Positional Players - tag

French Defense is not played because most GMs and super-GMs play 1…c5 and 1…e5 to 1.e4 instead of it. On being asked why it is so, Peter Svidler recently commented: “I think the answer is twofold. Firstly, both the Spanish and the Sicilian offer you a much broader scope to choose from. If you play […]

Modern Defense, starting with 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7, follows any other hypermodern openings and is highly provocative and dynamic—as much as an opening can get. Black fianchetto a bishop early on the g7-square eyeing on the long dark-squared diagonal running from h8 to a1.