The other day, I was chatting with IM Renato Naranja about an idea that Nick Conticello showed him. It involves playing an early g6 in the Philidor, thus taking it into some sort of weird Pirc territory. The position in question occurs after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 g6!?
After glancing at the position, i thought that white should have an advantage after playing f4 and simply going for it in the center. However, with each variation I tried from this starting point, Renato easily demonstrated the flexibility of black’s position.
I can’t condone playing like this (the philidor…my word…other than Master Jim West- who can get away with playing such a defense?) but it is always eye opening to see a new idea so early on – especially one that seems so logical. As I progress (can I call it progress?) I’m reaching the conclusion that it’s best to deviate early and focus your study time on tactics, tactics, tactics, so fresh and original ideas- such as this one and those presented in the New in Chess SOS series- are worth their weight in gold for both surprise value and conservation of study time. The awesome thing about this variation is two IM’s seem to think it is solid as a rock for black- which is good enough for me. Who says originality is dead in chess? I seem to come across these amazing new little gems all the time- and I’m a patzer!
Following are some games I found over on chess labs featuring this variation.
4 Responses to “The Philidor with g6!?”
This is Larsen’s variation, as Bent Larsen played it in the 60s. In my database it actually scores better than 4…Nf6, but that’s just statistics ! The spelling is also Philidor, with an “i”, not ” a”.
Interesting- are there a significant number of games in this variation represented in your database (i.e. more than 100) or only a few. It’s an interesting idea, i didn’t realize that the late Larsen had his name on it- thanks for the info- if you have any good games where larsen uses it to great effect email me pgns and i’ll put them up.
cheers
Yes Larsen did quite well with this variation I believe. I studied this variation a few years back and the best approach is the dragon/english attack setup with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Qd2 O-O 8. O-O-O Re8 9. f3. Black can’t use the c-file to counter attack and the e-file is quite secure after f3.
I’ve kept intending to respond in more detail, but just not found the time.
In answer to your question on numbers, I have over 1200 games with 285 involving players rated over 2350, so this excludes the Stauntons of this world, but includes many other modern players !
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, some are classified as King’s Indian( A42, E92, E94 ) and others as Pirc, but these do have the basic position after 5…g6, just not always reached via 1.e4.
Larsen may not have been the prime exponent, as I could only find 4 games of his. Mind you one of then was a draw with Tal ( albeit that the other 3 Black games in that 8 game match in 1969 Larsen actually won, playing the Alekhine and 2 Sicilians ! )
In fact if you believe Nigel Davies, the man to use and win with it most was English Master John Littlewood. See here for a brief assessment and example game from his excellent blog ( http://chessimprover.com/?p=1230 ).
As a Philidor player, I admit to not using this variation, but maybe I will try it some day !