What is the game plan for the Paulsen Attack?

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Avatar of TheUSDA

I was looking for some niche lines for the Vienna Game Main Line and found an interesting variation: The Paulsen Attack. After they take Ne4, you play queen f3. It looks like this:

The most "proper" and likely response is black taking the knight, leading to this position:

I wanted to start a discussion and ask what the main game plan is for white? How should white go about taking advantage of blacks weaknesses?

For discussion purposes, I found a game played by GM Hikaru in this position. Rather than take the knight, however, His opponent David Paravyan played queens knight instead:



Avatar of tygxc

@1
This is a speed chess game.
10 Bxc6+ is questionable: gives up the bishop's pair.
10 Bf4 or 10 Ne2 are more logical.


Avatar of Muffinator69420
Ok
Avatar of pfren

First, the logic behind the Queen sortie is (obviously) making black to decide how he will deal with the pressure against the e4 knight. And after a trade at c3, it is white the one who has the "weaknesses", not Black, and his compensation will be either central control with pawns at d4 and e5, or fast development after dxc.

After 5...Nxc3 white's most interesting move is recapturing with the d-pawn, not the b-one, which gives Black good central control after 6...c5.

Either 5...f5 or 5...Nc6 are the most consistent Black moves.

5...Nc6 is IMO a clean equalizer. In a thematic correspondence game I tried to get something by delaying Bxc6 (as in the Nakamura-Paravyan game) but eventully I had to part with the bishop, and got nothing resembling an advantage.

 

And the immediate Queen swap is not the only good Black plan- he may also ask white to part with the bishop before looking for the swap:

Again, white got almost nothing out of the opening.

5...f5 is also very good, and a tad more ambitious, and certainly sharper. I think that it would be my choice as Black, but up to date I have only played it twice as white in the same thematic tournament. I got a win and a draw, but objectively speaking Black was totally OK in both games- he lost that one game because of the blunder 18...Nd5? which drops a pawn for nothing.

 

Briefly, this variation (and the Vienna in general) may not be a one trick pony, but it poses no real dangers to Black- all you hope is that he will be taken by surprise.