Governor Sloughter was a corrupt Governor of New York in the late 1600's who was driven out of Albany and took up refuge in Schoharie County. His followers came to known as Sloughters, a term of derision 100 years ago, and now a source of pride to native born Schoharites. Any of you witty young gentlemen (?) care for a game or are you too busy making useless comments to participate in this thread in any meaningful way?
Two Knights' Defense 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5ch c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Qf3!
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Arkhein won the theoretical battle in our last game with 8.Qf3 Be7 9.Qe2 O-O 10.Ne4? (= to =/+) Nd5 11.Nec3? Nf4 12.d3 Ne6 13.Bd1 Nd4 14.Qe3 & the best that White can hope for is a draw by repetition which is a theoretical bust for White, so I met 14...h6! with 15.h4 to avoid the draw (14.Bd2 Bg5 15.Qg3 Bh4 16.Qe3; Black can try for more here), but after 15...Bxh4 -/+
If 11.d3 = to =/+
After two hours of computation, though, Fritz 8 says that 8.Qf3 Be7 9.Be2 O-O 10.O-O! is +/=
I don't agree with your annotation of the game. First I think that after 8..Be7, Black has at least equality if not more, but I am modest, I will say equal. And I think 10.Ne4 keep the balance, that doesn't deserve a ? to me. 11.Nec3 deserve a ?! mark, because this is premature and illogical even from a practical point of view. 11.d3! was best (keeping the play about equal) where I have nothing better than 11..f5 and now 12.Nec3 is logical. So after 11.Nec3?!, I could play 11..f5 where he has nothing better than 12.d3, a transposition into what I have just said, but I can play with an other plan as in the game with 11..Nf4!?, so 11.Nec3 may still be about equal but gives more options to Black. The next White's move seems ok but 15.h4 is really not very good, giving the pawn back to Black without equalizing from a dynamical point of view. End of the game.
Now we will play our third game.
It's tough to see full compensation for the exchange after 8.Qf3 cxb5 9.Qxa8 Qd7
10.Qf3 Bb7 11.Qe2---Fritz 8 is pretty good here because it is all tactics; as little as 4-5 moves and Fritz claims it is +-. Here are just a few moves to show you the kind of play that Black faces:
11...Be7 12.d3 Nc6 13.Nf3 Qg4 14.c3 O-O 15.O-O+-
I am sure post members would be delighted (especially me!) to see what you have in mind for 8.Qf3 Be7
Wow! Great games! Thanks for sharing. I had given up on the 9.Bd3 lines---In the first game, Fritz 8 recommends 20.Ne4 with advantage White e.g. if 20...Nxd3ch?? 21.Rxd3! +- or 20...Nxe4 21.dxe4 +/=
One of the strategies that is very complicated is whether Black can castle Queenside and just push the pawns consider the following game:
How do you stop the pawns? Got some moves/ideas on that?
Sloughter, you should post our game with Qf3 Be7 that I won. We agreed to post all the games in the forum.
Would you post and annotate the game? I think your comment early on of equality was accurate; hanging a piece at the end instead of checking with my computer was irrelevant. White, at best, has equality in the early middlegame, so it is a bust theoretically.
I pretty convinced that the strongest reply to 8.Qf3 is 8...Rb8 and 8...Be7 is showing to be a playable variation that is dead equal.
Unless White has play I've missed, 8...Be7 may force 9.Bxc6ch; Arkhein has won against 8...Be7 1)9.Be2, 2)9.Bd3, and now 3)9.Ba4. White appears to have equalizing chances and that's about it. If my next try fails, I'll either have to look again at 9.Bxc6ch or settle for the sharp positions that are playable for both sides but give White minimal winning chances against accurate play by Black, and, indeed, at a practical level 8...Be7 is an excellent choice.
This is probably the last try I'll make in this variation, but it is the only move gaining time as I define time. For example, if a player plays the move sequence 1.e4/2.Qe2/Qf3 he gains 2 tempos because the Queen can access the f3 square in two moves, 1.e4/2.Qf3. If White plays 1.e4/2.Qe2/3.Qe3, he gains three tempos because the Queen cannot access the e3 square in under 3 moves. As a practical matter, barring obvious tactical shots, 1.e4/2.Qe2/3.Qe3 is to be favored over 1.e4/2.Qe2/3.Qf3., because it gains a tempo.
In this position, using this reasoning, 9.Ba4 is the only move that gains a tempo. All the other retreats i.e. Bd3/Be2/Bf1 fail to gain time. White wasted a tempo on a3; it remains to be seen if there is anything better. For those following the games, here is one of the critical positions:
If you moved in the sequence 1.e4 2.Qe2 3.Qf3, you would lose a tempo because you moved a piece twice in the opening. Black will gain a tempo because of this sequence.
Sloughter, is that how you learnt the time in chess with your GM teacher? Ba4 is not winning a tempo, it's losing a tempo...
I will comment our games in the end of our match, but I will not give complete analysis because I don't have time and interest for that.
Another move string:
Oh be nice you guys. It's his name, after all. ;)