The Black Vault

I can go to look at examples using my cell phone, but can't do much here accept type in the move list. Can you provide some pics, maybe? I'm going to leave off from my examples, games where black made decisive blunders like losing a queen or rook. And I run across that a lot - probably because of the nature of the opening - so it's not easy to find games you will find meaningful for analysis.

These 2 games show the simple idea of black not paying enough attention to the fact that the black diagonal bishop can take the kingside night which unfortunately--in a generic-non-fianchettoed-castled position--is the only piece defending mate.

In both these games, black played a little unorthodox because these players had already played against me and were familiar with my opening moves. So they tried to refute me using slightly unorthodox play. Another part of the beauty of this opening is you won't find it in any book so the other player is left with only his skills to help him, from the 2nd move on.

I'm playing 1600-1700 players. The higher the rating, the less chance a quick win is going to happen. This opening kicks into 2nd gear late in the middle game, but these never made it that far.

Game #1

1. b4 ..... Nf6
2. Bb2 .... e6
3. a3 ..... Be7
4. Nf3 .... O-O
5. c4 ...... a6
6. Nc3 .... Nc6
7. e3 ..... b6
8. Rc1 .... Bb7
9. Bd3 .... a5
10. Bb1? .. pxp
11. pxp .. Bxp (I lost a prawn, not good)
12. Qc2 ... Na5
13. Ne2! .. Ba6?
14. BxN ... resigns

I lost a prawn and in 3 moves he resigned. Not bad.

Game #2

1. b4 ... a6
2. Bb2 .. b5
3. Nc3 .. Bb7
4. e3 ... e6
5. a3 ... Nf6
6. c4 ... pxp
6. Bxp .. c5
7. Bd3 .. Nc6
8. Nc3 .. h6
9. Rc1 .. Bd6
10. Bb1 .. O-O
11. Qc2 .. Ne5
11. Ne2 .. Nxc4?
12. BxN .. resigns

frrostedman wrote:

humphreys wrote:See if this works.



EDIT: This is not quite right, the rook should be on c1, otherwise I think it's correct.

As a position it looks lovely, with the queen and bishop battery and the other bishop all staring at the black kingside, but you have some work to do to get into that position without the opponent doing anything about it.

Final scenario: Put the king on e2. Take away the king night and replace it with the prawn that was on g2. Then if you want you can slide the queen's rook over to g1. Or at the very least, put the queen's rook on c1 where it belongs. The attack begins at that point launching the king rook prawn and making a knight move to open up a diagonal. The queen can also switch to the black diagonal when convenient.

Also, early in the opening I am attacking black's prawn on e5. One fairly subtle trap is when he uses his queen's knight to defend that prawn. A simple prawn-push to b5 dislodges the knight and wins me a free prawn. I've won a few games by scoring a free prawn early and then if nothing else, trading down and grinding it out.

Do you mean move the king to h1, or is this before castling? In the pictured example the king can't get to e2. I do like the idea of moving the king out of the way and posting the rook at g1 though, this can be quite dangerous, but it's also really risky.

I like the attacking potential of white a lot and you've pretty much posted every piece in a manner that they're all aimed at the black kind if he castles kingside.

A lot will depend on what's happening in the center and how good black's piece placement is. If black can get pieces to the kingside, especially a queen down at h3 after you've doubled the pawns, that's so dangerous for white as he has literally no defenders.

As you already mentioned closing the center is a good target for black, as without a break in the middle the queen and bishop on the battery will be completely blocked in. Obviously you're having some good success with this opening so it clearly has some merit, but you'll have to adjust as people learn how best to combat it.

Nice work though

Maybe an improvement could be getting in h3 to prevent the exchange of the f3 knight (of course, this does not work if black fianchettoes the queenside bishop, but it stops the obvious exchange)? Even though the doubled pawns variation has some merit, that knight looks like it could be important to me, for white.

If I was black I would be happy if I got it off the board.

On your side, the knight at c3 does not look like it has a great role in this opening, more of a hindrance than anything. I would look to try to exchange your knight at c3 if possible, and keep the knight at f3 if at all possible.

I wanted to recommend getting your own knight developed to d2 instead, but there seems to be no easy way to do this without pushing d4 which might do more harm than good.

frrostedman wrote:I can go to look at examples using my cell phone, but can't do much here accept type in the move list. Can you provide some pics, maybe? I'm going to leave off from my examples, games where black made decisive blunders like losing a queen or rook. And I run across that a lot - probably because of the nature of the opening - so it's not easy to find games you will find meaningful for analysis.

These 2 games show the simple idea of black not paying enough attention to the fact that the black diagonal bishop can take the kingside night which unfortunately--in a generic-non-fianchettoed-castled position--is the only piece defending mate.

In both these games, black played a little unorthodox because these players had already played against me and were familiar with my opening moves. So they tried to refute me using slightly unorthodox play. Another part of the beauty of this opening is you won't find it in any book so the other player is left with only his skills to help him, from the 2nd move on.

