Discovering Chess Openings Building Opening Skills From Basic Principles by John Emms

John Emms

discovering chess open1ngs •

building opening skills from basic principles

EVERYMAN CHESS Gloucester Publishers pic www.everymanchess.com

First published in 2006 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers plc), Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1 V OAT Copyright© 2006 John Emms The right of John Emms to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopyin� recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 1 85744 4191 ISBN13: 9781 85744 419 3 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480. All other sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London ECl V OAT tel: 020 7253 7887; fax: 020 7490 3708 email: [emailprotected] website: www.everymanchess.com Everyman is the registered trade mark of Random House Inc. and is used in this work under licence from Random House Inc.

EVERYMAN (HESS SERIES (formerly Cadogan Chess) Chief Advisor: Byron Jacobs Commissioning editor: John Emms

Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishin� Brighton. Cover design by Horatio Monteverde. Production by Navigator Guides. Printed and bound in the US by Versa Press.

Contents Symbols

Introduction

Central Issues

Introducing Development

King Safety

Delving Deeper

Pawn Play

118

Chess Openings in Practice

17 4

Solutions to Exercises

230

Glossary

244

Index of Openings

247

Symbols +

check

brilliant move good move

interesting move

dubious move

bad move

blunder

1-0

The game ends in a win for White

0-1

The game ends in a win for Black

Vz-1/z

The game ends in a draw

Introduction The study of chess openings is difficult and never-ending. It's like Pandora's box: the more you study, the more there is to learn; and the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. If that's the opinion of someone who's been trying for nearly 30 years to get to grips with openings, how does a newcomer to chess find this ever-spiralling science? Intimidating, or is that too mild a description? So what is an aspiring player supposed to do? Although not strictly relevant here, I can't help but be reminded of one of Bobby Fischer's famous quotes. On being quizzed over chess lessons, Bobby Fischer advised his biographer and founding editor of Chess Life magazine, Frank Brady, (tongue-in-cheek, I'm sure): 'For the first lesson, I want you to play over every column of Modem Chess Openings, including the foot notes. And for the next lesson, I want you to do it again.' Of course it goes without saying that opening encyclopaedias are an important part of chess literature, but I do wonder how I would have found the experience as a junior player of ploughing through the latest volume of intense opening theory. A bit bewildering, perhaps?

This book is a bit different and is mainly aimed at those who know nothing or very little about chess openings. It's also for those who do know some moves of opening theory, who have happily played these moves in their own games, but are perhaps not quite sure why they play them! One of my main aims was to give the reader enough confidence to face the unknown; to be able to play good, logical moves in the opening despite in many cases having a lack of concrete knowledge of the the ory. After all, even in grandmaster games there comes a point when one or both players runs out of theory and has to rely on general opening principles, and some times this is sooner than you would think. The initial inspiration behind Discovering Chess Openings stemmed from coaching sessions I did with some young students not experienced enough to have any real knowledge of opening theory. After revising the basic principles of opening play, I decided as exercises to give them a number of positions from typical openings, often only three or four moves deep into the game. I then let them spend some time find-

Discovering Chess Openings

ing logical moves and, in turn, appropriate replies to these moves. The idea was to find out how players with little or no knowledge of opening theory but with some understanding of general opening principles would fare when confronted with an opening position they knew nothing about. This concept really appealed to me. The traditional approach had been to carefully go through the mainline openings, taking measures to explain the reasoning behind each move, but somehow it seemed so much more beneficial (not to mention more fun!) to watch the students trying to work out the best moves of their own accord; basically, trying to recreate opening theory! It was fascinating to revisit well known positions with players whose views were not influenced by previous knowledge; this definitely brought a certain freshness to their ideas. On the other hand, some suggestions that were made did reinforce one or two common misconceptions amongst improving players, and I've included these in the book to emphasize what we should be particularly looking out for. This book has also given me the opportunity to expand on a number of topics which arose when I was writing Concise Chess, a general guide for absolute beginners. These themes were too advanced for that book, so I was happy to be able to include them in a more suitable place. Finally, a brief paragraph about how the book was written and what it contains. The first three chapters introduce the three main ideas behind opening play:

1) Control of the centre 2) Rapid piece development

3) King safety. There are other important concepts, but as far as I can see these are usually just sub sets of these three. Chapters 4 and 5 delve more deeply into these themes, with the latter chapter concentrating on the role pawns play in the opening. Finally, in Chap ter 6 we take all the ideas of the previous chapters and see how they are used to cre ate modem opening theory. Whilst many mainline openings can be found within these pages, not everything under the sun is covered. As I've already mentioned, it was never the intention to be encyclopaedic. Perhaps I've indulged a little more in 1 e4 e5 openings, and if so I make no excuses for this. In my experience, these are the first openings that many newcomers learn, so they are likely to come across these more frequently than other openings in the initial stages of their development. I think I've said enough. I hope you enjoy this book and wish you the best of luck discovering chess openings! John Emms, Kent, July 2006 6

Chapter One

Central Issues

What is 'the centre'? Okay, I admit this sounds a silly question, but even so I'd be happier if I were able to confirm one or two definitions here. 'The centre' is very often considered to be simply the four squares highlighted in the diagram below: e4, d4, e5 and d5.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This definition, however, has always seemed a bit restrictive to me. I think you lose something if you say these four squares are the centre, everything else isn't; I don't think it's as black and white as that (excuse the pun!). For this book's pur poses I'd like to expand the centre a little to include the squares c4, c5, f4, f5, d3, e3, d6 and e6 (see the following diagram).

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

I'd be the first to admit that these extra eight squares aren't quite as important as e4, d4, eS and dS, but they still carry some significance and so I think it's right to include them here. Why is it important to pay attention to the centre? Why not ignore the centre and play only on the flanks? Good questions! One or two further answers will crop up later on in the book, but for now I'd like to give the following arguments:

1) Let's use an analogy between chess and some other sports and games (chess has been described as many things; just for the record, I would classify it as a mind sport). In soccer, for example, I often hear commentators using phrases such as, 'Control the midfield and you control the game.' Something similar could easily be used to describe a game of chess. For one thing, if you control the centre then it should be easier for you to access all sides of the board. 2) Chess pieces are generally more powerful, more mobile and thus more influen tial when placed in the centre of the board. Put simply, they are able to control more squares from the centre.

Piece Mobility I think the second point is best illustrated by using the example of the knight. Let's place it in the centre of an empty board, say on the e4-square.

(see following diagram) On e4 the knight is controlling eight squares; it's performing to its maximum ca pabilities. 8

Centra/Issues

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Now let's see what happens when the knight is placed on the edge of the board as in the next diagram.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

On this occasion, instead of eight squares the knight controls just four: g1, f2, f4 and g5. You could say that the knight is only playing to half of its full potential. The knight's reduced power on the edge of the board has led to the well-known and probably overused adage: 'Knight on the rim is dim!' (Some annotators re place 'dim' with 'grim', but you get the picture.) I've learned, sometimes from painful experience, that it's often very dangerous to generalize in chess-there are some occasions where a knight performs a heroic job on the edge of the boardbut even so this is a guideline that's worth remembering.

Question: Where on the board does the knight control the fewest squares? 9

Discovering Chess Openings

Answer: Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the corners of the board (a1, a8, h1 and h8). For example, a knight on h1 controls only two squares: f2 and g3. It could be said that here the knight is performing to only a quarter of its capabilities. I should point out that the difference in mobility isn't as dramatic when we are talking about the long-range pieces: the queen, the bishop and the rook. For ex ample, on the e4-square the queen controls 27 squares on an empty board; in any of the four corners this number is 21. This is only a 22% reduction in mobility, comparing very favourably with the knight's 75%.

Question: Which piece has the same mobility regardless of its placing on an empty board?

Answer: The rook: it controls 14 squares whether in the centre, on the edge or in the corner. Just staying on the subject of piece mobility a little while longer, I recall when I was much younger being shown the following position, one that made a lasting impression on me:

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Black's knight cannot move without being captured; it's totally dominated by the bishop on d4. I remember former British Champion Chris Ward using the term 'corralling' here, which I think sums it up quite nicely. Let's try switching the pieces around.

(see following diagram) The bishop still prevents the knight from moving safely to four squares, but be cause the knight is in the middle of the board it has four other squares available: e6, f5, f3 and e2. You could even say that the knight dominates the bishop more

Centra/Issues

than the bishop dominates the knight: the bishop only has three safe squares in d 1, d7 and e8.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Question: If on the first move of a game White wanted to develop the g1-knight, which square would be most appropriate: f3 or h3? Answer: 1 Nf3! is much stronger than 1 Nh3. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

On £3 the knight controls eight squares in total. Not only that; two of these are the central squares d4 and e5. In contrast, 1 Nh3 would leave the knight controlling four squares, of which only f4 is central. The value of the move 1 Nf3 is under lined by its popularity: according to my database 1 N£3 is the third most popular opening move for White.

Discovering Chess Openings

Controlling the Centre: The Easy Guide The quickest and easiest way to battle for control of the centre from the start of the game is by placing pawns in the middle.

Question: Can you suggest any opening pawn move for White that controls two central squares?

Answer: By playing 1 e4!...

... White stakes a claim for the d5- and f5-squares. Likewise, after 1 d4! the pawn controls both e5 and c5. Progress has been made! By answering this question we have 'discovered' White's two most popular opening moves in chess history: 1 e4! and 1 d4!. I should point out that there's more to these two moves than simply to control the centre, but more about that in Chapter 2. I should also mention that both 1 e3 and 1 d3 also control two central squares, but these moves are far less popular because they gain less space.

The Classical Centre Question: If White were allowed to make two unopposed moves at the beginning of the game, what would be a good option?

Answer: 1 e4! followed by 2 d4!, or 1 d4! followed by 2 e4!.

Centra/Issues

With these two moves White has staked a claim for the squares c5, d5, e5 and £5; he is well on the way to central domination! This ideal formation for White is known as the 'classical centre'.

Preventing the Classical Centre Okay, this is all well and good, but of course Black is also playing the game and is allowed to have a move in between. Let's say White plays the opening move 1 e4 (I think it's time to stop adorning this and 1 d4 with an exclamation mark- I think you've already guessed that I like them).

