Discussion

We discuss moves and reach a consensus here.

We can start the discussion before their move is made.

If they do play 1.e4, then do we have other ideas than c6?

There is also 1. e4 e6. is it worse than 1. e4 c6 ?

Most of the spell chess games I've seen black plays e6 and c6 in the opening immediately or at some point.

By playing e6 first, you will allow white to play Bb5. It is an option for black, but I don't see any reason to allow it.

I think the final position provides black worse positions very often.

8chancellor, I wanna say we cannot enter the 1. e4 c6 2. c3 e5 4. d4 d5 system. I discovered that white could play 5. freeze@g7 Qh5, I analysed this with LongTermFuture, and in all analysed continuations, this brings white a crushing advantage. I would like to play a game with you to further confirm if that is really the case.

is this ever a line ?

Although it is highly unlikely that white plays this, you can take a look, but normally after 2. Ke7 which you showed, white plays Nc3 and black is at a rather big disadvantage.

After Bc4 I usually play e6. But can you get away with Qc7?

e6 is safe. Qc7 allows check + freeze and I think that's losing

Any suggestions for our third move ? I am thinking b5 threatening the bishop

yea i like that

Y'all take a look at 4. c5 responding to 4. Bb3, interesting novelty

What is the idea after
4. Bb3 c5 5. Qf3

Qe7, white can’t jump over e4 to take the a8 rook, it’s checkmate. But now that you’ve pointed this out it seems quite dubious to me. Maybe black can go Bb7 next to hit the queen. But if this is unsound to y’all, we can go back to main line and save novelties for later.

Maybe: 5. Qf3 Qe7 6. Nh3 Bb7 7. Qf4 c5 8. Bc2 e5

The Qe7 seems good. I like c5. I thought about a4 but that looks problematic for white.

4.. c5 5. a4 c4 6. Bc2 b4 and later b3 if we wanted.

Nice line. I doubt a4 will be played though. But c4 b3 restricts white’s light square bishop a lot. Nice find. b3 forces cxb3 then Bxb3 Nc3 basically black is winning, black has light square bishop and the c4 pawn you pushed, a6 to f1 diagonal is entirely dominated by black, so Kf1 Ba6 black basically has to sac the exchange. (Continuing the line I mentioned, after 8. Bc2 e5, 9. Qf5 and here if black plays g6 a queen trade is forced, benefits black)

White has to be careful or they can easily get cramped. I hope we see 4... c5 5. d3 as that looks slow for them.

Oh! I studied that d3 line too.