Hi.

Random thought...

If you are prepared to play:
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.0-0-0 Nd7 7.f3

You should sort of be able to aim for it vs 3.Be3 or 3.f3. I'm thinking primarily of:
1.e4 g6 2.d4 d6 3.f3 Bg7 4.Be3 a6!? 5.Qd2 Nd7
and now:
6.Nc3 b5 is one step from fully transposing to our line of modern.
6.c4 is also possible and looks like two half moves from transposing to a relatively standard Saemisch KID.

Trying to develop the bishop first may be harder since going for early b5+Bb7 without a knight on c3 is probably not optimal. White would basically earlier have played f3 on his/her own though so the distinction between choosing a setup where you go out with the knight first or one where b5+Bb7 comes may not be that big or relevant.

Edit: I am aware that if black instead goes for 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 he has the option of 3...d5 against bot 3.Be3 and 3.f3

Have a nice day.

Hi.

I notice Gawain Jones, in his Cofeehouse repertoire, simply plays f3 if:
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.0-0-0 Bb7
gets played. I think I will go buy those books later today.

Edit: second volume not yet out. Do'h!

Have a nice day.

MEA CULPA!!

Sincere apologies to you, C_b_T, and to anyone else who looked at the stem position I gave in the title of this thread, which … should actually never appear on the board!

My error was in blindly copying my old notes. Had I instead looked at my new ones, I’d have recalled that after 5 Qd2 b5 6 0-0-0, Black should play 6 …Bb7! and not 6 …Nd7?!. Of course I did not know, until C_b_T pointed it out, that after 7 h4, 7 …h6 runs into 8 e5! (which I think is really dangerous for Black), and that is an important theoretical find! But I did know that 7 …h5 8 Nh3 is difficult for Black, since the position after 8 …Bb7 9 Ng5 (where White hasn’t wasted time with f2–f3) is one Black should avoid, while after 8 …c6 9 Ng5 Qc7 10 f3 Ngf6 11 Kb1, 11 …0-0 runs into 12 g4! (old stuff) and 11 …Bb7 12 g3!? is also good for White.

With [6 0-0-0] 6 …Bb7! Black avoids all this, and with this Bishop active on the long diagonal e4–e5 stuff largely loses its sting; now 7 h4 h6! (7 …h5?! 8 Nh3! Nd7 9 Ng5, as above) 8 f3 Nd7 leads to the positions I mentioned in my initial post, as of course does 8 f3 Nd7 9 h4 h6. Alternatively, 6 h4 h6 (on 6 …h5 7 0-0-0 Black has alternatives to 7 …Bb7?! 8 Nh3 ∆ Ng5!) 7 0-0-0 Bb7! 8 f3 Nd7, or 7 f3 Nd7 8 0-0-0 Bb7, transposes. Theoretically, after 6 0-0-0 the point of 6 …Bb7 is to provoke f2–f3 (either immediately or after h4 h6), but I prefer to think of it in terms of Black needing to meet the active 0-0-0 with an active response; delaying that with …Nd7?! seems just too passive.

There is one …Bb7-based position where White can play e4–e5, and that occurs after 6 0-0-0 Bb7! 7 f3 Nd7 8 h4 h5 9 Nh3, but here White has already spent time on f2–f3, so after 9 …Rc8! 10 Ng5 (I suppose 10 e5 is possible here, but it doesn't seem too dangerous) c5 11 e5 cd 12 e6 fe 13 Bd4 e5, Black has sufficient counterplay, according to Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

Hello.

Michael Ayton wrote on 08/10/21 at 18:47:41:

Yea. trying to go Qd7 and 0-0-0 is the second way of going about things. It doesn't really defend g6 though, which would seem like a drawback. On the other hand if white goes for the most straightforward:

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.h4 h6 7.O-O-O Nd7 8.e5 Bb7 9.e6 fxe6 10.Bd3 Nf8 11.Nge2 Nf6 12.f3 Qd7 13.Nf4
Your suggestion of:
13...0-0-0
Seems to give black certain chances of finding positional factors to compensate for giving back the extra pawn. That being said I would be worried about white going for greed with:
14.Bxg6!?
14.Nxg6 Nxg6 15.Bxg6 b4 16.Ne2 Nd5 Does look playable for a black player with enough belief in the fundamentals of his or her position being ok.
14...Nxg6
14...e5 15.dxe5 dxe5 16.Bf5 exf4 17.Bxd7+ Rxd7 18.Qe2 fxe3 Seems fun but it also looks like black comes under some pressure from temporarily being a bit dis-coordinated.
15.Nxg6 Rhg8 16.Bxh6 Bxh6 17.Qxh6 Qe8 18.Nf4 b4 19.Nce2(D)
Maybe white is inconvenienced enough to have some problems in demonstrating the value of the now white material advantage. Looks risky though.



