@Mario-0 said in #6:
> It does not make any sense then to play this opening or there are other good ideas behind 3.- ... Bb4?
From a completely objective perspective, the move 3... Bb4 seems to be playable. While it's true that the move allows White to play c3 (with all its pros), after that Black will play Ba5 with the main idea that if White goes for d4, Black will play Bb6 at the right moment to put pressure on the White d4 pawn. In order to do that, Black probably will need to go for a setup like Nge7 with the idea to reply to White d4 with exd4 cxd4 d5, in order to prevent White from playing d5 himself and to fix the d4 pawn on that square to apply future pressure on it (probably by playing Bb6). In this scenario, White may decide to react to d5 in two ways:
- Push e5: In this case White will get a space advantage and Black probably will try to challange it by playing f6 at the right moment;
- Exchange with exd5: In this case Black will probably recapture Qxd5 (Nxd5 would probably allow Qa4 with double threat of Bxc6+ - Qxa5 and Bxc6+ bxc6 Qxc6+ with fork to king, rook and knight. Instead Qxd5 defends c6 and Qa4 doesn't work anymore) and in this line Black will try to target White d4 isolated pawn, and even if Black's king is still in the center, Black's bishop on a5 temporarily prevents Re1+ by White;
In my opinion, while this line can be a good surprise and lead to unbalanced positions for a fighting game, the ideas behind 3... Bb4 seem very subtle and I think is significantly easier to go wrong as Black than as White in this 3... Bb4 line. Also fighting against a space advantage is not everybody taste, and tends to be very troublesome for beginners and even for some intermediate players.
