Openings

Four Knights Game – Scotch Variation: Opening trends change all the time. People play whatever is played the most at the top level, whether that opening suits them or not. Many players like to follow the latest trends, dictated by the leading experts in the opening.

In the previous post, I shared the opening that IM Ratkovic found to work exceptionally well for his students. Quick reminder… Four Knights Game Scotch Variation (FNGSV).

I have some VERY interesting insight to share with you today… that will make opening play whole a lot simpler for you. IM Milovan Ratkovic was going behind the scenes into the opening preparation of his students.

The best approach for dealing with the Sicilian Defense depends on your personal playing style and preferences. As White, you can choose to play sharp, theoretical lines or adopt a more positional strategy. If you prefer to avoid extensive study of theory but still want to take the initiative from the start of the game, […]

If you want to play for a win with Black pieces, you should have fighting openings in your repertoire. Such openings keep the game tense and don’t allow White to trade many pieces early. It is also nice if it gives Black attacking possibilities. Against 1.d4, one of such openings is the Dutch Defense. With […]

Petroff Defense is one of the most solid and reliable openings in chess. White has always been struggling to find an advantage against it. It usually leads to symmetrical and balanced positions where it is hard to complicate the game. It makes Black’s play rather simple and straightforward.

Owen’s Defense: When it comes to studying openings, most of the players look for shortcuts and skip studying the rare ones. It gives their opponents good chances to surprise them with off-beat openings. One such option is Owen’s Defense. It is a flexible hypermodern opening. Black allows the first player to conquer the center and […]

Tactical 1.e4: When it comes to building an Opening Repertoire, it is important to consider the player’s strengths and weaknesses. Many people underperform because their openings don’t match their style. It is easy to imagine a strong positional player getting lost in tactical jungles as well as a strong tactician making no sense in a […]

Four Knights Game is one of those openings that are popular at both beginner and grandmaster levels. It has solid positional ground and most of the time leads to calm positions. At the same time, some lines are so sharp that it is not surprising that many strong and creative players favored the Four Knights […]

Max Lange Attack is a dangerous attacking weapon that White has at their disposal in a number of openings. You can reach the same position from six different move orders and we will take a look at those in a moment. The line got its name after Max Lange, a German player, theoretician, and problem […]