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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
I’m fond of the Stafford gambit line in the Petrov, which is not sound enough to play in correspondence games, but at my level against other “low intermediate” players it’s a very powerful blitz and rapid weapon. White really has to know the exact refutation, or will find itself on the wrong end of some nasty tactical lines.
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Would be hilarious for someone to play the Stafford in a daily game! I've been learning to refute it as white but it's super stressful and you need to play like 5 perfect moves in a row to realize the advantage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I've definitely been experimenting with different openings and I've found the Indian opening (Nf6) to be very interesting against the Queen's gambit. It's put me in positions I'm quite unfamiliar with right now, but it seems like it's not a common play which can help give you the edge as white doesn't really know how to play against it.(even our tournament champion was surprised by it, though it didn't lead me to victory).
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Nf6 has become my response to d4. Has a lot of flexibility going into Indian games and you can also easily transpose into a QGD or anti-London. I'm not a big fan of the King's Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6), as you are conceding the centre and have to rely on pawn breaks at the right time to fight back, but have really been liking the Nimzo Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4) as a powerful counter that threatens white with doubled pawns. In our game I didn't want to face the Nimzo so developed my other knight instead and we ended up in that Bogo Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I do like the Caro-Kann, but have grown to hate the white pawn that ends up on e5. Seems like it's key to use your knights properly in that opening to avoid that problem, but I'll admit I've shied away from using it as that pawn just frustrates me. Perhaps it's time to bring it back?
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Yeah the advance Caro is challenging to play against as you can't easily develop your king side and castle. I like to be very patient and strike with the c pawn at the right time to undermine that e pawn. Qb6 is also a useful move as you probably saw in our game when I eventually used the Queen to capture your d pawn.
Just don't like playing against IFF's Advance Tal variation as it takes even more space on the king side and castling is next to impossible. Funny enough I was able to get ahead in our second game of this variation after he made a mistake castling while I kept my king in the centre. Clearly the lesson is never castle!