Sokolsky Opening. Has anyone had success persisting with the lines

Yes, wins a knight. That'll teach black about not developing.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1250823

White won in 11 moves. There seemed to be errors from both sides I’m guessing but what ended it for black?. .As optimissed observed … black failed to develop.

I play that defence. Black doesn't take the b4 pawn. Simple as that.

oh. I edited my post before you commented. The black queen move wasn’t the error . You picked up the error👍

I had a small book on it, 20 years ago. Maybe I still have it. It used to be played to take the b4 pawn but white has too much. It's questionable whether black can survive and if so, black has to play move-perfect. That is, black has a line of only moves. The only possible defence for black is based on an early Ne7. The best method for white is always based on playing e4, or so I understand. White can also play f4. The lost move where black must retreat the bishop together with the extra space seems to make it unviable for black and it's exceptionally difficult, even if there isn't an actually forced win.

Black's strategic error was to grab the pawn and then to try to justify it tactically. It should be treated positionally, in my view. Black must take every opportunity to play the natural moves, d5, Be6, Bd6, Ne7 etc. Their Chessgame site isn't working now.

Yes. It does look like a development error . By taking the pawn as against d5 which looks more positional. It’s amazing how black got into so much trouble at only move 10.

Yes it certainly is and there's more than one possible path to big trouble and therefore it isn't viable. The writers of the book were proud to demonstrate that, in their opinion, black could just hang on after taking the pawn. The didn't give a preferance for not taking the pawn but that's how I interpreted it and although black has to be careful with the queenside, it was ok. If black can treat it like a well planned minority attack on the queenside, even though it isn't a minority, then I think black is ok. The minority attack itself doesn't win unless black blunders. It has to be combined with some other tactical exploit by white.

I see we've reached the basic position you suggested.

We'll continue Roger ;-)

How are you getting on with working out a strategy?

https://www.chess.com/game/daily/648135071

Let's keep that for ourselves, or what I mean, exchange these through messages to eachother. We cna discuss later, here when the game is finished ;-)

Oh I see you moved. It's I who have to work out a strategy. Superficially, your move looks better to me, than the obvious d6. I may take a couple of days to reply. It's two or three years since I played Daily and it's a good opportunity to get back into the mindset and to try to find a good move.

I finished another game yesterday, playing an opponent very quickly again for the second time as White.

This correspondence game lasted 4 months and 1 day, the result was a draw.

Erwin Muilwijk (1877) vs. Tonny van Bommel (2358). RVT-Group 2 tournament organised by the NBC.

hi

one "quirk" i noticed in your way you play 1b4 is that you rarely keep the pawn stronghold on b5, you usually trade it willingly. I wonder why you dont ike it. So many of white's chances often rely on that advanced pawn stopping nc6 and later become an unpredictable lever to penetrate blacks ranks troug key squares like c6 and a6 or if b6, a7

So you prefer to back up my b5 pawn by supporting it with the a-pawn on a4?

I like that approach. I don't fear the exchange of rooks on the a file if black chooses.

The pawn on b5 gets stronger as the game goes on IMHO.

I have learned as black in my 2. ...f6 version that black's fight is on two fronts. One is to build the better centre but that's no use if white's advanced pawns become too strong.