Provoking the Richter-Veresov

The Richter-Veresov starts with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5. White keeps a possibility of imbalancing the game with Bxf6, or playing for the e4 break. However White isn't forced to do any of this, which makes this opening quite hard to beat.

Black has a couple of choices, but none really stand out to me:

• 3...e6 3.e4 — Transposing back to the French, not ideal since I don't play it, so I lack experience.
• 3...c5 — Giving White options to play e3–Nf3; e4; Bxf6–e4 Bxf6–e3 and something I'd play which is e3–dxc5 with Nf3–Bd3–e4 after.
• 3...h6 — Lines after 4.Bxf6 gxf6 are good for Black, but White can step back to h4 and Black still has to make a choice.
• 3...Nbd7 — While it stops White's Bxf6 idea and aims to prepare c5, white can just respond with e3.

I used to play 3...h6 meeting 4.Bh4 with either ...c5, or ...e6 (e4 from White now runs into ...g5) and while my score was pretty good, with 9 wins and 5 losses, I didn't really enjoy these positions that much. The turning point came after this game where I was lost in 6 moves, but more importantly I didn't know how to setup in the opening to cause any problems to my opponent. This was also while I was working on my Jobava lines, so I was annoyed I found so many fighting ideas against 3.Bf4, but not 3.Bg5.

I spent some time after the game just searching for interesting ideas and one has caught my eye. 3...g6. It looks almost wrong, like we're playing straight into what White wants to achieve either with Qd2–Bh6 or f3–e4, but turns out with active and precise play we are not just fine, but can look to punish White for their careless play. Exactly what I was looking for.

Provoking White to take on f6; go for f3–e4; Qd2–O-O-O or Bh6.

Sad news is White still has an option to play it slower with 4.e3. Good news is it only happens 10% of the time and starting with 4.Nf3 is inaccurate. Let's take a look at that approach.

Quiet e3

The reason 4.Nf3 is wrong is because the d4-pawn isn't well protected, which allows us typical ...Ne4!

White will struggle to develop the kingside, as the knight lacks the typical f3-square. White should start with 4.e3 instead. Since the d4-pawn is protected, we want to achieve ...c5 first. The biggest difference comes to the f1-bishop placement.

If White plays Bd3 the queen is blocked, meaning we don't have to worry about dxc5–Nxd5, but there will be no ...Ne4 to speak of. With the bishop on e2, ...c5 is harder to achieve, but we will be able to play Ne4 afterward.

Bd3

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If White decides to take on c5, we get a lot of initiative with ...Nbd7–Nxc5 and ...Nfe4. White should focus on development, since we can't easily punish with ...cxd4–Ne4. Instead engine wants to break with ...e5.

Be2

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This time we can't play ...c5 right away, due to dxc5–Bxf6–Nxd5. At least on paper.

Technically after 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.O-O e6 White has the unfindable 9.e4 according to the engine, which is why Black should start with 6...h6. With this covered, let's move on to the exciting stuff!

Bad Bxf6

Position after 4.Bxf6 gxf6

The most important thing to remember in this position is that the bishop doesn't belong on g7. That is, if White goes for e3.

White breaks with e4

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To evaluate this idea, we should compare it to a Rubinstein French or Classical Caro-Kann.

• We have the open e-file already;
• White traded the c1-bishop for the f6-knight, meaning we are a move faster to castle kingside;
• The f8-bishop is already ready to develop to g7, saving another tempo;
• We can chase the knight with ...f5 opening the bishop.

The position is -1 after 5.e4 and it gets worse with every move White makes. Therefore White has to play e3. We will develop with ...c6–Bd6–O-O, we will be able to stop the e4-break by playing ...f5 and the b8-knight will eventually get to f6.

e3 with O-O-O

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In short, if White castles queenside, they are doomed. There are dozens of possible move-orders, so what's important is the setup. It doesn't change no matter what White does, we just have react the right way:

• If e4 is on the table, we play ...f5;
• If h5 is threatened before we can play ...Nf6, we play ...h5 ourselves;
• Before playing ...Bd6, we defend d5 with ...c6;
• g4 never works out for White;
• ...Qe7 is just useful.

A much better try for White is the c4-break. Because of the knight on c3 it will take some time, so we will have completed development already.

e3 with O-O

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The simplest way to meet that is ...bxc4–b5 playing for an eventual c5-break. It can be played quickly, or prepared with moves like ...Qe7, ...Rfd8, ...Rac8. Pushing ...a5 doesn't look stupid, or transferring the knight either via f6 or b6.

Enough with the boring stuff. Let's see what happens if White accepts our provocation, starting with 4.f3

Inaccurate f3

It's not exactly inaccurate, I'm just lacking a word to describe it better. Basically the complications that arise seem to favor Black every time. This move takes a very important square from the g1-knight and we can use that fact to quickly strike with ...c5!

White already has an unpleasant choice to make

It's entirely possible they go wrong already with dxc5? Allowing the ...d4 push.

dxc5

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The pawn on d4 is incredibly strong. The best part is, even if White goes for 5.e4, this motif is still very present.

e4

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It looks like with so much tension White has some concrete threats, but as it turns out, we can add fuel to the fire with ...Nc6! keeping the tension and waiting for White to make a mistake.

Anytime we get the pawn on d4, we are in business and in this case White can's prevent it. We are threatening ...cxd4 and in case of dxc5 we can push the d5 pawn up. Much harder to crack is 5.e3 from White.

e3

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We can meet White's dxc5 with ...Nbd7 and if they go for another pawn on d5, we should find great counterplay on the open diagonal and file. If they decide to castle queenside instead, we have a strong 7...c4 followed by ...b5.

It's time to cover the last of White's 4th move possibilities, and in my opinion the best.

Best Qd2

It's very flexible, White can choose from Bh6, O-O-O, f3–e4 or e3. We also have a choice, we can respond with ...h6 getting rid of the Bh6 possibility; ...a6 setting up ...b5 in case of quick O-O-O, but I think it's best to keep provoking White with the most natural ...Bg7.

White has a lot of choices to complicate the game

I think it makes the most sense to start with the most forcing move.

Bh6

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We could take on h6, follow up with ...Bf5–Ng4 and after Qf4 trade the queens with ...Qd6, but that's boring. We don't want boring, we want provocative. So we will castle right into White's upcoming attack.

These positions are trickier. Still, if White allows us to get a pawn to d4, they are in trouble, but after for example Bxg7–O-O-O–e3 even though the engine says Black is better, I can see White's attack getting dangerous after the pawn dubious sacrifice on g4.

What if White castles queenside right away?

O-O-O

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We can exploit the fact our king hasn't committed to the kingside to start an early attack.

White should get in trouble pretty quickly. That leaves the last option for White, following up 4.Qd2 with 5.f3

f3

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Similarly to 4.f3, we will use the fact White can't get the knight to f3 anymore to strike the centre with ...c5.

If White defends with e3, we will transpose to the previous chapter, so the only independent value is after dxc5.

The End

The most important thing is to not be afraid of giving up the d5 pawn temporarily. This opening post is pretty short, so I might try to turn it into a free Chessable course for the move trainer. I'm not sure how it works, who is allowed to publish courses and whether the content has to be exclusive for their site, so I'll have to wait and see. Maybe you know of other good move trainer tools? If so, please share in the comments.

At the end of my last post I said I'll be playing against @LeelaQueenOdds to get better at converting winning advantages. If you want to follow my journey, here's a forum thread I'll post updates in.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the analysis and here's the study link. Bye!