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1. Nc3 is a hard opening for beginner's to learn. If you are new to atomic, then it is even difficult to find one reasonable reply to it. White is threatening to advance the knight further with Nb5 or Nd5, and Black must find a way to stop this. First of all, Black should think of restricting the knight with a pawn move. Both 1. ... b5 and 1. ... d5 don't make any sense -- White will advance the knight to the 5th rank and win a lot of material. But, 1. ... c6 covers both b5 and d5. While 1. ... c6 is usually the move played by a beginner who doesn't know opening theory, it is actually a mistake. White can respond with 2. Ne4, and from e4 the knight is threatening to advance to both c5 and g5. Black has a hard time coping with both of these threats (although he may be able to survive without too much damage). The beginner thus gets frustrated and cannot find a way to stop the advance of the White knight. Black has another way to deal with the troublesome White knight. The main idea is to attack back. One of the best moves that does this is 1. ... Nf6. The beauty of this move is that not only does Black threaten to advance his own knight, but it guards the d5 square as well, partially stopping the advance of White's knight. It also ties the White knight down to guarding the e4 square since a Black knight on e4 would fork d2 and f2. So, 2. Nb5?? loses immediately to 2. ... Ne4 [0-1]. The other knight advance 2. Nd5? is actually quite poor too. Black responds 2. ... e6! and now White is in serious trouble. He can't play 3. Nxc7?? because of 3. ... Ne4 [0-1]. He also can't play 3. Nxf6?? because of 3. ... Qh4 4. g3 Qd4 [0-1]. With Black's threats of Ne4, Ng4, and his queen coming out, White is in serious trouble. So, after 1. Nc3 Nf6, White should restrict Black's knight. One possible continuation is 2. f3 c6, which seems to give equal chances to the players. This isn't seen very often nowadays. Instead, White almost always plays 1. Nc3 Nf6 2. e4! (thanks to the great player tipau for advocating this move). This gives Black the option of entering a reversed-Vlasov position with an extra tempo, which seems to make the vlasov position actually quite good. So, Black can respond with 2. ... Ng4. However, the current opinion (at the time of writing) is that this line favors White, and so instead, Black usually plays 2. ... c6. Both moves have generated a lot of theory. Much of this will be discussed in other chapters. Another great response to 1. Nc3 is 1. ... e6! This guards the d5 square but does allow the White knight to move to b5. However, White has never been able to prove an advantage by playing 1. Nc3 e6 2. Nb5 This is because it allows Black to attack back with the queen: 2. ... Qh4 3. g3 Qe4 4. e3 for example. Now black has played 4. ... Nf6 at times (an early king's knight advance is worth exploring too) or he has continued his logical train of thought with 4. ... Qxc2. Now White can't play 5. Nxa7?? because of 5. ... Bb4 [0-1]. So, instead, White usually moves the bishop on f1 with something like 5. Bf2 to make room for his king to defend against Bb4. This gives Black time to save his queen's rook. There are some variations to this line, but with best play by both sides, this opening probably gives the players equal chances and may even be drawish. (Actually it may even be White who has to work hard for the draw.) So, after 1. Nc3 e6, instead of 2. Nb5 White can try 2. Nf3 I don't know who played that move first, but for a while it gave Black some serious trouble. White now threatens to advance both knights. Black can't stop them both. At first, this simply looked 1-0, even to the top players. But within a few days, possible defenses were found (thanks probably goes to tipau and/or siggemannen). The main line now proceeds: 2. ... Qf6 3. Ne4 Nh6 4. g4 Qd4 5. Nxd4. White gets the Black queen for two knights. But Black gets plenty of compensation. His queen's knight and king's bishop are about to team up to create an initiative. Both sides probably have roughly equal chances. This opening, too, will be explored in another chapter. Because White hasn't been able to prove an advantage after 1. Nc3 e6 2. Nf3, another popular second move has been 2. d4. Another possible reply to 1. Nc3 is 1. ... Nh6?!. However, White can at least continue with 2. e4 Ng4 3. f4 c6 achieving that reversed Vlasov position we mentioned earlier, which top players say favors White (claims like this, of course, haven't been proven). So, this move isn't really played by players in the know. The only other reply to 1. Nc3 that seems to have a chance is 1. ... e5?! It is worth considering what happens then after 2. Nb5 Qh4 etc. and what the differences are between this and the same line where the Black pawn is on e6 instead of e5. However, it is believed that White's best continuation is 2. e3! White threatens to put a queen on f3 and simultaneously threatens to advance his queen's knight. Typical tactics involving opposing queens on the f-file will ensue and seem to favor White. Black's best continuation may be 2. ... Nh6! 3. Qf3 Qf6 4. Kd1! Qxf3 5. Nf3, and White seems to have the (probably decisive) advantage. This will all be explored in another chapter. So, in summary, after 1. Nc3, your best bet as Black is either 1. ... Nf6 or 1. ... e6, both of which seem fine. If you are reckless, you might try to make 1. ... c6?!, 1. ... e5?!, or 1. ... Nh6?! work (the latter of these is probably not as bad as the other two). Any other reply by Black will probably lose the game.
KEY:
When branching occurs, move options are listed
from best to worst according to the author's opinion.
# = mate
## = win by explosion
? = bad move
?? = loses to a short forced mate
?! = probably a bad move
other marks are standard chess notations
1. Nc3
1. ... e6
2. d4
2. Nf3 Qf6 3. Ne4 Nh6 4. g4 Qd4 5. Nxd4
2. Nb5?! Qh4 3. g3 Qe4 4. e3
4. ... Nf6
4. ... Qxc2
5. Bb2
5. Nxa7?? Bb4 [0-1]
1. ... Nf6
2. e5
2. ... c6
2. ... Ng4
2. f3 c6
2. Nd5? e6!
3. Nxc7?? Ne4 [0-1]
3. Nxf6?? Qh4 4. g3 Qd4 [0-1]
2. Nb5?? Ne4 [0-1]
1. ... c6?! 2. Ne4
1. ... e5?! 2. e3! Nh6! 3. Qf3 Qf6 4. Kd1! Qxf3 5. Nf3 [+=]
1. ... Nh6?! 2. e4 Ng4 3. f4 c6
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