It could be counter-argued that there is no such thing as a boring game of chess - only boring people who do not understand some games.
Be that as it may, I was reminded of a time not so long ago when another double-e pawn opening, the Petrov Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6), was all the rage at the elite level and similarly faced accusations of being boring.
What prompted my memory was flicking through an old copy of Chess Life, the magazine of the US Chess Federation, from April 2003.
Grandmaster Michael Rohde devoted his Game Of The Month column to Topalov - Anand from Wijk aan Zee 2003, while fellow grandmaster Robert Byrne devoted his 65th Square column to Bologan - Kasimdzhanov from Pamplona 2002.
Both games were Petrovs, and both featured White sacrificing a bishop on h6, but there the coincidences ended - Black won the former game, White the latter.
You can easily find the games online, and both are included with notes in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
Looking at my own practice, I see the Petrov has occurred in 26 games - in some I was Black, but mostly White - with just seven of the games ending as draws.
Here is a correspondence example against the German player Reinhard Sperrer.
Spanton - Sperrer
IECG Cup Preliminaries 2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.c4!?
This strange-looking move was recommended by international master (now grandmaster) Larry Kaufman in his famous 2004 repertoire book The Chess Advantage In Black And White. But I am fairly sure I did not buy the book until quite some time after it came out, so I must have got the idea of 5.c4!? from somewhere else (I also used it two years later in the IECG World Championship Semi-Final against IECG international master Eric Noire, drawing in 30 moves). Kaufman says 5.c4!? "is closely related to the slightly more fashionable 5.Nc3 as both moves can lead to doubled c pawns."
It has been tried by some famous players, including Leko and Karjakin, and in Mega19 has a better scoring-percentage than the more-popular alternatives d4, Nc3, Qe2 and d3.
5...Be7
The commonest reply - Noire preferred 5...Nc6.
6.d4 0-0
First played, it would seem, by Blackburne in a win against Winawer in 1880, although in that game White transposed his fifth and sixth moves.
7.Bd3 Nf6 8.h3
My main analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9 prefer 8.0-0, which is slightly more popular in Mega19 and was chosen by Yangyi Yu (2759) in a Chinese Championship blitz game last year. But give the engines long enough and they switch to 8.Nc3, with the text becoming Stockfish10's second choice.
8...Nc6 9.a3
Defending against …Nb4, but also preparing possible further queenside expansion with b4. The two most-recent Mega19 games, one featuring a 2466 and the other a 2581, saw 9.Nc3.
9...d5 10.Nc3 dxc4
The engines' choice, and probably the most-combative line as an IQP usually leads to sharp play.
11.Bxc4 a6
Stockfish10 prefers 11...h6, while Komodo9 gives 11...Bd6, in each case with a slight edge to White.
12.0-0 Bf5 13.d5
I see from my notes I seriously considered five moves here, including the engines' choice 13.Re1, without being especially happy with any of them.
13...Na7
Stockfish10 reckons this gives Black equality. The idea, at least the way my opponent plays it, is to re-route the knight via c8 to either blockade my IQP on d6 or to attack it from b6. The drawback is that this takes time in an open position.
14.Re1 Nc8 15.Bg5 Re8 16.Bd3!?
A controversial choice. Stockfish 10 reckons the coming exchange gives Black a slight edge, but Komodo9 reckons it is White who gets a slight edge.
16...Bxd3 17.Qxd3
White has developed all his pieces, except for the queen's rook. Meanwhile Black still has to redevelop his queen's knight, as well as getting his queen's rook into play, the latter being unlikely until after his queen finds a good square.
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| Black to make his 17th move, and start to catch up in development |
*****
*****
*****
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17...Nb6?!
This puts pressure on d5, but that is easily parried by White developing his queen's rook to its obvious square. There is a danger the knight will be out of play if White can generate kingside threats.
The engines prefer 17...h6, which I see from my notes I was planning to meet with 18.Bh4, with what I thought was a slight edge. Stockfish10 more-or-less agrees, although at first it goes with Komodo9's suggestion of 18.Be3.
18.Rad1 Qd7?!
Black keeps developing, but this lets my king's knight come to e5 with tempo. The engines again prefer ...h6, but believe White to be on top after 19.Bh4.
19.Ne5 Qd6
Retreating the queen to d8 or c8 was a lesser evil, according to the engines, but is certainly unappetising.
20.Qf5 h6?
The engines give 20...Rf8, when my notes only have the line 21.Nc6!? bxc6 22.dxc6 Qc5 23.Re5 Qxc6 24.Rxe7 Ne8 25.Bf4 "with the upper hand." However, the engines seem to improve Black's play with 22...g6!? 23.Qxf6 Bxf6 24.Rxc5, when White is a pawn up, and Black has two isolanis, but there is a lot of play left.
21.Bxh6!
The same sacrifice as in the two grandmaster games in Chess Life.
21...gxh6?
The sacrifice should be declined, but then Black is a pawn down and with the worse position.
22.Ne4 1-0
Black resigned because 22...Nxe4 loses to 23.Qxf7 Kh8 24.Ng6+, while 22...Qd8 fails to a rook lift along the third rank.
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