It's obviously playable, but it seems to me like white should be able to steer the game into a line where a6 isn't very useful. That would effectively leave white up a tempo.
As a practical matter, black seems to do fine in that line statistically, except when white plays 4. Bd3. That seems to be the toughest test, white has crushing statistics in that line.
Unusual classical line
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May 19, 2017
0
#2
May 19, 2017
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#3
Bramblyspam wrote:
It's obviously playable, but it seems to me like white should be able to steer the game into a line where a6 isn't very useful. That would effectively leave white up a tempo.
As a practical matter, black seems to do fine in that line statistically, except when white plays 4. Bd3. That seems to be the toughest test, white has crushing statistics in that line.
I dont worry much about a6 not being useful. it normally seems to be especially when it comes time to play c5.
The Bd3 stats are interesting. White seems to not play it much, Nf3 played Five times more. Backs up my own experience where Bd3 does not seem to appear much. Maybe some worry about the unprotected d pawn The chess.com engine thinks black can get away with taking and not everyone likes playing a pawn down.
In practice Balck has played that pawn grab on 10 of the 16 games and has done very badly, that accounts for the terrible stats. In the case of Bd3 I think black needs to fish around for another move
Instead of taking the pawn Jobava played 5...e6 and went for a french type setup which may be playable.
Personally I go 5....b5 as it muddies the water a little. Then play Bg4 and wait and see what white has planned, normally it is not much
If it ends up in some French like scenario black has at least solved the problem of the light squared bishop.
May 19, 2017
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#4
As white in that last line, I'd be very tempted to play h3 before Nf3 (possibly after trading pawns on d5), with the goal of making black's light squared bishop useless. White has superior development with no bad minor piece, and should therefore be clearly better.
If you're going to go for a quick b5, there's always the Gurgenidze: playing 3... b5 right away, without the a6. It worked pretty well when we tried it in one of our vote chess games. I don't think it's objectively as good as the main lines, but it still seems quite playable.
May 20, 2017
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#5
Bramblyspam wrote:
As white in that last line, I'd be very tempted to play h3 before Nf3 (possibly after trading pawns on d5), with the goal of making black's light squared bishop useless. White has superior development with no bad minor piece, and should therefore be clearly better.
If you're going to go for a quick b5, there's always the Gurgenidze: playing 3... b5 right away, without the a6. It worked pretty well when we tried it in one of our vote chess games. I don't think it's objectively as good as the main lines, but it still seems quite playable.
I think if you go h3 I would go b4 and after a5 to put the Bishop on a6
I have played those 3...b5 otb in five minute and works well enough there. Will try some daily games with the a6 lines, that should be a good test of them
I originally posted this in the general openings forum, but the thread was hijacked by the usual idiots