An avid player of the English so I get this sequence or some variation of it a lot. Note that every move in the sequence was a book move or best move. I just don't understand how moving the king into the corner and blocking the rook from coming out is better than just moving the knight to h4. Someone, please explain the theory behind this.
Split on move sequence in the English
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Oakus
Apr 17, 2020
0
#1
I don’t understand your question. Do you mean that white should have played 6.Nh4 instead? How would that help
Apr 17, 2020
0
#3
Laskersnephew wrote:
I don’t understand your question. Do you mean that white should have played Nh4 instead? How would that help
Yes I wanna move to h4 so that he can't take on f7
6.Ng5 is preferable for the following two reasons:
>> White will "castle manually" with h3, Kh2 and Rf1. Meanwhile Black has to spend two tempo retreating his queen and knight, rendering it impossible to exploit the temporarily misplaced White king.
>> After White brings his king to safety, he'll be able to push the central pawns and get a considerable space advantage which, together with the bishop pair, should grant White a comfortable edge.
6.Nh4?! is a questionable move. The knight is misplaced on the edge, allowing Black to develop peacefully with 6...Re8 7.O-O d6 8.d4 exd3 9.Qxd3 Nc6 with an equal position.
Leela thinks 5. ... e4 is not a good choice! 5.......Nc6 is better! (see her winning probability as black)
At the end of your posiiton, she think 63% for white, which is a really good chance for white. (considering the dominance of centre for white)
In your game, you had an excellent position after 9.Nxe4 (9.Bxe4 is OK too). I think you are mis-evaluating the position, You will have to deal with getting castled by hand, but you have more center pawns and the two bishops, so you should be fine.
As a regular player of the English myself, I think you are getting hung up on wanting to castle quickly and cleanly. With that in mind, if you REALLY wanted to avoid capture on f7, then you should have played 5. e3 instead of Nf3. Not only does it neutralize black’s c5 bishop, but it maintains the pressure your fianchettoed bishop is already exerting on e4, and it opens up the e2 square for your knight