Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Two Knights Defense, Fritz-Ulvestad Variation

Dennis Monokroussos has annotated the game Charbonneau - Schneider, USCL 2009 (Round 3) which featured the Fritz-Ulvestad Variation of the Two Knights Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 b5 6.Bf1 Nd4 7.c3 Nxd5), with the continuation 8.cxd4!? (sidestepping the famous Estrin - Berliner game with 8.Ne4). I was thinking the Fritz/Ulvestad was due for a revival, especially after Hikaru Nakamura beat Josh Friedel's more standard gambit 5....Na5 to win the 2009 US Championship using Gunsberg's 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3!? If the Fritz/Ulvestad bites the dust, what will Two Knights Defense players fall back on? This is still a very much contested territory, but White has been winning of late. For those who want to learn more about the Fritz/Ulvestad lines, some resources:

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1 Comments:

Blogger katar said...

Matt Pullin's video lecture merits a link. However, he recommends the independent Ulvestad line (h6 instead of Nd4). This line simply doesn't work for black-- Dennis M. annotated a game where Naiditsch tried it and got crushed.

Wed Sep 16, 01:01:00 PM EDT  

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