There is a pretty popular website on openings that makes money with subscriptions. What do they offer in return? Expert advice of course. In the latest edition one of their experts calls the following line “very dangerous”. I added the clean equalizer in the comments. It is an equalizer because if white deviates black is better.

Since Stockfish is free and everyone can click the button, the real value comes from them spotting interesting games, but even there they are kinda slow. I have already covered Donchenko-Firouzja months ago, actually – if I remember correctly – on the day it was played. The big question is if Firouzja knew that the line is bad and he played it as a total bluff or if it was just terrible preparation.

In my previous article I did not mention alternatives for black, so let’s do it now. Instead of 15…Qc7, I am offering a few lines from correspondence chess starting with 15…Nc5, because that is the move which exploits the position of the newly arrived knight on d2. The Noteboom is a dubious choice, but it isn’t officially busted yet.

Just like the days of professional seconds are numbered, I am 100% sure that commercial websites on opening theory will eventually go out of business as well. Maybe it works with donations.