Question: Given the assumption that White wants to play the move 2 d4 to create the ideal centre, and Black cannot physically prevent this, are there any moves that Black can play that will disrupt White's 'ideal centre'?

Answer: Yes! Black needs to be in a position to capture either the e4- or d4-pawn on his second move. Black could get ready to capture the pawn on d4 with l...e5 or l...c5 (this would be a trade as White's queen could recapture) or alternatively he could attack the undefended e4-pawn with 1 .d5, 1...£5 or 1...Nf6. ..

More discoveries: the moves l...e5, l...c5, l...d5 and l...N£6 are all perfectly good opening replies to 1 e4, and are seen in countless games at all levels. The only move you're very unlikely to spot a grandmaster playing is l...f5?, which loses a pawn to 2 exf5 and weakens the black king (I'll chat more about the problem of the £-pawn later). I think it's time to name one opening, and we might as well start at the very top. Let's look at the position after l...c5.

Discovering Chess Openings

l...c5 is known as the Sicilian Defence, or-especially by ambitious players who don't believe in 'defending' with Black-simply the Sicilian. This is the most widely-played opening, one that even many non-chessplayers have heard of.

Exercises 1) According to my definitions in this chapter, how many central squares are there? 2) How many squares does a knight control from (a) c2, (b) e3 and (c) h4. 3) Can you think of three opening moves for White which control the square d5?

4) After the opening move 1 d4 (see the diagram), can you think of three moves that Black could play to prevent White from setting up the ideal centre with 2 e2-e4? 14

Chapter Two

Introducing Devel opment I think we'll begin with another clarification: in chess, 'development' is the term used for the process of bringing your pieces into play from their initial positions on the back rank. So if White plays the move 1 Nc3...

...he is 'developing' this knight, bringing it into play. Chess writers are constantly using the terms 'develop' and 'development' when describing events in the open ing phase of the game. For example, if White has more pieces and pawns in play than Black has, then White is said to be 'ahead in development', and perhaps Black will be trying to 'catch up in development'.

Develop Rapidly! Because of the way the pieces stand in the initial position, neither side is ready to lunge into an immediate attack. Apart from the knights, which have the advan15

Discovering Chess Openings

tage of being able to jump, all the pieces are hemmed in and held back behind the row of pawns; at least one or two of these pawns need to be moved to allow the powerful pieces out. More than anything, it is common sense to develop most of your pieces as quickly as possible-you can hardly expect to be successful attacking with just one or two pieces while the rest of your army is still asleep in bed. Quantity matters here: in most cases it's better to outnumber than to be outnumbered. But quality matters too; in fact one of the main challenges facing a player in the opening is deciding on which squares his pieces will be best placed.

Another Good Reason for 1 e4 and 1 d4 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

In the previous chapter we looked at one positive feature of the opening move 1 e4: the pawn on e4 controls the important central squares dS and fS. There is, however, an even more apparent benefit to this pawn move: it clears the way for two pieces to move. Both White's queen and light-squared bishop now have available quite a few different squares on which they could be developed.

(see following diagram) 1 d4 is similar in that it allows both the dark-squared bishop and the queen to de velop, although notice here that the queen has fewer options than after 1 e4. I almost forgot to mention that with 1 e4 or 1 d4 White also creates the option of moving his king. This possibility, however, is more or less incidental. As we'll see later, moving the king out into the open so early is not to be advised!

Introducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Checkmating in Four Moves! My dad taught me the chess moves at quite an early age (I was five or six I think). One of the very first things he showed me was how to checkmate my opponent in only four moves. I remember being incredibly impressed by this revelation and couldn't wait to try out this idea against the other players at the school chess club, confident that it would lead to some easy wins. Sure enough, there was simply no answer and I racked up game after game. It was almost getting tedious. Almost, but not quite; like all newcomers addicted to the game, I was never bored by win ning. Here's how I would checkmate my unwary opponents:

1 e4 e5 l...e5 was mentioned in Chapter 1 as a way of preventing White from setting up the ideal centre with pawns abreast on e4 and d4- if White plays a pawn to d4 Black will now be able to capture it. Furthermore, just like 1 e4 for White, it allows Black to develop both his queen and his f8-bishop. In fact, l...e5 is a very popular reply to 1 e4 at all levels of chess, and especially amongst those new to the game.

2Qh5 (seefollowing diagram) No messing about: 1 e4 allowed the queen to develop so why hesitate? What's more, White already has a threat: capturing the pawn on e5.

Question: Assuming the players are adhering to the rules of competitive chess (touch move: if a piece is touched it must be moved), which piece would Black want to avoid touching here? 17

Discovering Chess Openings

Answer: The king! The only move that Black could play is 2. Ke7 but this allows . .

an immediate mate with 3 Qxe5-one move earlier than planned!

Attacking the white queen with 2.. g6? doesn't allow a mate in one but is almost as disastrous. Following 3 Qxe5+ White's queen forks the king and rook, capturing the rook after Black gets out of check. .

2 Nc6! ...

A good move, both developing a piece and defending the e5-pawn.

3 Bc4

This is another move that makes good use of 1 e4. The bishop was free to develop so why not? Now comes the moment of truth. At this stage when playing with the white pieces 18

Introducing Development

it's advisable to adopt your best 'poker face'.

3 Nf6?? ...

With the threat to the e5-pawn averted, it's time to get rid of that pesky queen! Or so thought most of my early opponents...

4 Qx£7mate!

Checkmate! White's previous move (3 Bc4) introduced a new threat to Black's f7pawn- it was attacked twice and only defended once- and 3...Nf6?? did nothing to counter this threat. Unbeknown to me at the time, my dad hadn't come up with some earth-shattering new invention: this checkmating plan is known as scholar's mate and is one of the first ideas that newcomers to the game learn.

A Remedy to Scholar's Mate I can't remember exactly how long I was in blissful ignorance, thinking that there was absolutely no way to prevent scholar's mate, but one day my dad demon strated a remedy.

1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 g6! (see following diagram) It was as simple as that. The pawn on g6 blocks the queen's path to f7 and check mate is successfully averted. How had I missed that idea? But there was more: Black had other good ways to avoid being mated.

Question: Can you spot three more ways of defending against scholar's mate? On each occasion Black defends the f7-pawn.

Discovering Chess Openings

Answer: As well as 3 ...g6, Black can play 3 . . Qf6, 3 . Qe7 or 3 . . . Nh6. .

The Problem with Schola r's Mate Okay, perhaps I should rephrase this: it's not actually scholar's mate that's the problem (checkmating your opponent in four moves is a nice problem to have); it's what happens when you start coming up against players who either know the checkmating idea or are good enough to work out a defence over the board. There's a negative aspect to White's crude attack, and this becomes more apparent when taking a closer look. Let's go over the opening moves again, and see what could happen if Black defended against the initial mating threat. 1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 g6! 3 ...Qe7, 3 ...Qf6 and 3 ... Nh6 are all possible defences, but I prefer this move because not only does it prevent the checkmate, it also attacks the white queen and thus forces it to move. Is that a good thing? Let's see ... 4 Qf3! This square is the best place to retreat the queen. Now for a second time Black is faced with the threat of Qxf7 mate. 4 ... Nf6!

(see following diagram} I really like this move: Black blocks the threat and at the same time develops his other knight. Now if White were being sensible, he would adopt the attitude of, 'Okay, Black has prevented my two tricky mate threats; let's begin getting some more pieces into the game' and play 5 Ne2, but let's see what happens if White goes 'checkmate crazy' . . . 20

In troducing Development

5 g4?? White is unrelenting in his assault of the f7-pawn: he wants to play g4-g5 in order to remove the knight from blocking the f-file. Surely it's now up to Black to deal with this threat, but White is in for a shock. .. 5 Nd4! ...

Another attack on the white queen, but this time it's far more serious as there is an additional threat of .... Nxc2+, forking the king and rook and thus winning the rook in the corner. 6 Qdl Moving the queen out of attack and defending the c2-pawn. White's queen is not having so much fun anymore! 21

Disco vering Chess Open ings

Question: White could also defend the c2-pawn with 6 Qd3. What could Black play against this?

Answer: Black could simply win a pawn with 6 . Nxg4!. .

6 d5! ...

Now it's Black who's beginning to create all the threats: both the bishop on c4 and the pawn on e4 are attacked.

7 exdS This capture is an obvious solution to the double threat posed by Black's previous move, but there was one further point behind the multi-purpose idea 6. . d5. Can you spot it? .

7 Bxg4! .•.

8 7 6 5 4 3

1 a

In troducing Development

Exactly! Moving the d-pawn unleashed the c8-bishop. Now this piece introduces itself to the action in no uncertain terms, grabbing a pawn and making yet another threat on White's queen, who's beginning to feel just a little bit harassed. 8 Ne2?? White's queen actually had no safe squares to go to, so a block was the only way to deal with the threat. Unfortunately for White, he chooses the wrong one. s

...

N£3+!

Black's fourth consecutive threat (given that checking is a special kind of threat that cannot be ignored) . 9 K£1 Bh3 mate!

Amazing - the game ends abruptly, but it's Black who ends up checkmating White. This position is far removed from the one where it was White threatening mate on f7, but actually this was only five moves ago! So where did this game go so horribly pear-shaped for White? It all started so brightly with two mate threats in a row but then Black suddenly stepped up a gear, created four consecutive threats himself and then delivered a snap mate. White's downfall can be traced back to how he managed his queen. Basically, it made three moves in the game and finally ended up back on its original square; one could justifiably call this a waste of three moves! Because of this loss of time, White quickly lost the initiative and Black stormed ahead in development. The problem was that White's queen was forced to move twice because it was at tacked by black pieces of lesser value - on each occasion Black gained time be cause of this. And there lies the problem with developing the queen so early: the further advanced the queen becomes, the more prone it is to attack from enemy pieces, and this is particularly the case in the opening when there have been no

Discovering Chess Openings

piece trades and the board is cluttered. If you're not careful with your queen han dling in the opening then you could easily lose time as it gets pushed from pillar to post. And losing time is not a good idea because you are likely to fall behind in development. Okay, I must admit that it wasn't just the early queen raid that led to White's catastrophic demise here. Perhaps trying to emphasize the point a bit too much, I did help White along the way with a couple of horrible mistakes. 8 Ne2??, allow ing mate in two, could of course have been improved upon (8 f3!), although it's fair to say much of the damage had been done by then. However, the real blunder that turned the tide was 5 g4??, which was consistent with White's attack on f7 but paid no heed whatsoever to what Black was threatening. Instead White should have safeguarded his queen's position to some extent with the move 5 Ne2!, pre paring to meet.... Nd4 with a trade of knights.

