Is Pirc/Modern Defence too risky for a club player ?

According to Garry Kasparov Pirc is the most risky opening to play as it gives white too many choices......

many many years ago, i gave it up when i was a club player as i found some of the lines difficult. the problem is, white can often launch his pawn mass at any time yet the position is really not closed. sometimes white can threaten e4-e5-e6, or sometimes go caveman with g4 and h4-h5. It has all the disadvantages of lacking space without the caveat of slowing the game down. So, in that sense, it is quite risky.

i woudnt say not to play it. they are some club players with the style to play these well but i understand why a warning label is necessary. IT takes a special player at that level to be confortable with the positions. from the austrian attack with f4, to the positional prophylactic 4.g3 variation, there is bound to be a line you will have difficulties with agaisnt a stronger opponent though.

Sure... I've some kind of same aspect towards this opening.

Some of my best wins came with teh Modern ... and some of my worst losses came with the Modern.

I ended up dropping the Modern for the following reason.  There are basically two types of players: hyper-aggressive or super-safe.  The hyper-aggressive guys will play f4-f5 and h4-h5 at a moments notice, sometimes on move 2, and try to completely run you over.  A single mistake is fatal, and it's easier for Black to make those mistakes.  The super-safe guys play e4, d4 and c3, get a solid centre, develop normally and Black gets minimal if any play.  Games can become bogged down, with White remaining with a slight but longterm advantage.

This produced a lot of fun with the Modern, but also a lot of frustration and disappointment.  I lost a few games where I had no idea what I did wrong, and computer analysis just showed White being always better.  If the goal is having fun, these openings can work well, reaching some novel positions.  If the goal is long-term chess improvement, less volatile openings may be better.  My rating did not increase during the six months or so I mained the Modern (though, to be fair, my rating didn't increase for a decade regardless...)

Thanks Smithy for your opinions...

No, contrary to the stockfish nuts, anything reasonable can't be proved to be losing, so play what enjoy.

That's a good way to look at that...

Pirc is the sort of defence that takes years to master properly, if you do not have a real feel for its structures then you learn lessons the hard way. Like others says black walks a narrow path and one slip can be fatal

But the strategic concept of Pirc and Dragon is completely different from each other... in Pirc or Modern black always look for the move e5 and a timely f5 but it's not possible in Sicilian Dragon as there is no c-pawn to support the d5 square which will be terribly weak after move like e5.

Yes.

in a lot of lines of the modern and some of the pirc, black plays for c5 instead of e5.

Engine evaluation doesn't matter for us. The pirc is a difficult opening to play because the Lack of space reqires precise play to hold the balance while other openings are more forgiving Like the scandinavian structure.

then you havent seen enough lines in the pirc. the austrian is the most popular line where c5 is almost forced but not the only one.

What on earth does that mean? Can you give any other example where black plays c5 with an advantage?

That helps a lot! Thx

lol

Duncan Suttles (canadian grandmaster from years gone by) played the pirc/modern complex almost exclusively both as black and white. his thesis was it gave white too many choices. most people see this as an advantage but it is a double edged sword as sometimes white will hang himself with his own rope. as you start to learn it you get use to the patterns and themes that repeatably come up. Suttles always over-protected e5 and started most of his games with the modern move order. i've adopted this system and am quite happy with it. the games i have lost have been my own fault and not the fault of the opening. the idea of an opening is to give yourself positions you are comfortable playing. of course everybody is different and will approach the opening in a way that he/she is most comfortable with. i guess thats part of the reason why chess is so interesting.

for a club player? Vlad Kramnik played it during the Candidates! I think it will be fine for a club player.