Have a nice day.

Michael Ayton wrote on 08/08/21 at 19:49:33:


POW = Prisoner Of War, right?! Wow, glad to hear you got out of that one! Which war, if I may ask?

Hi CbT,

Sorry to have been ‘absent’ for yonks and yonks! About time POW was a thing of the past over here …

I have to put my hand up and confess I never considered your 8 e5!? here, just because I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere. But unlike me, you thought for yourself and came up with a really interesting suggestion!

I would guess that 8 …Bb7 9 e6 fe 10 Bd3 Nf8 is the way Black should go and that the GMs have reckoned he’s OK, but then how do you begin to evaluate this position?! After 11 Nge2 Nf6 12 f3 my engine comes up with the truly remarkable 12 …Kd7!?, possibly with ideas of …Qe8 and running the King to c8. Weird!

Thus far I think …h6 is always possible in response to h4, but I’ll try to make a ‘flow chart’ of what I reckon to be the crunchiest lines ‘post-Tiger’ as soon as I get time …

The ‘Pseudo-Dragon’ lines of the Modern Defence are, I think, hugely strategically complex and absolutely fascinating, whether Black goes for …h5 or …h6. The former may be the ‘main line’, but the latter has been widely endorsed and played, e.g. by Kamsky. As a sweeping generalisation it might be less wild than …h5, but either side can get blown off the board quickly if they don’t watch out …

White normally starts with 8 f3 (8 f4 being met with 8 …h5!) when after 8 …Bb7 White has various tries. Maybe the main line (if there is one) is 9 Nh3, when Black can play the direct 9 …Rc8, idea …c5, or the standard Knight manoeuvre 9 …Ngf6 10 Kb1 Nb6 11 a3 (normally thought necessary to prevent …b4) Nfd7, when Tiger has a long line in his book beginning 12 h5 g5 13 Nf2 Rc8 14 Ng4 c5.

On move nine White can go 9 g4 immediately, but then multiple responses have been suggested for Black: Tiger gives 9 …c5 and 9 …e6; 9…Rc8 has also been played/recommended; and Nemec on Chessable has recently recommended 9 …Ngf6 10 Kb1 Nb6 11 a3 Nfd7. Perhaps more critical is 9 h5 g5 10 Nge2!? (10 d5?! Ne5), when on ChessPublishing the game Nanu-Nevednichy is given; this continued 10 …Nb6 11 Ng3 e6, when 12 Bd3 is given as a bit better for White. But going back to move ten, when I first saw this position I thought, why not just 10 …c5? I can’t argue with GMs, but I notice this is also the choice of Stockfish 13, and looks to hold up (albeit on my still-to-be-replaced PC)?

Maybe Black’s basic strategies in all this boil down to two (a quick …c5 with or without …Rc8, or a quick …Nb6/…Ngf6/…Nfd7 intending …b4), but deciding which plan to implement when given all the different move orders is quite a thing! In this context the latest ChessPub update by Justin Tan has me perplexed. Annotating the game So-Nepo, which went 8 …Nb6 9 Bd3!? (another try!) Bb7 10 Nh3 e6 11 g4 Ne7, Tan suggests here 12 h5 g5 13 Kb1, teeing up for f2-f4, as a big advantage for White, and since he gives no other moves the implication (intended or otherwise) is that the whole …h6 system is under a cloud. But 10 …e6 isn’t forced, so I want to know what’s wrong with 10 …Ngf6, when, after 11 g4, both 11 …Nfd7 and 11…h5 have been successfully played. And secondly, after the ‘normal’ 8 …Bb7 (iso 8 …Nb6) 9 Nh3, Black still has 9 …Rc8 as given above (Tiger p. 170).

Thoughts?