Martin vs the world analysis thread #4

f4 at the end might be too far

Be3 maybe better

You go ahead with it if you want, but I'm warning you, it's a huge risk. If Martin can find even one weakness in our position, and manages to open the center, we are instantly dead.

if he gets one check its not the end of the game

But you do have a point

I personally think martin would play h5 over d6 and then we just got a slight positional improvement 

and after h4 d6 we are not forced to play h5

Yeah but even there we probably can't castle

We can castle long

or we could just put bishops on e2 and d2 with a rock solid king

If you guys don’t like h4 my vote will be Be2

But if you do, my vote is h4

Tug is gonna go into generalities with blah blah Nf3 is the main move so we play it blah blah blah

Castling long isn't safe either. c6 and b5 open the c-file.

I'm not saying it's bad, just really risky

I'm very upset at this turn of events. I vote for h4

Like the Event, as it doesn't change anything other than strategy.  (Sometimes a whole game can go by with very few checks.)  The next Event may turn everything upside-down.

Glad we have some strong players on our side.

Nothing really has changed. We're not getting checked to death in the middlegame. This might become a factor later, but the next event will probably define the game.

Nf3 keeps white in control of the opening. After d6 it's book KID, which is fine for white. I think h4 is probably too aggressive. Lots of grandmasters are playing h4 these days, I think it's the alpha-zero impact, so it might well be sound, but is it too ambitious? We're not grandmasters. 

We're basically waiting for Martin to start his event now before we can make any long term plan, so in the meantime we should make sure our king is safe. I suggest we calmly play Nf3 and keep him in an opening that slightly favours white.

This event will change the way we approach endgame, and also the latter part of the middlegame. There's no draw by perpetual check here, not unless three-fold repetition comes first. 

Some drawn endgames will now winning, such as K+R vs K+B, while K+R vs K+R will likely depend on which king has most lives left, or who gets the first check in. But these kind of plans are a long way away. The next event will probably be dominant. 

Called it

Nf3 is stupid

If we want to play generally, play Be2 closing the e file and adding to Devlopmenr 

Nf3 is better. We should wait to see what Martin does before developing the bishop, d3 might be a better square.

We don't need to close the e-file, it's already closed.

d3 is definitely a better square for the bishop if you ever intend to play h4.

true

My vote remains h4

We can play h4 later if it still feels appropriate. Nf3 is a move we're always playing in the opening, it's the least committing move. I feel like we're trying to be too aggressive, when we're actually getting the better of the opening and don't need to take risks yet. 

I can find one game at 2000+ where white plays h4, that was a draw.

I can find 5 games from a minor player db, 5 times h4 was played (av rating 1694) and black is winning three of them.

I think h4 is dubious, and unwise against a player of Martin's caliber. 

I found another 2000+ game after h4 d6 that black wins. Different move order to get there.

https://gameknot.com/analyze-board.pl?bd=x562663&mv=12&rnd=0.6368193375255498