Unexpected near Transpositions

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
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Roger de Coverly
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Unexpected near Transpositions

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:46 am

From a thread about Batsford books
MartinCarpenter wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:31 am
That second book is absolutely fascinating as well of course - it has all sorts of things in it, including a bunch of games with Petrosian going Bf8, b6, Bb7 etc.
In the rare line 1. Nc3 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. e4, the sequence 3. .. e6 4. e5 bothered me. It was later pointed out that provided I was prepared to play in the style of a Petrosian Winawer, that Black had a development plan, namely to play .. b6, .. Bb7, .. Qd7, .. 0-0-0 .

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Unexpected near Transpositions

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:06 pm

There are lines in the Sicilian with an early Bb5 for White which can produce positions almost identical to the closed Ruy Lopez.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Roger de Coverly
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Unexpected near Transpositions

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:39 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:06 pm
There are lines in the Sicilian with an early Bb5 for White which can produce positions almost identical to the closed Ruy Lopez.
I worked out a line where Black meets 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ with 3. .. Nd7. What Black then does, tactics permitting, is to play .. e5, .. Nf6, .. Be7 , .. 0-0 , .. a6 reaching the same piece placement as the Breyer. You can then have the moves .. Qc7, .. Re8 and the idea .. g6, Be7-f8-g7. White may have played a2-a4-a5 to prevent .. b5. Black can then play the Breyer regrouping back to front with Nd7-b8-c6 with a threat to the a5 pawn. It's also possible to prevent a5 by playing .. b6 and following this up with .. Bb7.

Illustrative position at move 17 (Black to move and take on f4)


An engine suggests that White can retake on f4 with the rook and if Black follows up with the g5 fork, sacrifice the exchange with Rxf6 to stay in the game with only a small disadvantage.

Whole game

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