Poi nts to Remember 1) Handle your queen with great care i n the opening. You don't want to be i n a position where your opponent keeps gaining time simply by repeatedly attacking your queen. 2) Always check to see if your opponent's previous move threatens anything. Of course this applies to every stage of the game, not just the opening.

Slowcoach Rooks Perhaps because of my rapid introduction and deadly attraction to scholar's mate, I never really felt enticed by the thought of developing my rooks as quickly as possible in the opening. Many newcomers to the game, however, seem to be at tracted more by the rook than any other piece. Maybe it's because, with their rela tively simple up-and-down/side-to-side movements, beginners feel very much at ease with rooks. In turn, they are very keen to introduce rooks quickly into the game. The problem is, however, there is no easy way to do this. I lost count of the number of times my early games began something like this: 1 a4? Seemingly the easiest way to activate the al-rook, but it's not that simple ... l e5 ...

A clever move, spotting White's 'threat'.

2 Ra3??

Introducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

2 Bxa3! ...

Oops. Watch out for those tricky bishops. 3 bxa3 d5 4 h4 Has White learned his lesson? 4 Nf6 5 Rh3?? ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

No! 5 Bxh3! 6 gxh3 ...

... and, having been presented with two rooks in exchange for two bishops- a healthy four point swing- I was obviously in a good mood for the rest of the game.

Disco vering Chess Open ings

This, however, is only telling half the story. I wouldn't want to give you the im pression that it's only a poor idea to develop rooks as soon as possible in this way if your opponent covers h3 and a3 with his bishops; in fact it's a poor idea, period. Let's see what could happen if White were allowed to carry out his wish: 1 a4? d5 Did Black miss a trick by not playing l...e5 here? Not really. 2 Ra3? Objective achieved, but... 2...e5! One move later than in the previous example, but still very effective. Now White is forced to move the rook again. Is this a good thing? Let's see. 3 Re3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Seemingly very logical: White brings the rook into play (into the centre) and gains time by attacking Black's e-pawn. Objectively speaking, White's best move is to admit his mistake and tuck the rook back into the comer with 3 Ral! That, however, is not quite as much fun as the text continuation; fun for Black that is. 3... Nc6 Defending e5 and developing a knight - all good stuff. 4 N£3 And White keeps up the pressure on the e5-pawn. 4 ... d4!

In troducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The first sign that all is not so happy in the white camp: the rook is attacked and its options are somewhat limited. 5 Rb3 After this move Black can begin to push White's pieces from pillar to post, but it's pretty much the same story if White tries other rook moves: 5 Rd3 falls fouls of the simple fork 5 ... e4! winning a knight, while 5 Rxe5+ Nxe5 6 Nxe5 is a good trade points-wise for Black. The rook is certainly centralized after 5 Re4, and the threat to the e5-pawn remains, but 5 ... Bf5! 6 Rh4 Be7! 7 Rh5 g6! sees the rook run out of safe squares; the best it can do is to give itself up for the bishop after 8 Rxf5 gxf5. 5 e4! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Why not? The knight's retreat looks rather sad.

Discovering Chess Openings

6 Ngl Be6! Offering White the chance to grab a pawn on b7, but Black has spotted a clever way to trap White's rook. 7 Rxb7 After 7 Rg3 Black keeps up his relentless harassment with 7... Bd6! and following 8 Rxg7 Qf6! he is finally rewarded - the rook no longer has a safe square and is forced to give itself up. The continuation 7 RbS meets a similar fate: 7... a6 8 RhS (where else? 8 Rxb7 NaS and the rook runs out of squares) 8 ...Nf6 9 Rh4 g5 is al most comical. 7... a6!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Covering the only available escape square for the rook.

Question: With the white rook lacking any safe squares, how will Black round it up on his next move?

Answer: Either 8... Qc8 or 8 ... Na5 will attack the rook and win material. 8 d3 Of course White has other possibilities but nothing that saves the rook. 8 ... Na5! 9 Rb3 The best of a bad job. At least this way White ends up with one of Black's minor pieces, but of course it's still a poor trade. 9...Nxb3 10 cxb3 N£6 White's rook had an eventful if brief life, but in the end it was forced to sell itself rather cheaply and White's position is a bit of a wreck (I'm not sure that this would prevent a particularly stubborn rook junkie from playing 1 1 h4 intending Rh3).

In troducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Before going any further, there is one point I think I should make about this ex ample: the almost inevitable trapping and capture of White's rook should not be seen as the only refutation to White's opening strategy. Black has no need to go out of his way to trap the rook; just good, solid developing moves will be more than sufficient to refute White's play. For example, 6 ... Be6 7 Rxb7 a6! was a smart idea that required some calculation, but I don't think that anyone could really ar gue after the more mundane 6...Nf6 followed by developing the f8-bishop and castling kingside that White's opening has been nothing short of a disaster: he's completely overrun in the centre and falling way behind in development.

Poi nt to Remember Whereas rooks love open spaces and really come into their own in the endgame, they are notoriously slow starters; in fact they would prefer to have a good lie-in while the other pieces are busily developing. The rook hates roaming around the board in the opening stages of the game even more than the queen: just like the queen, the rook is vulnerable to attack from enemy pawns and minor pieces; how ever, with its relatively limited power, the rook finds it even more difficult to es cape their attentions.

Mi nor Pieces a nd Pawns Rule! We know that queens should be handled with great care early on, while it seems that rooks are almost allergic to the opening phase of the game. So what does that leave? By a process of elimination it could be said that the opening is reserved mainly for minor pieces and pawns to strut their stuff. For one thing, minor pieces and pawns are

Discovering Chess Openings

less likely to get harassed than the queen and rook. Because of their low value, an at tack can often be ignored if the piece is already protected. For example: 1 d4 N£6 2 Bg5 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

With White's second move he immediately attacks Black's only developed piece, the knight on f6. However, Black doesn't need to panic and move the knight since it is protected by both the e7- and g-pawns. As bishops and knights are roughly equal in value (three points each), Black has nothing really to fear over a trade on f6. Likewise, if an attacked minor piece or pawn is unprotected, then it may be possible to defend it with another developing move rather than move it again and lose time: 1 e4 e6 This is the French Defence, another popular choice for Black. I'll cover it in more detail in Chapters 5 and 6. 2 d4 d5 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

In troducing Development

Black's move threatens to win a pawn with 3 ... dxe4. White has the option of mov ing the pawn with 3 e5, or trading pawns with 3 exd5, after which Black can choose to recapture with pawn or queen. However, there's also a third choice, in cidentally White's most popular move here, which is to defend the pawn with a developing move. 3 Nc3 Now White is ready to recapture on e4 with the knight. Let's see what could hap pen if Black captured on e4. 3... dxe4 4 Nxe4 Bd7 Planning to attack the knight with ... Bc6. 5 N£3 Bc6

Now White's knight is under threat. One idea is to move the knight out of danger (say 6 Nc3 or Ng3). However, White also has the possibility of defending the knight whilst developing another piece with... 6 Bd3! ...effectively killing two birds with one stone. Given the similar value of knights and bishops, White isn't unhappy if Black decides to trade on e4 with 6 ...Bxe4 7 Bxe4, and White hasn't been forced to lose time which would have been the case after any knight move. Okay, that seems like good, solid advice: put your pawns in the centre, develop your minor pieces and you can't go too far wrong. There's a bit more to it than that, however: the tricky part is knowing on which squares to place these pieces. More on this little problem soon.

Discovering Chess Open ings

Development Count A useful marker to see how quickly each side is developing is to perform a devel opment count. Each piece that is developed scores a point and I would also count pawn moves in the centre (they control the centre and allow easy development). Let's go back to a couple of positions we've recently visited. Taking the previous example after 6 Bd3:

White's development count is four (three minor pieces and the pawn on d4), while Black's is two (the bishop on c6 and the pawn on e6), so it could be said that White is leading 4-2 in development. Notice that the knight on e4 and the bishop on c6 only score one point, even though both pieces have moved twice. Just because a piece has been moved twice doesn't mean to say it's going to be more effectively placed than one that's moved only once. Let's go back to the example on page 28, arising after the moves 1 a4 d5 2 Ra3 e5 3 Re3 Nc6 4 N£3 d4 5 Rb3 e4 6 Ng1 Be6 7 Rxb7 a6 8 d3 Na5 9 Rb3 Nxb3 10 cxb3 N£6

(see following diagram} Question: What are the development scores here? Answer: Here Black has a development count of four (the e6-bishop, the f6-knight, plus the pawns on d4 and e4) whereas White scores only one (the pawn on d3). So not only does Black have a material advantage, he also has a substantial devel opment lead; added up this amounts to a major advantage.

In troducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Notice here that the pawns on b3, a4 and a6 don't score because they contribute little or nothing towards development. White's knight on gl has moved twice yet scores nothing because it has ended up back on its original square, while White's al-rook has actually taken up half of White's moves but doesn't score as it's now off the board. In the final analysis, from White's angle a development score of one point from ten moves is a pretty poor showing!

