Bulldog Candidate Game (captaintugwash - HorribleTomato)

I not positional.

Nope. I already have a teacher, better than you.

You shall never know.

Go to (this thread) and add your name. After we have 16 players I plan to start another tournament.

I added my name

congrats tug

Has ry become converted to someone that thinks openings like 3.d4 Bc4 4.b3 Bxd3 5.Nxd3 are good for white?

Has Ry suddenly become an expert in bulldog openings? I can't tell you if move 3 is bad in any opening. Unless it's an obvious blunder of course.

Fair enough, but picking off a developing move on move three as an inaccuracy, that kind of confidence is impressive. I'd want a database with a large sample of games to be sure about that.

Wd3 is a fine move, but b3 is just...bad. Black has not committed to either develop his knight to b6 or to keep his bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal (against which b3 can sometimes be useful). b3 removes options of Nb3, Bb3, Ba4 and also makes castling queenside significantly worse.

b3 can make some sense if your planning to push pawns on the queenside with c4, but in that case you should focus on getting castled on the kingside first. White is still many moves away from castling kingside, so the timing seems wrong.

In short, unless b3 comes with tempo or if there is a very good reason to play it, then I do not want to play it early.

That pretty much applies to moving any pawn in the opening. We move pawns in the opening to assist with development and centre control. Pawns can't move backwards, an obvious point but an extremely important thing for people to remember.

Moves like a3 and h3 (or j3 in Bulldog) are exceptions to the rule, but these serve two purposes... they limit your opponent's development squares, avoiding pins, and give flight for your king. And even then, there's often a better, more aggressive move. 

Btw,

When someone asks me to justify a certain sacrifice I made, I say, “It should work.”

Ultra-intuitive.