Curtains vs PoG

[Stephen H]

Is Qb3 the only response to Nb4? What about Qe3+, how do we respond to that (aside from drooling over the forking potential on c2 that we likely will never realize)?
Why is it Na3 instead of Nd4 to protect the c2 square? With our isolated queen's pawn at d5, he wants to park a piece at d4 - and a knight would be great for that.

Is
8. ... Nb4
9. Qe3+ Be7
10. Nd4 O-O
11. O-O
out of the question, or something similar? Is that better than
8. ... Be7
9. O-O O-O

I'm very concerned with leaving our king open on the efile for any longer than we have to.

[NajdorfDefense]

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He moves Q to Qb3, we move Bf5. He cannot reply a3 without losing the rook. His Nf3 is good so he will seek to develop Na3, mostly having finished his development, followed by castling if he can do so down the road.
Also, with the Bishop at f5 we can even move that to e4 attacking the fianchetto diagonal and exchanging his bishop if he plays Nd4. Actually, he'll have to play f3 since his bishop is unprotected and he won't want to castle K-side after a B-exchange. It will be a evenly matched positioin and we'll have prevented him from castling. Good for us.

[/ QUOTE ]


What is our response to:

8. ... Nb4
9. Qb3 Bf5
10. Nd4

Now he's got the c2 square guarded twice, and our bishop is under attack and we don't want to trade bishop for knight here. Isn't

10. ... Be4 (offering a trade)

met by

11. f3

And any other bishop move is just retreating and moving the same piece twice?

[/ QUOTE ]

11. f3 really ruins his kingside. He can do it, but then he is permanently uncastled, more or less, we have open c file and half-open e-file, we play maybe...Bg6 I guess. Dunno. Keeps pressure on c2 and we can move rook/Q to that file and keep adding, at least we'll own one file! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

f3 is so ugly-looking I doubt he'd play this line. IMs I hear are good at pattern recognition, this can't possibly look good as a white opening position, bwtfdik.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
Is Qb3 the only response to Nb4? What about Qe3+, how do we respond to that (aside from drooling over the forking potential on c2 that we likely will never realize)?
Why is it Na3 instead of Nd4 to protect the c2 square? With our isolated queen's pawn at d5, he wants to park a piece at d4 - and a knight would be great for that.

Is
8. ... Nb4
9. Qe3+ Be7
I'm very concerned with leaving our king open on the efile for any longer than we have to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Qe3+ forces us to develop our bishop and helps us get one step closer to castling, while accomplishing zippo for white, no? This I'm fairly certain of as early as when I glanced at it last night, but it was 1 am so I could be wrong, but not by much.

[checkmate36]

I voted for Be7. Im not very good at this game but Im good enough to know that you don't disagree with a guy whos name is NajdorDefense.

I think its a good idea to put up a new poll. I didn't understand the position and we should go with Naj's plan.

[chuckleslovakian]

1. c4 e5
2. g3 Nf6
3. Bg2 c6
4. d4 exd4
5. Qxd4 d5
6. cxd5 cxd5
7. Nf3 Nc6
8. Qd3

Curtains

PoG

Alright, I'll do the poll again. Right now I am putting the poll up based on a judgment call when discussion seems to be done. I was clearly wrong first time so I'm putting it up again. Any suggestions to avoid this from happening again?

[ChrisV]

The more I look at it, the more I don't see anything wrong with Nb4, even though it's a weird looking move. I think it might actually be the reason Qa4 is more normally played here, rather than Qd3.

I'd like to retract my support for Be7 and go with Nb4. chuckles, can you put up a new poll?

[shortline99]

i'm against Nb4.

[dmk]

i have a feeling Be7, Bc5, Bb4+, and Nb4 are probably so close in EV that it doesn't even matter lol

[NajdorfDefense]

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i have a feeling Be7, Bc5, Bb4+, and Nb4 are probably so close in EV that it doesn't even matter lol

[/ QUOTE ]

The fact that you and 6 people who voted above can't figure out which is the proper square for the B helps show that the correct Knight move is the correct move now.
If he goes Qe3+ then we'd have to move Be7 anyway, but then we do it 'for free,' with no loss of development. Nb4 helps us control the open c-file, guards d5, and retards white's development and severely lessens his ability to castle. After Bf5 he can't play a3 without losing the rook after Nc2+. It's either Nd4 or Na3. We are all good.
Be7 does nothing right here.

[checkmate36]

Thanks for putting up the 2nd poll.