Our Present Vote Chess Game.
AN OVERVIEW
Bc5+ connects our rooks and can also protect our a7 pawn without retreating the knight to c6 (after 22...c4 for Black). Maybe we could then manage an immediately dangerous N&B counter attack with our Ng4. That would seem to force White to double their rooks on the f-file, which we could easily neutralize with R(h) f8, and remain the pawn up.
I am still thinking. Our bishop at c5 could be easily protected by playing b6. We are a pawn up but need to take the initiative to win. Instead of being two pawns up we were forced to compromise our king pawn when White took the initiative.
I like the idea of striking back here if we can. Nc6 sems a retro move we would be better off without. White can double the rooks whether we play g6 or not.
We may have needed to play g6 back on about move 8, and move after move we still did not develop the KB. It is still at f8. The idea of playing e5 to free our position, I thought would be to develop the bishop along the a3-f8 diagonal.
In Alekhine's Defense, which we have chosen, g6 or not g6 that is the question. One must have g6 in mind after 1 e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd4 3. c4 Nb6. For future reference, that is the reality of Alekhine's Defense, and one cannot get caught up in trying to play two different variations at the same time.
g6 is the Modern Variation. g6 is never an after thought.
Vladimir Bagirov, who played The Alekhine better than any other GM, moved Black's queenside knights forward by pushing the queenside pawns forward and hanging the knights on these pawn hooks against attack. Such as we visualize c4 (the hook) and Nd3 blocking the White d-file and opening a e-file for Black.
In Alekhine's Defense the king knight is absent on the kingside to protect his majesty, so Black must attack on the queenside to make White lose focus on the compromised kingside. Alekhine's Defense is by no means trench warfare. Fischer played it against Spassky in Iceland. Here our opponents did not let us play Bg4 as in the Spassky- Fischer games. Fischer did understand Black must attack queenside with the two knights. Bent Larsen tacked on g6 at every opportunity, but he was no Bobby Fischer.
One half of all Alekhine Defense games played by grandmasters are the Modern Variation with g6 and Bg7. Bagirov played either or. Vladimir Bagirov was Mikhail Tal's chess coach and he was also Gary Kasparov's chess coach.
Chess coach to two world champions.
Doing these little articles are like writing first drafts. Get it published first and then rewrite and edit until it makes the most sense. Those chess books must need loads of editing.