Idea l Squares: The Kn ight Now I'd like to talk a little bit about the ideal initial places to develop knights and bishops. This subject is a bit tricky because ideal squares will vary to some extent depending on the opening and, in particular, the pawn structure, but there are certainly some guidelines that are useful to know. Rather than attempting to generalize over all possible openings, I think it would be easiest to look closely at one particular opening for the moment (1 e4 e5). Many principles here will remain with other openings, even if the actual squares in question differ. We'll deal with knights first because on the whole its choice of development is less complex than the bishop's. We've noted previously that knights generally prefer the centre to the edge of the board, and this gives us a big clue to its favoured po sition. Let's take the position after 1 e4 e5 and examine the three possibilities for the gl knight in turn (we should bear in mind that White doesn't have to develop this knight immediately): Ne2

Discovering Chess Open ings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

From e2 the knight controls six squares, including the central ones d4 and f4. It also supports the advances d2-d4 and f2-f4, both of which challenge Black's eS pawn. From e2 the knight could continue its journey via c3, where it controls two central squares but takes away a developing option for the b1-knight, or g3 from where the knight eyes both fS and hS. A major worry that must be addressed is that on e2 the knight blocks the fl bishop's development into the game. This problem could be solved in three ways: firstly, White could make sure he got the bishop developed along the fl-a6 diago nal before developing the knight; secondly, White could develop the bishop along a different diagonal by playing g2-g3 and then either Bg2 or Bh3; thirdly, White could move the knight again to either c3 or g3. N£3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

In troducing Development

From here the knight controls eight squares, the maximum amount for a knight, and this includes the important central squares d4 and e5. The knight attacks Black's pawn on e5 and so gives Black an immediate problem to solve, while it also supports the pawn advance d2-d4. As well as attacking e5, there's the possi bility in the future to play Nh4 and especially Ng5, which as we'll see later is an important attacking move (note, however, that both g5 and h4 are currently guarded by the black queen). The only real negative is that on f3, the knight blocks the possible pawn break f2-f4, but White could always consider playing f2-f4 be fore Nf3 (more about pawn breaks in Chapter 5). Nh3

From h3 the knight controls only four squares. Only one of these (£4) is central, and this is less significant than the main four squares in the centre: d4, e4, d5 and e5. The knight does support the possible advance f2-f4 but does little else: it at tacks nothing and its only real hope of getting into the game is via g5 or perhaps via £4; ...ex£4; Nxf4 (this sounds okay in theory but in practice it's difficult to carry out).

Concl u sion With everything considered, the general guideline in 1 e4 e5 openings is that the best square for the knight is f3; the second best square for the knight is e2; and the third best square is h3. Using the mirror image to look at Black's situation, it's easy to deduce that the order of preference here is ...Nf6, ... Ne7 and ... Nh6. A similar procedure could be performed for the bl-knight, although here it's not always so obvious that c3 is the best square. On many occasions the knight

Disco vering Chess Openings

chooses d2 instead, the reason being that the c3-square is often occupied by the c pawn, which plays a crucial role in supporting the central advance d4 (we'll talk more about this important theme later).

Idea l Squares: The Bishop Looking a t bishop moves in isolation i s more difficult than with knight moves be cause it soon becomes clear that the ideal squares are more dependent on the plac ing of other pieces and pawns. Even so, I think it's still worth doing, as quite a few conclusions can be reached. Let's take a look at the fl-bishop and its choices along the newly opened fl-a6 di agonal. Be2

A safe, solid, if somewhat uninspiring position for the bishop. On e2 the bishop is well shielded from potential attack- being so far back it's unlikely to be harassed by enemy pieces. It's also useful defensively: it controls a few key squares on the kingside which could be important if White decides on kingside castling. On the other hand the bishop doesn't achieve that much in an attacking sense (you have to bear in mind that a knight may well be blocking its path along dl-hS diagonal by standing on £3). If White plays the move d2-d3 - protecting the e4-pawn and preparing to develop the cl-bishop- then the light-squared bishop's path along fl-a6 diagonal is also blocked. Bd3

In troducing Development

White has to be very careful about playing Bd3. In the diagrammed position- in fact in the vast majority of positions where White's d-pawn still stands on d2- the move Bd3 is a big mistake because it blocks the d-pawn. White generally wishes to move the d-pawn fairly early on, both to influence the centre and, perhaps even more importantly, to allow the other bishop to develop along the cl-h6 diagonal. Thus a bishop on d3 really puts a spanner in the works, clogging up White's de velopment.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Things improve considerably if White has already played the move d2-d4, and in this case the bishop is reasonably well placed on d3 because it influences the cen tre, adding protection to the e4-pawn. It's true that the e4-pawn blocks the bishop's path along the bl-h7 diagonal. However, in the long term sometimes

Discovering Chess Open ings

Black's e5-pawn leaves the board- after, say, an exchange of pawns on d4- and White is able to play the pawn advance e4-e5, unleashing the bishop's potential. Bc4

Just from a quick glance it's easy to see that in 1 e4 e5 openings the c4-square is a very attractive post for the bishop. From here the bishop controls two long diago nals, and the newly acquired one (a2-g8) looks a particular enticing prospect. The bishop adds extra control to the central square d5, while further down the diago nal it attacks the f7-pawn, a notorious weak point in Black's camp (we saw the vulnerability of f7 with scholar's mate and will examine it further in Chapter 3). As the bishop travels further down the board it becomes more vulnerable to har assment from enemy pawns and pieces. Black could try to arrange the pawn moves . . .b7-b5 or ... d7-d5 in order to attack the bishop. Note that ... d7-d5, for ex ample, would need some preparation (perhaps . . . c7-c6 and ... Nf6) because of White's control of d5. Bb5

(see following diagram) At first sight b5 seems to be a less attractive post for the bishop than c4, but in fact there's quite a lot going for this move, especially in the short term while Black's king remains on the e8-square. The point is that White can use the pressure along the a4-e8 diagonal in the battle to control the centre. In the diagram above, for ex ample, where White has played the immediate 2 Bb5, Black's d-pawn is currently pinned to the king and so it cannot take any part in the battle. It should be said, though, that 2 Bb5 is not a particularly good move, since Black can reply 2 ... c6!

In troducing Development

which gains time attacking the bishop and is a useful move in its own right- it supports a possible ... d7-d5 advance. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The move BbS is seen much more often once Black has committed his b8-knight to the c6-square. One of the most famous openings of all time, the Ruy Lopez, begins... 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 We'll look at some theory behind 1 e4 eS openings later on in the book, but I will just point out here that 2 Nf3 is White's most popular move. It's easy to see its plus points: a piece is developed, it creates a threat (an enemy pawn is attacked), and finally it prepares kingside castling (see Chapter 3). 2 Nc6 ...

... And this is Black's most common reply. He too develops a piece and at the same time deals with the threat to the e5-pawn. 3 Bb5 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Discovering Chess Openings

Here 3 Bb5 looks much more logical than the same move on the previous turn: 2 Nf3 created a threat by attacking the e5-pawn; 2 ... Nc6 developed a piece and at the same time defended the e5-pawn; and now 3 Bb5 attacks the knight which defends e5. Black must be wary of the pressure against e5, and another point of 3 Bb5 is seen if Black bolsters the e5-pawn with... 3 d6 ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

In this case the knight on c6 immediately becomes pinned to its own king and for the moment cannot play a part in the battle for the centre.

Concl usion Normally the most desirable squares for the fl-bishop are c4 and b5: on c4 it bears down on Black's vulnerable f7 spot, while on b5 the bishop takes a very active role in the battle for the centre. The bishop is rarely good on d3 if White hasn't already moved the d-pawn, and on e2 the bishop is passively placed but useful for defen sive purposes. Don't forget, we are only talking here about openings that arise after 1 e4 e5.

The Fia nchetto One further mode of development for the bishop that's worth pointing out (it oc curs a few times in this book) is the so-called 'fianchetto', where the knight's pawn is moved and the bishop is developed in front of the knight.

In troducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The diagram illustrates a typical fianchetto. The main attractions are that the bishop is actively placed, bears down on a long diagonal and covers two central squares (in this case e4 and d5). One disadvantage of the fianchetto is that it could be seen as a slightly 'slower' form of development: e2-e4 and g2-g3 both allow the bishop to be developed, but it's clear that e2-e4 has other benefits too (the queen can move out, for example), whereas moving the g-pawn only really helps the bishop.

Economic Development I've already talked about the importance of developing quickly. In fact, this is rea sonably easy to achieve so long as you stick to one or two guidelines. Let's begin by looking at a very plausible sequence of opening moves. 1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 e3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Discovering Chess Open ings

Question: White's previous move prepared to develop the £1-bishop, but at the same time blocked the route of the cl-bishop. Can you see a way round this prob lem?

Answer: White could develop the cl-bishop first (via 3 Bf4 or 3 Bg5) and only then play e2-e3 followed by moving the fl -bishop. 3 ... e6 Black follows suit. Going back to the previous question and answer, there was a strong argument here to play either 3 ...Bf5 or 3 ... Bg4. 4 c4 The pawn lunge c2-c4 occurs very frequently in 1 d4 d5 openings; we'll see why in Chapter 5. If Black takes on c4 then White is ready to recapture with the fl-bishop. 4 ...c6 Very solid! If White captures on d5, Black now has the extra option of recapturing with the c6-pawn. Black certainly has other moves here: he could develop his f8bishop or challenge the centre with 4 ...c5. 5 Nc3

5 ... Bd6 The bishop is well placed on d6, from where it bears down on the b8-h2 diagonal. That said, certainly Black would also have considered both 5 ...Be7 (solid but a bit passive) and 5 ...Bb4 (pinning the c3-knight). 6 Qc2 Nbd7 7 Bd3 Bb4? Black changes his mind and decides that the bishop should go to b4 in any case. Now is not the time to debate whether b4 is indeed a better square for the bishop than d6, but even if it is, isn't there something seriously wrong with Black's think ing here? 42

Introducing Development

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The truth is that Black has lost a valuable tempo with his indecision, an extra move that could have been put to very good use (castling, for instance). It would have been far better on move five to decide once and for all on which square the bishop should be deployed. And if Black were still uncertain at that juncture over the future of the bishop, it would have been better to play a move he was more sure about, like 5 ... Nbd7 (given that with the knight's choice of d7 and a6, there's only one winner). By moving the bishop twice in the opening, Black has fallen behind in develop ment (the count is 7-6 to White, who has the move). Not a significant loss, but an avoidable one all the same.

