Playing Against the Levenfish
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RRylen
Jan 25, 2018
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#1
Everywhere I look on youtube, the forums, or google, the only thing I can find is “How to play Levenfish Variation,” or “Levenfish Variation Traps” after searching how to play against it. So I’m just gonna ask it myself. How do you play against the Levenfish, and is there any way to avoid while playing the Dragon?
After f4 You don't play Bg7 right away. Play Nd7. You can't really avoid it, if White wants a levenfish, you're going to get a levenfish.
As interim computer chesser mgr, lol, the initial assesment is its a draw. There are 2 questions...how does one play immediately, and how does one play long-term?
Immediately: Stockfish likes Bg7. Perhaps because it knows how arrogant humans can get. Its offering 100 to 1 odds black wins since humans cant beat it by playing e5. Its going to turn the place upside down and let it settle.
Next choice Nc6...typical Dragon. It knows it has a forced draw quickly. The f4 move allows it to play Qb6 soon. Another drawish defect of f4 is black might get in Bg4. As the Bishop on e2 takes Bg4, followed by the queen, the center knight is left open. It has a third idea...'regular' play.
The last one is Nbd7. Thumbs down. Still a draw, but now on defense. White gets a better 'bind', for example by playing a4.
Regular play I would recommend something on the best chances to survive a Marcozy bind. That bind is +.5 and this one it views as +.2, since its 'half' or whatever. Its opening B73. Classical variation/Battery variation https://chesstempo.com/gamedb/opening/2064 To me its difficult to get a win as white or black out of it. It was used when the Dragon was 'all that', and players were fleeing white. One of the leading Dragon players was this opening theory guy Dragolijub Velimirovic, so maybe he had something on it. He would play e6(leaving the d6 pawn vunerable) in the middle game and go for the win via the queenside...kind of a bluffer here or there.
Hi guys! I have a similar concern as the original poster. I've been seeing the Levenfish a lot lately, but I couldn't find any resource materials explaining how Black's play would go given White has an early f4.
(The most I've seen was a quick discussion by Schiller in his book by Cardoza Publishing on the Sicilian Dragon, where I think he said the Levenfish is inferior because of the weak squares behind the pawns at e4 and f4... But that's it. I was hoping for some more discussion of Black's strategy and tactical motifs regarding the Levenfish in particular. (I'm not sure I could just apply the advice given against the Yugoslav, since I think the placement of the f-pawn might be a significant difference in the two variations.)
Could other members of the chess.com community kindly weigh in on this? I'd like to call out IM Pfren in particular if he would be so kind as to help. Thank you...
is so fishy 