The 1700-1720 range is where I seem to have leveled off at chesstempo (standard problem set) too. Interesting.

Not at all. If you don't take advantage of the 50-move rule it will never get changed.

You missed 17 Qxg4, free knight.

I've been browsing openings on chessgames.com. The cool guys playing 1...d5 are now doing this:

1. e4 d5
2. exd5 Qxd5
3. Nc3 Qd6
4. d4 Nf6

And then either ... a6 or ...c6 next move depending on what white develops next.
Any comments on this?

Also, it seems to me that 3. Nf3 is a far superior move for white, because then he can do d4 and then c4 with gain of tempo.

That seems way more promising than what you're currently playing imho.

Here ya go. Comments from Nisipeanu. You should just be able to paste this into a file and put the extension as pgn:

After:

I find myself here. Who has the advantage if one exists and why? What is white's plan? What is black's plan?

e3-e4 might be a serious positional blunder; you want that square for your knight. What is your knight going to do for the rest of the game now?

Yeah, you definitely should have played Ne4 there. It's probably still a draw but White can screw around for a while threatening various sacs (exchange sac on a6, knight sac on d6 or f6 or g5, etc.).

The position you posted is 99% likely to be a draw. White might have some weird sac that he can play but I doubt it.

FWIW Black is actually the one who will decide whether to play for a win, since he has the only pawn break (...a4). Of course, this may involve giving the first player some chances as well. But if one can speak of a practical advantage here, it lies with black.

Very odd position.

After e4? white has no winning chances. All he can do is place his rooks on a1 and a2, queen on b1, knight on c1. Black can move ...a5, and then Queen on a8, rooks on a7 and a6, bishop on d7, king on e7, and then try ...a4.

It would take White ten moves to achieve that set-up, while it would only take Black eight moves to get his bishop on d7, rooks on a6 and a7, queen on a8, and pawn on a4. Since White won't be able to break through on the kingside I don't think it would be necessary for Black to put his king on e7.

So White would need to forgo two of those preparatory moves.

I don't think e4 actually changes the evaluation. I'm reasonably sure it's a a draw either way. After Ne4 f6 and d6 are perfectly safe and there's just no way to increase the pressure because the pawn on e3 is blocking everything in white's camp. I'm not saying e4 is good. Quite the opposite is true. e4 is actually quite a bad move because it prevents black from making the mistake of playing e4 himself. After e4 Ra1 Rff1 Nf3 Qd2 or f2 you have the same breakthrough ideas on the kingside for white.

I would be pretty shocked if anything worked on the a file. Plus that's no more dangerous to white than Nf3 Qf2 is to black.

I was looking at this line last weekend because I thought one of my opponents might play it. I felt really happy about my chances after looking at games like this one:

[Event "CRO-chT"]
[Site "Sibenik"]
[Date "2005.10.06"]
[Round "8.4"]
[White "Zelcic, Robert"]
[Black "Sermek, Drazen"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2533"]
[BlackElo "2531"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 a6 6. g3 Bg4 7. Bg2 Nc6 8. O-O O-O-O 9. d5 {It looks like Black might be OK here and maybe White has even overstretched with the d-pawn, but Black can't solve his problems here and he does terrible in practice} Nb4 (9... Ne5 10. Bf4 Nxf3+ 11. Bxf3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Qd7 (12... e5) 13. Rad1 {and Black still has problems with his development}) 10. h3 Bh5 11. Bf4 Qc5 12. Be3 Qd6 {if Black's best chance out of the opening is to try to repeat moves, it can't be good} ({the alternative is} 12... Qa5 13. g4 Bg6 ({GM Michele Godena decided instead to give up the exchange out of desperation with} 13... Nbxd5 14. Nxd5 Rxd5 15. Bd2 Rxd2 16. Qxd2 Qxd2 17. Nxd2 +/- {but soon lost anyway, Kotronias-Godena, Batumi 2002}) 14. Nd4 Nbxd5 15. Nb3 Qb4 16. Nxd5 Nxd5 17. Bxd5 e6 18. a3 Qb5 19. c4 Qe8 20. Bxb7+ Kxb7 21. Na5+ Kc8 22. Qf3 +- {and Black cannot stop the invasion of the White Queen, Skripchenko-Mamedjarova, EU-chT(W) 2007}) 13. Bf4 Qc5 14. Be3 Qd6 (14... Qa5) 15. Qe2 e5 (15... Nbxd5 16. Nxd5 Nxd5 17. Rad1 Qf6 18. c4 Nxe3 19. Rxd8+ Kxd8 20. Qxe3 +/- {it's surprisingly hard for Black to deal with the threats based around Qa7, Rasik-Antoniewski, Ostrava 2006}) 16. dxe6 Qxe6 17. g4 Bg6 18. Nd4 Qe7? {this looks like the decisive mistake} ({After} 18... Qe8 {I think White is clearly more comfortable but Black has chances. h7-h5, Bf8-d6, either N to d5 are ideas.}) 19. a3 Nbd5 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Nc6! bxc6 22. Qxa6+ Kd7 23. c4 Be4 24. cxd5 cxd5 25. Qb5+ Kc8 26. Qa6+ Kd7 27. Rac1 Bxg2 28. Rxc7+! Kxc7 29. Rc1+ Kb8 30. Qb6+ 1-0

