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Heidrich
I have built a strong scotch gambit repertoire but there is a certain line/variation tha tblack can play that really i feel kills white. Its a big hole in my repertoire because i have no response against it. Black simply seems to be better. Any suggestions?
I feel like maybe instead of Bd5, castling would be correct but then doesnt black develop a lot better and the gambit pawn was useless? im looking for very aggressive lines. after Bb4+ c3 doesnt really work and Kf1 just loses all tempo and aggressiveness
neo-metacrash
Play 4. Nxd4. It's better. :)
IM pfren
7.Nbd2 is safe, but also 7.Kf1 and 7.c3 dc3 8.0-0 are to be considered. White has enough for his investment, and Black's play isn't easy at all.
I would be more concerned about the safe and sound 6...Nc5, which gives Black a good game with zero risk.
thank you pfren! let me look up some variations and ill get back to you on that!
You know, if you play such gambits as white, then you do have to be reasonably speculative.
Say after 7.c3 dc3 8.0-0 cb2 9.Bxb2 Nc5, Black is two solid pawns up.
Houdini after quite some thought gives Black an advantage of one fifth of a pawn. While this can be translated to "with perfect play, Black has a small advantage", in practice it is rather "white has a dangerous initiative for his two-pawn investment (else the engine would give a much larger advantage to Black). Notice also that in such positions engines simply love material, and quite often they give erroneous evaluations.
7.Kf1 on the other hand places white's king on a clumsy square, but not for free: Black's only good reply is 7...f5, after which Black can't castle.
7.Nbd2 is absolutely safe, factly the engine gives white a very tiny advantage (one tenth of a pawn) after both 7...Ng5 and 7...Nc5. Needless to say, this safe move would NOT be my choice on the board. After all, if I wanted to play minuscule advantages, I would not play speculative gambits, on the first place!
I do play this variation (as Black), and I do play it for a win after 6...Nc5.
I would probably play 6...Bb4+ in a correspondence, engines-on game, but I doubt that I will ever get the chance. You see, since the introduction of strong engines, it's highly unlikely to meet such speculative play by your opponent over-the-board.
xXMeiXx
maybe it would of been better to pin the knight with the bishop and then advance the pawn? or take the knight if its threatened ? :D
Expertise87
6.O-O and 6.Qe2 Nc5 7.O-O Ne6 8.Bxe6 dxe6 9.Rd1 are both interesting in my opinion. 6.Bd5 Bb4+ I would love to see as White and would probably play c3 there. 6...Nc5 however is very difficult to play against in this variation. One possible line is 7.O-O Ne6 8.Re1 Be7 9.c3 dxc3 10.Nxc3 where White is certainly not worse, he has at least full compensation for the pawn but might have trouble claiming an advantage. 8...Bc5 is more challenging, where White still plays 9.c3 dxc3 10.Nxc3 O-O and here 11.a3 is a reasonable idea, eyeing the b4 square and creating a viable retreat for the Bishop. Black will pretty much always lose a tempo if he plays d6, and White must use this tempo to develop the pieces quickly and aggressively.
And I doubt White has any advantage in the main line: 5...d5 6.Bb5 Ne4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.O-O Bc5 10.f3 Ng5 11.f4 (11.Be3 Bb6!, where 11...O-O probably loses strategically) 11...Ne4 12.Be3 Bb6! (12...O-O is a mistake as noted before) planning c5.
Well, Black can play 100% safe in this variation, which is quite easy.
...and white has absolutely nothing. If he doesn't take en-passant, he is simply worse.
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.Nb5
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