There is a temptation in games that start 1e4 e5 and with white bringing a bishop to c4 to prevent white playing Ng5 to attack the f7 square by playing h6. This is usually wrong. It is preferable to get the king’s side pieces out and castle. If white wants to waste time swapping his developed bishop and knight for rook and pawn, that should be fine by black. Here is a drastic example of what can go wrong played recently by myself. After move 8 black has a lost position and even after the better 8 ….  c5 white is doing well with 9 Nd7  Ke7;  10 Qc5  Kd7;  11 Qb5 when black has his king in the middle in advance of his whole army.  5 …. Qe7 would have made the best of a bad job.

Interactive Chess Game - Please refresh page if not shown

PGN Notation:

[pgn height=400 layout=horizontal autoplayMode=none]
[Date "2012.11.06"]
[White "McAllan, Ian"] 
[Black "Stephenson, Brian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Event "Beacon Seniors 2012 Exmouth"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7 4.Bc4 h6 5.dxe5 dxe5 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Kf6 
8.Qd4 Bb4+ 9.c3 Qe8 10.Nxd7+ Kg6 11.Ne5+ Kh7 12.cxb4 Nf6 13.Nc3 Rf8 
14.Be3 c6 15.0-0 a5 16.f4 Qe7 17.Qc5 Qe8 18.bxa5 Be6 19.Rad1 Qc8 20.f5 Bg8 
21.Rd6 Qc7 22.b4 Rfe8 23.Rfd1 Bxa2 24.Rxf6 Rxe5 25.Qd6 Qxd6 26.Rfxd6 Bg8 
27.Rd7 Rf8 28.Bd4 Rfe8 29.Rxb7 R5e7 30.Rxe7 Rxe7 31.a6 Re8 32.a7 Bc4 
33.Bb6 Ba6 34.Rd8 Rxd8 35.Bxd8 Bb7 36.Na4 1-0 
[/pgn]

Ian McAllan