Points to Remem ber 1 ) Unless you are forced to, only develop a piece once you are sure you know the best place for it; if you are unsure, it is often wise to leave this piece alone and de velop another piece whose best position you are more sure about. 2) Do not move a piece twice in the early stages of the game without good reason ('good reasons' will be discussed in Chapter 4). Something that has been written endless times in chess opening literature is the guideline 'knights before bishops'. Really this piece of advice is simply a continua tion of the first conclusion above. The point is that it's usually more immediately obvious where the knights want to go, whereas the bishops have more choice and their ideal posts may only become apparent later on. I have to point out now and again that, as with much of what is said in this book, I'm talking about guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. If your opponent

Discovering Chess Open ings

leaves his queen en prise to your bishop, the 'knights before bishops' argument should be quite low down on the list of priorities!

The 'Ideal' Development Just for a bit of fun, imagine if White were allowed ten unanswered moves at the beginning of the game: what would he do? Okay, 1 e4, 2 Bc4, 3 QhS and 4 Qxf7 mate would be a good answer (!), but say White could only move each piece once and wasn't allowed to make any direct threats. If you asked this question to some strong chess players, their answers might differ very slightly, but most would put forward something like this: 1 e4 2 d4 3 Nf3 4 Nc3 5 Bc4 6 0-0 7 Bg5 8 Qe2 9 Radl lO Rfel

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

I can't quite remember where I first saw this type of set-up; maybe it was in one of Fred Reinfeld's books (Reinfeld was an incredibly prolific chess writer from New York with more than 100 books to his name). The diagram above shows an idealis tic development by White, although this is one of a few possible set-ups - taste comes into it somewhere (some may prefer the dark-squared bishop on f4 for added symmetry!). What's clear is that White has a good pawn centre, his pieces are placed pretty much on their so-called best squares, and his king is tucked away safely on the kingside (more about this final point in the following chapter). Of course in a real game Black makes moves too, and it's unusual - though not exceptional -for Black to allow White such freedom of movement.

In troducing De velopment

Exercises

1) Here Black has gone for an immediate queen development with 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Qg5, attacking White's g-pawn. What should White do?

3 2

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2) The two diagrams above were reached after the opening moves 1 d4 N£6 2 Bg5 Ne4 3 B£4 d5 4 Nd2 B£5 5 e3 e6 6 Nxe4 Bxe4 7 N£3 Be7 8 Bd3 Bxd3 9 Qxd3 0-0 and 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd8 4 d4 N£6 5 N£3 B£5 6 Bc4 c6 7 Ne5 e6. What are the development counts here?

C h a pter Th ree

King Safety

Given that checkmate is the ultimate aim, king safety is always of paramount im portance, and this applies to the opening just as it does to other phases of the game.

The Castled Ki ng The obvious way o f trying to ensure king safety in the opening is to castle (usually kingside but occasionally on the queenside). In the fight for central control, both players are very likely to advance one or more of their central pawns early on in the game, and often at least one pair disappears in exchanges, leaving open files in the centre. With no pawn cover in front of it, the king can feel vulnerable in the centre, and this is why it usually prefers to castle and move towards the side where - hope fully - it has a nice row of unmoved pawns to protect it from a frontal assault.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

King Safety

The diagram shows a very safe-looking white king hiding behind the defensive wall of pawns. Note also that by castling White has very much brought his king's rook into the game; this piece will certainly enjoy aiming down one of the open files in the centre.

The Wea k Ki ng in the Centre If the centre is open or, perhaps more precisely, if the e-file is completely open, leaving your king in the centre is often hazardous, especially if your opponent has castled and his rook is ready to give check. The following example is typical: Black has a chance to escape to relative safety via castling but doesn't take it and pays the ultimate price. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bc4 This opening is called the Giuoco Piano (it's also known as the Italian Game), and it's very popular amongst junior players- often it's the first opening they really learn. 3 ... Bc5 4 c3 N£6 5 d4 exd4 6 cxd4 Bb4+ 7 Nc3 I'm not going into any detail here over the opening moves because we'll study this line in Chapter 6. I will just mention here though that Black should probably grab the pawn on offer with 7 . Nxe4!. . .

7.. d5 8 exdS NxdS 9 0-0 Bxc3 10 bxc3 .

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

So far it's been pretty normal stuff, with both sides developing sensibly. Black now has a really good opportunity to castle and bring his king into safety. Instead he decides to delay this for just one move, preferring to retreat the knight to attack the bishop on c4. 47

Discovering Chess Openings 10 Nb6? ...

The bishop is attacked so it has to retreat, right? 11 Re1+! Wrong! ll K£8 ...

In an ideal world Black would have preferred to have blocked the check, since moving the king forfeits castling rights. Unfortunately there was no suitable block available: 1l...Ne7 allows White to exploit the pin with 12 Ba3!, and following 12 ...Nxc4 13 Rxe7+ Black is forced to give up his queen as 13 ... Kf8 allows a devas tating discovered check with 14 Rd7+. The move ll ...Be6 is not quite as disastrous, but following 12 Bxe6 fxe6 13 Rxe6+ White has an extra pawn and Black's king is no safer than it was before.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The fact that Black has lost his castling rights means that even after the mundane 12 Bb3, moving the bishop out of trouble, White would already be well on top. It's not that the black king would be particularly poorly placed (after all, one move to g8 would see it reach its normal castled square), it's just that it would be very dif ficult for Black to get his h8-rook into play with the king blocking it (those of you who were about to suggest ...h5 and ... Rh6, lose ten points and read Chapter 2 again). It just so happens here that White has something much more destructive ... 12 Bx£7!! Kx£7 Of course Black wasn't forced to capture the bishop, but if he doesn't White has just ripped away a vital defensive pawn at no cost. 13 Ng5+!

King Safety

7 6 5 4 3 2

13 Kg8 ...

It soon becomes apparent that wherever the king goes, it cannot avoid a barrage of checks. The line 13 ... Kf8 14 Ba3+ Kg8 15 Qb3+ is very similar to the main text, while 13 ... Kf6 14 Qf3+ Kg6 15 Q£7+! Kh6 gives White the opportunity to play a crushing discovered check with 16 Ne6. The only other defensive try for Black is 13 ...Kg6 but this loses to 14 Qd3+! Kh5 (or 14 ...Bf5 15 Re6+! when Black has to give up his queen with 15 ...Qf6 or else allow complete carnage with 15 ... Kh5 16 Qxf5) 15 Re6!!

7 6 5 4 3 2

(threatening mate in one with Qh3, so Black is forced to accept the sacrifice) 15 ...Bxe6 16 Nxe6 Qf6 1 7 Nxg7+! Qxg7 18 Qf5+ Kh4 19 Qh3 and finally it's check mate.

Discovering Chess Openings

There were a few long and tricky variations in the previous paragraph. Don't worry too much if some of it was difficult to follow. The main point is to realize that Black's king is in great danger when devoid of cover and exposed to powerful enemy pieces. And of course all of this could have easily been avoided had Black played the sensible 10 . . .0-0. 14 Qb3+ NdS

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1 4 ... Qd5 would have allowed mate in one with 1 5 ReS. Just for a moment it looks as if Black has everything co,·ered after H . . NdS, but White has up his sleeve a wicked queen sacrifice. .

15 QxdS+!!

Deflecting the black queen from its back rank duties. 15 ... Qxd5 16 Re8 mate!

King Safety

A very nice checkmate to finish off a powerful demonstration of what can happen to a king if it finds itself in the firing line.

Points to Remember 1 ) Failure to castle out of trouble is one of the main reasons behind early losses. 2) A check trumps any other threat! In the previous example Black may have thought that White would be forced to retreat the bishop on move eleven, but this illusion was shattered by 1 1 Rel +! .

Fool's Mate The quickest possible checkmate arises after only two moves and is known as fool's mate. Unlike scholar's mate (see page 19), one has to be more than just care less to allow it. In fact, it requires an exact sequence of accommodating play by the loser: it is what those in the problem solving world would term a 'helpmate' - one player helps the other to deliver checkmate. lf3?

This is probably White's worst possible choice as an opening move; certainly it is in terms of king safety. For no good reason at all, White has exposed his king on the newly opened h4-e1 diagonal (more about moving the £-pawn like this a bit later). l eS ...

A good move, lining up . . . Qh4!

Discovering Chess Openings

2 g4?? The 'star move' that conveniently prevents White from blocking the queen check. This move is so accommodating that it's the equivalent of a paid-off boxer taking a fall in the first round. 2

...

Qh4 mate!

There it is! Unfortunately I have never had the pleasure of seeing this checkmate occur in real life, and I must admit I did have a cheeky look at a chess database of over 3,000,000 games, but no luck there either. Still, every chess player worth his salt needs to know fool's mate, if nothing else to keep his head above water when the conversation turns to quick checkmates. Many newcomers get it confused with the infinitely more frequent scholar's mate. Both emphasize the problem with the £-pawn: scholar' s mate demonstrates the vulnerability of the f-pawn on its original square, while fool's mate illustrates a problem with moving the f pawn.

Trouble with the f- pawn By now you must be getting used to the idea that the f-pawn needs to be handled with great care in the opening. Here's another brief example to underline the problems. 1 e4 eS

N£3

We've already come across this sequence quite a few times. 2

...

£6?

King Safety

t:'

0 0

This way of defending the e5-pawn is no t that uncommon in games between new comers, but it should be avoided at all costs! There are three very good reasons why 2 . . . f6 is such a poor move: 1) It neither develops a piece nor opens a l i ne for a !-' i e e e to be d eveloped.

