in your variation 4...Bc5 5.Nxc6, instead of taking with a pawn, if you wanted to avoid a trade of queens, you can play 5...Qf6, when white must answer your threat on f2, which gives you time to capture the knight however you want.
For example, after white plays 6.Qd2 against 5...Qf6, you can avoid a doubling of your pawns by Qxf6, or you can seek of ways of activating your light sqaured bishop by dxc6.
in your variation 4...Bc5 5.Nxc6, instead of taking with a pawn, if you wanted to avoid a trade of queens, you can play 5...Qf6, when white must answer your threat on f2, which gives you time to capture the knight however you want.
For example, after white plays 6.Qd2 against 5...Qf6, you can avoid a doubling of your pawns by Qxf6, or you can seek of ways of activating your light sqaured bishop by dxc6.
Oh! that was a nice line; I did not see that. Thanks for pointing.
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4...Bb4!? The idea of this move in a nutshell is to induce c3 and then drop back to c5, now that the c3 square is taken away from the Knight. It avoids a lot of theory and it's relatively easy to play.
Wow, i got smacked agianst this opening
Dued, you just revived a thread from four years ago...
Woah! I didn't even notice :O
It is a difficult opening to face. The Dr. Lasker idea of Bb4 is okay, but do you retreat to e7 or a5. Lasker was not clear in his Manual of Chess. But e7 cannot be bad as it blocks the e-file (like the Hungarian) and gives time for 0-0. It seems there must be a way to get a better position than the Mieses,.. Alekhine once remarked that he played Bc5 because it leads to more complicated positions but that NF6 was absolutely correct. Against a booked up opponent you have your work cut out. I am speaking of the +2100 level.
4...Nf6 is arguably the best move, and white's only try for an edge is 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5, after which there is way too much theory for a Class D player to reasonably learn IMO, and even then I'm not sure white gets an advantage. Otherwise white can settle for (somewhat) dynamic equality with 5. Nc3 or 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Bd3, which should be harmless if black knows theory but can still be playable in the hands of an experience player.
After 4...Bc5, I tend to prefer white on account of the interesting line 5. Nxc6 Qf6 6. Qf3! which I think might earn white a slight edge. But I stopped playing the Scotch when I realized how much theory I had to learn in the main lines after 4...Nf6. The problem with those lines is not so much that white has to know so many moves of deep theory per se, but that there are many variations that black can try and they are all challenging.
Also, as mentioned above, there's the move 4...Bb4 for black if you want to learn something relatively easy to play which holds up at high levels. I think it might even be superior to 4...Bc5 in my opinion, but then I'm definitely no expert.
4...Bb4!? The idea of this move in a nutshell is to induce c3 and then drop back to c5, now that the c3 square is taken away from the Knight. It avoids a lot of theory and it's relatively easy to play.
The above is actually my old account from a few years ago...
My tastes have since changed, and I think 4...Nf6! is the best move, when White is stuggling to prove anything following 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4 Nb6, but especially 9...Ba6!
As mentionned above, 4...Bc5 5 Nxc6 Qf6 6 Qf3 is annoying, if not promising anything more than a slight edge at best, while I don't fully trust 5...bxc6.
4...Bb4+ is probably ok, but 5 c3 Bc5 6 Nxc6! is sort of annoying. More so than 6 Be3, after which I think Black equalizes comfortably. Chessexplained has a video where he delves deeper into the subject.
Also stay away from 4...Qh4.
Yes. But Nxc6 is not the end of the world. It is a practical system for black, i think.
Wow, i got smacked agianst this opening
Dued, you just revived a thread from four years ago...
Yeah well and now it's been revived 3 years later ;) In any case I agree with one of the recommendations, 4...Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 and now on 6.Be3 Bb6 (IIRC 6.Nxc6 is really nothing to worry about though I don't have the time to look it up now)
However if you want to see a wild game featuring Be3/...Bb6 without the interpolation of ...Bb4+/c3 check out this game of Sam Loyd's, the famous 19th-century puzzle composer -- it features a smothered attack AND Anastasia's mate (though White may have had a defense):
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1255320
Hi,
I faced the following moves in a game when I was playing as black. However I had no much clues on how to proceed. I analyzed the game and added some variations as well. I would like to discuss this game.