If this had involved the blunder of a piece, or even of a pawn in particularly bad circumstances, it might be easy to understand.
But my game was losing for positional reasons, which means there is an instructive lesson to be learnt, and so I want to look at the opening in some detail.
Réti
1.Nf3
My database of my games shows I have faced this move 173 times, scoring +60=44-69, or 47% - a fairly good score with black.
I have tried five different replies (in descending order of frequency): 1...d5 (60 games), 1...Nc6!? (43), 1...Nf6 (35), 1...c5 (34) and 1...e6 (1).
My percentage scores have been roughly the same for 1...d5 (42%), 1...Nf6 (44%) and 1...c5 (44%), but significantly higher for 1...Nc6!? (58%).
I am not sure how much can be read into this, but it is possible that ...Nc6's success is at least partly due to it being less common than ...d5, ...Nf6 and ...c5 (for what it is worth, 1...e6 is also uncommon, and I won with that).
What I play against 1.Nf3 is influenced by my repertoire at the time, or at least by the opening I hope to get, but the success of 1...Nc6!? is food for thought.
1...d5 2.c4 d4
This advance used to be criticised in some opening books as playing into White's hands, but it is the top choice of Stockfish17 and Dragon1.
3.b4
Gaining space and opening the b1-h8 diagonal for the dark-square bishop, but making the b pawn a target for Black's dark-square bishop.
 |
| How should Black respond? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
3...c5!?
This is by no means an obvious move, but it is the engines' choice. The idea is that after 4.bxc5 Black does not need to rush to win back the pawn. Instead 4...Nc6 prepares ...e5, after which Black will have ...Bxc5. White could play against this with 5.d3 e5 6.Ba3, but 6...f5!? threatens ...e4, giving Black plenty of compensation for a pawn.
Of equal popularity with the text is 3...f6!?, when ...e5 cannot be prevented, which means White will have to do something soon about the coming threat to b4. A typical line in ChessBase's 2025 Mega database runs 4.e3 e5 5.c5!? a5 6.Qa4+ Bd7 7.b5!? Bxc5 8.Bc4, with an imbalanced position that the engines reckon gives White full compensation for a pawn.
Strong players, including a 2600, have tried 3...e6!?, but it can be argued that, having played ...d4, Black should strive to get in ...e5 in one move if at all possible.
4.e3
Attacking Black's centre before ...e5 can be played.
4...dxe3
This is easily the most popular continuation, but the engines also like 4...Nf6, when 5.bxc5 is naturally met by 5...Nc6, so White often prefers 5.Bb2!?, although the engines reckon 5...dxe3 6.fxe3 cxb4 favours Black.
5.fxe3
 |
| How should Black continue? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
5...e6?!
The strongest players have, almost certainly rightly, shunned this move, for reasons that will become obvious.
The strongest players have, almost certainly rightly, shunned this move, for reasons that will become obvious.
Also dubious is 5...e5?! as 6.Nxe5 Qh4+? 7.g3 Qe4, which occurs 13 times in Mega25, fails to 8.Nf3.
The normal continuation is 5...cxb4, when 6.d4 gives White the centre, but Black seems to have decent compensation, eg 6...Nf6 7.Bd3 Bg4 8.0-0 e6.
6.bxc5 Bxc5 7.d4
In contrast to the previous note, White has gained the centre with tempo and without being a pawn down.
7...Qa5+?!
A dubious novelty. It is better to move the bishop, albeit leaving White with the upper hand, according to the engines.
After the text Stockfish17 reckons White is positionally winning, although Dragon1 'only' gives the upper hand.
The game continued ...
8.Bd2 Bb4 9.Bd3 Nf6 10.0-0 0-0
... after which Dragon1 agrees White's advantage is winning.
LESSON: moves such as 2...d4 create an imbalanced position in which every move is critical, and a failure to properly understand the nuances can be quickly fatal, especially for Black.
No comments:
Post a Comment