Out of nothing

In my previous post, I discussed about an improvement in white's play in the Euwe defense 5...e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 00 8.00 Nbd7 9.Qe1 h6.
After this improvement ( 10.Qh4 Re8 11.Bxh6 gxh6 12.Ne5 !! ), white is winning.

But obviously, white does not have to be so cooperative and can play differently, for example 9...c5 after which white answers 10.Qh4

a/ 10...Re8 11.Ne5 is black's only hope - black has nothing else than 11...Nxe5 12.dxe5 Qd4+ 13.Qxd4 cxd4 14.Nb5 with an equal game. All other moves loose quickly.

b/ 10...h6 looses as white can play 11.Bxh6 gxh6 12.Qxh6 with a large advantage for white

c/ 10...g6 removes a defender from f6. White gets the advantage after the simple 11.dxc5

d/ 10...cxd4 loose an important tempo 11.Bxh7+ Nxh7 12.Bxe7 Qb6 13.Ne4 and despite a pawn up, black's pieces are really badly placed. White should win easily, eg 13...d3+ 14.Rf2 Qxb2 15.Raf1

e/ 10...Qb6 is also too slow, eg 11.Ne5 winning

f/ the odd looking 10...h5 cannot be refuted easily, but 11.Ne4 gives white the better game


Bottom line -  Even if the obvious line in the Euwe defense 5...e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Bd3 00 8.00 Nbd7 9.Qe1 c5 10.Qh4 is not completely lost for black, there is only one line that gives black an equal game, namely 10...Re8 11.Ne5.

 All other moves seem to loose quickly - talking about an attack out of nothing !