Openings

Sicilian Defense: Good chess players have a lot of patterns as an integral part of their chess knowledge. These patterns are accumulated over the years as one’s knowledge of the game expands. Most of these patterns can be found in the games of the classical players, though bear in mind that in modern times players […]

New openings are important. Although it is common to hear well-experienced Grandmasters telling you that you should start by studying the endgame (as stated by Capablanca), this does not mean that you should put the opening aside. In modern chess, when even the low-rated players have great access to information and top analysis by coaches […]

French Winwawer Structure: One of the main weapons against 1.e4 is the French Defense (1…e6) and a very popular variation of this defense is the so-called Winawer Variation which arises after the moves: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 The positions arising from this variation usually yield a thick central pawn structure with white […]

Against 1. e4: Here in Part III, we will take a look at Black’s options against 1 e4. As we noted in Part I of our analysis, White generally manages to steer the game towards his preferred lines after most of Black’s defenses against 1 e4. Our task here is to see which of those […]

Opening Preparation: In Part I, we saw what White has at his disposal on move 1. Here we will take a look at what Black can do when faced with each of White’s main moves (except for 1.e4, which will be dealt with in Part III). White’s 1.b3 was deemed impractical in our analysis in […]

Grunfeld Defense is one of the most popular defenses against 1.d4 nowadays and it has been quite a pain for white since the last decade. Without a real path to an advantage, the legion of 1.d4 players has been constantly switching from one line to another, playing the surprise factor card. Throughout the history of […]

Practical Openings for White: I already touched upon this subject in my previous article How To Train, where I addressed the technical aspects of how to choose an opening, how to study it afterward, and how to use the database and the engine. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly recommend you read it […]

Opening mistakes: The opening is nowadays probably one of the most studied of the three phases of the game. We have always said that there should be a balance between the time given to each of them in your training schedule and that it’s more important to get a good understanding of the game by […]

Stonewall: The Dutch Defense is a popular choice against 1.d4 among club players, although not that often seen at the top level. Nevertheless, it has been used by many strong players, such as ex-World Champions Alexandr Alekhine and Mikhail Botvinnik, Bent Larsen, Miguel Najdorf, Artur Yussupov, Nigel Short. It has also been employed from time […]

Learn Openings and 5 Habits That Help You With It. It is difficult nowadays to get a good game without having a fair amount of theory knowledge. There is no such thing as an easy game anymore, like almost everybody, as amateur as they are, knows openings. It is probably the most studied phase of […]