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| Posted by sf115 www6conf.org 1/27/2007 12:15:17 Play online chess |  Subject: 4..Qe7 in the PetroffMessage: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Qe7 OR 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Qe7 which is the line I play What do you do aganst this line? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by ionadowman www6conf.org 1/27/2007 17:10:34 Play online chess | sf115... Message: After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe2 the choices are 4.Nf3 or 4.d4, blocking the eventual Q-check on the e-file by Be2: 4.Nf3 Qxe4 5.Be2 or 4.d4 d3 5.Nf3 Qxe4 6.Be2 You will find that White's record on GK 1900+ is very good for 4.d4, and pretty mediocre for 4.Nf3. To what extent this is a real measure of their respective worth, I leave you to judge (I have just 1 master game that features 4.Nf3, and that was a White win). Cheers, Ion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by sf115 www6conf.org 1/28/2007 05:52:57 Play online chess | Message: ——— New York State's Chess Champion? He's 14 — Many states hold their chess championships over Labor Day weekend, among them New York State. Its championship is said to be the oldest chess tournament in the country. This year was the 132nd edition and it ended Monday. Many top chess players have been New York State chess champion, including Jose Raul Capabalanca (in 1910, before he became world champion), Reuben Fine (1941), William Lombardy (1954), Pal Benko (1961 and 1962), Robert Byrne (1987), Hikaru Nakamura (2004 and 2007), Gata Kamsky (2005), and Joel Benjamin (nine times between 1985 and 2002). In this year’s championship, Benjamin again finished atop the field, tying for first with Marc Esserman ... Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/28/2007 13:46:40 Play online chess Some theory...Message: Anyway, Ion is quite correct to suggest that 3...Qe7 is fairly well met with 4 d4. After a fairly natural progression such as 4. d4 d6 5. Nf3 Nxe4 6. Be2, white stands well and should complete his development without trouble; black, on the other hand, is hampered by the position of his own queen, and must waste a move getting it off the e-file in order to complete development. If this is not done prior to white achieving 0-0 and Re1, the queen's position on e7 could even become a liability. The other line you give, 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Qe7, is a teensy bit trickier because black actually threatens to win a pawn. However, after white executes a basic 5. Be2 (undercutting black's entire plan) black is left needing to retreat the Nf6. On 5...Nd5, ...Ne4, or ...Ng4, white can seek a quick draw with 6. Qxd4 Qb4+ and a queenswap. But since the black pawn on d4 is hard to defend, there's no sense in chomping it immediately--white can use the time to develop and let black start to feel cramped by that Qe7. ——— Shirov Wins Shanghai Masters — Alexei Shirov of Spain has won the Shanghai Masters chess tournament, with a round to spare. Tuesday, he beat Wang Hao of China, clinching first place. It was Shirov’s third consecutive win. Under the scoring system used in Shanghai (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw), Shirov has 11 points (three wins and two draws). Levon Aronian of Armenia and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia are tied for second with 6 points each (one win, one loss and three draws), while Wang has 2 points (three losses and two draws). The top two scorers advance to the Bilbao Final Masters next month in Spain, which means that the final-round games on Wednesday will be pivotal. Aronian will be Black against ... Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 1/29/2007 12:33:44 Play online chess Message: followed by 6. 0-0 because black gets into trouble trying to stop the queen to king pin. ——— A New Theory on the Origin of the Lewis Chessmen — The Lewis Chessmen are the most famous and important chess pieces in history. They have a long historical and scholarly record, part of which is that they were made in Norway roughly 800 years ago. But now two Icelandic men are challenging that belief and trying to prove that the chess pieces came from their country. The pieces were discovered on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in 1831 — hence their name. Carved mostly out of walrus tusk, they were found in a small carrying-case made of stone inside a sand dune. There are different theories about how they ended up there, including that they were left over from a shipwreck or that they were stolen and buried on the island and ... Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/29/2007 14:24:23 Play online chess Completely playable...maybeMessage: So let's spin this out a little: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Qe7 5. Bd3 d5 6. 0-0 Ne4 7. Nxd4 [an immediate 7. Re1 c5 and white misses his chance at capturing d4] ...Qxe5 Black has more or less "covered up" and is free to develop. An immediate 8. Re1, pressing the queen-pinning theme, is possible and could lead to a trap: 8...Qxd4?? 9. Bb5+! and black is in serious trouble. 8...Bc5 is simpler and better. And let's not forget that, in these lines anyway, black is up a pawn. As I write this I'm double-checking it with a computer, and I think ...d5 is the killer in the Bd3 line. White needs to defend e5 *and* find a way to grab d4 in order to maintain material equality, and I'm not sure this is possible. Recall that in the main line of the Petrov's Modern Variation (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4), white usually proceeds immediately with 5. Qxd4, levelling things out; the advanced e5-pawn is then very often traded against black's d-pawn. Once robbed of this opportunity by ...d5, white is tied down to the defense of this advanced outpost, a tricky business since d4 is already lost. The more I look at it, the more I think that Bd3 is inferior. The longer white can maintain his outpost at e5, the longer black will remain cramped. Blocking the white queen's access to d4 (and shifting the recapturing burden to the Nf3) undermines this outpost. ——— Rapid Games Win Over New Fans — Many people who would like to see chess attract more fans agree that traditional games — which usually last several hours — are too slow for all but the die-hard. At the same time, blitz chess — where players have only five minutes for all their moves — are fun to watch and attract crowds on street corners, but they are riddled with errors. Rapid games, where each player starts with 20 or 25 minutes and then has additional time — often 10 seconds — added after each move, seem to be a happy medium. The format is becoming more popular, and there are now many chess tournaments that feature it. Two elite chess events last week used rapid-game time controls. One was the annual ... Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 12:17:20 Play online chess Message: ——— Aronian Leads Shanghai Masters — In 2008, the Grand Slam Chess Final Masters was created to bring together the winners of the top chess tournaments of the year. Last year, the final was reduced to four competitors from six because of the economic downturn, but it still included the winners of the year’s elite chess events. This year the formula was changed. While the grand slam still includes top chess players, their selection is more arbitrary. And there are two events: A final that will be, as in the first two years, in Bilbao, Spain (and to which Viswanathan Anand of India, the world chess champion, and Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the world’s top-ranked chess player, are already invited), and a preliminary tournament in Shanghai, China, to ... Posted by misato | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 12:48:20 Play online chess 8. f3??? Message: Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 12:55:08 Play online chess ZwischenzugMessage: 8...Qxd4+! 9. Kh1 Nf2+! 10. Rxf2 Qxf2 and white has a decisive advantage. Without the check, of course, black's capture of the Nd4 fails to white's Bb5+. Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 13:09:03 Play online chess sorryMessage: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Qe7 5. Bd3 d5 6. O-O Ne4 7. Nxd4 Qxe5 8. f3 Qxd4+ 9. Kh1 Nf2+ 10. Rxf2 Qxf2 I'm not convinced that 11. Nxd4 is the right move Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 13:18:19 Play online chess ??Message: Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 13:22:16 Play online chess Perhaps you meant 7. Nxd4Message: Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 13:44:46 Play online chess Message: I did mean: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Qe7 5. Bd3 d5 6. O-O Ne4 not convinced Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 1/30/2007 14:31:31 Play online chess Chess solves all problemsMessage: From a purely strategic perspective: