Cochrane Gambit

[Henk]

Quit playing Petroff's defence a year ago because of Cochrane Gambit. For I don't like this violent position.

Don't know what's best. One opening book says g7-g6. Other Be7. Looks like Stockfish 7 gives c5.

[d] rnbq1b1r/ppp2kpp/3p1n2/8/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQ d3 0 5


[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4
*
[/pgn]

[Henk]

Also Nimzowitsch attack difficult to play with black. For white will castle long and starts a pawn storm with h4 etc.

[d] rnbqk2r/ppp1bppp/3p4/8/8/2P2N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 1 7

[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7
*
[/pgn]

[AdminX]

Data from Live Book. Whats suites your style?

Opening Report: http://www.mediafire.com/file/3je5n2vkf ... chrane.pdf

[Ajedrecista]

Hello Henk:

Going a little vintage with opening books:

Petroff's Defence C42 by Artur Jusupov (Chess Informant) gives 5.- ..., g6 in the seventh line:

Code: Select all

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6

{n} = n-th line
[n] = n-th note.

{6} 3. Nxe5 ...
{7} 3. ... d6 4. Nxf7 [45] Kf7 5. d4 [46] g6 [47] 6. Nc3 Kg7 [48] 7. Be2 [49] Qe8 [50] 8. f3 [51] c5 9. Be3 Nc6 10. d5 Ne5 11. 0-0 a6 [52] (with compensation for the material).

[47]
5. ... Ne4?  6. Qh5 ... (Bronstenj).
5. ... Bg4?! 6. f3  ... (Kurkin - Sablin, corr. 1981/1984).
5. ... d5?!  6. e5  ... (Novozidov - Orlov, corr. 1981/1984).
5. ... Be6   6. d3  ... (Shirazi - Lane, Los Angeles 1983).
5. ... Nbd7  6. e5  ... (Lipski - Nachlik, Polska 1981).
5. ... Qe7   6. Nc3 ... (Jusupov).
5. ... Qe8   6. Bd3 ... (Jusupov).
5. ... c6    6. Bd3 ... (Visseti - Stanger, Dortmund 1987).
5. ... c6    6. Nc3 ...

Petroff's Defence by Gyozo Forintos and Ervin Haag (1983) give some ideas after 5. d4:

Code: Select all

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7?!

5. d4
5. ... g6 (Black's best defence). Others:

a)  5. ... Nxe4? 6. Qh5+ ... (Bronstein).
b)  5. ... Be7
b1)              6. Bc4+ Be6? (6. ... d5!) 7. Bxe6+ ... ± (Steinitz).
b2)              6. Nc3  Re8? (6. ... c6!) 7. Bc4+  ... ± (Fedorov - Salnikov, USSR 1977).
c)  5. ... Qe8   6. Nc3  ...
d)  5. ... c6    6. Nc3  ... (example: Beckel - Richter, E. German corr. 1981).

Other examples:

Vitolins - Kveinis (VTSPS Ch., Jurmala 1981).
Makropoulos - B. Tóth (Rome 1980).
Vitolins - Anikayev (USSR Ch. 1979).

After a short analysis with SF 7 (multi-PV = 7):

Code: Select all

FEN: rnbq1b1r/ppp2kpp/3p1n2/8/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQ d3 0 5 

Stockfish 7 32bit:

