archduke_piccolo
(2334) on 12-Apr-17:
I'm inclined to agree with Kenneth. Black's choice of opening is fine for playing an 'odds giving' style of game, hoping to provoke White into over-reaching. But you have to play very cagily, making sure that (a) you can open up the position when it suits, (b) that your pieces are so placed they can very rapidly become active when the position does open up, (c) you don't find yourself constrained, passively placed, and with under-developed pieces. That is a very tall order. It is also an extremely risky policy, because Black is ceding an advantage early on: gambiting time and space, as it were. Masters like A. Nimzovitch, B. Larsen and T. V. Petrosian could play like this (though I doubt any ever played as Black did in the first four moves). Not everyone could.