Marin Mihail. Play the Leningrad Bird

Modern Chess, Opening Databases, 2019.What should we expect from the Leningrad Bird? Does it offer White an advantage? Is White's extra tempo with respect to the Dutch essential? First of all, we should expect a long strategic struggle, with many original positions and structures, which the computer does not always understand from the beginning. Quite typically, the engines' scepticism vanishes gradually. This makes the opponents' preparation quite difficult. It is right to say that in the complex middlegame the better strategy is likely to win, but we should also take into account that many interesting dynamic or tactical moments can arise.