1.e4 b6
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Two rooks + two knights + bishop = 19 points
Two knights + Queen = 15 points
Equal pawns.
White should win easily.
Jun 23, 2011
0
#3
It's not the strongest defense, but you can make it work. Although you initially maintain some flexibility with your pawn structure, you're handing a lot of control over to white. You're taking two moves to develop and get some control over the center and have done nothing for king safety. In my opinion, it's better to delay the fianchetto a couple of moves and perhaps start off with 1... e6.
Agree with Links that Black's second move should be 2. ... Bb7 - which reminds me of a story I think I first heard from MM78. It involved a correspondence match and conditional moves (back in the day when such games were conducted by regular mail). After 1.e4 b6 the guy playing Black had written to his opponent "No matter what you play my next move will be 2. ... Bb7" Black received the following response and immediately resigned.
What do you think of playing 1.e4 b6?