Careful... the article you cut and pasted is copyrighted. I believe Wikipedia usually allows copying their articles as long you credit them similar to as follows:
The material in this post is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sokolsky Opening".
david, are you trying to play the opening or play against it? Chesslecture.com has a short but useful video on how to play against it and other uncommon openings. I know an expert who uses it as their primary opening, so it's quite playable.
Here's the mainline:
1.b4 e5 - e5 begins to control the center and attacks White's b-pawn.
2.Bb2 Bxb4!? - White counter-attacks, and Black allows the swap!?
3.Bxe5 Nf6 - White won a central pawn for a wing pawn, but he's lagging in development. Black has a reasonable middlegame to look forward to.
david, are you trying to play the opening or play against it? Chesslecture.com has a short but useful video on how to play against it and other uncommon openings. I know an expert who uses it as their primary opening, so it's quite playable.
Here's the mainline:
1.b4 e5 - e5 begins to control the center and attacks White's b-pawn.
2.Bb2 Bxb4!? - White counter-attacks, and Black allows the swap!?
3.Bxe5 Nf6 - White won a central pawn for a wing pawn, but he's lagging in development. Black has a reasonable middlegame to look forward to.
Thanks for the advice!
Remember that the Sokolsky Opening is very similar to Grobs attack. Instead of 3. Bxe5 a thing to try would be 3. f4 . Now if the opponent is silly enough to take the pawn (doubtful, but it happens) youve got a pawn and a rook to claim. Otherwise, it continues fine anyway, try to play c3 or c4 and release the queen for a powerful attack on the king.
If you're defending against 1. b4, I suggest either 1... d4 or 1... a4. There are many things you can play around with in this opening. The symmetrical variation (1.b4 b5) yields particularly interesting results; you could follow up with 2. Nc3 or a3.
According to my database, White plays 3.Bxe5 in 95% of games and 3.f4 in 5% of games, but 3.f4 is definitely an interesting sideline. An easy reply is 3...d6. Black scores a whopping 65% and the position has similarities to the mainline.
White has eliminated Black's central pawns, but Black has a 3-piece development lead and attacking potential along the e1-h4 diagonal. As always, the best player should win!
I already said Black has a development lead in return for White's central pawns. I should add that Black is obligated to launch an attack soon and secure at least some concessions! If he doesn't do that, White will catch up in development, and then White's central pawns may become overpowering. The above game shows how to do that.
Sokolsky Opening, Symmetrical Variation.
. "Of course the game could have easily gone to black" indeed! This is to demonstrate that games w/ the symmetrical v. can go either way, and yield very interesting results.
I'd try to open up some space by playing d5. Then march the e pawn down the board
I can't say I reccomend that: 11. ... d5? Nxe5 and if played out causes serious problems for black.
Black is up a pawn and has traded a knight for a bishop. Unfortunately for black, the position does not leave too many favourable moves. At this point, blacks least unpleasent options are in my opinion castling kingside, or Bb2 to remove white's ability to castle queenside and to move Qg5 and put pressure on Black's kingside.
In afterthought, 3. e4 was a bad move (which should have been followed by 3. ... Nxb4, 3. c3 would have been better, and possibly continued by 3. ... d4 4. b5 Nd4 5. Bxf8 Rxf8, trading a bishop for a bishop, and black loosing the right to castle kingside. Or, perhaps 3. ... b5 which would turn into something very similar to the position shown earlier, as b5 prevents b5.
Anybody know anything good to do with the Polish Opening (1. b4!?)