Hi.
MNb wrote on 02/21/18 at 10:52:48:
So my day is not completely nice yet, especially as I'm not convinced either of 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.Bh6. The well known (from Ree-Donner, NEDch Zierikzee 1967 for instance) black square strategy Bxh6 8.Qxh6 e5 keeps on transposing to weak versions of the 150-Attack (Black can but is never forced to play ....Bg4).
Yesterday I've been toying a bit with 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.a4 (a novelty, so it seems) b4 8.Ne2 a5 9.Nf3 as (via transposition) Bg4 10.h3 went well in Krueger-Ruether, corr. 1996. Neither will White object 9...Nbd7 (iso 9...Bg4) 10.Bh6 O-O 11.Bxg7 Kxg7 12.e5, Lutz-Lorscheid, Oostende 1992 (again via transposition). And a third transpostion is 9...Nbd7 10.Bh6 Bxh6 11.Qxh6 e5, eg Gipslis-Sedov, Swidnica 1996. This might be Black's best, but I don't think it's fully equal. Notice that Bd3, the problem bishop, does something useful: controlling square c4.
Checking in after some busy days. I can say that I did not find anything that looked like a clean equaliser against this 7.a4. While black gets somewhat ok looking positions they rarely seem fully equal. The white queen is a positional asset on h6 in many lines, possibly helping to set up an attack and also preventing castling. Also worth mentioning is that if the queen stays on d2 it attacks b4, which may draw the non-developing a5 from black.
In terms of thought out responses I came up with the idea of letting b4 hang for a move or two (or more, although who's keeping count anyway) by going with the natural looking move of castling followed by a quick Bg4. Also I think there is point to castling before playing a7-a5 and I came up with a line of play trying to demonstrate how this could be. If black is looking for quick equality this could be it; although there is some concreteness to be navigated. To the first line though:
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bf4 c6 5.Qd2 b5 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.a4 b4 8.Nce2 0-0 Possibly most accurate. Now 9.Qxb4 is actually not so good. Instead...
9.Nf3 9.Bh6 Bxh6 10.Qxh6 e5 is different compared to if the knight had already moved to f3. Very playable for white, at the same time it doesn't look so threatening to me.
9...Bg4!? 10.Bh6!? Nbd7Natural development from black obviously; made possible by the ordering of his moves. But wait...
11.Bxg7 Kxg7 12.Qxb4A pawn drops! Now does black get compensation? I am not exactly sure but at the same time after a few natural moves it isn't going to look so bad for black. I mainly checked 12...Bxf3 now, which depending on how you see it deviates a bit from being a natural move. Crucially though it seems to work out OK.
To note earlier is that 10.Qxb4 is actually a real possibility as well. Keeping the g7 bishop alive makes for different positions entirely though.
Some analysis:
Nice day.