Technical chess questions

[Paul McKeown]

a) the figurines are in Chessbase Times New Roman

Already replaced with letters for pieces - should be legible to everyone (apart from the diagrams)

Regards,
P.

[John Upham]

Paul, this looks like a very thorough piece of work!

There must be many, many lines which have been "refuted" that appear on boards and computer screens around the world and continue to get outings. For example, I wonder when was the last time that

1. d4 b6 2. e4 Lg7 3. Ld3 f5? got wheeled out followed by

4. ef: Lg2: 5. Dh5+ g6 6. fg: etc

at a recordable level.

Your next challenge Paul is to document the following lunatic variation of the BDG :

1. d4 d5 2. e4 de: 3. Sc3 Sf6 4. f3 ef: 5. Sf3: c6 6. Lc4 Lf5 7. Se5 e6 8. 00 Lc2: !? (rather than normal 8..Lg6)

Good Luck!

[Paul McKeown]

1. d4 b6 2. e4 Lb7 3. Ld3 f5? got wheeled out followed by 4. ef: Lg2: 5. Dh5+ g6 6. fg: etc. at a recordable level.

What recordable level is that John, the Magistrates Court?

[Paul McKeown]

Your next challenge Paul is to document the following lunatic variation of the BDG :

1. d4 d5 2. e4 de: 3. Sc3 Sf6 4. f3 ef: 5. Sf3: c6 6. Lc4 Lf5 7. Se5 e6 8. 00 Lc2: !? (rather than normal 8..Lg6)

Good Luck!

I don't think so!

I'm not a fan of the BDG, I think it's dross of the worst order; strangely, about 1999-2001, there seemed to be a great upsurge in its popularity and everywhere I went, people seemed to wheel it out against me. Do I look stupid or something? [Don't answer that folks, it's rhetorical!] My score - P11 W10 L1... Mind you most of the opposition wasn't too clever, but still! I quite like Andy Martin's article, "Shopping for a Tombstone", which you can find on the net somewhere, in which he takes to the task of demolishing the BDG with relish. As to 8... Lxc2, well I can't see anything immediately wrong with, but aren't you giving White tempi to double on the f-file after something like 9. Qd2 Bg6 10. Qf2 ? Perhaps you can give some variations (I can't believe I'm saying that - I've still to learn the Najdorf and the Zaitsev variations and here I am discussing the BDG... ) Mind you, my experience of the BDG as Black is that you end up 5 pawns up and then White resigns before the endgame arrives and Black can have his fun! Did you ever read Stereotypes by Keith Marshall on the Kings Head website at http://www.khcc.org.uk/mrmen.htm. This is the BDG player for you:

The Sacrificer

The name itself announces this player, no matter which opening you choose against him he will sac something early on and mess up all your nice plans of doubling up on the open file, or piling up on his isolated pawn, then just after you've pulled your position back into balance, bang another pesky sac, once again you've got to weather the storm before getting back into some sensible position. Now you're two pawns up, about to start your own attack, but no! a piece comes flying your way, putting you back on the defensive. Then after a lot of thought and plenty of defending you finally manage to get out of this latest melee, you're now getting geared up for some fun of your own, you bring a Knight onto the fourth rank with some attacking ideas in mind. Lo and behold he goes and resigns! after having all the fun too!

Priceless.

[John Upham]

OK, If you won't document these lines then what about

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e5!? which appears to be more or less ignored by the literature and yet the players of the Fantasy Variation appear to respect 3.. e5!? more than any other reply.

If you don't fancy that then something more main stream : 16. Tb1 in the Botvinnik Semi- Slav : hours of fun.

[Carl Hibbard]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e5!? which appears to be more or less ignored by the literature and yet the players of the Fantasy Variation appear to respect 3.. e5!? more than any other reply.

Is not 3.... de 4. fe e5 even stronger?

[Greg Breed]

Did you ever read Stereotypes by Keith Marshall on the Kings Head website at http://www.khcc.org.uk/mrmen.htm.

Quality stuff! Had me laughing out loud. Thanks for posting it Paul. I'll definitely be sharing it...

[Paul McKeown]

A walk to d6 is impressive to just get there so early.

The player of the Black pieces was heard muttering something about burning witches...

[Richard Bates]

Paul, this looks like a very thorough piece of work!

There must be many, many lines which have been "refuted" that appear on boards and computer screens around the world and continue to get outings. For example, I wonder when was the last time that

1. d4 b6 2. e4 Lg7 3. Ld3 f5? got wheeled out followed by

4. ef: Lg2: 5. Dh5+ g6 6. fg: etc

at a recordable level.

1.d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 f5 5. ef Bxg2 6. Qh5+ g6 7. fg etc will give you more joy.

[Paul McKeown]

1.d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 f5 5. ef Bxg2 6. Qh5+ g6 7. fg etc will give you more joy.

That makes much more sense. Not that I want to write anything about it, just to be clear!

[John Upham]

That makes much more sense. Not that I want to write anything about it, just to be clear!

I'm not clear that it makes more sense if one wishes to avoid playing c4 vs b6 and since b6 works particularly well vs c4 it is one reason to avoid it.

The line I quoted w/o c4 is a forced win for White as long as one recalls the key move 8. Sf3 or does anyone believe that Black is surviving?