PAWN RIOT VS The Forum Move 9

Originally posted by doodinthemood
In order to beat someone with experience, go for something they won't have seen 100 times before:

Rec'd

At least somebody has a clue.

Too bad all the bookies decided different.

Bd7

Bd7 is my vote.

As per the discussion about blindly following book... I think it's much to early to deviate from book. Our Nc6 is strong already (is likely headed to e5 anyway) and Bc4 is headed to b3 whether we play Na5 or not. Mostly, I would like to keep pieces on the board until we decide what our plan is if we ever do decide to have strategical discussion other than just voting for our moves...Maybe next move we can start throwing out ideas before we vote?

it seems to me that there are two opposing camps, one which states that our best chance is to get pawn riot out of book with a 'novelty', the other which states, we have a huge body of games and theory from which to draw, why risk playing a novel, but inferior move at this stage. who can say which strategy is correct.

yes with a novelty we may surprise him, but if its an inferior move then we may never recover, on the other hand, playing a book move is hardly likely to cause him serious problems.

what are the moves in question, perhaps a little theory,

This set-up (our position but were only allowed 1 fen per page) is the most aggressive arrangement of pieces against the Dragon: the bishop goes to b3, the king castles long and White pushes the kingside pawns in order to open files against enemy's king. A clear and aggressive plan, therefore Black needs to know precisely what to do to avoid ending up in a quick disaster. Before discovering the optimal arrangement of pieces starting with 9...Bd7 and followed by either ...Rc8 or ...Qa5 and ...Rfc8, Black players tried other different moves. Most of them are almost forgotten these days, nevertheless I must mention them.

9...a6 was one of the first reactions to White's plan. Anticipating his opponent's castling long, Black prepares himself to advance the queenside pawns. However, pushing the b-pawn turned out to bring Black little relief. And if Black doesn't advance it, then the whole idea makes even less sense (amazingly, there were many games in which Black played 9...a6 but didn't hurry with ...b5). It is curious that Bobby Fischer lost once against 9...a6 (Fischer,R - Munoz,C 0-1), even if in that game the move a7-a6 looked to be just a loss of tempo.

White continues with either 10.0-0-0, 10.Bb3, 10.g4 or 10.h4, following up with his initial plan to attack on the kingside. Black has little chance to create adequate counterplay. Sample games are Bazaj - Kovacevic 1-0, Cherepkov,A - Averbakh,Y 1-0.

9...a5 was often used by the American D. Byrne. The most convincing thing for White to do is to stop the further pawn advance with 10.a4 (or 10.Bb3 first). The resulting structure on the queenside (fixed pawns on a4 and a5) is in White's favour because of the weak square b5, which considerably limits Black's counterplay if White castles long. See Karpov,A - Byrne,D 1-0, Gruenfeld,Y - Nemet,I 1-0.

9...Na5, trading White's bishop doesn't necessarily favour Black. One of the possible reasons for Black to quickly swap off his opponent's bishop here is to go for a quick d6-d5. After 10.Bb3 Nxb3 11.axb3 d5 White must advance the e-pawn with advantage, Sax,G - Bojkovic,N 1-0. If instead of 11...d5 Black plays 11...Bd7 (11...a6 is considerably weaker, since after 12.0-0-0 Black's main counterplay is linked to ...a5-a4, which makes 11...a6 a loss of time), then White can choose between a slight plus after 12.0-0 (Renet,O - Lupu,M), or the more ambitious 12.Bh6, Veingold,A - Kim,O 1-0.

Since 9...Na5 touches on the subject of trading the knight for the bishop, it makes sense to explain here the following: often, if White has already castled long, then after ...Nc6-a5xb3 he can consider recapturing the knight with the c-pawn. The resulting structure makes it difficult for Black to create counterplay:



Practically the only way to create counterplay on the queenside for Black in such a structure is to push the a-pawn, which, however, won't open the a-file completely. Of course, Black would be happy to exchange all pieces and use his kingside pawn majority, but there is a long way to go before that. Usually in the middlegame White creates a strong attack on the kingside. A recent example with a similar pawn formation is Jakovenko,D - Evdokimov,A 1-0.

therefore i oppose both beetle and tomtom, and suggest

9...Bd7

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
it seems to me that there are two opposing camps, one which states that our best chance is to get pawn riot out of book with a 'novelty', the other which states, we have a huge body of games and theory from which to draw, why risk playing a novel, but inferior move at this stage. who can say which strategy is correct.

yes with a novelty we may su ...[text shortened]... kimov,A 1-0.

therefore i oppose both beetle and tomtom, and suggest

9...Bd7

You have my praise. There is a bunch of reasoning in there and never once did you shout out that you new best but made it clear that it was your opinion and then your backed it up with facts. Although, all the bookies voted for 9...Bd7 already and had 75% of the first 20 votes so it has already been played.

Originally posted by tomtom232
You have my praise. There is a bunch of reasoning in there and never once did you shout out that you new best but made it clear that it was your opinion and then your backed it up with facts. Although, all the bookies voted for 9...Bd7 already and had 75% of the first 20 votes so it has already been played.

i know, those guys who know best need there bum felt, just to make sure that they are real!