After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 I played 4...Qf6!?
Now 5.Be3 Bc5 and 5.Nxc6 Bc5 are transpositions to well-known 4...Bc5 lines.
But my opponent played the independent 5.Nb3!?, which takes the c5 square away from Black's dark-square bishop and leaves the black queen looking awkwardly placed.
However, this has cost White a tempo, and after I replied 5...Qg6 White faces pressure against e4 and g2.
 |
| Position after 5...Qg6 |
White can try 6.Nc3, when John van der Wiel (2508) - Arthur van de Oudeweetering (2368), Amsterdam 2005, saw 6...Bb4 7.Bd2!? Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Qxe4+ 9.Be2 d6 10.Qd2 Nf6 11.0-0-0, after which the bishop-pair and a lead in development gives White plenty of compensation for a pawn (1-0, 28 moves).
The analysis engines Stockfish14.1. and Komodo12.1.1 reckon Black should grab a second pawn with 9...Qxg2!? 10.Bf3 Qg5, but they also reckon White can improve earlier with 9.Qe2+ Qxe2+ 10.Bxe2.
Rather than 7.Bd2!?, White may prefer 7.f3, when 7...Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 is unclear.
In my game White played f3 a move earlier, which is the most-popular continuation in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database.
I met 6.f3 with 6...Bd6, partly to prevent the annoying 7.Bf4 but also threatening to win a pawn.
White replied 7.Be3!?, when 7...Bxh2!? won a pawn as 7...Rxh2?! loses the exchange after 8.Qg3.
The game continued 8.Bf2 Bg3 9.Nc3 Bxf2+ 10.Kxf2 Qf6?! 11.Nd5 Qd8, after which White had more than enough compensation for a pawn.
Better, according to the engines, is 10...Nge7 11.Nb5 Kd8, which they reckon slightly favours Black.
However White seems to have a major improvement at move seven in the shape of 7.Nc3, when 7...Bxh2?! 8.Rxh2! Qg3+ 9.Ke2 Qxh2 10.Nd5 gave White a large advantage in Adam Tukhaev (2552) - Nikita Maiorov (2560), Veronezh (Russia) 2015 - the rest of this 19-move game can be seen at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2021/12/alicante-round-seven.html.
A better approach by Black was seen in Yangyi Yu (2675) - Magnus Carlsen (2881), World Rapid Championship (Dubai) 2014), which continued 7...Nge7 8.Be3!? Bxh2!? 9.Qd2 Bg3+ 10.Bf2 b6 11.0-0-0 Bxf2 12.Qxf2, when Stockfish14.1 gives Black the upper hand but Komodo12.1.1 reckons White has full compensation for a pawn (0-1, 59 moves).
Instead of 8.Be3!? White has a slower but more solid option in 8.g3.
That leaves the black dark-square bishop looking a little silly, which may be why the engines recommend 8...Be5, when Stockfish14.1 gives 9.Bd3 and either 9...Nb4 or 9...Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 d6, in both cases claiming equality, while Komodo12.1.1 suggests 9.Bg2 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 d6 11.Nd4, also claiming equality, although here Stockfish14.1. gives Black a slight edge.
Black could play more conventionally at an early stage by eschewing 6...Bd6 in favour of 6...Nf6, one idea being to meet 7.Bf4 with the gambit 7....d5!? 8.exd5 Nb4.
The game Anna Muzychuk (2550) - Antoaneta Stefanova (2515), Women's Olympiad (Baku, Azerbaijan) 2016, continued 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Qe2+ Kd8 11.0-0 Nfxd5 12.Bxd7 Kxd7 13.Rd1 Re8, when the engines' 14.Qd2 Qxc2 15.a3 seems unclear.
Also interesting is 7...Bb4 8.c3 Be7 9.Bxc7 0-0, when Black has a lot of development for a pawn.
CONCLUSION: 5.Nb3!? poses difficult choices for both players from an early stage, with activity often being more important than material.
No comments:
Post a Comment