Hello.

Stigma wrote on 10/06/15 at 20:53:56:

I have not gotten this either. Ok if the move is not worth covering for some reason, but some lines or an explanation of why would be nice.

I once looked at this line before a game and I remember having planned to go 5.a4; which is both a waiting move and also a small bit active. Some analysis:



Have a nice day.

In my article http://chess-brabo.blogspot.be/2014/01/the-fake-truth.html I wrote about the Modern defense.

As mentioned in that article I shifted to 7.Re1 which contains a lot of poison. I give one example from my online practice.


Against the Qc7-e5-Nf6 system I like very much the idea shown in the game below. White is former worldchampion correspondence-chess Gert-Jan Timmerman so no small fish.

Well, after 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a4/7.Re1 Ngf6 it seems like Black will reach the ...c6 Classical having avoided some White sidelines: 7.h3 Nbd7 8.e5 and also 7.Bf4 (from the Dangerous Weapons: Pirc/Modern book).

Whether Black considers that a success will depend entirely on whether the Classical Pirc with ...c6 was in his repertoire in the first place.

I would have thought Black could try some Modern-ish 7.Re1 b5 stuff too, but he doesn't score well with it. Probably White's lead in development becomes too big there.

True enough. That's likely to get both players out of book already

The Modern with ...d6 and ...c6 (against e4/d4/Nc3) hasn't gotten much attention lately, but maybe Black should be happy to get it with White committed to both Nf3 and Be2. In the old Modern Defence book by Speelman and McDonald, the focus was more on lines with Be3, Bd3 and a quick a4 break to counter Black's queenside expansion. With Be2, the e4 pawn can come under fire from Nf6 and Bb7.

Fair enough. I'm not sure which is more committal in that KID position either, h3 or ...Qc7. The queen sometimes goes to b6 or e7 or a5, but c7 is quite common I believe. The problem with an early h3 is the structure where Black plays ...exd4: Sooner or later White usually wants to defend his e-pawn with f3, but with h3 also played, that leaves some ugly dark-squared weaknesses on the kingside. So possibly, with h3 played, White should try to get in d4-d5 soon.

Mainline_Novelty wrote on 10/06/15 at 23:36:16:

I assume you're thinking of the line 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Be2 0-0 6.0-0 c6 7.h3. But that line is sort of an exception: White combines h3 and Be2 there because he is sure to get in e4-e5 (and doesn't want Black to have the answer ...Ng4), which is a bit annoying for Black. In the Modern move order Black is free to play ...Qc7 before ...Ngf6, and maybe even ...e5 (though that may run into a strong Nf3-d2) or more likely start his counterplay with ...b5 before eventually playing ...Ngf6 and 0-0 - more or less the main idea of the ...d6/c6 Modern. So I'm not convinced combining Be2 and h3 is optimal play by White here.

Good point - just castle and wait. I think it's a bit early to commit to both Be2 and h3 though (in many lines White wants to play one of these, but not both). But (4...Nd7 5.0-0) 5...c6 is a bit commital in the KID or Averbakh Modern, so again 6.c4! should be good.

Maybe 4...Nd7 only really has a point against 3.Nf3 d6 4.h3 then, since White doesn't want to choose between Be2, Bc4 and Bd3 just yet. 5.Be3 is the obvious waiting move, but then I've seen 5...e5 played; not sure how to assess that.

Come to think of it, 5...e5 is a move in the Be2/0-0 position too...