Owen's Defense or Robatsch Defense

Owen's Defense (1. e4 b6)

Robatsch Defense (1. e4 g6)

For any of you who have played one or both of these defenses, what is your opinion of either of them? How would you compare/contrast them?

Fianchetto defenses never seem to pose much of a problem as long as white develops well.
Fianchetto later, not on the first move, is my opinion.

White scores 50% winning, and a lot of draws, with the Owens. The other usually transposes to the Pirc if you have any sense and to avoid getting crushed. It's passive but playable.

Originally posted by wittywonka
Owen's Defense (1. e4 b6)

Robatsch Defense (1. e4 g6)

For any of you who have played one or both of these defenses, what is your opinion of either of them? How would you compare/contrast them?

The Robatsch usually transposes to the Pirc, but the Owens doesn't have a good record, I don't think. It might be good for bullet or blitz games though, because it's a flank opening and you can hammer out variations without much interference.

I`m using both of them with not bad results.

In my last OTB I played Owen against well known chess theoretic GM Evgeny Sveshnikov and managed to get equalise in opening.

The Robatsch Defense (usually called the Modern Defense) is far more popular than the Owen's Defense, which is an excellent argument for playing the Owen's Defense! GM Christian Bauer plays the Owen"s Defense and has published a book about the defense called "Play 1...b6". I've dabbled with both defenses from time to time and I think that the Robatsch is much better. Attacking genuis GM David Norwood played 1...g6 in almost all of his tounament games with Black in the '80s and '90s. Don't know what he is up to these days.

The Modern move order (1...g6) is much more flexible than the Pirc move order (1...d6). Sometimes black wants to play ...c6 and ...d5, which takes up an extra move if Black has already played ...d6. Also, 1...g6 allows Black to steer clear of the very strong Austrian Attack (1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 f4). The avoidance of ...Nf6 often allows Black to get quick counterplay on the a1-h8 diaganol. If Black opens with 1...g6 he can usually transpose into the Pirc if he wants. But if he opens with 1...d6 he's often forced into a Pirc line.