I'm playing 1600-1700 players. The higher the rating, the less chance a quick win is going to happen. This opening kicks into 2nd gear late in the middle game, but these never made it that far.

Game #1

1. b4 ..... Nf6
2. Bb2 .... e6
3. a3 ..... Be7
4. Nf3 .... O-O
5. c4 ...... a6
6. Nc3 .... Nc6
7. e3 ..... b6
8. Rc1 .... Bb7
9. Bd3 .... a5
10. Bb1? .. pxp
11. pxp .. Bxp (I lost a prawn, not good)
12. Qc2 ... Na5
13. Ne2! .. Ba6?
14. BxN ... resigns

I lost a prawn and in 3 moves he resigned. Not bad.

Game #2

1. b4 ... a6
2. Bb2 .. b5
3. Nc3 .. Bb7
4. e3 ... e6
5. a3 ... Nf6
6. c4 ... pxp
6. Bxp .. c5
7. Bd3 .. Nc6
8. Nc3 .. h6
9. Rc1 .. Bd6
10. Bb1 .. O-O
11. Qc2 .. Ne5
11. Ne2 .. Nxc4?
12. BxN .. resigns

The first game is really badly played by black. He doesn't seem to have any plan whatsoever, and he lost to a really simple combination on the kingside.

I think the second game is annotated wrong? You play Nc3 on move 3, which makes c4 on move 6 impossible? Is something wrong there?

I annotated it wrong to try and cover up the fact that he and I both blundered (with no effect had I moved a3 first - he just didn't notice he could take my b4 prawn) and i didn't want it to side track you. So I changed the order of the moves to make it make more sense and then this happened oh well. It was the same concept. I took the black knight, which defended mate, and he had to resign. In fact (using my cell phone) I just won yet another game the same way.

Ok try this one... this goes deeper. I have a won position but this shows the king on e2. I keep trying to tell you. I don't castle at all, as it is a wasted tempo and it actually hampers my attack. That's how my king gets to e2. See below for a more in-depth progression:

Game #3

1. b4 .... Nf6
2. Bb2 ... e6
3. a3 .... d5
4. e3 .... Bd6
5. c4 .... PxP
6. BxP .. O-O
7. Nc3 ... a6
8. Nf3 ... b5
9. Ba2 ... Bb7
10. Rc1 .. Nd7
11. Bb1 .. Ne5
12. NxN .. BxN
13. Qc2 (I'm eager to give up the g prawn) .. g6
14. Ne2 .. BxP(g2)
15. Rg1 .. BxB
16. QxB .. Bf3
17. Rg3 .. Bh5
18. Rc5 .. BxN
19. KxB . Rc8
20. h4 .... Nd7
21. R(c5)g5 . e5
22. h5 .... c5
23. PxP(g6) .. P(h7)xP(g6)
24. Qc2! (even if PxP discovered attacking my queen, it's too late) . Qd6 (like I said, too late)
25. RxPch! ... and it's obviously over. If PxR, RxPch wins the queen at minimum. If Kh8, Rh3 mate. Kh7 is suicide. At first you might think Qc2 was unnecessary but with just the rooks and bishop, his king would have had an escape hatch at f7.

Since you are capable, could you post a couple of pictures.. maybe at mid-game and then final position? That way at1 can see what's going on.

I noticed you said you don't castle, but I got confused because the original opening you gave shows a position where white is castled kingside.

I'll try to get the pictures up.

I'm not sure these are completely perfect as I got to a move where the queen is supposed to move but cannot as it is blocked by a knight (for black). Either it is annotated inaccurately, or I made a mistake running through the moves. Either way, it's minor I think.





In future, can you link to a RHP URL for the game instead of this, as it's a bit time consuming for me to recreate the game and take the pictures.

If I remember right, you can do that on RHP?

humphreys wrote:I'm not sure these are completely perfect as I got to a move where the queen is supposed to move but cannot as it is blocked by a knight (for black). Either it is annotated inaccurately, or I made a mistake running through the moves. Either way, it's minor I think.





In future, can you link to a RHP URL for the game instead of this, as it's a bit time consuming for me to recreate the game and take the pictures.

If I remember right, you can do that on RHP?

The annotation was double-checked for accuracy. The id# is 9263580 (click url). He took with the prawn. I don't know why I expected him to resign. No one resigns there, in the hope that you get hit by a bus and run out of time so they can claim their petty skull.

Feel free to, like I mentioned before, click on my profile on RHP, and click on "public games" and you will see dozens and dozens of examples with my opening.

My goal here is, if you can afford the time and we don't have to do it super quick, for you to advise me on suggested refinements. No, I don't want to entertain castling or doing anything for orthodoxy's sake. I want to whip up a quick attack and charge--live or die by the sword.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say 99% of my games, black can do nothing to refute my development and set up. Only very, very occasionally does black cause me to end up with my white bishop stuck on the c4 diagonal rather than the d3, in which case I develop my queen to b3 instead of c2 and exploit that diagonal instead, placing nice pressure on blacks weak f prawn. It changes the look but it works, because also the queen helps defend my oft-attacked b prawn.