[...]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,23	h7h5 Bf1d3 Bc8g4 f2f3 Bg4e6 d4d5 Be6c8 Nb1c3 Nb8d7 Bd3e2 Kf7g8 OO c7c6 Bc1e3 Nd7e5 a2a3 c6xd5 e4xd5 Bc8d7 Rf1e1 Ne5f7
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,33	Kf7g8 Bf1d3 Bc8g4 f2f3 Bg4e6 OO h7h5 c2c4 Nb8d7 Nb1c3 h5h4 Bc1g5 Bf8e7 Qd1b3 h4h3 g2g3 Nd7b6 Ra1d1 c7c5 d4d5 Be6d7
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,34	Bc8g4 f2f3 Bg4e6 Nb1c3 Kf7g8 Bc1e3 Nb8d7 Qd1d2 h7h6 OOO c7c6 Kc1b1 Kg8h7 Bf1e2 g7g6 g2g4 Bf8g7 g4g5 h6xg5 Be3xg5 Rh8e8
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,36	Nb8c6 c2c3 g7g6 Bf1d3 Kf7g7 OO Bf8e7 f2f3 a7a6 Bc1e3 Bc8d7 Nb1d2 Rh8f8 b2b4 Bd7e6 d4d5 Be6xd5 e4xd5 Nf6xd5 Nd2c4 b7b5
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,39	Bf8e7 Bf1c4+ d6d5 Bc4b3 Nf6xe4 Qd1h5+ Kf7f8 Bb3xd5 Ne4d6 OO Nb8d7 Bd5b3 Nd7f6 Qh5e2 Bc8g4 Qe2e5 c7c6 Rf1e1 Nd6f7 Qe5e3 Be7d6 h2h3 Bg4f5 Bb3xf7 Kf8xf7 Qe3b3+ Kf7f8 Qb3xb7 Bf5xc2
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,39	g7g6 Bf1d3 Kf7g7 OO Nb8c6 c2c3 Bf8e7 f2f3 a7a6 Bc1e3 Bc8d7 Nb1d2 Rh8f8 b2b4 Bd7e6 a2a4 Be6f7 a4a5 Kg7g8 Nd2b3 Bf7xb3
 21/40	07:51	 304.390.430	645.302	+0,54	c7c5 Nb1c3 Bc8g4 f2f3 c5xd4 f3xg4 d4xc3 b2xc3 Qd8c7 g4g5 Nf6d7 Bf1b5 Qc7xc3+ Bc1d2 Qc3d4 Ra1b1 Qd4xe4+ Bb5e2 Kf7g8 OO Nb8c6 Be2f3 Qe4d4+ Rf1f2 Nc6e5 Qd1e2 Nd7b6 Bd2e3 Qd4c4 Bf3xb7 Qc4xa2

Evals are from side to move POV, so SF 7 thinks that black is around half a pawn better. 5. ... g6 is the second option for SF while it is the best one according to those two books.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[Henk]

I don't like to take much risk. I switched from Petroff's defence to Modern defense. But there you have Austrian attack which I don't like. So I was thinking about going back to Petroff.

Don't know what is safest/most solid defense for black. In Caro Kan you have Panov variation so that's not much better.

[gogamoga]

Both Hiarcs and Cerebellum prefer c5! Second best move either g6 or c6

[Sean Evans]

Quit playing Petroff's defence a year ago because of Cochrane Gambit. For I don't like this violent position.

Don't know what's best. One opening book says g7-g6. Other Be7. Looks like Stockfish 7 gives c5.

[d] rnbq1b1r/ppp2kpp/3p1n2/8/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQ d3 0 5


[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4
*
[/pgn]

Hi, I play the Cochrane Gambit. Technically and all chess engines that I have used concur, that Black is winning with 4...Kxf7. However, I think the position is very unbalanced and does lead to interesting play, particularly if White is unprepared for the gambit.

Enjoy

Sean

[cdani]

I always play Petroff. Against the Cochrane gambit I play g6, but is true that is not easy to win with black. Anyway at long time control nobody plays it, at least at my accustomed level of play.

Against Nimzowitsch attack I go for 0-0-0 with black. You can see some of my games. I think is really difficult to obtain anything with white.

[Lyudmil Tsvetkov]

Only moves that do not win for black seem to be counter-sacrifice one like Bh3 and Nd5.

a5 certainly wins easily, also h5, etc. Be7, g6 should also win, but I would play Bg4 (f3 Bh5). Komodo assesses this position better than SF.

My static eval would be some 150cps black edge, so easily won, but for a human it is tricky, I readily admit that.

[Henk]

Other aggressive line in Petroff's defense is Bishop Gambit.

[d] rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/2B5/2P2N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQK2R b KQkq - 0 5

Here perhaps only good move seems to be f6!

[pgn]
Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 Nxc3 5. dxc3
*
[/pgn]