White to move. How would you evaluate the above position?
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To me, seems like Black has a good game! He's castled, while White's not. He has a pin going on (even though it seems useless), while White doesn't. He also has a Bishop for a Knight (Although his extra Bishop is pretty hemmed in at the moment) and a nice pawn structure.
White to move. What about this position? This position is what leads me to positions like the first one.
These are the positions that came up a lot today while playing my little Excalibur Chess Computer after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Nf3 Nxg5 4.Nxg5 e6. After which I am forced to retreat my Knight back to f3, then Black plays d5 and I am back to square 1, trying to eventually push my e-pawn.
After playing a few of these games today I have come to the conclusion that 2.Bg5 is not helpful. Why trade my Bishop for a Knight if I gain nothing in return?
My idea was simply trying to find a quicker way to play e4, since that becomes the main theme of a lot of my games using the Queen's Pawn Opening. You must remember that I have not memorized specific Openings so I am pretty much out of book from move 1. I think it's better this way, mainly because after seeing the same problems arise again and again I begin to understand why a particular opening move (like 2.Bg5) doesn't help my position.
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9 comments:
In the first position I don't see a clear plan for White, maybe 1.a3 to chase away Black's Bishop. Maybe 1.Bd3 to prepare to Castle.
For Black I'm thinking 1...b6 to prevent 2.c5. Maybe 2...Bd6 and 3...Re8 to prepare for 4...e5.
I dunno...it's almost 6am and I'm not thinking clearly.
In the first position as white I would develop with Bd3 as white and then castle. At that point black's bishop poses less danger. I also think white would be better developed after castling.
In the second position I might play Nc5 to prevent Black from playing e5 so that white could play e4 on the next move.
I don't have opening moves memorized either. My chess coach has said no to that for awhile. BUT I did just finish a great book on opening principles by Edmar Mednis. It is called How To Make Good Opening Moves. It has REALLY helped me in thinking about the opening. It is easy (and cheap) to buy on Amazon. There are a LOT of typos though but the content is great. I am going to review it on my blog in a few days!
The whole reason for exchanging your queen bishop for Black's King bishop is that it removes the key defender of h7. White would be best to develop Bd3 like tommyg suggests as well as getting your knight to e5 to lock out position ( after castling). f4, qf3-h3, Rf3 are ideas for setting up a king side attack ala "Pillsbury" style.
Beside teh bishop pair, what does Black have? You have to play sharp lines that even may go against convention like miving your knight twice... if f4 is too squimish for you, you cna still play Qf3 to h3 followed by Ndf3 to g5. The closed center hems Blacks pieces away from teh kingside... and with the Knight gone it will take a couple moves to bring the other in its place.
Black's counter play is to be a mennace on your queen side. but then it becomes balancing your initiative versus can you afford to allow a black piece on b2.
don't lose faith on Bg5... explore the torre attack, trompowsky and above all, look into Pillsbury attack and Lasker's sacrifice ( bishops on h7).
exchanging your queen bishop for Black's king's knight rather ( can't type)
TommyG, I think you're right in your analysis of White after Bd3 and castling. I look forward to your review of that Openings book!
Blunderprone, Ahhhh now I see it! The weak h7 square...so there IS some usefulness to Bg5! So Bd3 would not only allow me to castle, but also start the pressure on h7. Interesting. I had no idea there was a name for this type of thing...Torre Attack...sounds good.
Briefly, to avoid all of these problems the right move is 3. Bf4; 2. Bg5 is the "Trompowsky" and you don't let him take that bishop with knight. The idea is that if he does anything other than 2. ...Ne4 you take on f6, giving both sides some imbalances to work with.
Wahrheit, thanks for the info! So I'm guessing that after 3.Bf4 Black will lose time getting his Knight chased back out of White's territory.
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