Well, let's have another fun position This one, I managed to achieve in a 3 mins each game online Share your guesses as to what opening it came from, and what moves you'd play/reject/think about as Black! I'll post the truth on the position in a few days. These are often useful as cold tests of your thought process because once you compare your thoughts/analyses to the answer you can see if you are mis-perceiving things on a board overdefensively, overaggressively, etc.

My first guess would be nimzo indian and that white is winning

I'd say it's about equal (although I'd much rather prefer to have black) and my move would probably be 1..Nc6 or 1..Ne4.

In the spirit of the position, black should play Ng8.

This confuses me. It seems to be a joke, but
a) I don't get the joke
b) You don't suggest a real candidate.


JWhis btw, I know precisely why you would think this was a Nimzo, but it wasn't

Any more takers both for candidates? It's also useful if you explain the thinking (if any conscious thought or just intuition etc) behind your move, so that when you come to seeing the answer you can compare and contrast notes.

Opening Guess = Ruy Lopez Berlin Wall. Candidate moves = Bd6 Bc5 Nd5(hoping for Nb6 and Nc4 to follow) Kf7 h4

The e-pawn's still on e3 which means King's Pawn is out of the question. Couldn't have been a Nimzo either, since the bishop's still on f8.

Maybe a Colle setup by White, dunno. Whatever it was, I'm going to predict an unorthodox treatment of the opening.

Objectively white is probably a little bit better but it's very close and honestly I would rather play black as I think he has a more defined plan.

Also Slicri... LOL

That kind of remark reminds me of a wonderfully dry piece of commentary by Andrew Martin...one player was being pushed back relentlessly, and ended up playing a move like Bf8 in the middle game - or as Andrew called it, "setting up the pieces for the next game"

Doh! er I mean the opening was 1.c3 That's my story and I'm stickin' to it for an undetermined length of time

Haha ketchuplover, you may wish to change the story - the opening was not 1. c3, and nor was it a Collé Those of you who have suggested moves to make, would you like to expound on the reasons why you feel those are best? I'm shamelessly trying to get more responses here lol but I'll post the answer to this in the next day or so

All the pieces are on the back rank, I didn't want that knight to feel lonely.

Nc6 seems sensible, just develop your pieces. Maybe try to get it to c4 though activating the bishop and rook is probably a bigger priority.

Stonewall Attack?

You mean Stonewall Defence (since it'd be Black)? Nope

Some kind of gambit maybe, e.g. the Englund?

To explain my choices: Nc6 seems sensible, maybe to go to a5 or e5. c4 is obviously a key square. Ne4 also looks attractive, immediately putting pressure on the c-pawn. The knight is there to stay, f3 would weaken the dark squares significantly.

Hehe, I used to play the Englund as a kid with 2...b6 for my sins. Wasn't that