The Bat.
Editor's Note: The article ``Could Frame Thy'', which many readers will have been expecting, is held over due to the existence of a more suitable title.
The latest in my series of articles on popular openings concerns the Bat. It's about time I did a Diagonal variation, and this is one that's been causing me some concern, due to the sudden popularity of a line that looks rather good for Black. Having had a closer look, I'm now happy that (a) this line is good for Black, and (b) there are plenty of alternatives. More of this later. Perhaps the reader should be warned that I've spent less time on this article than I'd have liked, and I've made no attempt to consult other experts.
The Bat.
The position opposite arises after 1.d3 2.c3 3.c4 4.c5 5.d6 6.f4 7.b4. (Regular readers will wonder why I've departed from my usual orientation. Good for them.) The opening has also been called the Cambridge, but that has now fallen into disuse. It bears more than a passing similarity to the Heath Bat, 5.b4 6.d2 7.d6, leading to the same configuration of discs, but in a different position on the board. The lines in the two openings are, naturally, similar for a few moves, but the assessments are different, and the reader is not encouraged to think that the right move in the Bat will work in the Heath Bat, or vice versa. Most strikingly, the most common move in the Bat is 8.b6, whereas the analogous move (which also happens to be 8.b6) in the Heath Bat is not regarded as viable.
White has quite a lot of choice at move 8, with (in increasing order of popularity) b5, e3, e6, c6 and b6 all possible. I won't be giving any strong recommendations, but the overall conclusion will be that several lines are fine for White. Of course, if you don't intend to play the Bat yourself, all you need to know is one line which you're happy with.
To start with, 8.b5 is not good. A typical continuation is 9.b3 10.d2 11.c6 12.b6 13.e2, with Black more than comfortable. Alternatively, White can try 10.e2 11.c6 12.b6 13.e6, which is not obviously better.
A more interesting try is 8.e3. Now after the inevitable 9.b3, White can play either 10.b5 or 10.c6. After 10.b5 11.e6 (11.d2 is also possible, but is less tempting than after 10.c6), we reach the position on the left below. The position on the right is from the Heath Bat, after the continuation 8.e3 9.e6 10.b5 11.b3. That line is generally regarded as good for Black, with the conclusion that 8.e3 is wrong in the Heath Bat.
The Bat.
The Heath Bat.
Here, to remind you, is the Heath Bat analysis (from the diagram on the right above): if 12.c6, then 13.a6 is good, so White plays 12.a4, met by 13.a3 14.a2 (lines like 14.a5 15.a6 16.b6 17.c6 are regarded as good for Black, who has a nice move to c2 in reserve) 15.a5 16.a6 17.f5, and Black should survive.
Now, what difference does it make moving the d2 disc to f4? It still seems to be true that 12.c6 13.a6 is fine for Black. So 12.a4, and now 13.a3 14.a2 15.c2: this was not advisable previously because the d2 disc gave White access to a5. After 16.c6 17.a6, White's position is already looking untenable. However, White can again try 14.a5 15.a6 16.b6 17.c6 (this sequence, rather than some similar ones, to keep a white disc at b4). Now, after 18.f7, White's position is a lot more viable than in the Heath Bat, because a move to c2 meets with a response to the (here, empty) d2 square.
If 10.c6, rather than 10.b5, 11.e6 12.b5 is far less appealing, so Black usually shakes the position up with 11.d2. After 12.e2, there have been quite a few games continuing 13.f3 14.a3 15.a5. Now I'd recommend 16.c1 17.f2 18.c2, but White usually finds something more imaginative, e.g., 16.c2. On balance, I think 13.b5, as in the Piau-Ralle illustrative game below, is better. I presume the idea was to meet 14.b6 with 15.c7, leaving White with nothing clear-cut to do. Overall, this looks fairly even to me.
8.e6 9.e3 10.c2.
Another not-so-popular line is 8.e6. This is analogous to a Heath Bat line I recommended a year or so ago, which immediately went out of fashion. As in the Heath Bat, the theme here is that 9.e3 looks like an ideal response, but then White has the ungainly 10.c2 and none of Black's moves seem to work very well (see opposite). To be brief, 11.b3 has to be met by 12.d2, which doesn't deserve to work, but seems to. It ought to be the case that Black organises access to b5 and/or c6, plays there, and is ahead. But there isn't any simple way to get this access. 11.d2 can and probably should be met by 12.d1, with similar themes. 11.f5 is perhaps best, intending something like 12.d7 13.c7 (gaining access to f6) 14.c6 15.b5 16.b6 17.f7. This is not all that decisive, but Black may have a slight edge.
Perhaps 9.e3 is not, after all the best, but the alternatives are relatively untried. Typical lines might be 9b3 10d2 11e3 12c2 or 9b5 10e3 11c2 12d7.
