Sunday, February 7, 2010
This is a game I just finished on Chess.com. I sac'd a knight early to get a positional advantage and prevent his castling possibilities, and almost pulled it off. Actually, I should have won, but 42. Rxa7 was a mistake. I should have gone Rb7 instead and then Rb4, which would have controlled those pawns and I should have been able to promote the a pawn. An exciting game either way.
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I was running this thru 365chess.com and they have move 5 as a4 by about a 4:1 margin over e4 or e3. Seems e4 makes more sense. a4 prevents b5 (or allows it and gives white the a file). When you follow the 5 e4 line, black immediately follows with b5, so that must be the reason for a4.
ReplyDeleteIn the 5e4 b5 line, black wins 53% of the games in their database to white's 27%. So I guess that although e4 appears more sound, it's hard to argue with black winning 2x more games with white's e4 move.
Joe Koudelka
Interesting. I feel that allowing the bishop in there for an exchange favors white b/c that bishop has a lot of real estate to work with and as the game went on, the bishop pair was a strong help for white. I like throwing that e pawn out there once the c pawn is taken in the queen's gambit, but I know that one of my weaknesses is in the openings, so maybe I should look at a4 there. If 5.a4,b5 6.axb, cxb, the afile is exposed for the rook, but also, black frees up his stacked pawns. I will have to see what is out there on this. Thanks.
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