Improving on Owen's Defense?

I recently watched a couple of videos by GM Igor describing the Owen Defence and I decided to learn and try them out myself. It is true that white can equalise but the hypermodern Owen's Defence catches some opponents off guard and I wanted to see if I could play even against a well ready opponent. Here's a game I used Owen's Opening in:

Here is another game I played with it. Again, I'm pretty sure this was a theory problem on my part.

I resigned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYuGy4zGQ6I

Matt Pullins videos are always great, he did a nice one on the Owens.

Just say no to the Owens Defense!

I'll tell my story again: about 1977-78, I decided to start an opening repetoire with 1. b3 and 1...b6. The b3 stuff (Larson's-Nimzovitch, as it was called at the time) was OK, but the Owen's was a complete dog. I got cramped positions and had to fight like hell to get any activity at all.

Eventually, I ditched that stuff and went to 1.e4 and 1...e5 and the only benefit I can think of from the Owens was learning how to defend in hopeless positions.

Think of it, White plays 1.e4 and Black does nothing to either counter that in the center or attack crucial squares. At best, that happens on move 2, when they play Bb7 and attack e4. But By then, White has already played d4 and can easily develop a piece and defend the e-pawn. White starts out with a space advantage and lead in development (Black will need to move e6 to get the other bishop out, and will need 4 more moves to get to 0-0.

The Owens promises a path of woe and ruin.

In this second game you simply lost due to miscalculation.

6...Bxc3 followed by taking on e4 wins a pawn.

7...Bxc3 followed by ..dxe4 would have won a piece!

8...Bxc3 followed by ..Ne4 would have been better than what you played.

Having missed those chances, White is probably just winning.  Here's the thing about playing these hypermodern defenses for Black, there is really no room for error!

But  6.......Bxc3 loses my light squared bishop, and that's one less minor piece I have to fight for the center and it leaves my rook exposed, which is why I didn't play it. 

Obviously you're a better chess player than I am, but I think I'm going to abadon Owen's Opening for other openings that are not hypermodern.

Added my comments.

GreenCastleBlock has exactly the right advice. In hypermodern openings (like the Hippo!), your objective is to attack the centre from afar. If you can take one centre pawn for free, you should do it, and the game is probably in favour of you then. And if you miss your chances, you'll get crushed handily.

If you can't see the necessary tactics, or have a sense of timing to break out with counterplay, don't play hypermodern stuff.

My own conclusions are the same.  It's fully playable, and fully agonizing lol.

That pretty much sums it up wafflemaster. I warn others with my bad experiences. If they insist on playing it, they can gather their own bad experiences and learn the hard way.

It is a good opening, not the best but quite good. But in your first game, when your opponent played a3, you should have attacked the d4 pawn instead of the e4 pawn. Playing d5 and Ne4 is not good for black in the owen's defence if white does not pin the knight with Bb4.

Basically you should attack the e4 pawn, but when you cannot do that you should attack the d4 pawn with c5. But it was said in that video so you should know it.

Funny, but true.

There is some room between "play the mainlines and learn the book 50 moves deep" and "play complete garbage so that the opponent is out of book". Play sound moves that efficiently attack the center, it will always be better than this.

+1

I dont like those d5 lines black just gets a poor French.  c5 keeps things more active and can end up more in a sicilaian type situation.

Owens is ok however you walk a fine line with it. Theoretically it falls just short of equality and in practice one slip can lead to some quick losses. On the other hand if you play it well and gain a feel for it you will start to win many games as white generally will know very little of the theory anyway and play sub optimal moves

I forgot to mention: in case of exchance on d5, in many lines of the Owen the black Queen finds a good square on row 5. So take back with the Queen.
Another question to the native English speakers: is it defence or defense? As a Dutchman i prefer to say defence as a fence.

Perhaps it is true: the Owen can be disastrous for black. But this is, in this case, due to tactical errors. And these tactical errors are partly caused by the incomprehension of the Owen. Then you can not say that the Owen is a theoretical miss.
Anyway: The contributions are very instructive. Thanks for that.

American: defense

British: defence

The owen's defense is garbage. Play something real