fling wrote on 03/13/17 at 18:43:58:
RdC wrote on 03/11/17 at 23:01:13:
John Nunn, author of a book or two on the Modern is playing again in UK weekend tournaments. Here's how he met the Modern Tiger in this weekend's tournament in Exeter.
1. e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Be3 a6 5. h4
This provoked the response 5. .. h5 whereupon Nh3 was played, followed up by Ng5, f3 and O-O-O. Later the regrouping Nc3-e2-f4 was played, putting a lot of pressure on e6 ( which was occupied by a pawn).
From what I have experienced and learned from similar positions (I don't play this set-up, but often ...g6 against the English), ...h5 is many times the least desired option for Black. I'd rather go ...h6, or something else, especially now when White has not played Qd2 (no Bh6 yet). If White has played Qd2, then ...h5 could be an option I guess. What does Tiger recommend?
The whole 4.Be3 business probably is - besides the infamous Austrian - the most dangerous and concurrently most interesting option for White against the Modern and the Pirc in particular.
Personally, 4.Be3 persuaded me to switch from the classical Pirc move-order to the more flexibel Modern move-order.
In the Modern Tiger, Persson adresses this setup on about 100 pages, mainly White playing the more dangerous f3 ("flexible dragon unleashed") and the more solid Nf3 ("flexible dragon restrained").
Before taking 5.h4 into account, it seems sensible to analyse the really popular "starting position" of this system after the following moves:
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 White's typicalplan generally include
f3, 0-0-0, h4, Nh3-g5 and crushing Black on the Kingside or in the center with a timely
e5-Break.
Black's typical ideas are
Bb7, Nd7, c(6-)5, Qc7, sometimes
Rc8 and
Ngf6 as well and crushing White on the Queenside without allowing too much Counterplay on his own king.
Because of his limited influence in the center it seems that Black has to react more carefully to White's play than the other way around.
Having said this, a very important idea against White's h4 followed by the annoying
Nh3-g5 (if Black plays
...h5) is simply to knock out the Knight with
...Bxh3 as soon as possible.
So, after
6.h4 Black shouldn't play the automatic
6...h5?! as
7.Nf3! secures White the possibiliy of playing Ng5 and putting pressure on Blacks kingside.
Instead, Black should react
6...Ngf6, attacking e4 and more or less forcing
7.f3 as White wants to play this move anyway. Only now Black plays
7...h5! since Nf3 is no longer an option.
After
8.0-0-0 (part of White's plan) Black has to adjust his play a little bit, since his normal moves
8...Bb7 as well as
8...Nd7 allow the critical
9.Nh3 in turn. So Tiger recommends
8...c6! as half a waiting move preparing
...Qc7, after which play may continue
9.Kb1 (
9.Nh3 Bxh3 10.Rxh3 Nbd7 and Black could execute his idea)
9...Qc7 10.e5 Nd5 11.f4 Nxc3+ 12.Qxc3 0-0 with roughly equal play.
In view of this, White may play
6.0-0-0 first, since Black's normal moves
6...Nd7 and
6...Bb7 both allow
7.Nh3. Although the sophisticated
6...c6!? is playable, Tiger recommends the much more natural sequence:
6.0-0-0 Bb7 7.f3 Nd7 8.h4 h5 9.Nh3 Rc8!? In this move-order Black cannot really avoid facing a white Knight on g5, but in particular for the
Ne2-f4-maneuver he seems to be better prepared as the following line shows:
10.Ng5 c5 11.Ne2 Qc7 12.Kb1 Ngf6 13.d5 (
13.g3 with the idea Bh3 is met by
13...cxd4 14.Nxd4 Ne5 as well as
13.Nf4? runs into the typical tactic
13...cxd4 14.Bxd4 e5!)
13...Ne5 14.Nf4 Qb6 (avoiding any fork on e6) and White's play seems a little bit stuck at the moment when Black may rush is queenside pawns.
Having said all this, after the immediate
5.h4 Black should play
5...Nf6! similar to the variations above since
6.Qd2 b5 transposes.
The alternative (and maybe more risky) setup against White's h4 is
...h6, intending to meet h4-h5 with ...g5, however creating a hole on f5 (as ...e6 usually weakens d6 a bit too much) and a potential pawn-break in f4.
Nevertheless, if White postpones long castling and plays with a quick g4, Black sometimes should employ the ..h6 plan as a sample line may show:
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.f3 Nd7 7.g4!? Bb7 8.Nge2 (Noteworthy the clumsy
8.h4?! is strongly met by
8...h5! [here it works!]
9.gxh5 Rxh5 10.Nge2 Bf6 11.Bf2 e5 and Black is fine.)
8...c5 9.h4 (
9.dxc5 Ne5! eyeballing f3 as well as c4 is level.)
9...h6 (Now
9...h5 dosn't work as well as previously since
10.gxh5 Rxh5 11.Ng3 Rh7 12.h5 is good for White.)
10.Ng3 Qc7 (
10...e6 is a safer option but not everybody's taste.)
11.h5 d5! 12.Bf4 e5! and Black unleashes his forces.
Summed up, Black shouldn't play ...h5 light-hearted, but sometimes it's a necessity to stop White's immediate kingside-play. Moreover, Black always should keep his ...Bxh3-idea in mind, sometimes even by delaying ...Bb7 or ...Nd7 with ...c6.
If White plays g4 in preperation for h4, Black can employ his second weapon with ...h6 followed by ...g5, but since this creates static weaknesses, Black should play energetically.
This little analysis mainly refers to Tigers book (p.151-201), which not only is a great theoretical work, but contains a huge collection of interesting lines and a bunch of inspiring ideas.
Hopefully that helped (as it helped myself - by posting this analysis I still learned a lot about the move-order-trickeries)!
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The Modern Tiger (Tiger's Modern 2 ed) (Read 57068 times)