2) It deprives the king' s knight of its favourite 3) Most signifi cantly, it weakens the black agonal and the a2-g8 diagonal.

d e \ e l L> p ing post:

king terribl: . b o th

the f6-square.

along the h5-e8 di

3 Bc4!

3 Bc4 i sn't the only good move for White here, but it does illustrate more than anything else one of the major problems behind Black's previous move. In 1 e4 e5

Discovering Chess Ope n ings

openings, the bishop is normal l y well placed on c4, but with the £-pawn moved its scope along the a2-g8 diagonal has increased further: it now attacks the g8-square. A crucial consequence of this is that Black won't be able to legally castle kingside (you can't castle into check! ) unless he is able to block this diagonal, and this is more easily said than done. That said, the capture 3 Nxe5! i s also very tempting, since following the obvious recapture 3 .. . fxe5? White has a winning attack: 4 Qh5+! Ke7 (or 4 . . . g6 5 Qxe5+, forking king and rook) 5 Qxe5+ Kf7 6 Bc4+ d5 7 Bxd5+ Kg6 8 h41 (threatening h5+) 8 . . . h5 9 Bxb7! (deflecting the bishop) 9 . . . Bxb7 (or else the rook in the corner gets captured) 10 Qf5+ Kh6 1 1 d4+ g5 12 Bxg5+ and White wins. 3 . . . Qe7! is more resi l ient, when the tempting 4 Qh5+ actually falls short after 4 ... g6 5 Nxg6 Qxe4+! and 6 ... Qxg6. Instead White should simply retreat with 4 Nf3, and following 4 ... Qxe4+ 5 Be2 White will increase his development advantage by gaining time on the black queen. 3 . Nc6 4 Nh4!? ..

You can see what White is u p to: he wants to exploit the weakness of 2 . . . f6 imme diately by playing 5 Qh5+, planning to answer 5 . . . g6 with 6 Nxg6! fxg6 7 Qxh8. Black should prevent this threat with 4 . . . g6, but what happens if he tries to get rid of that annoying knight? 4 ... g5??

Going into a kind of fool's mate mode! White is onlv happy to oblige. 5 Qh5+ Ke7 6 Nf5 mate!

Another horrible disaster involving the f-pawn. I hope the message is getting through!

King Safety

Attacking f7 In 1 e4 eS openings the f-pawn in i ts original position (f7 for Black; £2 for White) is sometimes referred to as the Ach i l l e s heel of a pL1\'er's position, and this is easy to explain why. Fi rstly, it' s easy to a tt a c k and, secondly, i t ' s the only pawn whi ch lacks protection by a piece o ther than the king. We've already seen in Chapter 1 a direct attempt to e:-;ploi t the weakness via scholar's mate. There are, however, numerous more subtle and, in the final analy sis, more dangerous ways of attacking this pawn (or the square if the pawn moves). The following example shows an attacking technique that is very com monly seen in games between improving players. 1

e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6

This is known as Philidor's Defence. If Black is going to defend eS with a pawn, 2 . . . d6 is a much better choice than 2 . . . f6. Black opens a route of development for

the light-squared bishop, although on the minus side the £8-bishop is blocked and thus has fewer options. 3 Bc4 Nc6 4 Nc3

Typical, sensible development so far. Question: Black \vishes to develop his ki ngside minor pieces and castle. Should he develop his bishop first, his knight first, or does it make no difference. Answer: Those of you who employed the ' knights before bishops' guidel ine wi l l b e di sappointed: the move order does make a difference and Black shou l d play 4 . . . Be7! .

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Actually, going back to the previous paragraph, this is a good illustration of why guidelines should be treated as such, not as hard and fast rules. Firstly, 4 . Nf6 fails for tactical reasons as we shall see; secondly, the bishop really only has one possible developing square (e7), and given that 'knights before bishops' is merely an extension of 'only develop a piece once you are sure you know the best place for it', this argument falls down here. .

Let's get back to 4 Nf6 and why Black should avoid playing it here. ...

...

Nf6? 5 Ng5!

Suddenly the £7-pawn is attacked twice and Black has no good way to defend it (I'll leave you to work out why defending it with the queen doesn't deal with the threat). Worse still, not only is White threatening to take a pawn, he's also aimin�

King Safety

for some destruction in the process: Bx£7+ will force the black king to move, elimi nating Black's castling rights; Nx£7, forking queen and rook and thus winning ma terial, is even more of a worry. Black can block the attack along the a2-g8 diagonal in two ways, but neither is satisfactory: both 5 ...Be6 6 Nxe6 fxe6 7 Bxe6 and 5 ...d5 6 exdS leave Black a pawn down. Going back to the position after White's fourth move, Black could have avoided the strife with his £7-pawn with... 4

•.•

Be7!

Now NgS is prevented for the moment - the gS-square is covered - and so White must get on with development. After, say... 5 0-0

...only now does Black play . ..

5 ..Nf6 .

It's true that White can then plough ahead with 6 Ng5?! ...but now Black is ready to kill two birds with one stone by playing 6...0-0!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

By castling Black has provided crucial support to the £7-pawn and brought his king into relative safety at the same time.

Question: From the diagrammed position above, who if anyone gains from the exchange of material after 7 Nx£7 Rxf7 8 Bx£7+ Kx£7? Answer: Black gains from the trade.

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This last Q &

A brings up an interesting point because I've witnessed this type of

exchange time and time again in junior chess. Let's just remind ourselves of the traditionally accepted value of the chess pieces:

Queen: Rook:

9 points

5 points

Bishop:

3 points

Knight:

3 points

Pawn: 1 point

So in a traditional sense it's a fair exchange (six points each). However, we've al ready talked about rooks disliking the opening stages of the game, and I could add to this by saying that they often don't improve that much going into the early middlegame phase. It's generally considered that, everything else being equal, two minor pieces are worth more than a rook and a pawn in the middlegame. Only in the endgame, where the rooks appreciate the wide open spaces, is real parity restored. Perhaps one of the things that entices inexperienced players into entering this trade is the fact that on the surface Black's king looks a bit vulnerable on fl. With more experience, however, players soon realize that this is just an illusion. In real ity the king is quite safe where it is, and it's only a hop away from g8. To be vul nerable there needs to be pieces that can attack the king, and it has to be remem bered here that White has just given up two of his most active pieces: the bishop on c4 and the knight on gS.

King Safety

Exercises

1) Imagine that White has been allowed four moves without reply. Can you sug gest a sensible sequence that would end up with White's king castled? 2) Consider the position after 1

e4 eS 2 Bc4 N£6 3 d3 Nc6 4 Nc3 BcS and now 5

Nge2.

8 7 6 5 4 3 1 a

a) Why is White's previous move a big mistake? b) Why can't 5 N£3 be punished in the same way?

C h a pter Four

D e l ving Dee p e r

To begin this chapter, I'd like to introduce a dose of good old-fashioned common sense. When I recently revisited Reuben Fine's classic The Ideas behind Chess Open ings (still essential reading for more advanced players) I was struck by reading that there are two questions you should ask yourself for each move you are about to play. These are: 1) How does this move affect the centre? 2) How does this move fit in with the development of my other pieces and pawns? Sometimes the simplest advice is the best! These two questions are certainly worth keeping in mind throughout reading this chapter.

Luxury Pawn Moves One of the things I've spotted amongst those fairly new to the game is the ten dency to play unnecessary pawn moves early in the opening. In many respects these could be described as luxury pawn moves: they are not necessarily weaken ing; they might even have a useful point (see the next paragraph); however, cru cially they lose valuable time in the development race, and this is often the most critical factor of the position. The 'reasoning' behind such a pawn move is normally to prevent the possibility of an enemy piece entering into home territory. If time were not a factor this would be all well and good, but of course this is usually not the case. The problem is that often the fear of the intrusion proves to be unfounded, and it turns out that the

Delving Deeper tempo could have been more purposefully used elsewhere (development). Of course the danger of losing time with redundant pawn moves cannot be un derestimated. I make no apologies for using the following famous example to show how one could get punished to the full. 1

e4 e5 2 N£3 d6

We came across Philidor's Defence on page 55. It's true that 2 ... d6 is not quite as active as 2 . Nc6 (it means the dark-squared bishop will probably have to make do with the passive e7-square), but it's not a bad move all the same. For one thing, the bishop on c8 is now ready to be developed. .

3 Bc4 Bg4 4 Nc3 So far both sides have developed sensibly (the development score is 4-3 in White's favour with Black to move). It's certainly not obvious, but White actually has a threat here ... 4 h6? ...

Definitely an unnecessary pawn move! Its reasoning could be described as follows: Black is worried about the possibility in the future of Ng5, attacking £7, so decides to rule out it out forever. lhis decision making, however, could be described as both lazy and short-sighted. Firstly, White is a long way from playing this move: g5 is covered by the black queen and White's knight is pinned to the queen (although see White's next move!). Secondly, we have already seen from page 57 that there's an other way to deal with the Ng5 idea in the form of preparing to castle. Before looking at alternatives, let's see how Black's failure to develop leads to a dramatic denouement. 5 Nxe5!! It turns out it was another knight move that Black should have been worrying

Discovering Chess Openings about! Now if Black captures the knight with S ... dxeS White replies with 6 Qxg4 when he has won a pawn. But isn't there a queen en prise here? 5 ... Bxdl 6 Bx£7+! Ke7 The only legal move. 7 Nd5 mate!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

A very pretty checkmate; White's bishop and two knights combine beautifully.

This mate, which has more than one form, (White could have played the same way against the superfluous 4 ... a6) is actually known as Legall's mate, named af ter the 18th century French player Legall de Kermeur. Note that every possible escape square for the king is covered once and only once by a white piece. Stu dents of chess puzzles would call this a 'pure mate'. Going back to the position after White's fourth move, it's now clear to us that White has a very cleverly concealed threat of 5 NxeS! .

Question: Can Black deal with this threat b y playing a natural developing move? Answer: Yes! And there is more than one way. Firstly, let's try the move ... 4 . Nc6! ..

(see following diagram) Now, if White tries the same trick with... 5 Nxe5?? ...hoping for Legall's mate after S ... Bxdl?? 6 Bx£7+ Ke7 7 NdS, Black can spoil the party by refusing the offer of the queen and instead play the cold-blooded ... 5 ... Nxe5!

Delving Deeper .. .leaving him a knight for a pawn to the good in the material stakes. Note that the crucial difference to the line 4 ... h6? 5 Nxe5! dxe5 is that here the bishop on g4 is protected by the knight on e5, thus making it invulnerable to the white queen.

