Having lost my first two tournament games, I was focused on holding the line for this next game and not losing. I was therefore pleased to see my significantly higher-rated opponent head for a drawish-looking line of the Symmetrical English. That said, symmetry can sometimes be deceptive, since one side can often quickly change the character of the game in their favor.
Here my opponent varies a little, but we still end up with a symmetrical pawn structure on move 17. However, now Black's pieces are able to come alive, while I start to get myself into a cramped position; this has been a long-term tendency of mine, particularly as White. My opponent misses a chance for a clear (if small plus) by playing the wrong pawn recapture on move 20, but I then dig myself into a positional hole with my two knights on the a-file rim. Luckily I am able to recover and then find the correct blockading strategy, being happy to take a draw in the final equal position.
I think it's important to be able to recover from an 0-2 start and not get too down on yourself. I also think it's a mistake to be playing deliberately for a draw. Here that wasn't the plan from the start, even though the opening was itself drawish. So although I wobbled a bit in my play, I was satisfied that I ultimately found the right path and played according to the needs of the position.
Here my opponent varies a little, but we still end up with a symmetrical pawn structure on move 17. However, now Black's pieces are able to come alive, while I start to get myself into a cramped position; this has been a long-term tendency of mine, particularly as White. My opponent misses a chance for a clear (if small plus) by playing the wrong pawn recapture on move 20, but I then dig myself into a positional hole with my two knights on the a-file rim. Luckily I am able to recover and then find the correct blockading strategy, being happy to take a draw in the final equal position.
I think it's important to be able to recover from an 0-2 start and not get too down on yourself. I also think it's a mistake to be playing deliberately for a draw. Here that wasn't the plan from the start, even though the opening was itself drawish. So although I wobbled a bit in my play, I was satisfied that I ultimately found the right path and played according to the needs of the position.
This is one of my favourite and highest scoring lines for White but that is when White plays 6.d4 cd 7.Nd4 0-0 8.0-0.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly a much more dynamic line, as after e4 you'll have a Sicilian Dragon on the board.
DeleteI have to admit to deliberately choosing the much more drawish approach for my repertoire (to date) to limit the necessary amount of studying for the Symmetrical Variation, in part because I see it so infrequently at the Class level.
I keep a track of the lines I face and the Symmetrical occurs 20% of the time. My repertoire mostly follows the Marin books on the English, with Book 3 dedicated to the Symmetrical. It's the portion of the repertoire that performs best in my games, about 7% higher than I should expect comparing my rating against that of my opponents.
DeleteI'm not sure the numerical value for Class Level. I'm sure when we "spoke" before we were similar in strength. I am between 1950 and 2035 over the last few ratings.
Fun with statistics! Let's see what they say in my case.
DeleteIn my tournament games, the Symmetrical (ECO A30-A39,including the Hedgehog) has occurred 17 times, out of 147 as white, so that is 11.6%. Strip out the four Hedgehogs and that drops below 10%.
I'm currently a Class A (1800 range) player, after starting as a Class C and then a Class B player for the bulk of my career. (See "The Long Journey to Class A"). My opponents in the Symmetrical English opening have ranged from 1379 to 2200. (I beat the 2200 after a miscalculated tactic on his part.)
It's true that as ratings increase, more players know about (and play) the Symmetrical variation as Black. As a rough guess, though, I'd say that about half of my opponents have played it because it seemed they didn't have anything at all prepared against the English, and just wanted to mirror moves.
It would seem that a different line in this variation, like the one you cited, would likely bring better results for me, although it's still a trade-off in terms of time and brain space for additional opening preparation.