Winning with the Berlin Wall (8)

Submitted by Phobetor on Sun, 03/15/2009 at 9:25am.

Below is the 8th game in this series. This time black was a Grandmaster and I was white, and although I thought I was doing quite well (neutralizing most counterplay) I made one big mistake on move 22 which cost me the game. I actually found it quite hard to play the white side, since white has to worry about alot of things (defending e5, defending some weak kingside squares) while black's compact play made it hard for me to create any threats at all.

Below is the game with annotations. Don't forget to click 'Move List' for variations!

» posted in Phobetor's Blog

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Comments:

by Konstantyn - 6 months ago
United States

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 184

22.Kf3 is a good alternative.

by Phobetor - 7 months ago
Eindhoven Netherlands

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 1202

luis, I totally agree on the Caro & Petroff. There are those solid openings which all 1. e4 players know because they're common (Spanish, Sicilian, French). Then there are those weak openings which 1. e4 players don't have to know well, because the opening is just bad (Scandinavian, Alekhine, Philidor, Sicilian sidelines). And then there are those inbetween openings which are solid and not too common, like the Caro-Kann, Petroff. They should be forbidden!

by luis3141 - 7 months ago
Argentina

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 93

I agree, the Berlin is much better than any Scandinavian, to me, it remains the most anoying defence (together with the caro-kann), the Petroff being a distant third (just because i dont see it that often).

by Phobetor - 7 months ago
Eindhoven Netherlands

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 1202

The GM just played well. And if I then also make a mistake, then the end is of course near... ;)

This game also 'proves' to me that the Berlin Wall is a good opening. I've also played the Scandinavian (3... Qa5) as black for a while, and if I ever encountered it as white, I would usually beat black in 20 moves or less (even against 2000-2100 opponents). The fact that I didn't really have a chance against this GM shows that it's a much better opening than the Scandinavian :)

by luis3141 - 7 months ago
Argentina

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 93

GMs are unforgiving...

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