Look this game. chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/us-championship-2016/4/1/1
sorry didnt see this earlier, but all good , you won after all :)
just for the record : h5 is a positional mistake in this particular posiition IMO. Lets say that white plays something normal like a4 and short castle followed by Bg5 at some point
you would wish then your pawn was on h6
just for the record : h5 is a positional mistake in this particular posiition IMO. Lets say that white plays something normal like a4 and short castle followed by Bg5 at some point
you would wish then your pawn was on h6
woah , I take it back. It has been played by pretty strong players I jsut didnt know this line
Hey ReverseLogic that was a nice game but I'm not sure about about 9...h5 in this particular position. As other people pointed out the ...h5 idea has been played in a number of top GM games (mainly in the 6.Be3 variation). It is generally played to counter the white plan of f2-f3, Qd2, 0-0-0 and g4 in whatever (?) move order.
My main concern here is that white had already played Bf1-e2, so continuing with 0-0-0 and g4 would have probably been a pretty weak choice anyway. Some of the reasons why Bf1-e2 mixes badly with this plan are (I think) that black can push a quick b7-b5, menacing the white knight as his safest retreat square (e2) is already occupied, which would have virtually forced white to exchange it on d5. Also, if black could manage to land a piece (probably a knight) on c4, white would probably have to exchange it with a loss of a tempo. The e2 bishop also refrains the white queen from transfering quickly to the kingside when needed. I suspect white could have done in your game by adopting a plan based on 0-0 after 9...h5. I'd be interested to hear someone else's opinion about this.
Congratulations anyway !
My main concern here is that white had already played Bf1-e2, so continuing with 0-0-0 and g4 would have probably been a pretty weak choice anyway. Some of the reasons why Bf1-e2 mixes badly with this plan are (I think) that black can push a quick b7-b5, menacing the white knight as his safest retreat square (e2) is already occupied, which would have virtually forced white to exchange it on d5. Also, if black could manage to land a piece (probably a knight) on c4, white would probably have to exchange it with a loss of a tempo. The e2 bishop also refrains the white queen from transfering quickly to the kingside when needed. I suspect white could have done in your game by adopting a plan based on 0-0 after 9...h5. I'd be interested to hear someone else's opinion about this.
Congratulations anyway !
Pitrinu, I appreciate the advice and understand where you're coming from. Be2 is definitely almost always played with a kingside castle and and attack with f4. That's what I prepared to defend with e5, Be7, and Be6.
However, from personal experience I knew my player liked to play the english attack and, as soon as he played f3, I had the strong feeling he would go into the typical g2-g4-g5 pawn pushing (despite the weird counter-intuitive Be2). When he did castle queenside, you were right about his knight on b3, it didn't have e2 as an escape square and was forced to exchange into equality for black.
Even if he had found a way to castle kingside though, I think black would still have had active opportunities and a small weakness on h5. There are many high level games where both sides go kingside and it is black attacking through the middle of the board. Here are two games I like between FIDE 2400 and 2500s that show the attack black can build against white's Be2. http://en.lichess.org/URbqGEdQ/black#0
http://en.lichess.org/taBuic1l/black#0
And thanks again on my win! I hope to play h5 for a while :)
However, from personal experience I knew my player liked to play the english attack and, as soon as he played f3, I had the strong feeling he would go into the typical g2-g4-g5 pawn pushing (despite the weird counter-intuitive Be2). When he did castle queenside, you were right about his knight on b3, it didn't have e2 as an escape square and was forced to exchange into equality for black.
Even if he had found a way to castle kingside though, I think black would still have had active opportunities and a small weakness on h5. There are many high level games where both sides go kingside and it is black attacking through the middle of the board. Here are two games I like between FIDE 2400 and 2500s that show the attack black can build against white's Be2. http://en.lichess.org/URbqGEdQ/black#0
http://en.lichess.org/taBuic1l/black#0
And thanks again on my win! I hope to play h5 for a while :)
If it's at all relevant, the first game was between Shepotilo (2377) and Aveskulov (2395) in Lvov 2003 and the second between Apicella (2501) and Areschenko (2566) in Cappelle la Grande 2003.
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