinal" somewhere around 2200 Elo.
Data Set 1 seems to indicate that Ametanoitos is right insofar as Black has slightly better chances than White. Data Set 2 is more problematic, as the lack of an Elo rating does not necessarily imply low playing strength. To avoid the worst blunders, I excluded all games where the lack of an Elo rating has obviously nothing to do with playing strength, e.g. Reshevsky-Smyslov, Wch 1948.
Maybe the most interesting figure in DS 2 is in the first line: 30 games, White scoring 53 %. It's interesting insofar as here we have 30 games (compared to 4 in DS 1), showing a slight superiority for White.
If those 30 games were really played by players "weaker" than 2000 Elo,
then Ametanoitos statement is probably not true.
Anyway, these figures indicate that the Slav piece sacrifice variation is very rarely played at lower levels.
Best regards,
Zwischenzugzwang