The Long Bogo - looking at sidelines

Today we look at an interesting sideline in the Long Bogo : 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 g6 ( the Bogoljubow defense ) 6.Bf4 ( the Long Bogo ) Bg7 7.Qd2 0-0 8.0-0-0 and now the interesting move 8...Nbd7 (diagram)

Scheerer recommends 9.Bh6 Nb6 10.h4 here, but its seems black is better after the obvious 10...Bg4, pausing the white attack before it even started. there must be surely a better way to handle this line. Let's see what happens if black tries to open up the h line, potentially at the cost of another pawn. I guess the most immediate way to do so is 9.h4.

Let's look at a few lines - I will cover today 9....Nh5, in a future post, I will cover some alternatives.

9.h4 Nh5 10.Be2 (diagram)

This looks strange, as black is able to exchange some pieces, but the aim of white is to open the g and h files.

a/ 10...Nxf4 11.Qxf4 (diagram)

...a1/ 11...Nf6 12.Ne5 (=)
...a2/ 11...h5 12.g4 (=)
...a3/ 11...h6 12.Kb1 (=)
...a4/ 11...c5 12.h5 (+=)
...a4/ 11...c6 12.h5 (+=)
...a5/ 11...e6 12.g4 (+=)
...a6/ 11...Nb6 12.h5 (=)

b/ 10...c6 11.Bh2
...b1/ 11...b5 12.g4 Nf6 13.g5 (=)
...b2/ 11...Qa5 12.g4 Nf6 13.g5 (=)
...b3/ 11...Nhf6 12.h5 (=)

c/ 10...c5 11.Bh2 cxd4 12.Nxd4 (=)

d/ 10...Nb6 11.Bh2 (=)

e/ 10...a6 11.Bh6 (=)

So we can conclude that the lin e8...Nbd7 9.h4 Nh5 brings no advantage to black. Maybe there are other black moves that give black some chances, let's discuss that next blog.