Secondly, let's go for another developing move with. . . 4... Nf6! What happens now if White goes for the flashy mate? Let's see. 5 Nxe5?? Bxdl! 6 Bx£7+ Ke7

And now the trick doesn't work as Black has the d5-square covered (7 NdS+ is met simply by 7...Nxd5) and so White is a queen down. Note that there was a second refu tation to 5 Nxe5?? in the shape of 5...dxe5, when again the bishop is protected on g4. So Black has at least two perfectly good developing moves to deal with the threat 63

Discovering Chess Openings after 4 Nc3 (in fact there are more; I'll leave you to work out what they are). To be fair, it's unusual to be punished so brutally when playing a luxury pawn move, but even so it's always worth checking whether there is a more economic way out before settling for such a pawn move. Take the following example: 1 d4 c6 2 e4 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 Nc3 Nc6 5 B£4

In this example Black is rightly concerned about the possibility of Nb5-c7+, fork ing the king and rook.

Question: 5 ... a6 would eliminate this problem, but can you seen a more economic way for Black to deal with White's idea?

Answer: Black can play 5 ...Bf5!. Now Black is ready to meet 6 Nb5 with 6 ... Rc8!, 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Delving Deeper covering the c7-square and thus preventing Nc7+ (this would then lose a bishop and knight for a rook). Black is now ready to kick the knight back to c3 with ... a7a6. The difference between S . . .BfS and 5 ... a6 is that in the latter Black deals with White's threat with a good, solid developing move. I don't want to give the impression that this type of preventative move ( ... a6, ...h6) is always superfluous. Sometimes a move like this is the only good way forward: 1 e4 e6 2 d4 dS 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 N£3 Ng£6 6 Nx£6+ Nx£6 7 c3 cS

7... c5 nibbles away at White's d4-pawn, so it's a very logical part of battling for central control. On the other hand, it does mean that Black has to watch out for checks on the a4-e8 diagonal as they can no longer be blocked by the simple ... c7c6. At the moment 8 BbS+ or 8 Qa4+ can be safely answered by 8 ...Bd7, but... 8 Ne5! Aggressive play! White's knight is very actively placed on eS and with it covering the d7-square, the check on the diagonal suddenly carries more bite. Let's see what can happen if Black carries on with development and allows the check. 8 ... Bd6?! 9 Bb5+! Now unless Black moves his king, thus forfeiting castling rights, he has to make a block on d7. However, neither is totally satisfactory. 9 . Nd7 ..

9 ... Bd7 1 0 Nxd7! Nxd7 1 1 dxcS! BxcS leaves Black in a perilous position due to the pin on the knight. One nice continuation is 12 QhS!? (threatening the pinned bishop; 12 ...0-0 loses a piece to 1 3 Bxd7 Qxd7 14 QxcS) 12 . . . Be7 and now quick as a flash Fritz comes out with 13 Bh6!! gxh6 14 Rd1 !, exploiting the pin on the knight to the full. White will follow up with Rxd7 when Black is in big trouble.

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

10 Qg4! White continues in energetic fashion by attacking the g7-pawn. This position actu ally occurred in one of Garry Kasparov' s games (White against Ruslan Ponomariov at Linares 2002). Here Ponomariov felt obliged to give up his castling rights by play ing 10 .. Kf8. Obviously this was not an ideal scenario for the then FIDE Champion, but alternatives fall short. In particular, the desirable 10 ... 0-0? loses material after 1 1 Bxd7 Bxd7 12 Bh6!, when Black's best bet is to give up an exchange with 1 2...g6. An other way to deal with the threat to the g-pawn is with 10 ... g6, but then White can still prevent Black from castling queenside by playing 1 1 Bh6!. .

Let's go back to the position after 8 NeS. After the Kasparov-Ponomariov encoun ter, grandmasters came to the conclusion that a 'preventative' pawn move was the best course of action: 8 a6! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Delving Deeper Crucially the move Bb5 has been ruled out of the equation, and grandmaster analysis has shown that Black doesn't suffer unduly by playing a non-developing move. Luxury pawn moves are often more affordable once development is at a later stage, as seen in the next example. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 N£6 5 d3 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 0-0 d6 8 c3 0-0

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Here both sides have developed well. White has numerous options here, includ ing developing the dark-squared bishop (9 Bg5 and 9 Be3, offering a trade, come to mind). There is, however, also something to be said for 9 h3, which eliminates all future possibilities of ...Bg4 and ... Ng4. And against 9 h3 there's an argument for Black to follow suit with 9 ...h6, preventing both Ng5 and Bg5 (we'll discuss this Bg5/. . .Bg4 pin in more detail a bit later.

Point to Remember Ask yourself some questions before playing 'preventative' pawn moves in the opening. Is there really time to play the move? Could you survive without it? Does it create further weaknesses?

Movi ng a Piece Twice 'Don't move the same piece twice in the opening!' is a guideline that newcomers are likely to hear from chess teachers and more experienced players. The logical idea behind this is that you should concentrate on developing the rest of your pieces first before embarking on a solitary mission with just one of them. Of 67

Discovering Chess Openings course over-emphasis on this guideline can lead (and, as I've seen, has led) to con fusion amongst inexperienced players. Take the following snippet: 1 N£3 e5?

Black has left a vital central pawn en prise, but those taking 'don't move the same piece twice in the opening' too much to heart would possibly have serious doubts about playing the best move in the position - 2 NxeS! . Adding a few words makes i t a more accurate guideline: 'Don't move the same piece twice in the opening without good reason.' Sometimes it's fairly obvious that a second move with the same piece leads no where, for example: 1 d4 N£6 2 N£3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nc3 0-0 5 e3 d6 6 NbS?

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Delving Deeper It should be easy to recognize that White is nowhere near in a position to attack deep into Black's queenside and the knight advance cannot be supported. The knight on bS offers no threat and Black could either totally ignore it or attack it with... 6 ...a6 Now 7 Nc3 is surely White's best retreat, which only underlines the futility of White's sixth move: it simply loses valuable time. If every example was as clear-cut as the previous one, this would be an easy guideline to follow. However, it becomes more complicated when the player in question is enticed into creating a solid threat. Let's go back to an idea we looked at earlier: the possibility of an early attack on the f7-pawn. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 d3 N£6 5 0-0 d6 6 Ng5?!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Inexperienced players often find the possibility of playing N£3-gS in such a posi tion too difficult to resist. Their reasoning goes something like:

1) Black might not spot the threat! 2) Okay he might, but it's worth a gamble! The problem is that after the likely event of Black finding the move ... 6...0-0! ...there is no good follow-up for White to continue the attack (7 QhS, attacking f7 again, would be nice but it leaves the queen en prise). We've already seen that the trade on f7 with 7 Nxf7 Rx£7 8 Bx£7+ Kx£7 favours Black more than White, but what happens if White carries on developing? 69

Discovering Chess Openings 7 Nc3 h6! 8 N£3 Quite rightly White dismisses 8 Nh3?. 8 Bg4 ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Due to the meandering of White's knight, it's Black who is ahead on development!

Poi nt to Remember It's very easy to b e seduced into making a second move with a piece in order to create a threat, but you have to assume that direct threats will be spotted by your opponent. In this case you have to ask yourself what the consequences are. Does your position really improve? Is your piece better placed than before? Will it be quickly pushed back?

G ra bbing Pawns Chess is a very materialistic game - the player with the most pieces is the one who normally ends up winning - so you should always be on the lookout for any pos sibilities to capture material. Before you decide to grab a pawn (it's less likely that your opponent will leave a piece en prise) there are one or two (or three) questions that are worth asking:

1) Does this allow a trick? 2) Will this expose my king? 3) Will I fall behind on development?

Delving Deeper Obviously if the answer to ' 1 ' is 'yes' then assume your opponent has seen the trick and simply ignore the pawn. If the answer to either '2' or '3' is yes then you have to use your judgement. How vital is that pawn in the long run? Is winning that pawn worth all the hassle you're going to get? Let's have a look at a possible continuation in the Ruy Lopez. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 b5 5 Bb3 N£6 6 0-0

On White's last move there were ways to defend the threatened e4-pawn (6 d3, 6 Nc3 and 6 Qe2 come to mind), but instead he chose to ignore it and castled in stead. The question is should Black grab the pawn on e4? Let's look at the three questions above. We'll ignore the first one for the moment because to determine whether it's a trick or not needs some analysis. So, will tak ing the pawn on e4 expose Black's king? It's certainly a possibility because one of the two pawns on the e-file is removed. It only takes the removal of the e5-pawn and the e-file will be totally open and the king will be vulnerable to a check (Rel or Qe2). Secondly, will Black fall behind in development? Here the answer is yes because White can gain time attacking the knight on e4. Against all this Black has to weigh up the value of winning a pawn. This isn't any old pawn; it's a crucial central pawn. If Black were able to get away with taking it then it would be a prize scalp. Working on general principles is obviously useful, but at the end of the day some analysis is required for Black to make a decision. 6 ... Nxe4 7 Rel! A typical reaction and much stronger than 7 d3. Now if the knight moves out of the way, the e5-pawn will be en prise.

Discovering Chess Openings

7 d5! ...

Supporting the knight and allowing the c8-bishop to develop. I believe this is stronger than immediately retreating the knight. For example, 7...Nc5 can be met by 8 BdS! when threats include Nxe5 and d2-d4. The most obvious retreat is 7...Nf6, and now 8 Nxe5 Nxe5 9 RxeS+ Be7 10 Qe2 is slightly awkward for Black because the attack on the e7-bishop means that he can't castle for the moment. As well as 9 Rxe5+, White can also exploit the pin on the e-file with 9 d4!, which looks even stronger as White ends up with a powerful pawn on e5: for example, 9 .. Be7? 10 dxe5 Ng8 (there's nothing else!) 1 1 Qd5 threatening mate on f7 and the rook on h8; or 8 ...Bb7 10 dxe5 Ne4 1 1 Q£3! . .. .

8 7 6 5 4 3

1 a

... and again White wins material, this time due to the double attack on f7 and e4

Delving Deeper (note that 1 l . . .Nd6 loses to 12 exd6 - check!). 8 d3 By attacking the knight with the pawn, White ensures that the knight must re treat. . . 8 Nf6 ...

