28-03-2012, 10:43 PM
[pgn]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. Re1 O-O 8. h3
d5 *[/pgn]
Spoiler here>> So he played 8. h3 - the anti-Marshall line.
My response 8...d5 potentially deserves a question mark. 8...d5? When playing at Hastings this year I looked into this as a possible reply to 8. h3. I came to the conclusion that there isn't quite sufficient compensation to claim it's equal. White is better. However, it's very much a novelty and I'm hoping he won't be able to find one of the lines I found that gives white a pleasant position. If this were a tournament situation I would definitely go for the more modest 8...d6.
Perhaps he'll think I have played this move by accident and that I assumed he had gone c3.
The whole idea of playing d5 now is that after the normal Marshall exchanges: 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 we go 11...Nb6!? We have some pretty cool counter-play through c5 and in particular, unlike the Marshall, black's light squared bishop finds a wonderful square on b7.
If he goes 12. d4?! as though it's a Marshall main line... then black has 12...c5! immediately returning material equality with a nice position as c3 is the only reasonable response and after exchanging Bf6 is looming before winning the pawn on d4. <<Spoiler here
d5 *[/pgn]
Spoiler here>> So he played 8. h3 - the anti-Marshall line.
My response 8...d5 potentially deserves a question mark. 8...d5? When playing at Hastings this year I looked into this as a possible reply to 8. h3. I came to the conclusion that there isn't quite sufficient compensation to claim it's equal. White is better. However, it's very much a novelty and I'm hoping he won't be able to find one of the lines I found that gives white a pleasant position. If this were a tournament situation I would definitely go for the more modest 8...d6.
Perhaps he'll think I have played this move by accident and that I assumed he had gone c3.
The whole idea of playing d5 now is that after the normal Marshall exchanges: 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 we go 11...Nb6!? We have some pretty cool counter-play through c5 and in particular, unlike the Marshall, black's light squared bishop finds a wonderful square on b7.
If he goes 12. d4?! as though it's a Marshall main line... then black has 12...c5! immediately returning material equality with a nice position as c3 is the only reasonable response and after exchanging Bf6 is looming before winning the pawn on d4. <<Spoiler here