Annotated chess game

5.g3 is also 'book' leading to the fianchetto variation.

this does seem quite strange, black is obviously striving to play ...e5, so why not straight away? now after ...e5 white can simply lock up the centre with d5! and the rook that should be on f8 looks stupid on e8!

Certainly premature. Black usually seeks to block up the centre, often by ...e5 (commonly played right now in fact, as Black doesn't really lose a pawn after 6...e5 7.dxe5?!). So: 6...e5 7.d5 is often played (though White can delay this advance), whereupon black starts looking towards the ...f7-f5 pawn break (moving the f6-knight out of the way betimes, of course, to e8, d7 or even h5, depending on how things go in the next few moves). The rook standing on f8 gives this break added force, driving the pawn on or exploiting if the file opens.

ionadowman; maybe black doesn't realise he won't really lose a pawn after 7. dxe5! This could explain Re8... I don't like e5, not because it weakens white, but because after 6. dxe5 the queens can be swapped, and the game becomes very boring. It's too early to know whether the rook belongs on the e file, but it's not a game-losing mistake, so black shouldn't be too worried just yet. He can't afford too many more mistakes in development though.

yes a very bad move, the b5 square is of little importance in this position and this also removes the a6 square for the knight which can often be a useful stepping stone to c5.zt black should play...e5 as it appears he had intended although after d5! white is definatly better as black has expended a tempo misplacing his rook on e8 and will most likely have to move it back to f8 in the course of the game, effectively losing 2 tempii

Definitely weird... blacks has a problem a lot of amateurs have; not knowing what to do once the early 'book' game is over! Thats why you should try and learn things about the game yourself rather than try and memorise chess books. Black should just simply develop, e5 seems best unless he is trying to avoid the queen swap, but if not Bg4 would have been ok...

The problem is that new players tend to learn opening moves by heart, sometimes too many. It's far more important learning the plans for offense and defense in your selected repertoire than just blurting out 20 moves lines at the end of which you find yourself in uncharted territory. This is also symptomatic to playing the opening very fast and not establishing a concrete plan of action for each game you play.

this move also prevents blacks kings knight from hopping to g4 when you play Be3.

Kingstuart makes a good point. If Black plays ...c5 within the next few moves, White's QB would stand quite well on e3...

Kingstuarts right, good planning ahead, tagg!

I rather suspect Black is worried about the consequences of a central pawn advance (...e5 or ...c5) if White exchanges pawns and then queens. Black ought to welcome this, but inexperienced players often find queenless games difficult to play. So maybe Black feared Q exchanges. However, if he wanted to block the d-file, ...Nbd7 was the better choice. The QB will soon find a move, whereas after the text, the development of the QN could become a problem...

hmmmm... this is an odd move, black continues to avoid the ...e5 advance and now his b8 knight has no square should black play ...e5 later on. ...e5 is probably best, black really needs to start attacking the white centre ------------ edit: it appears e5 wins the f6 knight as after it moves to h5 g4 traps it!

Hey, i was the one who mentioned the queen exchanges! black should have gone 8. Nd7, then later on he coould move it and THEN play Bd7. Bd7 is the only possible square for the bishop... amazing what a simple move like h3 can do... (tagg obviously knew this would happen. credit must go to him!)

a very nice square for the bishop. look at the difference between the black position and the white one. white is nicely developed with an impressive pawn centre, blacks position looks cramped and clumsy, the ...e5 break that black so desperatly wants will only land him in more trouble after d5 as ...c6 loses a pawn and the dark square holes on the queenside are very obvious thanks to the nicely posted e3 bishop.

9.e5 wins a piece on the spot, all thanks to Black's Re8 and Bd7 clumsy moves.

finally, after all this 'preparation' black plays the required avdance. ---------- i feel the bishop is well placed after this advance, (it is often posted here even when black has already played ...e5 and even in lines with Bg5 the bishop will sometimes retreat to e3 when the question is asked) as it eye's potential targets on the queenside should black ever try to break up the white centre with ...c6.

Blacks white bishop would be nicely posted, except after tagg plays 10. e5 the b8 knight might as well not be there for all the good it's doing. Thats why Black should have gone Nd7 on move 8, that would have ensured both the knight and bishop were in play rather than just the bishop.

definatley best, blacks queens knight now has no squares and the e8 rook is misplaced. blacks got a tough game ahead of him...

Half of blacks pieces are impossible to develop effectively, and there's not a lot black can do about it.

He "gets in" his knight move before White can think about pinning it (though White might have had other, equally good, plans in mind). My own view is that Black might as well go in for the ...f5 break while he still has the chance to do so.

These are both standard plans for black in positions with this type of structure, but in this specific case they are probably premature, black should first be trying to unravel the queenside pieces before he get crushed on that side of the board. maybe ...a5 with the idea of Nb8-a6-c5? ----------- the problem is he doesn't have the chance

Black could play c5 or c6 now, they would offer his queen some options and they would be a small buffer to white's high control of the centre. a5 would have been ok as well, black really needs to develop that knight.