Reversed Semi-Slav:

[firebrandx]

So today I looked at this "Phoenix Attack" opening and recognized it from a black defense I recently played in a cc game. It's actually just a reversed Semi-Slav that seems to score well for black according to my CC database. Compare the two opening positions:


Semi-Slav:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bd6 9.O-O O-O

Phoenix Attack:

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. b4 Bd6

It's the same scheme, only with an extra tempo for white. In this case, white uses it to play 10. Bb2 while black has to time it carefully based on white's moves.

[Rudel]

(06-04-2010 02:18 PM)firebrandx Wrote:  So today I looked at this "Phoenix Attack" opening and recognized it from a black defense I recently played in a cc game. It's actually just a reversed Semi-Slav that seems to score well for black according to my CC database. Compare the two opening positions:


Semi-Slav:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bd6 9.O-O O-O

Phoenix Attack:

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. b4 Bd6

It's the same scheme, only with an extra tempo for white. In this case, white uses it to play 10. Bb2 while black has to time it carefully based on white's moves.

Yes, but that extra move ends up being pretty important. In the article on this in The Moment of Zuke I mention this relationship. You might be interested in noting that there are three different articles on this opening. There is the 'Quickstart' guide that I think you probably already saw. There is a more qualitative description in The Moment of Zuke, and there is an article on chessvibes.com


You might want to read a pretty long article I wrote on the C-Z version f the Phoenix [available on chessville and archived here. That article deals with a slightly different variation, but I point you to it because it discusses in depth some of the critical differences that one extra move can make.

[firebrandx]

Naturally I did not intend to assume the extra tempo was trivial. Just pointing out that what we're looking at is using ideas based on the Meran system.

By the way, that was a very interesting article on the CZ version! I was going to point out it was pretty hard to find any actual information on your CZ version. There were vague mentions of it and links in your web site, but every link I clicked on ended up either being a dead end or just an ad for the book without any info on this line. Thanks so much for that link as it finally gave me the info I was looking for.