Of course there are lots of alternatives for Black. But I think he isn't causing White any problems and if you aren't causing White problems then you should at least be able to get your pieces out, that didn't happen in a lot of these games.

Still 3...Qd6 has been played by lots of strong players (including very regularly by Tiviakov) and I've played openings that are ten times dodgier. So I can't say you should avoid it, all I'm saying is that it doesn't scare me as White.

Of course, in the actual game my opponent played 1...c5 (much more scary) and went on to win. So much for preparation.

You know. I half think the sicilian wouldn't be nearly as nice an opening if not for the anti-sicilians. So many people seem willing to play the most incredibly mediocre moves (like 1. e4 c5 2. b3) just to avoid theory, and it's quite pleasant.

I don't understand YARDBIRD on ICC. He seems to play so bland. His openings are mediocre, he rarely puts his opponent under much pressure and he's tactically quite sloppy (well given his rating), but he's always 2400+ 5-min ICC and he's 2500+ ELO. I follow his games and I still just don't get it. And I don't think it's just because his play is so far above my head. I can follow the games of most of the top 5-min players and perfectly understand their play and also why they are 2500+ and I'm not. But YARDBIRD, I just don't get it.

Heh yea, I have a big plus score vs him over the years. I cannot fathom how a) he plays so bad, he is much better than me at chess after all b) how does he stay so high-ranked

Just a wild guess here, but does he have a massive plus score against Strawman1 through Strawman57?

Ok I changed my mind again
I might continue playing 1. c4 as white. Because that transposes into just as many, if not more, openings than 1. d4, and they are just as sound.
But I like 1. c4 more. Opinions?

Also I might try out the French Defense also, except I want to develop the c8 bishop first. That opening looks fun but if I played Bf5 first then it would be better

That's pretty much the idea of the Caro-Kann which you apparently have been playing.

Oh

um

yeah I figured because sometimes when playing Scandinavian it goes 1. e4 d5 2. e5 c5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 Bg4

And then after I do e6 it is a pretty fun position to play, and that is like a transposed French Defense

1. e4 d5 2. e5? is simply an antipositional blunder that already probably has the game as =+. You can't ever realistically aim to get such positions from any opening.

If you want active piece play, then play the sicilian! The caro kann, you get somewhat bland/passive/cramped positions in exchange for a great bishop, in the french you get active play in exchange for having a terrible light bishop (and white having alot of very dangerous lines), in the alekhine you get good piece play in exchange for a serious lack of space, in the e5 lines you get easy development and good play in exchange for a somewhat defensive position, in the sicilian - you get everything in exchange for nothing!

IMO

What's the catch to Sicilian?

Also what if I was black and I moved my pawn between c6 and c5 on my first move and pretend everything is okay? Then they think I played the Sicilian and they do 2. Nf3. Then I'd play 2. d5 and say "adjust" and move my pawn to c6!
If they play 2. d4 then I'd play cxd4 obv

The downside to the sicilian is time. You spend quite alot of time maneuvering about with your pawns and pieces. White on the other hand is playing very classically and simply developing his pieces to their best locations, gaining central space and can come down on your king quick. The exception being if white plays an anti-sicilian in which case you get all the pros of the sicilian, with none of the cons. And at least against my opponents, I run into anti-sicilians a huge percentage of the time.

So you give white a certain amount of initiative. But you get excellent piece play, great structure and should an endgame occur black almost always has the best of it.

Another huge perk for black in the sicilian is that if white makes even the slightest misstep black can completely take over the game so quickly. I don't think any other opening constantly manages to force white to walk such a tight rope.

I just had this fun position:



White has a standard position with his usual small edge. With one natural but careless move, his position collapsed and black developed a winning initiative: 1. Nd2? Nf4 2. Qe3 dxe5 3. dxe5 g5! and suddenly every single one of black's pieces was bearing down on white.

How can you not love positions like that?