Spanton (1824) - Václav Pacl (2004)
Modern
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6!?
The main move is 3...d6, but there are 17,772 examples of the text in ChessBase's 2023 Mega database, and its score of 48% is two percentage points better than the main move.
4.f4 d5 5.e5 Nh6
The mainline in Mega23 runs 5...h5!? 6.Nf3 Nh6 (6...Bg4 is also popular) 7.Be3 Bg4 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 with the upper hand for White, according to Stockfish15.1 and Komodo14.1
6.Nf3 f6
 |
| How should White proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
7.exf6?!
The engines strongly dislike this, and they are probably right. White loses his central space advantage, which remains after simple development, eg 7.Bd3, 7.Be3 or 7.Be2.
7...exf6 8.Be2!?
This has been played by a 2369, but it may be overly cautious. The engines prefer 8.Bd3 or 8.h3. Note that Black is fine after 8.Qe2+?! Qe7 9.Qxe7+ Kxe7 as the king will find a safe-enough haven on f7. But probably better is 8...Kf7 as 9.Be3? Re8 is very unpleasant for White.
8...0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Re1 Be6 11.Be3 Ng4 12.Bd3 Nxe3!?
Black takes the bishop-pair, but it is White's bad bishop that is exchanged. The bishop-pair is a long-term asset but it does not have much immediate value in a semi-closed position like this.
13.Rxe3 Bh6 14.g3 Nd7 15.Qe2 Nf8 16.Re1 Qd7 17.Nd1!?
This is the engines' top choice. One point is to continue with Nf2 to cover the h3 and g4 squares.
17...Bf7 18.Qf2 Ne6 19.c3 Ng7 20.Rxe8+ Rxe8 21.Rxe8+ Qxe8 22.Ne3 Qd7 23.Qc2 Ne8 24.Kg2 Nd6 25.b3 b5 24.b4 Qe6 25.Nf1 Ne4 26.N1d2 Nd6
Or 26...Nxd2 27.Qxd2 with complete equality, according to the engines.
27.Nf1 Ne4 28.N1d2 Nd6 29.Nf1 Ne4 30.N1d2 Nd6 ½–½
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