My Youtube video analysing the Ulvestad Variation
About 3 years ago I was inside Her Majesty's Prison Wandsworth helping run the World's Prison Chess Championships You can find the blog post to that story here.
A picture of what HMP Wandsworth looks like from the inside
During that event I was helping prep one of the prisoners against the toughest team of the competition: The Russian team. In the game, I was advising my player to play the two knights defence but showed him that he must play 4...d5 followed by 5...Na5 - The Polerio defense.
The continuation I was thinking of...
Now my question to you is this: Do you finish think that a prisoner of a category B prison listened to my sage advice? Absolutely not! He instead played the 2 knights defence went into one of the most complicated lines of it, the "undefendable fried liver attack:"
The Tricky Fried Liver attack
As stated in the annotations, one of the other volunteers showed me a variation that I should have shown him: The Ulvestad variation:
The Ulvestad variation
Named after the player Olaf Ulvestad, this line was first analysed in a chess magazine back in 1941. It would appear that black suggests a very weird looking move to deal with the knight attack variation:
What is the big idea here?
A picture of Olaf Ulvestad who first published his analysis in 1941
Let's start with a little puzzle. If you have never seen this variation before, I challenge you to find the best move in this position. I guarantee that you will never find it!
Surprised yet?
Why is 6. Bxb5 close to equality?
From these three positions white can't seem to secure anything decent
Why is 6. dxc6 close to equality?
So why is 6. Bf1! the best move here?
Can black keep playing for complications?
At this point, I should perhaps summarise that white should do fine in this variation. Having poked the hornet's nest that is the Two knights variation with the Knight attack of 4.Ng5, against best play white should secure an edge in this position. This is perhaps where I should stamp a big disclaimer here: "With best play." Quite clearly, against the unprepared opponent, this line could score some devastating results against your next white opponent. White has to dodge many bullets. One misstep can lead to immediate disaster!
Thank you for reading, if you like what you see, let me know in the comments below. Check out my youtube channel and subscribe for more updates!
