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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 1…f5, Black breaks the symmetry and grabs space on the kingside. The Dutch is flexible. Black can choose to play the Stonewall, the Classical, or the Leningrad Variation. The latter option is favored by many strong grandmasters.
Happy 2023!
I knew I could make it through this year because of you.
Thank you for your friendship!
We recently ran a survey to identify the 3 biggest areas where club players need improvement the most.
And based on 1546 responses here is what we found.
Here it is.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!
I’m glad to announce a new Chess Tournament on our sister site ChessLance.com that we scheduled on January 2nd, 2023 at 11 AM EST!
After all that Christmas hustle and bustle, family dinners, and maybe some nice travels and reunions with loved ones let’s get back to chess and enjoy its beauty!
I’m sure you were missing it.
Positions with Imbalances: Most club players think that ‘imbalances’ is an advanced concept that only Grandmasters understand. It can’t be further from the truth.
Imbalance simply means that the material on the board isn’t equal.
Wing Gambit: Sicilian Defense is one of the most common responses against 1.e4.
So, if you play 1.e4 you really have two options…
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.
Budapest Gambit: Are you looking for an opening against 1.d4 that…
Leads to fast and furious attacks by Black. Check.
Avoids your opponent’s home preparation and pet lines. Check.
Prevents drawish and boring play. Check.
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 plans to counterattack it later.
Why study William Steinitz? One of the most effective ways to study chess is to analyze games of the best players.
How do you choose a player to study from?
It can be based on what you want to improve in chess. Usually, people recommend learning how to attack from such players as Tal and Kasparov. For positional chess, Capablanca, Smyslov, Karpov, and Carlsen come to mind. These World Champions have played a lot of masterpieces and thus, provided us with much instructive material.
Most chess players just study openings and tactics.
They think this is all it takes to win games… Not true.
You see, many club players can find a mate-in-3. Or play a few opening moves correctly.
