Hello.
Michael Ayton wrote on 06/29/17 at 11:16:04:
Is there a thread which gives a basic up-to-date summary? Or maybe you could give a quick one?
Since there seems to be some renewed interest in the thread and its subject I will do this below. Ideally it would be good to see if Marin goes for this 8...Rb8 before analysing any continuation at depth; anyway though, here is some brief thought sharing. After:
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Rb8 9.Kh1 Is most popular. This I've found to be a bit weird although maybe there is some strange allure to playing a mysterious king move like this or something. Essentially white tells black that he is very welcome to play something active (9...Bg4 or 9...Nb4 for example) while secretly hoping that black will renounce any active knight jumps further on by going (9...Nc7). These three moves, as far as I know, has been the alternatives for black here in practice and well... I do see why this is – black needs to do something constructive and moving a light piece is the most natural way of going about this. The rarely tried
9...b6!? looks like the most principled continuation for me though. White tries to reduce black to comittal active attempts (9...Bg4 & 9...Nb4) or homefront piece shuffling (9...Nc7) instead with (9...b6) black now gets new development possibilities and can still consider active moves like Bg4 and Nb4 should the right situation for them come. As far as I can tell white has no immediate way to benefit from the slowness of the move.
9.a4 Nb4 10.Bc4 e6 11.dxe6 Bxe6 = So I think (9.a4) is just very suboptimal.
9.Qe2 I would not like to reply to with 9...Nc7 like everyone else does (looks too passive imo) so 9...Bg4 analysed in reply #1 is a move I really hope works. It seems to lead to interesting positions at least.
9.f5 Seems fairly critical (see reply #2 for some lines - I have not looked since then basically). The best response should be 9...gxf5, which maybe is not what everyone would like to play as black. Still black does get some practical counterchances there and I think it is at least not easy to show a path to a definite advantage for white against black's best defence (because this is what I think we need to call it here).
9.Qe1 Nb4 = Smile if you meet this queen move (and then play good chess to defuse white's attacking play; if it comes even without the important d3 bishop).
9.e5!? Is interesting and I don't think Moskalenko's labelling of the move as a weapon is off the mark at all. Very unblanced positions that are best discussed with analysis files nearby are reached. Alas I have not checked deeply enough for me to want to include any just now. What I can say is that there are probably more than one line where I would trust black's position.
9.h3 Is essentially based on the same idea as 9.Kh1. To limit black's strategic options. Here 9...b6 is in my view probably the best reply; although this does not seem to be common knowledge.
9.a3 Seems venomous and I am not entirely sure how black is to play (For some analysis see reply #3). The basic problem is that Nc7 and b5, which positionally are the most desirable moves to make now do quite little against white's centre and his fairly swift plan of going Qe1-h4 and f5 followed by some kind of attack. The alternative is the direct 9...b5, which at least has the appearance of being a very helpful move for black. The downside is that if white takes the pawn with his knight, to avoid coming worse black needs to engage in tactics and open up the game a bit on terms moderately favourable to white (he gets pieces nicely placed). Probably black is placed well enough to eventually equalise after 10.Nxb5 Nxe4 11.Re1 c4 12.Bxc4 Rxb5 13.Rxe4 Nc5, although white has at least a moderate initiative in the short term.
9.Bc4 Is not so popular against 8...Rb8. 9...Nc7 10.a4 e6 11.dxe6 Bxe6 12.Bxe6 fxe6 seems simplest, when despite some mild silicone optimism for white, I think black is OK.
Edit: 9...b5. Which I gave first is bad (I must have confused positions with 9.Qe2 Nc7 10.Bc4 b5).
So that was all the relevant lines I think. Anyway. knowing the above should give a player willing to do a little bit of own work some kind of base in the positions after 8...Rb8, even though of course lines and moves mentioned are subjectively picked and not by any means the only ones that could be worth investigating.
Have a nice day.