berlin defense - tag

The rise of the Berlin Defense is one of the most notable changes chess theory has experienced in the 21st century. This opening was considered dubious about 20 years ago, but now almost every top grandmaster has it in their repertoire. Same as the Petroff Defense, the Berlin has caused a lot of headaches to […]

Berlin variation of the Spanish Opening has become part of the main opening weapons for black in today’s chess. The Berlin Defense had a reputation of being a drawish/boring option for black. However, everything changed when Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik used it successfully against Garry Kasparov in the match for the World Chess Championship.

Here is another (last week I covered Elephant’s Trap) good trap to have in your arsenal. It is called Mortimer Trap. It occurs in the one of the most commonly played chess openings called Ruy Lopez. Black plays a passive move with its Knight in order to trick White to accept the pawn which would […]