There is the concept that you should know the classics to get an idea about concepts. Unfortunately it is not that simple because the old masters didn’t have Stockfish. Sometimes their concepts just simply don’t hold up to modern analysis. One of these old concepts is that Bb4 and d5 don’t go well together, because white plays a3 to grab the bishop pair and follows it up with cxd5 to get rid of his doubled pawns. In the following game Donchenko went for the alternative, the transposition to the famous Noteboom, a very double edged system where all three results are possible.

What is the take-away? Donchenko’s choice was clearly justified, even though it felt very strange to me at first. We also learn that this is an interesting moveorder to get to the Noteboom while sidestepping the annoying Marshall-Gambit. In a must win situation this could be important. Another lesson is: Don’t get bluffed!