Opening Bomb Diary #29: Is the Albin Really That Bad? (Part One)

The Albin Countergambit has always been an opening I've had a soft spot for. I've since moved onto other sounder openings for Black, but back then it was my favorite opening. Around 2015, I was convinced I had revived it, discovering a collection of fantastic novelties in what I thought were the critical lines for Black. Those were the days where you really had to finesse Stockfish to make sketchy lines work for Black, and I had spent a ridiculous amount of work to create a next-gen repertoire which I thought would put fear into the heart of the most prepared 1.d4 players.

It turns out, with only a few seconds thought, the modern-day engines tear apart my old notes (mostly). When the first strong versions of Leela came out, I had hoped they would discover some magic antidote to Black's problems, but they instead confirmed my worst fears, that the Albin was close to losing in the critical lines.

However, imagine my surprise recently when I ran the most recent iterations of Stockfish/Leela on the critical lines yet again, and they had changed their tune. Black is not losing - In fact, Black is far from losing compared to some other openings commonly grouped in the same tier as the Albin. Let's see what the latest is.

5.a3

This is perhaps the most popular response to the Albin, and one of the most critical. However, Black has a surprising new approach.

It is quite an exciting new path the engines are recommending, but unfortunately 5.a3 is not the most critical line. In a further installment or two we'll take a look at how to REALLY try and refute the Albin, and how it might survive this time