If black likes the knight attack, I recommend that he take the extra three tempi to play P7f , P2f, P3f and N3g, instead of just N1g. This is quite decisive against the Nada line; I won very easily in my last game at four piece with Nada using this attack, which is not given in the literature. The main line would go like this: (Java viewer) 1...K4b 2 P7f K3b 3 P2f S6b 4 P1f G4b 5 P1e S2b 6 P3f P5d 7 N3g S5c 8 R1h S4d 9 P1d Px1d 10 Rx1d P*1c 11 R1h P2d (else 12 N2e) 12 P*1d! Px1d 13 Rx1d S1c 14 R1h P*1d 15 P2e (a diagram) and white has no defense. Instead, I think white should switch to classical play against this plan, which means that he should keep the option of ...K3b or ...G3b until black reveals his plan. For example, (Java viewer) 1...K4b 2 P7f S6b 3 P2f P5d 4 P1f (4 P2e K3b will transpose to the Nada system of Part I) S5c 5 P1e S2b 6 P3f P4d 7 N3g K4c (reserving 3b for the gold) 8 R1h P3d 9 P1d Px1d 10 Rx1d P*1c 11 R1h N3c (if 11...G3b 12 N2e is too strong) 12 P*1b G3b 13 P1a+ Sx1a 14 Rx1c+ S2b 15 +R1h P*1c (a diagram). Black has promoted his rook, but it is an "empty promotion", meaning that since he has been expelled from white's territory, it does not promise further dividends. It's still a nice profit, but not as convincing as the main line of the climbing gold. Black can aim to play P2e, +R2h, P*1b, and P1a+, though it feels a bit slow.

Another version of the knight attack, as given in a book by two of the all-time greats, Oyama Yasuharu and Nakahara Makoto, involves using the bishop to attack the 1c pawn. For example, (Java viewer) 1...S6b 2 P2f G3b 3 P1f P5d 4 P1e S2b 5 P5f S5c 6 S4h K5b 7 S7h G6b 8 B7i

(Java viewer) P7d 9 N1g P6d 10 N2e P2d 11 Nx1c+ Sx1c 12 P1d S2b 13 P2e! Px2e 14 P1c+ (a diagram). This is very good for black; white's only hope is that the advance of the pawn in front of black's king will give him some counterplay. However I think white should play (Java viewer) 8...S4d 9 P3f (9 N1g P3d 10 N2e P3e) P3d 10 P2e (10 N3g P7d 11 N2e P3e 12 Px3e P2d is unclear) P7d 11 L1g P6d 12 R1h K6c 13 P1d Px1d 14 Lx1d P*1c 15 Lx1c+ Sx1c 16 Bx1c+ Nx1c 17 Rx1c+ (a diagram). Black has broken through and promoted his rook at the price of losing bishop for silver and pawn. This plan was suggested to me in private conversation by Oyama in response to my question of how to defeat Nada's line, and indeed it would lead to an easy win with white's king on 3b instead of the gold. In the given position, though, white's king is pretty safe and I would not call this a clear success for black.

Previous page
Next page