Move A Day - #3

Submitted by ih8sens on Wed, 04/23/2008 at 2:54pm.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4

Correct Response(s) - Several possibilities, cxd4 being prefered and probably best.

White has developed a very mobile position full of potential. Advantage is really up for grabs from this point on, conflict between the two forces has already begun with the black and white pawns in a 'situation'.

Although this is a generalization, a simple look at the position seems to indicate that black may be playing with his or her pawns a little more than white, who clearly is okay with moving the same knight twice in the opening.

It is interesting to note that many well known opening databases will show the line we're currently in to be the single most commonly played line amongst grandmasters.

Diagram:

» posted in Scholastics

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by grolich - 6 months ago
Israel Israel

Member Since: Mar 2008
Member Points: 234

> Correct Response(s) - Several possibilities, cxd4 being prefered and probably best.

One correction - sometimes you see ...Nf6 instead of cxd4 here.

...Nf6 has long been considered as clearly NOT inferior to cxd4. The reason being that white has nothing better than to play Nc3, allowing cxd4, transposing to the main lines.

This can be useful if you wish to avoid certain options. For examploe, if you're playing against a white player who likes to play the maroczy bind no matter what you play in the sicilian, or something else you would like to avoid,

...Nf6 would pretty much force white to either go into the main lines or drop the advantage immediately.

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