Saturday, August 29, 2009

First Poll is finally closed. Yay?!

My first poll asks whether the Center Counter or Scandinavian Defense is a good/great opening. 10 people voted and according to the poll, the majority voted for NO. It seems that this opening is still treated as a patzer opening even though it has been used by World Champions, GMs, IM, FM, NM, and many players around the world. Statisticly, this opening offers only about 40% chance of winning for Black which is not great. I myself had employed this opening ever since I started playing professional chess and my results are about 50% considering all my games. This defense nowadays is considered a first-rated defense and therefore deserves respect. I wonder if anyone who had seen this blog knows the Portuguese Variation of the Scandinavian. The sacrifices in this opening are more like Tal's but the only difference here is that it is both correct and a Tal sacrifice. A very tactical and sharp opening this is. It can be equal or sharper than botvinik variation of the semi-slav, sicilian dragon. For those who are more solid, then the traditional Qa5 line is okay. Despite that it has been described by Fischer as weak, it is actually quite solid and hard break. It offers little risk as long as Black knows what he is doing. If Black doesn't know what he/she is doing, then Black can expect an early grave but if he does, then black has at least a draw on his hands. He can then control the light squares, prepare for a c5 or e5 break, exchange pieces, or just do whatever and outplay his/her opponent. I played Fritz 11 one time with it. In the opening, White has +70. In the middlegame, White had +50. In the middlegame, it became 0.00, a drawn position. I will post more about this opening as this is my favourite and what i would most likely play with great confidence.

There will be a tournament next Saturday. It is going to be the 2009 Toronto Labour Day Open. I'm thinking of playing in the open section right now but not sure if I should just go for the U2200 section just to have more chances of winning and getting money. I sure would like a challenge and bring myself up along with my rating. It's now a choice of safety or risk. Normally, I'm in between but now I have to choose a side. Not sure yet. I'll find out few days before. I've prepared too much on openings now. I think i can play OKAY with c4, d4, and f4 for the moment. Well, that's it for now. I'll be back soon to post more.