Martin vs the world analysis thread #3

But if the rook is stopping infiltration, then it's stopping us from castling. 

No that move is illegal.

The first sentence of the event description says "Queens, rooks and bishops can stop between squares." It doesn't mention anything about pawns (or kings or knights). Only queens, rooks and bishops can stop between squares.

I'm looking to play the moves ...c6, ....Nd7 and ...e5. I'm not too concerned about any event tactics that may happen after ...c5, though.

We can go for ...c6 or ...e5, instead, though. I think that e5 is a slightly better option in this case. 

I think the king is safer in the centre where the bishops have less influence. I'm not sure I'm in any hurry to open up the centre.

Actually 6...c5 looks very interesting here. It prevents the annoying Bf1-de2.5-h6 idea from white (since after 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5 (f-bishop to de2.5) it looks like we win the pawn on d4). And after 6...c5 7. Nf3 we can play 7...Bg7 and white still can't play 8. Bfde2.5.

After 6...c5 white can't win the c5 pawn with 7. Qab3.5+ (checking and attacking the c5-pawn simultaneously), since we can just take the queen with 7...cxb4.

6...c5 7. Bb5+ looks harmless for black. We can probably just play 7...Nd7 and I wouldn't even worry about 8. dxc5. It would weaken white's pawn structure too much (black should have more than enough compensation for the pawn).

I guess 6...c5 7. d5 might be possible from white, but that feels like a slightly weird move and it would make a bishop on g7 stronger (the c3-pawn might become weak).

I take back my vote for 6...Bg7 (I no longer vote for 6...Bg7). I'm leaning towards 6...c5 now but I'll wait and let people point out flaws with this move. It could backfire if we get a bad event but I'd rather take that risk than just allow Martin to play Bf1-de2.5-h6 and just be slightly better. I can't find another way to prevent that idea.

Bde2.5 isn't a problem unless we castle, though. And that maneuver will take 2 tempi, so we'll have time to continue development. In fact, I think we should play Bg7 to see what Martin's priorities are.

6... Bg7 7.Bde2.5 e5 is an option. I don't think we face too many problems there, unless an event starts which is specifically bad for us.

Actually now that I look at it more closely there might be some tactics for white after 6...c5 in some lines. For example 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5 cxd4 8. cxd4 Qxd4 9. Bb5+ wins black's queen.

But of course we don't have to take on d4 with the queen after 8. cxd4. We could instead play 8...Bg7 for example.

Actually it might also be worth considering what happens if white gambits a pawn to prevent black from castling after 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5 cxd4 8. Bh6. For example 8...dxc3 9. Qxd8+ (or maybe even 9. Qab3.5+ Bd7 10. Qxc3) 9...Kxd8 10. 0-0-0+. I don't know if white has enough compensation for the pawn(s) or not.

I have no idea what the best move is from black after 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5. Maybe 7...Qa5  (or maybe even 7...Qab5.5) is worth considering, since it would prevent the immediate 8. Bh6 (since then the c3-pawn would hang).

I forgot to mention one of the ideas behind 6...c5: to vacate the c7 square (so that c7, d7, c6 and d6 are all unoccupied) so that Bc8-d7-cd6.5 ideas become possible in the future (but probably not before more important moves like ...Bg7 and ...0-0). This would attack the h2-square for example with our bishop.

I might have overestimated how strong Bf1-de2.5-h6 would be for white. I don't think it's the end of the world if Martin plays that. 6...Bg7 might be completely fine.

I really have no idea if I should vote for 6...c5 or 6...Bg7. 6...c5 looks a bit unclear to me.

The bishop protects d4 from de2.5. The bishop occupies four squares, one of which is e3.

Yeah, no. We should find a line that's actually good for us.

Yeah whoops I'm an idiot. The d4 pawn isn't hanging at all after 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5. The bishop on de2.5 blocks the queen on d1 from defending d4, but it also protects the d4 pawn from e3 (and the d4 pawn is already protected by the c3 pawn). I forgot to count the number of attackers and defenders.