white's problem here is that he's still a pawn down from move 3; and while black's doubled d-pawns are vulnerable, he has several immediate (and developmental) protection mechanisms: ...c5, ...Nc6, and ...Bg4 spring to mind. Even if white considers one of these d-pawns to be "in his pocket," so to speak, the d4-pawn will exert some cramping influence until it's removed. Meanwhile, white's outpost on e5 (cramping aganst black, to be fair) is on shaky ground--it's both difficult and unwise to protect it economically with the f-pawn, and moving ahead with Bf4 seems like a clogging of the developmental arteries. Re1 is of course attractive, but has no effect while black's Ne4 stands in the way. So there are challenges. For another perspective, let's strip away the pieces (and black's d4 pawn) and look at the pawn skeleton: I think I'd prefer black's side here, even if you assume a prior ...0-0 and put black's king on g7--because black is a move closer to bringing his K to the battleground around e5, and white is far away from bringing his K to challenge black's queenside majority. Of course, this is completely hypothetical, but I guess that's what it's all about. Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 1/31/2007 12:11:34 Play online chess Message: Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 2/01/2007 05:00:24 Play online chess Perhaps the scary word "Petrov"...Message: It seems that sf115 is arguing that white needs not proceed with Nxd4, but may instead rely on his advantageously posted pieces to press an attack; I would argue that white, not yet having sufficient compensation for the pawn, needs to waste time with a recapture, and which black can use to develop into equality, at least. (I'd also argue that 5. Be2 is the superior move, but we can leave that aside.) What say you all, learned commentators of GK? Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 2/04/2007 03:53:29 Play online chess Message: Posted by calmrolfe | www6conf.org 2/05/2007 15:04:04 Play online chess Message: Other tries include 4. d4 Qxe4+ 5.Be2 d5 6.0-0 Bg4 7.Bb5 with good position for White. I am aware of 86 master games that have started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Qe7 and these have resulted in 44 wins for White, 26 draws and 16 wins for Black. Not a very promising opening for Black given those sort of results. Ratings wise, the leading Black exponent of these moves would seem to be Vladimir Afromeev 2547 who unleashed this opening twice in the Tula Stek Cup in 2004 and the shock value brought him two wins ! Since then he seems to have put the opening into his back pocket, perhaps for a future surprise !! Playing Blitz as White I have encountered 3.....Qe7 several times and I can't remember it ever working against me, although in fairness I haven't met it OTB over a longer time frame. For my money, 3.....d6 is the ONLY move I would make in the Petroff, and the Petroff is my most solid defence of preference when drawn against strong players. Posted by calmrolfe | www6conf.org 2/05/2007 16:01:22 Play online chess Message: Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 2/06/2007 12:17:54 Play online chess Message: sf115 Posted by ionadowman | www6conf.org 2/07/2007 00:58:05 Play online chess How about 5.Bd3...Message: Black may either counterattack the N on e5, or defend the N on e4. b 1). 5...d6 (the counterattack) 6.0-0!? (Maybe the obvious 6.Bxe4 is better, but I'm intrigued by this line...) 6...Nf2!? 7.Rxf2 dxe5 8.dxe5 Nc6 9.Nc3 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nxd3 (say) 11.Qxd3 ... White remains a pawn short for the moment, but look at boths sides' respective development! White is threatening 12.Re2, 12.Nb5 and 12.Nd5... It don't look easy for Black! 2). 5...d5 (the defence) 6.Bxe4 (6.0-0 looks playable) 6...dxe4 7.Nc3 Nd7 (say. 7...f5 doesn't look too flash after 8.Qh5+) 8.Bf4, threatening something like 8...f6 9.Nd5 Qf7 10.Nxc7+. Or Black might try 7...Bf5 8.Nd5!? Qd6 9.c4, with 10.Bf4 coming up. All round, it looks pretty good for White, though I haven't found anything immediately decisive. Posted by bucklehead | www6conf.org 2/07/2007 04:54:24 Play online chess The Fundamental ConclusionMessage: I think we could probably spin out lines from here to doomsday and still come to the same conclusion. And I don't know about the rest of you; but when it comes to my opening preparation, this is about as much time as I like to spend on a rare and weaker line. |