The two most common eighth moves are 8.c6 and 8.b6. Let's start by comparing the positions after (a) 8.c6 9.b5 10.b3 and (b) 8.b6 9.b5 10.c6.
(a) c6-b5-b3.
(b) b6-b5-c6.
There are two ways to think about the difference between these two. You could say that White has a disc either at b3 or b6; but you could just as well say that White has a disc either at f4 or, after a reflection in the horizontal axis, at f5. Again, the two positions really are similar, and play can look just the same for a few moves, but you are not advised to conclude that what's good in one line is good in the other.
For instance, the following line has proved devastating from position (b): 11.f5 12.e3 13.d7 14.a4 15.a3 16.a6 17.a5 18.a2 19.b3 20.c2 21.f2. Experience suggests that Black is not now under that much pressure, that he will eventually be forced to flip the f4 disc, but that a subsequent white move to c7 can be met by a sacrifice against the West edge. The reader is invited to look for plausible alternatives for White; you might try 18.b3 19.a7 20.e6, but I don't think it works -- Black can just play 21.f6, potter around in the South for a bit, then take the a2 move with a lot of pressure (alternatively, he can go for an extraction, i.e, try to flip the b4 and b5 discs as well as play to a2, leaving almost no white discs buried in the black mass). Another possibility is 12.f3 13.e3 14.e6 15.g4 16.d2 17.c2; this doesn't look like anything to worry about, but it turns out to be astonishingly difficult for White to find anything to do. To be frank, I don't know what to do as White against this opening, and my advice (which I intend to follow) is to play a different move 8 and let someone else find a good way of coping with this.
So, is 11.f5 any good in position (a)? I suspect not. Part of the point after 12.e3 in (b) is that Black is getting a move to b3 one day, but here that square is occupied. Black should probably continue 13.b6, but White doesn't have anything to worry about here.
Apart from the possibility of 11.f5, the main lines from (a) and (b) are just reflections: from (a), play goes 11.b6 12.e3 (White doesn't want Black playing there) 13.c2 14.a4 (14.a5 is just about possible, but not recommended). >From (b), we get 11.b3 12.e6 13.c7 14.a5. See below.
Line (a).
Line (b).
Line (b), reflected.
As we've said, to choose between these positions, look at, say, the first one, and decide whether you want a white disc at f4 or f5. To be definite, let's work with (a). Black has two real options (15.e2 16.d2 appears to be fine for White).
After 21f6.
First, there is 15.a5 16.a6 (it's quiet, yes, but so what?) 17.d2 18.a7 19.a2 20.e2 (note White's move order: e2-a2-a7 instead leaves Black an easy move to f1) 21.f6, reaching the position opposite. Now White is currently short of good moves; one possibility is 22.c1, leaving Black the long term problem that he won't be able to sacrifice with b2, since he's unlikely to have access to a3 after White takes a1. It's probably close.
Now shunt the f4 disc to f5: much better for White, since he now has 22.c7. This is then a plus for 8.b6 over 8.c6.
Line (a): 15d2 16a6.
Alternatively, from the leftmost of the three diagrams above, Black can play 15.d2 immediately. Comparison with the previous line suggests that 16.e2 17.a5 is going to be good for Black, but White has the interesting shot of 16.a6: see opposite. The simple idea is that White is not going to lose a tempo on this edge: indeed Black should delay the move to a5, to make it as awkward as possible for White to subsequently get access to a3. So Black should chip away at the White formation to the East. How well this works depends on what that formation actually is. So, do you want a White disc at f4 or at f5?
Before 11.f5 came along, the consensus was that White wanted the disc at f5, so that 8.b6 was a better move than 8.c6. But right now I can't reconstruct this reasoning. From the diagram, play usually goes 17.f2 18.f3 19.a5 20.d7 (loud, but clearly worthwhile), and now Black chooses between c7 and g3. It's close.
Shunt the f4 disc to f5 again. What's so bad about playing to f2 here? In practice, Black almost always goes to f6, unpoisoning the c7 move for White. On the other hand, maybe White would prefer the c7 move to turn the disc at d6, to ensure access to a3 after a Black response to a5? Anyway, the sequence from line (b) is long and well-travelled: the Tamenori-Rose illustrative game is very standard, and there are at least two other major tournament games following the same line to move 38. I believe Black is winning at that point, but I don't believe that proves anything. The standard belief is that this line is good for White.
Conclusions? Well, I won't play 8.b6 for a while because I'm scared of the 11.f5 line, but I don't see why I shouldn't play 8.c6. (Or 8.e6, or 8.e3.) If you are going to play 8.c6, you also need to be aware of 9.b3: see the Marconi-Murakami game for a typical continuation.