I, too, am unfamiliar.

d3 is not helping white i think.

Isn't it something like the KID, where white plays the same moves regardless of black's replies? I've encountered it a couple of times; it's an unimaginative approach by white (playing the same moves every time), but it's very annoying to play, because the game doesn't correspond to usual French ideas.

Cdebuta your partially right. White plays the same moves regardless of what black plays. However, the philidor is a strong system of play that often transposes to favorable restrained centre Roy Lopez for white. The main idea is to play the thematic c3 threatening D4 and the famous knight manovear Nbd2-ndf1-ng3

@cdeburca: you mean the KIA (for Black it's King's Indian Defence, for white King's Indian Attack). I think White is intending some sort of KIA (e4, d3, g3, Bg2, Nf3, Nbd2 and O-O) indeed.

i dont understand this move?

Yeah, it's not as if f6 is a weakness here. Just a weak player, presumably.

Lets be honest here. On move 3, a move like this is most likely not a mistake, just an attempt to get out of book totally.

But wouldn't something more...reasonable...be better? I understand that strange moves can have psychological effects, but...

Generally, if you go out of book, you are almost on the wrong side of the road, especially this move, blocking in a good place for development. #1. 3.Nf6 is completely better, and #2. It is better to try for move 9 at the earliest if you want to develop your Queen ASAP.

Here black can take advantage of white's slow play with the immediate 3. ...c5 followed by ... Nc6 with strong pressure on whites centre

I think this is OK if you continue with Nf4.

what??? at his move.

@water123: "What" at his move, or my annotation? @water123: That makes me feel better.

The idea is to fix a wrong move, but this makes White's position a hazard for himself.

GM Nigel Short would argue that the LSB belongs on e2. White has to fix the poorly placed queen on f3 with Qg3. So I would say that instead of 4. Nh3 white play Qg3 followed by Nf3 followed by Be2.

i would go nf6.

This move doesn't do anything really. Both players are violating the principle of maximum activity and least active piece, and are not performing the opening tasks efficiently. Nevertheless, *There have been no mistakes.@jkarp: Principles are all meant to be general guidelines that work MOST of the time. The rule of maximum activity is one of the strongest AND most important principles for the WHOLE CHESS GAME. It is almost a requirement, although there are of course exceptions. Maximum activity is a base principle, which means it leads to many other principles. At the most basic level, it means that we should increase our overall piece activity as much as we can each move. Guess what? The weaker but useful principle to not move pieces twice in the opening is just one principle derived directly from this, since moving a "fresh" piece will get you more activity than moving a piece already active.

Here the rule of maximum activity is being followed in a less noticeable way. The idea of developing the bishop on the b7-g7 diagonal is very powerful. Other ideas like 4. ...Nf6 are ok but ask for Bg5

I know he intended the f7#, but he should bring another attacker in.

This fails to 5...Nf4, ...Qd7, ...Qe7, ...f6, and ...Nf6!

Black can take advantage of this move by improving his position with 5... Ne5 6. Qg3(best move) Ng6 7. d4 dxe4 8. Nxe4 N8e7 9. Bb5+ Bd7 10. Nbc3 Nf5 11. Qd3 c6 12. Ba4 Be7 13. O-O O-O

5...h6 6.Qxf2#

Worse than that, you'd lose your knight (which is pinned to the mate). But this is too slow for white.

Yes, I believe that is what he meant. Not technically a pin, but a pin nontheless.

6...d4 is a possible solution.

i would go be7 or h6.

This is quite a bad idea. However, it is tactically sound. Black has made 4 pawn moves already is actually less developed than white.

The voluntary weakening of f6 is risky.Better is giving the knight his eviction notice with 6... h6 7. exd5 exd5 8. Qe2+ Be7 9. Nf3 O-O and black is better.

a very strong move that renders your DSB useless.

Yes, this is a blunder. I don't know why I didn't say so in my annotation.

What? Isn't e5 now possible and the knight is pinned to f7... My snap judgement tells me this is a tactical blunder. 8.e5 a)8...Bxg5 9.Bxg5 or b)8...Move knight, 9.Qxf7# Otherwise the knight hangs. @jkarp: We should not care what he can do besides e5 is e5 is winning. Why would we see if the opponent can crush us even more in a line in which we are already lost?

?? I don't think you understood the danger in the centre. Controling the centre is a cardinal rule of chess. Here black shold be punished with 8. e5 Bg7 9. exf6 Bxf6 10. Bb5! white should win easily. However, 7... dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Qxe4 Bb7 is fine for black.

But this wins a full piece.

? better is nxf7! sorry, i forgot about the mating threat.

Winning pieces is very important. However, my point probably was that being three points up doesn't necessarily mean you're winning. Similarly, being level on points doesn't mean you're drawing.

At my level being up a pawn is almost always a win. Now being up a full piece means I can go on Cruise control

I think that I meant that in my miscalculation, I thought I would win a piece. Or, I put "Black" instead of "White."

This loses two pieces instead of one 9. Bxg5! followed by Bxf6

This was a blunder, and my snap judgement tells me immediately that it is either mate in a few or mass material loss for black. White has a dark squared bishop, pawn on e5, and queen and black's castled king has weak dark squares: all you need to know. 10.Bxf6 Qmoves 11.Qf4-h6-g7.

You're probably right. I don't know why I castled into that trap, but a Queen move would have worked better.

I think you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't at this stage. Being a piece down means that even if you get your king safe, you're still in big trouble.

I told you that 5. ...g6 would come to bite you in the butt. The irony is that the king is safer in the middle. The consequence is that you castles into the hurricane

This was a poor move, since now black survives with h5 and Kh7. Qf4 gains the decisive tempo to force a mater.

11. Qf4 is mate in 6 here is how 11...Ne7 12. g4 Nf5 13. gxf5 exf5 14. Qh6 Qxe5+ 15. dxe5 c6 16. Qg7# *

i would have gone, g4!

Same here. g4, a quiet crusher is probably best.

g4 makes more sense