Openings

Here’s a fun fact. Fischer beat Reuben Fine in a friendly game in just 17 moves. Opening used? Evans Gambit. Fine later said Black’s job gets more difficult in this opening since you can’t play …d6 or give up a pawn to gain equality.

Are you looking for a serious upgrade to your anti-1.d4 repertoire? If you play Queen’s Gambit Declined (QGD) with black pieces I have great news for you. FM Zaur Tekeyev is here to present a trendy novelty when it comes to QGD! ***  

Trompowsky Attack: Are you a 1.d4 player? Tired of Black knowing all the White’s plans and shifting gears into Slav, Nimzo, King’s Indian… resulting in slow, impossible-to-win positions?

Sveshnikov Sicilian: It is no secret that Sicilian Defense is the single strongest response against 1.e4. In fact, Sicilian is so strong, that many players switched to 1.d4 altogether.

Pirc Defense is a hypermodern opening named after the five-time Yugoslavian Champion Vasja Pirc. At the highest level, the opening has always been staying on the roadside of the mainstream theory. Still, Mikhail Botvinnik used it in the Century Match in 1970, and Robert Fischer employed it against Boris Spassky in the World Championship in […]

1…e5: “What should I play against 1.e4?” is a big question when creating your opening repertoire with the black pieces. There are a number of good openings for black, with the Sicilian (1…c5) being the main choice by the second player.

O’Kelly Sicilian is a great variation of the Sicilian Defense when you don’t have so much time to study its theory. Chess has always been a fascinating game. When you see brilliant minds silently competing over the board, it is not even necessary to know the rules to get excited. Many people study chess hard. […]

The Sicilian Defense is one of the most interesting and versatile openings. It leads to imbalanced positions and suits dynamic players. While some variations, such as the Dragon, are razor-sharp and aggressive, there are solid alternatives for Black as well. One of such lines has recently become trendy – the Taimanov Sicilian.

Scandinavian Defense appears on the board after the moves 1.e4 – d5 and is one of the oldest recorded openings in chess. Its idea is very straightforward – right from the start, black is attacking white’s center, trying to undermine it.

Sicilian Dragon is one of the main weapons for black against 1.e4. The Dragon is known as a fighting opening, which can lead to sharp play and sharp complications in some lines. Black has a lot of set-ups to choose from, each with different characteristics and plans. In this article, I am going to present […]