Rare openings-Baltic Defense
Submitted by
aabbccdd on Sun, 09/07/2008 at 11:47am.
Hi, today I am here to talk about the Baltic Defense, a rare surprise in the Queen's Gambit. Everything goes along normally for the first 1 1/2 moves, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 before Black unleashes 2...Bf5!? This is a very strange-looking move, as the d-pawn is not supported by another pawn.
The Batlic Defense has been played 244 times in master play. However, while this may seem like a lot, it is nothing compared to the 14,304 games of 2...c6, the Slav Defense. White now has many responses. Let's start with 3.Qb3 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess/Baltic_Defense gives the line 3.Qb3 e5 4.Qxb7 Nd7 5.Nc3 exd4 6.Nxd5 Bd6 7.Nf3 c5 as +/-. White is up a pawn
3.cxd5 is also playable. The above site gives 3.cxd5 Bxb1 4.Qa4+ c6 5.Rxb1 Qxd5 6.f3 e5 7.dxe5 Nd7 as +/=.
Another line is 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Qb3. Evaluated as +/=.
3.Nf3 e6 4. Qb3 Nc6 5.c5 Rb8
Well, now you now some sample lines of the Baltic Defense. Oh yeah, if you're wonderering why it's called what it is, it's because of the Estonian (Baltic Country) grandmaster Paul Keres. Bye.
