This course is dedicated to one of the most popular openings played on all levels – The Ruy Lopez or as many people know it the Spanish game.
Here is how this opening starts: 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5
In previous articles, we have written about the importance of being practical in your opening choice. Following the sharp lines in the mainstream theory is not for everyone, but fortunately, chess is rich enough and can be played in many different ways. In this article, we would like to draw your attention to the exchange variation of the French as played by the French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot. Bacrot is an extremely strong player with a wonderful chess career. Although for most of his career, he has been a 1.d4 player, Bacrot switches to 1.e4 every now and then.
One of the most troubling decisions is to design your opening repertoire. The idea of having a perfect set of weapons against each of the opponent’s possible choices gives us peace of mind. However, there is a huge gap between how we picture this in our head and how it actually works in practice.
We see openings (our repertoire) as something fixed where ideally we would obtain a comfortable position each time and sometimes if we are lucky, we can get even an advantage. I would say that nowadays this rather sounds like wishful thinking and not very practical.
The pawn structure in the diagram above is very familiar in chess practice. It can arise from openings like Slav and Semi Slav, Alekhine, Scandinavian, French and of course Caro Kann, the latter being the most common source of appearance. The special thing about such structure is that although white has more space, black is rock solid and his plans are very clear. Such a scenario always produces tense positional battles where both players need to understand the demands of the position and know well what the typical plans to follow are.
For the first time since 2012, when Boris Gelfand used it as his mainstay weapon with Black after 1 e4 against Viswanathan Anand in their World Championship Match, the Sveshnikov Sicilian returned to the biggest scene in this year’s World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
In a curious twist, in 2012 Anand first tried the Sveshnikov once only to revert to the Rossolimo, which eventually won him the match.
An easy guideline for club players against White’s most solid opening. Studying openings is a never-ending duty for the competitive chess player. Even when one has already decided on a repertoire, it is not unusual to develop an interest in learning new systems.
Through the years I’ve come to the conclusion that although the intense study of openings has been stigmatized as of no great importance to improve your chess understanding, a variety of openings deeply studied with the resulting middle games, structures, and patterns is very useful for the improving player.
The World Championship match is always on the forefront of chess theory. The openings and variations played have been subjected to profound months-long study by teams of analysts supported by powerful hardware, meaning that they are of the highest quality. This is understandable because nobody wants to risk playing even a slightly dubious line on an occasion as a World Championship match!
There comes a moment in every chess player’s game preparation when he is faced with a variation he would not really like to see on the board. Let us take as an example the situation when a King’s Indian player faces the prospect of playing against the Exchange Variation. In such a situation the player has two choices – he can either allow the annoying variation or he can change his usual choice of 6…e5 (let us assume the player’s repertoire is the Mar del Plata variation where he enjoys his rich attacking chances) and play something like 6…Nbd7 or 6…Na6 (after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Be2).
The black pawns resemble the spikes of a hedgehog, not letting white cross the 5th rank without getting hurt! The so-called Hedgehog System is one of those mysterious ways to play that captivate every chess player. There is certain beauty on how one side can concede so much space and then strike with all his power destroying the enemy’s pretentions. It’s a universal system that can be obtained from several openings, for example, the English Opening, the Nimzo-Indian, but also in the Sicilian and from several other transformations in the middlegame.
In the computer era that we live in, where every opening is analyzed in detail and every chess player, regardless of their level, knows a fairly amount of theory, it is important to have in your opening arsenal a system that doesn’t require so much memorization and is based on middlegame understanding.