Maybe 6...c5 doesn't make that much sense to play then. The whole point of the move was to prevent white's bishop from coming to de2.5. I mean we could play 6...c5 7. Bfde2.5 Bg7 8. Bh6 0-0, but then we might as well have just played 6...Bg7 7. Bfde2.5 c5 8. Bh6 0-0.

6...Bg7 keeps our options open more (we can either play ..e5 or...c5 later).

I vote 6...Bg7 again, unless I change my vote again.

You're definitely not an idiot! Very easy to overlook such things, it wasn't immediately obvious to me either.

The only way I can see to effectively null the threat of Bfde2.5 is to play h5 and not castle, but that's a huge concession. I'm leaning Bg7, it's not like there's a clear alternative plan. Castling queenside is clearly not safe. 

Another problem is maybe he doesn't play Bh6, maybe he prefers Bbc1.5, leaving both his bishops trained on our kingside. That's a lot of pressure and makes me think castling kingside is also crazy, which is why I think we should at least consider how safe the king is in the centre.

What about b6. I think it's better to keep our king in the center for now, until there are more clear developments.

Now that I think about it, Martin may elect to start an event. This means we should probably play Bg7 and prepare to castle, just in case.

Agreed, after looking at the discussion, Bg7 is probably best.

Vote Bg7.

I'm in the middle of analyzing the position/posting my analysis. I will post my thoughts on the position in like 20 minutes.

Sorry that took slightly longer than I expected.

My candidate moves here are 7...0-0 and 7...c5.

I think Martin will play 8. Bh6 almost no matter what we play here. We should probably castle kingside (at some point at least).

Castling queenside seems very risky, since the b-file is already open and if we castle queenside then white would then have the easy plan of marching the a pawn forward to open up the a-file as well.

I'm not so sure leaving the king in the centre would be very good either. If we do that then I think at the very least it will be difficult to safely get our rook on h8 into the game after white plays Bh6 to prevent us from castling kingside.

E.g. 7...b6 (...b6 is just a random move and maybe not the strongest move where we keep our king in the centre) 8. Bh6 Bxh6 (8...0-0 would of course be possible but right now I'm considering the case when we leave our king in the centre. If we for some reason want to play 7...b6 8. Bh6 0-0 then we could also play it with the move order 7...0-0 8. Bh6 b6) 9. Bxh6 and we can never castle kingside and it will be difficult to develop the h8-rook. We would probably have to move our king forward to d7 or e7 at some point in order to develop the h8 rook, and if we do that then I don't think the black king is very safe anymore.

Also if we leave our king in the centre then we can't really play ...e5 anymore (since that would open up the centre more and expose our king).

7...h5 would only temporarily prevent Bh6 until we play ...0-0, so it seems like a pretty pointless move.

7...h6 seems pointless for the same reason as above.

7...e5 8. Bh6 Bxh6 seems pretty risky to us. We can no longer castle kingside and ...e5 seems like a terrible move to have played when our king is in the centre (since it opens up the centre).

I'm not so sure 7...e5 8. Bh6 0-0 would be good for us. I think white can play 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. dxe5 Qxd1+ 11. Kxd1 and try to hold on to the extra pawn on e5. Maybe black doesn't have enough compensation. And also if we want to play 7...e5 8. Bh6 0-0 then we could also just play 7...0-0 8. Bh6 e5 instead (different move order).

7...f5 seems crazy (and I don't think it's good, since it opens up our kingside a lot, which is where our king wants to be), but I'm not sure what white would play against it.

7...c5 might be worth considering, even if it might leave our king in the centre.

E.g. 7...c5 8. Bh6 Bxh6 9. Bxh6 cxd4 10. cxd4 Qab5.5+ 11. Qd2 Qxd2+, which leaves our king in the centre but at least queens have been traded.

Or 7...c5 8. Bh6 9. Bxh6 cxd4 10. Qxd4 (both threatening Qxh8 and Qxd8) 10...Qxd4 11. cxd4.

I've only looked at 7...c5 very briefly. I haven't analyzed it enough to be comfortable playing it at this point.

I think 7...0-0 seems best. It keeps our options open. I don't know what we should play after that, but we should probably attack the centre with ...c5 or under some circumstances maybe even ...e5.