Double Fianchetto Bishops.

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Kevin O'Rourke
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Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by Kevin O'Rourke » Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:39 pm

Double Fianchetto Bishops.


I can’t think of a time I’ve done with this both bishops as I usually only want to do it when the bishop sits infront of my king for extra defence – or to get on with early development and aid castling.. Does anyone on here regularly put both bishops on the long diagonal and if so, do you find it a good strategy?

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JustinHorton
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:59 pm

I used to do it regularly when I was playing the Reti twenty years ago and must have done it occasionally since when playing the Catalan or g3 against the King's Indian.

I'm guessing it's much more rare for Black to do it and can't actually remember ever having done so (there's the Hippopotamus for instance, or the Symmetrical English with g6) although I surely must have in one game or another. I did lose a game last summer though where the bloke played a Queen's Indian with 5...g6 and I had no idea what I was doing.
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Roger de Coverly
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:13 pm

JustinHorton wrote: I'm guessing it's much more rare for Black to do it
Depends on how you defend against London and Torre systems. If you play them as a tempo down Reti, you get a double fianchetto quite often. In some order, Black will play Nf6,g6,Bg7,d6,c5,Nbd7/c6,b6,Bb7.

chessbase has a recent example.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/tactic-blo ... -07-07-17e


Players of the Tiger Modern will get Bishops on g7 and b7 reasonably often, admittedly after playing a6 and b6/b5. Even defenders of the Spanish in the regroup systems, Zaitsev, Breyer etc. will get the Bishops to g7 and b7 as may players of e6,d6 Sicilian systems.

I'd agree that if you spend your life playing the French or Caro against 1. e4 and the Slav or some other .. d5 based system against 1. d4, you may never see Bishops on g7 and b7.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:05 pm

The purest "double fianchetto" line for Black is probably the Mongredien system - not that common, but once appeared in a WC match!

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Jonathan Rogers
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:10 pm

White is often best advised to go for this against many lines of the Dutch.

Grunfeld players sometimes double fianchetto as well; Smyslov popularised this, at least according to Kasparov.

Did Bobby Fischer ever do it, I now ask myself for no obvious reason?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:06 pm

Jonathan Rogers wrote: Did Bobby Fischer ever do it, I now ask myself for no obvious reason?
Searching Fischer games where he was Black for positions with Bishops on g7 and b7 comes up with 35. Among the better known games would be game 2 against Petrosian in the 1970 RoW match (English), the game with Spassky in the 1970 Olympiad (Grunfeld) and game 3 against Taimanov (King's Indian middle game).

Almost all the examples are from 1. d4 starts, there's a handful of non-critical Najdorfs as well where Black plays .. e5 and then later g6.

I checked my own games and I get the Bg7/Bb7 position reasonably often. It's down to opening choice of course and how you play middle games with a number of the positions arising later on in the game. The earliest is at move 4, using the pure g6,Bg7,b6,Bb7 set up. More normally it can be at move 5. A 4NCL game with Stewart Reuben wandered away from known positions with 1. c4 b6 2. e4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. d3 g6 5. f4 Bg7. After Stewart later played d3-d4, the positions resembled a Modern Benoni, given that Black played .. c5 at move 10

IanCalvert
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Re: Double Fianchetto Bishops.

Post by IanCalvert » Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:48 pm

Kevin O'Rourke wrote:Double Fianchetto Bishops.


I can’t think of a time I’ve done with this both bishops as I usually only want to do it when the bishop sits in front of my king for extra defence – or to get on with early development and aid castling.. Does anyone on here regularly put both bishops on the long diagonal and if so, do you find it a good strategy?
As an almost exclusively 1. b3 player for over 40 years, I regularly put both bishops on the long diagonal often after transposition to for example mainline Retis. I find it a good strategy against both Tigers and Heffalumps (up to 30 points above me). However it is without doubt too slow for some players who prefer a sharper , more tactical, game.