Lessons From Crete: Passivity

WHITE scores about 55% across large databases, a score that reflects the advantage of having the first move.

Moving first is an advantage, no matter how many people you come across who claim they score better as Black.

(When I ask such players what they actually score as White and what they score as Black, they can never give numbers - they just have a gut feeling).

One way of throwing away the advantage of the first move is to play passively, typically by trying to play 'solidly' in the face of a perceived Black threat.

My round-one game at the Amateur Chess Organization's 50+ 'world championships' in Crete neatly illustrates this.

Pay particular attention to White's fifth and seventh moves.

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 Nc6 4.d4 Bg4 5.c3 e6 6.0-0 Qb6 7.e3

Position after White's seventh move

Spyridon Skembris, one of the ACO's resident grandmasters at its events, pointed out, after my next move, 7...Nf6, that the position looked as if Black were playing with the white pieces.

Stockfish17 and Dragon1 more-or-less confirm this by giving Black a slight edge - roughly the same edge they give White at the start of a game before a move has been played.

The fault lies with White's passive fifth and seventh moves, which, among other things, make the white queen's bishop a problem piece shut in by its own pawns (Black often has such a problem bishop in d-pawn openings).

Skembris said that, instead of 5.c3, White should play 5.Ne5.

I intended replying 5...Nxe5, which is the most popular continuation in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database, but after 6.dxe5 the engines reckon White has a positionally won game.

That may seem a bit OTT, but following 6...e6 7.c4 it is obvious Black's centre is under a lot of pressure.

White's passive 7.e3 may be a novelty.

The engines prefer 7.a4, meeting 7...Bxf3 with 8.dxc5 Qxc5 9.Bxf3.

They also like Skembris's suggested 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.b4, an idea seen in lines of the Advance Variation of the French Defence.

LESSON: White, having the advantage of the first move, can get away with more than Black in the opening, but there is a limit, and passive pawn moves are liable to hand the initiative to Black and so give away the very advantage of having the first move.