Saturday, April 4, 2009

Improvements for Black in Paciulli - West

This position occurred last weekend in my game as Black against Frank Paciulli.


I played 11...Bd7, allowing 12.Bh5+ Kd8 13.Bg4 Bd6 14.Nf5 Bxf5 15.Bxf5 Ke7 16.c4 Nd4 17.Bxd4 exd4 18.Rxd4 Kf7. Fortunately for me, I was able to draw by trading rooks and bringing about a bishop of opposite colors ending.

At his Contre Gambit Philidor website, Frederic Fournier suggests two improvements for Black. The first is 11...Rg8 12.Bxg4 Rxg4 13.g3 Rd8 14.Rxd8 Kxd8 with an equal position. I agree with this assessment. But, following the second suggestion 11...Bxe2 12.Kxe2 Rg8 13.g3 Bd6 14.Nf5 O-O-O, White may be slightly better after 15.Rhf1 with the idea of 16.f4.