Some of the key ideas I learned in this game:
- when black plays c5 and white plays d5, black is going to have to get counterplay on the queenside. opening the center with e6 results in too much play for white against the backward d pawn. In these positions, b5 is a critical move. In the game, I played 9...a6? and Pruess snapped down 10.a4! proclaiming to the audience that b5 must be prevented in these positions. Rybka has to look deep into the position to find this move that Pruess saw instantly.
- with this in mind, you can see why a very early a6 is a reasonable idea for black. b5 may be a key move later in the game, so forcing white to decide whether or not to play a4 now can be useful.
- Black has a lot of tactical pressure to use against the queenside, and must use it to avoid being suffocated in these closed positions. When white goes for the big center, the c3 knight is tied to protection of e4, a key tactic for getting in b5. Ng4 combined with Qa5 or Qb6 is often useful, taking advantage of the placement of the dark square bishop. Black needs to take advantage of the weaknesses on c3 and b2 created by the bishop moving to e3. Without this counterplay, white's space advantage eventually becomes crushing.
I'm proud of our opening repertoire so far... I'm looking forward to getting a chance to bust this out in competition soon!
I got to take part in a blitz simul today vs IM David Pruess. Game was 5 minutes with a 2 second increment. I lost but got to test out our modern defense and the opening went very well. Check it out: