It seems like it should be possible to claim that a 1700-rated player is not qualified to make grand statements about advances in opening theory without classifying someone who is above the 80th percentile of Americans who play tournament chess as a "beginner".

sloughter
Play in a tournament. You think you are insightful.
Okay. Test yourself. 
The impression you give is of a hapless beginner with delusions of adequacy. Far distanced from reality. Delusional. 
Show your quality in a tournament. 
Then we may believe.
Otherwise, just one of many idiots in the world who think they know. But don't. Millions, of fools.

RivertonKnight wrote on 11/02/13 at 03:51:16:


The Fritz engines usually don't find 5.h4 (sometimes they do) so unless your opponent reads this thread, you won't face it! Probably something noncommittal like 4...h6 is better than 4...Ne7.

The typical refutation of the UA is h4/h5 at some point in the game, but it doesn't always work. Here is Pospishil-Moody, Corr. 1997: 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.e4 e6 4.Nc3 Ne7 5.Nf3 b6 6.Qc2 Bb7 7.Be2 d5 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.O-O O-O 10.h4?! c5! =

Here is Duliba (Then Postal Master, Now Correspondence GM)-Moody, Corr., 1997: 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nf3 e6 4.e4 Ne7 5.Nc3 b6 6.Be2 Bb7 7.O-O O-O 8.Bf4 d5 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.e5 c6 11.Rc1 Nd7 12.Bg5 f6 13.exf6 Nxf6 14.Qd2 Re8?! (Nf5 +/=) 15.Bd3 c5 +/-

Here is a transposition to a Bird against a Postal Expert, Marcuson-Moody, Corr. 1994: 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 e6 4.f4 Ne7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be3 d5 7.e5 b6 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.Qd2 Nd7 10.O-O c5! 11.Nb5 Nc8! 12.c4 a6 13.Nc3 Ne7 14.a4 Rc8 15.b3 f6! with complications.

Hadron wrote on 11/01/13 at 21:54:24:



Yes, you will find the occasional game where this move order is used either directly or by transposition; I recall something like 230 out of a 3,000,000 game data base in 1999. While authors like Soltis, Norwood, Smith and Hall cover the Modern and other defenses by Black, they don't cover the UA.

What I did was organize it and codify it, turning it into an entire opening system. No one else, to the best of my knowledge, had looked thoroughly at move orders like 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.e6 Nc3 4.e4 Ne7 5.Nf3 d5. Where Black's move order is known is in the Reti.

Going hand in hand with the Universal Attack are Universal positions. These are positions where one side has all their pieces in back of their pawns, there are at most one open or two half open files and no piece may be farther advanced than the farthest advance pawn. They are some of the most common and important positions in chess because the possessor of these positions has carved out interior space permitting him to maneuver behind his own lines: Here are a few UP's; these are from Inside Chess v.6 Issue 25-26; many games are from Tilburg, 1993:

Geller-van der Wiel: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.e4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.d4 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Bd2 Nh5 10.Rc1 b6 11.Re1 Nf4 12.Bf1 g5 13.h4 gxh4 14.Nxh4 f5 15.g3 Nf4g6 UP's by both sides

Vaiser-Adianto: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3 e6 7.Bd3 Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 9.f4 Bd7 10.Rc1 h6 11.Nf3 UP

Kaidonov-Piket: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Qd2 c6 8.Rd1 e5 9.Nf3 exd4 10.Nxd4 Re8 11.f3 a5 12.O-O a4 13.Rfe1 Qa5 14.Bf1 Nh5 15.Be3 UP

Andersson-Rozentalis: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.O-O Be7 6.c4 O-O 7.Nc3 Ne4 8.Qe2 Nxc3 9.Qxc3 f5 10.b3 Bf6 11.Bb2 b6 12.Rad1 Qe7 13.Ne1 Bxg2 14.Nxg2 Both sides have UP's.

Bareev-Shirov: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.Qb3 e6 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Bg5 Nc6 8.e3 Be7 9.Bd3 b5 10.O-O Bb7 11.Rfe1 O-O 12.a4 b4 13.Nb1 Nd7 UP

The question then becomes, "If Universal Positions are so common, why not play them from the first move---the rationale behind the Universal Attack?"

I counted something like 50 UP's in just one issue of Inside Chess.

To continue the above post. The UA works well against the Reti, Bird, or English, but the one move order which Black must avoid that no one has played against me is: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Ne7? 5.h4! +/- because Black has no good response to h5; the Black King is trapped on the Kingside and White will castle Queenside with a strong attack.

Here is what happens when White plays the English poorly; Houdini 3 was White: 1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.d4 e6 4.d4 Ne7 5.Nf3 d5 6.Bg5 (White goes after the weak dark squares; Black must play aggressively) f6 7.Bf4 g5 8.Be3 dxe4 9.Nxe4 Nf5 10.Nc3 Nxe3 11.fxe3 g4 12.Ng1 f5 13.Nge2 Bd7 14.Qb3 Nc6 & Black has a good game.

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