BobbyDigital80 wrote on 06/20/14 at 19:58:50:


It's a prototype, as was the Fischer-Stein game for the later hugely popular Zaitsev system, introduced by 10. d4 Re8. 

I regard the Zaitsev, Smyslov and Breyer systems as inter-related, being to do with regrouping the Black pieces. 

I expect there are new ideas to be found in discarded variations. Perhaps because it is well known, or perhaps because Black's plan looks odd, there have been few followers for a repeat of Fischer-Stein.

I saw in a database that Karpov played this line four times as black:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 Bb7
He has a good score with it too; three wins and one draw. I hadn't seen this line before so I wonder where Karpov got the idea from. Maybe it's a good line to try. If anyone's interested here are the four games:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?yearcomp=exactly&year=&playercomp=black&...
Does anyone have any thoughts on this line?