The Anti-Berlin We All Need

Time to add a little spice to the dreary 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 variation.

If you’re like me - and even if you aren’t! - you probably find the Anti-Berlin with 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 something less than exciting. It isn’t that White is trying to be dull, but after two decades of getting nowhere in the endgame lines, and not achieving much after 4.d3, either, the hope was that White could squeeze out a tiny (and very safe) advantage in the symmetrical lines somewhat reminiscent of the Petroff or the Exchange French.

That hasn’t borne much fruit either, but we have to try something. (There is 3.Bc4, of course, which is in the same family as 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3.) In this post, I have something for you. It doesn’t refute the Berlin, but it’s a dangerous surprise weapon that has seen even super-GMs lose, and lose badly. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Nxd6 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0-0 9.d4 Bf6 there have been countless games with 10.Re1, many of them played for the sake of reaching a drawn king and pawn(!) ending, and once in a while White goes for the small finesse with 10.Re2.

But who says White must retreat the rook?