White doesn't have a forced win by moving first. With perfect play from black, you're going to end up in an equal position unless you're playing a dubious opening, in which case you'll end up worse.
Yes of course.....but its one thing if black equalizes by move 30 but something totally different if he equalizes by move 10 . With perfect play black can equalize but shouldnt white make him work for it? If white doesnt make him work for it maybe black will get the idea in his head that it is black who should play for a win even if the position is still objectively equal.
There is nothing wrong strategically with equality in a complex position that you know better. Trying to get your opponent into those kinds of positions is a large component of competitive chess.
Yes that is what I was trying to get at with my question. If you are okay with playing for equal positions then all sorts of lines become playable. This seems to be the point of view of Simon Williams. Alexy Shirov has a different point of view. I have a few of Shirov's videos. In the one he did on the Rossolimo he said chessbase wanted him to have a section on the Moscow variation where black plays d6 and white plays Bb5+. He totally refused to do it since he believed the line is draw. Watching Shirov videos I get the impression that he believes if a line leads to easy equality for black the principled decision for white is to play something else where playing for an advantage is more logical.
White doesn't have a forced win by moving first. With perfect play from black, you're going to end up in an equal position unless you're playing a dubious opening, in which case you'll end up worse.
Yes of course.....but its one thing if black equalizes by move 30 but something totally different if he equalizes by move 10 . With perfect play black can equalize but shouldnt white make him work for it? If white doesnt make him work for it maybe black will get the idea in his head that it is black who should play for a win even if the position is still objectively equal.
There is nothing wrong strategically with equality in a complex position that you know better. Trying to get your opponent into those kinds of positions is a large component of competitive chess.