Blitz Adventures #41: Kangaroo defense?

I had an interesting 5+3 game today in an opening I can’t remember the last time I played against. Naturally I wanted to take a look post game and see how well I played without knowing the lines. Just following principles I played a near perfect game since the opponent made an early mistake on the 12th move I was able to capitalize on.

Black immediately puts the question to White’s development, where is the knight going and where is the bishop going? It’s not a bad opening and generally transposes to the typical style QGD if played normally. My opponent decided to support the Bishop after 3. Bd2 Qe7 which isn’t the main line.

1. d4 e6 2. c4 Bb4+ 3. Bd2 Qe7 4. a3 Bxd2+ 5. Qxd2 Nf6 6. Nc3 a6 7. e3 O-O 8. Nf3 h6 9. Bd3 Nc6 10. O-O Re8 11. b4

Above is the critical position, Black is in a bit of a tangle and needs to get out of it. The bishop is stuck on c8 and there isn’t a clear plan for what the knights are trying to accomplish. Black needs to try to break open the position and get their pieces free. Playing e5 offers what Black is looking for but instead of that they play b5?? which immediately loses a pawn and severely weakens the c7 pawn. The game continues where Black fails to defend the c pawn and I am left with outside passed pawns that cannot be stopped.


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