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How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:19 pm
by JustinHorton
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 a6!?
from the less-than-classic
Horton v Aroven, Prague 2017.
Continuation (as you can see) was 4 Nc3 c5 5 g3, if it helps you as it doesn't particularly help me.
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:37 pm
by Brendan O'Gorman
After 3…a6, Hiarcs Chess Explorer classifies the opening as E10: Dzindzikhashvili Defence.
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:39 pm
by JustinHorton
Interesting, though ideally more of an opening bid than a clinching one
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:50 pm
by Matthew Turner
My last game in the 4NCL against Ravi Haria started
d4 d5. c4 e6. Nc3 a6
Which seems perfectly reasonable for Black, so I guess your opening would normally be a variation on this theme, effectively a waiting move to see how White will set up and a6 will normally be of some use (forcing White to consider dxc4 more seriously. The combination of a6 and c5 doesn’t really seem to work for me. I guess your opponent is trying to get into some sort of Sicilian type structure.
In your game continuation I think 5. d5 is perhaps a more critical test of Black’s set-up because a6 might prove not to be that useful.
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:14 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
Ignoring the question, as I have nothing to add, I idly wondered if he meant to play 3....b6.
The problem with many systems involving c4 and d4 in some order is there are so many transpositions. Chessbase has provided different opening classifications for some of my games, as you get all the same moves, but not necessarily in the same order.
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:28 am
by JustinHorton
Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:14 pm
Ignoring the question, as I have nothing to add, I idly wondered if he meant to play 3....b6.
No, he definitely knew what he was at.
I am not convinced by this Dzindzi idea, though thanks to Brendan for the suggestion. I may have to resort to Queen's Pawn Game, which I normally associate witrh games collections from the interwar years.
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:38 pm
by Jonathan Rogers
I had some idea that 1...d5, 2...e6 and 3...a6 was named after Janowski. But as for ...Nf6, ...e6...a6, I really don't know, though I think that IM* Andrew Webster occasionally played it in 1990s.
* I don't normally bother giving people's titles but some of you might not remember!
Re: How would you classify this opening?
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:51 pm
by David Sedgwick
Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:38 pm
* I don't normally bother giving people's titles but some of you might not remember!
Is that because we are too young, or because we are too old?