Hi.

RosemarysBaby wrote on 12/19/22 at 09:37:53:

Correspondence practice was a bit less comprehensive than I imagined. Anyway. A lot of people go:
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 e5 4.c3 d5
It is recommended by both Marin and Kornev for example; which would be two recent Pirc sources. It seems an open question to me whether black truly equalises here, that being said he should really not face to many problems in a practical game with decent play. It is perhaps good to know that there seems to be a preference for the move
5.dxe5 Nxe4 6.Nf3 Nc6

On a pretty long sidenote black has a choice of if he wants to go d5 immediately or prepare with:
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 e5 4.c3 Nbd7
White looks like he has two tries.

5.f4!? and it's not so obvious how black resolves the central tension. If he goes:
5...exd4 6.cxd4 c5 7.d5 (7.Nf3!? might be a little bit annoying as well but does not look killer)
It's more of a Benoni where black normally would like to be able to play Bg4 but can't because of the knight on d7.
7...c4!? 8.Bc2 g6 9.Nc3 Bg7 10.Nf3 O-O
Seems reasonable for black though, so it may not be such a problem.

5...c5 6.dxe5 dxe5 7.Na3 a6 8.Nf3 b5 9.fxe5 Ng4 10.Bf4 c4 11.Bc2 Qc7 12.Qd2 Ngxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxc4 bxc4 15.Qd5 Nf3+ 16.Ke2 Qxf4 17.Qxa8 Nd4+ 18.cxd4 Qg4+
Is a weird line which I'd have to call unclear.

5...Be7 has been most common in very limited correspondence practice. It gives black a playable game, but white has some latent pressure on the centre.

or...

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 e5 4.c3 Nbd7 5.Nf3 d5
5...c6 makes some sense if black wants a slower game. Black would then not play g6 at all and instead put his bishop on e7. If he wants this both 4...Be7 and 4...a5 make some sense as well. It's harder to get in the modern move order though.
6.Qe2!?
It's not entirely clear how black resolves the central tension favourably. Many ways exist but most end up in some position where white keeps the extra pawn. Black can still get some Berlin like two bishops advantage, although in the Berlin he would have one more pawn. This difference makes the positions a lot harder to equalise for black.
6.dxe5 dxe4 7.exf6 exf3 8.fxg7 Bxg7 9.gxf3 Ne5 10.Bb5+ Ke7 11.Qxd8+ Rxd8 12.Be2 Nd3+ 13.Bxd3 Rxd3 14.Be3 Should be OK compensation for black
6...dxe4
Unless black wants to try something creative I don't think anything is avoided by:
6...Qe7 
due to...
7.dxe5 dxe4 8.Bxe4 Nxe4 9.Qxe4
It doesn't seem worth it.
7.Bxe4 Qe7 8.dxe5 Nxe4
8...Nxe5 9.Nxe5 Nxe4 10.Qxe4 f6 11.Bf4 fxe5 looks disgusting, though did hold for black in a low level correspondence game.
9.Qxe4
Here there are a couple of continuations. One being:
9...Nc5 10.Qd4 Qe6!? 11.O-O Qg6 12.Bg5!? Ne6 13.Qh4 b6 14.Nbd2 Nxg5!? 15.Qxg5 Qxg5 16.Nxg5 Be7 17.Ngf3 Bb7 18.Nd4 O-O-O 19.f4
I don't think black should lose this but white should have decent chances to press.

4...Nc6 looks early to play and 4...g6 seems mostly a way to reach 4...Nbd7 5.Nf3 g6 without allowing 4...Nbd7 5.f4.

Have a nice day.

I'm not sure 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 e5 4.c3 d5 is as comfortable for Black as its reputation (not to mention that White is probably going to be happier in this structure in general).

Hi.

Despite probably not being the most popular I reckon people will have tried various c3 setups in correspondence. I could go through that a bit tomorrow.

Normally in slow Pirc positions the easiest thing is to play very principled. Light pieces out to safe squares, castling and central push (e5 most often).  Pushing g5-g4 is a different kind of principled.

Have a nice day.