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1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 f6
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ECO - B00 |
 
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4. f4
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4. Other possible moves - Nf3, Qh5 , Bb5, Bd3, exf6, c3 and Bf4 (from a search of 2 million games)
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4... Bf5
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4. ... Bf5 main line, other possible moves g6, Nh6, e6 (a bit pointless IMO as it locks in the white squared bishop), fxe5 (which I didn't like as it opened up the board leaving white with an early space advantage)
What I liked about the games viewed down this line is that black gets his white squared bishop outside of the pawns and black can exchange the pawns at any time he/she chooses. |
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5. Nf3
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5. Bb5 is a good alternative, other possible moves Ne2, c3 and the obvious Bd3. Be3 and a3 do not seem to lead to much IMO, yet both have been played in master games) |
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5... Be4
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5. ... Be4 now the game is interesting. Black has taken two moves with the bishop in the opening. Generally it can lead to trouble moving a piece twice in opening - the advantage here is that any change by white gives black a passed pawn. (of course with timely f5). |
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6. Bb5
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The only two moves I could find from a 3.5 million game search were Nbd2 and Be2. I back tracked a few moves and found a ton of games with 5. Bb5 Qd7 and played through those to see what plans worked for black. So I combined two strategies - get a pawn on e4 and "threaten" queen side pawn advance. It is interesting to put the queen on a pin like this, but I could not see any way white could take advantage of it. |
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6... Qd7 7. O-O
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7. or develop the queen side - one possible advantage of Nbd2 is an early c4 OR trade off the bishop then N(f3)d2 and then c4 - which would probably force black to castle queen side (as developing king side minor pieces would take a couple of moves) - white could then plan around a queen side attack using the space advantage in the centre. |
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7... a6 8. Ba4
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8. Bxc6 gives up the bishop pair for no advantage. |
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8... e6
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8. ... e6, f5, move out dark squared bishop & Nge7 - looks ok for black. I realised here that black had a potential king side attack as well.
As white I would play Be3, Nbd2, c4, swap the bishop and play down the queen side. |
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9. Nbd2 f5 10. Nxe4
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10. c4 ... this just hands the centre to black. |
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10... dxe4 11. Bxc6
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11. Nbd2 & c4. White has to try to open up the centre and try to force black to castle Q-side. If this happened then the pin on c6 starts to "bite". |
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11... Qxc6 12. Nd2
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12. Ng5 might have been interesting. Black can't castle due to Nf7. 12. ... h6 leads to Qh5 . This may have given a tempo or two for white to advance one or two of the queen side pawns, giving black some potential problems with q-side castling. The best seems to be Nh6, 0-0-0, Rf8 then think about driving away the knight on g5.
The point of this game plan is white gets tied down to stopping a timely advance of the e pawn.
A big disadvantage here for white is the centre pawns are on same coloured square as the bishop. |
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12... O-O-O
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With a tempo - the d pawn is "hanging". |
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13. Nb3 Ne7
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Heading for d5 |
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14. Be3
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14. Bd2, Rc1 and c4 seen a better plan here.
Nd5 (at any time) forces white to move or defend.
IMO I think this was white's last chance to take advantage of the space in the centre. Bd3 leaves white responding to blacks threats from this point on.
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14... Nd5 15. Qe2 Nxe3 16. Qxe3 Qxc2 17. Rf2
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17. Rfc1 makes more sense to me here. White then has d5 followed by a possible Qb6/Qa7 & Na5/c5 attack. Since white is a pawn down - its better to be aggressive and try to force something on the queen side.
17. Rf2 is passive, its only function is now to protect the b pawn. This move lets me "off the hook" for being greedy.
I thought for while about this as I knew the c pawn was a potentially poisonous one. I trusted in c6, Rd7 to protect the king long enough to get the queen back via a3 (after Qxb2 to a Rfc1). |
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17... Qc6 18. Rc1
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Too late! The queen is back "home". |
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18... Qd5 19. Rfc2
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I can't see much else white can do here. As previously noted, the critical position (IMO) was at move 14.
King side attack is out of the question & queen side pawn push goes no where as black as an extra pawn on that side. The lost c pawn would have made a big difference in this position - assuming it was on c3 |
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19... c6 20. Rd1 Be7
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20. ... Be7. I figured that if white ever plays Nc5, I would swap. I also realised that a possible queen for two rooks would leave white with no play as both rooks would be on the d file and white's queen could not get past the 3rd rank. (as it happened in the game). |
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21. a3 h6
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Wait & see move - with a possibility of Rg8 & g5 |
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