James West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit: A Follow-Up
New Jersey master James West is a long-time fan of the Philidor Counter-Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5), and in this recent post I wondered what he had in mind against the important line 4.Nc3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 d5 6.Neg5. Happily, West himself has written in to share his answer, or at least where it can be found: on his blog, in this post in particular.
His answer, in short, is 6...exd4 7.Nxd4 Qe7+, which looks like a safer approach than 6...h6 or 6...e4. But is it a panacea? I don't think so. Have a look here, where I recap my earlier analysis of 6...exd4 and add some more. My conclusion is that White is clearly better, and moreover in positions where Black isn't having any fun.
His answer, in short, is 6...exd4 7.Nxd4 Qe7+, which looks like a safer approach than 6...h6 or 6...e4. But is it a panacea? I don't think so. Have a look here, where I recap my earlier analysis of 6...exd4 and add some more. My conclusion is that White is clearly better, and moreover in positions where Black isn't having any fun.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Part 9 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- Part 8 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- Part 7 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- Part 6 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- Part 5 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit: Another Go-Round, with an Assist from Marvin Barker
- Part 4 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- Part 3 on West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
- James West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit: A Follow-Up
- James West and the Philidor Counter-Gambit
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Friday April 6, 2007 at 5:56pm
Otherwise, all this discussion is "unproductive", move 5..d5?! is dubtious, it is known 5..exd4 and specially 5..Cf6! are the correct ones !!, see http://www.chessexchange.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1780 answer with my alias "loco" ( Mad, in Spanish ).
Best, Alejandro Melchor, Barcelona, Spain
Perhaps it's some uneven, but in their writtings West quotes another line after 7.Nxd4: 7..Nf6 8.Be2 (8.Qe2+ Qe7 9.Bf4 Kd7 unclear ..but of course, to me 9..Kd7 is an atrocity !!) 8..Nc6 9.Bb5 Qd6 10.0-0 Be7 11.Re1 Ng4 12.Ngf3 0-0 13.Bxc6 bxc6 14.h3 Nxf2 15.Kxf2 Bh4+ 16.Rg1 Bxe1 17.Qxe1 c5 with compensation. No doubt, the variation can be ameliorated ...
Alejandro Melchor.
As for the second comment, both lines admit of improvement. After 5...d5 6.Neg5 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nf6, we have
(1) 8.Qe2+ Qe7 9.Bf4 Kd7 (Calling this an "atrocity" is an overstatement. It's not best, but it's not much worse than any other move, and Black is clearly worse in all lines. For example, if 9...h6, then 10.Nge6 Na6 11.Nxf8 Rxf8 12.Qxe7+ Kxe7 13.Bxa6 Ne8 14.Bg3 bxa6 15.O-O-O +/-, or 9...c6 10.O-O-O Qxe2 11.Bxe2 +/-.) and now simply 10.O-O-O Qxe2 11.Bxe2 is clearly better for White.
(2) 8.Be2 Nc6 9.Bb5 Qd6 10.O-O Be7 11.Re1 Ng4 and now the rather direct 12.Bxc6+ bxc6 13.f4 looks clearly better for White.