Openings

Catalan is one of the most common opening choices for white. In earlier times, you could mostly see it at the top level. Today, it has slowly become very popular everywhere. Also, nowadays, it is one of the top choices at every level and is a usual guest at almost every tournament. The bishop on […]

Tactical Patterns: In order to get better at chess, one needs to build up and polish a number of skills. All of them are important, but tactics are probably something you can’t do without. No matter how good you get at strategic play, it can all go away with one bad move that overlooks a […]

Opening: Which one is the best for me? Having a well-developed, solid repertoire is an important step in improving your level as a chess player. Middlegame knowledge, endgame knowledge, tactics, and strategy are all very important too, but they all fail if you don’t manage to get a good, playable position out of the opening, […]

Dutch Defense: Creating a good, sound repertoire that really suits one’s style of play is an important and difficult step for many chess players. If with the white pieces, it is relatively easier to give the direction of the game and try to take it to positions you are comfortable with, things are a bit […]

Sicilian is one of the most popular openings for black against 1.e4. It is the favorite of many players and the theory inside it has been studied and discussed to exhaustion. Nevertheless, new ideas still resurface from time to time, which only shows how full of resources this defense is. Although many people believe it […]

The …g5 Plan: In our previous article, we were showing you a less known idea for black in the Sicilian, castling long in certain positions. This is not the only way you could sometimes surprise your opponent and in this article, we are going to discuss another plan that many times intertwines with the long […]

Catalan and its Typical Plans. We live in a time where technology is part of our everyday life. Information is easily accessible to everybody. Those are things that are clearly reflected in the development of the chess theory. With the help of computers, many lines have been refuted, while some openings have been demonstrated to […]

Maroczy Bind is one of the structures every chess player must study and know how to play with both colors. It is a very popular system that players use against the Sicilian. But, it can arise from various move orders, whether you start by 1.e4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3, or even 1.d4. You can easily recognize it […]

Semi-Slav and its Plans and Ideas. The Slav is a very popular opening and a reply for the black player against 1.d4. There are many lines and set-ups possible for both players, but in this article, we are going to focus on the Semi-Slav and one very common structure that appears in this variation – […]

King’s Indian Defense is one of the most popular replies for black against white’s 1.d4. It is the perfect weapon for the active player who likes to be aggressive and is not afraid of complications. The opening is well-known for the dangerous attacks that black can start on the kingside, which has produced many brilliant […]