I never understood the appeal of the Pirc.
I understand the idea is to counterattack, but it seems to give white a very free hand.
Look at the game I posted against a pretty strong player. I was never cramped, nor did white have a free hand. Like all openings, you need to know how to play them.
To be fair a3 and Bd2 aren't the most challenging moves in the world.
To be fair a3 and Bd2 aren't the most challenging moves in the world.
I do not claim it was perfect chess (on either side). But it is compettitive. Black had a clear plan: fluid development. White played book moves, then needed to adjust when i digressed.
In my book it says white has an advantage here, but still at my level of play a ton of different things can happen. Positions that are theoretically a draw are often won or lost. I find the Pirc to be solid way of limiting my opponents attacks.
he can - then 9 Ng5 is pretty complicated, wouldn't play it as black otb.
Robot,
Why can't black play 8... pxp
my book says it's blacks last chance to avoid a draw and this is why (a neat little perpetual check) In all honesty I've never reached this position in an actual game, but its cool to look at
This is kind of an interesting move for white, dissuading a black ...c5 because after dxc5, ...dxc5 usually isn't so good and ...Qa5 could be met by b4! There are no numbers on the moves because these patterns could happen at different times.
And almost nobody plays this move. I encountered this move only once and I had trouble on the queenside like you said. It's a very strong move and it isn't mentioned even once in "Pirc Alert!"
I like 0-0, Na6 and c5. If White meets c5 with d5 then White's a-pawn will be misplaced. Otherwise Black can just take on d4 and get a dragon. Either way I don't think White is going to be worse or anything. This is a good reason why it's good to try and learn more than one approach to a position and that's kinda hard with a complicated opening like this.
Na6 is really interesting, do you think Bxa6 doubling the pawns is ok? I'd have to see the bishop blocked befor I did that. I also sometimes play a move I learned from the French defense and play Ba6 to try to exchange that bishop off
I don't know if it's good or bad. Black will get play on the b-file and have that bishop pair to work with and I guess White will try and win on the kingside.
I got lucky in this game, I'm searching through my archives to find the example where a3 was played. It is an excellent move for white and my options were seriously limited, I think I ended up with a d6,c6,and b6 linup
I am a fan of the 'Left Hook' 5.a3. Here's the only tournament game I could find. Ignore the fact that I started playing bad moves after winning the exchange - I think the result of my opening was good:
@Green castle, thanks for sharing that game here. I'm going to review it more when I get back from work, but there are some very interesting things to look at.Quick question, on move 19 why not Bxh6 to gain the pawn at f6?
5...c5 looks awesome here because White didn't play Nf3.
This is the only game I ever saw a3, but it was confusing and surprised me. I remember this game now, I got lucky here, but I think my opponent missed an opportunity to win
@Green castle, thanks for sharing that game here. I'm going to review it more when I get back from work, but there are some very interesting things to look at.Quick question, on move 19 why not Bxh6 to gain the pawn at f6?
quick answer- it looks way too materialistic, you only get a doubled pawn which pretty much isn't worth anything in the situation, and suddenly the black bishop is very alive...
and, well, c2 is hanging too, so it's not a very productive endeavour.
greencastle should be able to answer better :P
http://www.chesstape.com/index.php/advanced/karjakin-vs-mamedyarov-pirc-defence-2013-tal-memorial-rd4