Mieses Variation

With 3. g3 White sets aside the f4 plan for now and prepares Bg2, where the bishop bears on d5 and the long diagonal. The fianchetto foreshadowed later hypermodern ideas in the Vienna. Mieses won a brilliancy prize with it against Znosko-Borovsky at Ostend 1907, and Smyslov adopted it occasionally, notably beating Polugaevsky in the 1961 USSR Championship. The engine considers the position roughly balanced, though White scores somewhat better in practice.

The three main replies are played about equally often. The most direct is 3...d5, striking at the center before the bishop arrives. Play usually continues 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. Bg2 Nxc3 6. bxc3, giving White doubled c-pawns but a half-open b-file and pressure from the g2-bishop, after which Black chooses between 6...Bd6, 6...Nc6 and 6...Bc5. The Erben Gambit, 4...c6 after 4. exd5, offers a pawn for quick development instead of recapturing. The calmer 3...Nc6 and 3...Bc5 commonly transpose into other lines, with White typically following up with Bg2 and Nge2.