... and now White can win his pawn back. 9 Nxe5 Nxe5 10 Rxe5+ With the knight being pinned to the king, White can also consider not recapturing at once, instead playing 10 d4!? with the intention of capturing with the pawn. This is quite a threat since it would attack the knight and leave Black's d-pawn en prise. However, with some careful play Black can ensure a reasonable position with 10 ...Be6 (defending d5) 1 1 dxe5 Ne4!. 10 Be6! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

White has managed to give a check on the e-file, but Black's last move has se curely blocked the file. White can't really do much to prevent Black following up with ... Bd6 and ...0-0, after which Black's problems disappear and he has reached an equal position. So grabbing on e4 looks perfectly playable after some initial analysis, although it's true that Black has to tread carefully for one or two moves. Going back to question ' 1', 'does this allow a trick?', the answer is 'yes', but only one that regains the pawn with no advantage so this is not enough of a deterrent for Black. On the other hand, if one is trying to be thorough, it's not enough to look only at 7 Re1: the similar move 7 Qe2 comes into consideration too, while there's no rule that says that White must try to regain his pawn immediately. 73

Discovering Chess Openings

Question: Can you suggest a way for White to both further his development and blow open the centre? Answer: White can play 7 d4!. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The attraction of this move is immediately apparent: White opens the way for his cl-bishop and attacks the e5-pawn at the same time. Let's see what happens if Black goes 'pawn happy' . 7 exd4?! ...

Question: Can you spot an obvious flaw with 7... Nxd4? Answer: White can play 8 Nxd4 exd4 9 Bd5!, forking the rook and knight. 8 Rel! d5! Instead 8 .. .£5? runs into the 'curse of the £-pawn'. After 9 Ng5! White threatens both Nf7, forking queen and rook, and f2-f3, winning the pinned knight. After 8 ... d5 Black could be forgiven for thinking that he was out of the woods, as obvious attempts by White do not amount to much. Black is okay after 9 Nxd4 Nxd4 1 0 Qxd4 Be6! (and especially after 1 1 f3?? Bc5!), while 9 Nbd2 Be7 1 0 Nxe4 dxe4 1 1 Rxe4 0-0 also solves Black's problems. However, there's another possibil ity. . . 9 Nc3!!

(see following diagram} Amazingly this works! Once Black has realized that there's only one legal way to capture the knight, he has to face up to the problems surrounding e4 and d5. 9 dxc3 ...

9 ... Be6 is possible, but following 10 Nxe4 dxe4 1 1 Rxe4 Black still has major prob-

Delving Deeper lems on the open e-file (11...Qd7 1 2 NgS is one example). Relatively best is 1 l ...Be7, and after 12 Bxe6 fxe6 13 Nxd4 0-0 it's true that Black has managed to castle. White does, however, keep an advantage after 1 4 Qg4 Nxd4 1 5 Rxd4, when the material balance has been restored and Black has a weak isolated pawn on e6. This position actually occurred in one of Bobby Fischer's games (he was White versus Trifunovic, Bled 1961 ).

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

10 Bxd5 The point behind White's previous move: dS drops and White regains the tempo rarily sacrificed piece because both knights are en prise. 10 ... Bb7 11 Bxe4 Be7 Black has no time to exchange queens, as 1 1 ...Qxd 1 ?? fails to the zwischenzug 12 Bxc6+! Kd8 13 Rxd1+, leaving White a piece ahead. 12 Qe2!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

h 75

Discovering Chess Openings A very important move; White doesn't allow the exchange of queens, which would seriously diminish his attacking chances. Just as importantly, White pre vents Black from castling, as 1 2 ...0-0? would lose the bishop on e7 after 1 3 Bxc6! Bxc6 14 Qxe7. So Black has a very difficult times ahead, and one line illustrating his problems is 12 ...Qd6 13 Bxc6+ Bxc6 14 Bg5! f6 15 Rad1! Qc5 16 b4! Qxb4 1 7 Qe6! Bxf3 18 Rd7 Be4 19 a3! (and not 19 Rxe4? which allows Black to escape with 19 ... Qb1+ 20 Re1 Qxe1+ 21 Qxe1 Kxd7) 19 ...Qxa3 20 Bel! Qb4 21 Rxe4 Qxe4 22 Rxe7+ and it's mate next move. A long variation, but it's quite easy to see that Black is suffering in many ways here.

Question: Going back to the position after 7 d4!, can you suggest a good way for Black to continue? Answer: Black can give back the pawn, carry on developing and consolidate his position in the centre with 7 d5! 8 dxe5 Be6!. ...

Contrast this position with the one after 7...exd4. Here the e-file is blocked by three pieces - Black's king is in no immediate danger. Also, Black's knight on e4 is well supported by the pawn on d5, which in tum is protected by the bishop and queen. All in all, Black's position is satisfactory. Indeed this position has been reached literally thousands of times at all levels of chess (albeit via a slightly dif ferent move order) and is called the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez.

Gaining Time It's already been mentioned how useful it i s to be able to develop and create a threat at the same time, thus gaining valuable time in the development race. Likewise, it's good to be able to defend against a threat with a developing move. Here I'd like to look at two more openings where these ideas are prominent: 76

Delving Deeper 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 d4 White decides to open the centre immediately. This is known as the Scotch Game. 3...exd4 4 Nxd4

I gave this position to some young chess students who had very little knowledge of opening theory and certainly no knowledge of the Scotch Game. I asked them to look for two or three moves for Black and for each of these, two or three replies for White and so on, keeping in mind the idea of gaining time with threats and answering threats with a developing move. The results were pleasing: they ended up recreating modem opening theory! Here's a summary of some of the lines suggested: A) 4...Bc5!

8 7 6 5 4 3

1 a

h 77

Discovering Chess Openings This was the favourite choice amongst the students, and it just so happens to be the most popular choice in modem tournament chess! The benefits of this move are obvious: Black develops a kingside piece and gains time by attacking the d4knight. 5 Be3! Not only defending the threat with a developing move, but also creating a threat too.

Question: What is White threatening? Answer: 6 Nxc6, uncovering an attack on the bishop, followed by 7 Bxc5. Here are some of the other good suggestions: 1) 5 Nf5 gains time by attacking the g7-pawn. 2) 5 Nb3 turns the tables; now it's the knight that is attacking the bishop. 3) 5 Nxc6 is also a time-gaining move. Rather than simply retreating the knight, White trades on c6 when Black is forced to spend his move on a sim ple recapture. s

...

Q£6!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

An excellent move, though it requires a touch of calculation. Black is able to take measures against White's threat and also keep up the pressure on the d4-knight. What more could you ask? It's true that Black must be careful not to expose the queen, but in this position it's not particularly vulnerable on f6. 5 ... Bb6 is another, less economical, way of addressing the threat. One or two stu dents suggested protecting the bishop with the developing 5 ... d6?, but were 78

Delving Deeper rightly put off after seeing the continuation 6 Nxc6! bxc6 7 Bxc5 dxcS: Black's tri pled c-pawns are not a happy sight! After 5 ...Qf6 White must do something about the attack on d4 again: 1) 6 Nxc6 Bxe3! is the point behind 5 ... Qf6: after 7 fxe3 (forced because mate was threatened on f2) Black can recapture on c6. 2) 6 c3 is a solid way of defending d4 and is White's most common choice in tournament play. 3) Given that the brief was to look for moves that gained time with threats, 6 NbS!? is a logical choice. Following 6 ... Bxe3 7 fxe3 Black has to expend time defending against the threat of Nxc7+. The flipside, of course, is that White is left with ghastly doubled, isolated pawns (more about this in Chapter 5). B) 4...Nf6!

Another move that was suggested by quite a few students. Again Black develops with a threat; this time it's the e4-pawn that's the target. 5 Nc3 Unfortunately for White the natural 5 Bd3?? leaves the knight hanging on d4. That point led to the suggestion of 5 Nxc6 bxc6 and only then 6 Bd3, or 6 e5 gaining time by attacking the knight. 5 Bb4! ...

Consistent play from Black: by pinning the c3-knight, the e4-pawn is again at tacked and Black is already prepared for castling kingside.

Question: If Black turned his attention back to the d4-knight with 5 ...Bc5, could

Discovering Chess Openings you name three good ways to deal with the threat?

Answer: 6 Nb3 (attacking the bishop), 6 Be3 (threatening to win a piece with Nxc6), and 6 Nxc6 (forcing Black to recapture). All three moves gain time.

After 5 ...Bb4, White still has the problem that 6 Bd3?? leaves the d4-knight en prise. The logical moves suggested here were: 6 BgS, pinning the f6-knight to the black queen; 6 Qd3, preparing to develop the cl-bishop and castle queenside; and 6 Nxc6 bxc6 followed by either 7 Bd3 or 7 eS.

Question: Going back to Black's fourth move, can you suggest any other options that create a threat?

Answer: 4 ...Bb4+, 4 ...Qf6, 4 ...Qh4, 4 ...Qe7 and 4 ... d5. It's difficult to go into the pros and cons of these moves without delving too much into the theory of the Scotch Game, and that certainly isn't the idea of this book. I'll leave you to decide on this; suffice to say that 4 ...Bb4+ and 4 ...Qf6 are very reasonable moves, 4 ...Qh4 is interesting but risky, and 4 ...Qe7 and 4... d5 are both considered dubious.

The Queen: Exposed or Not? In Chapter 2 we talked just a little bit about queen handling in the opening, but here I'd like to expand on this by taking a look at two positions which look quite similar but contain subtle differences. The first position arises after the moves... 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 Qxd4

Delving Deeper

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This opening is known as the Centre Game, but it's not very popular at any level of chess for reasons we are about to discover.

Question: Can you spot a good move for Black? Answer: 4 Nc6!. ...

After reading the previous section, I hope you got this! 4 ... Nc6 is clearly Black's best move: it develops a piece and gains time because White's queen is forced to move again. 4 Qe3 Theory considers this to be the main move, although there's an argument for mov ing the queen to the a4-square; at least there it's less likely to come under further attack. After 4 Qe3 White can still claim to be ahead in the development race (2-1) and plans to play Nc3, Bd2 and 0-0-0. 4 Nf6! ...

Meanwhile, Black's ideas include developing rapidly on the kingside and possibly ganging up on the e4-pawn. 5 Nc3 When Black plays ... N£6 he always has to take into account the advance e4-e5, but following 5 e5 Black can again take advantage of White's exposed queen with 5 ... Ng4 6 Qe4...

(seefollowing diagram} ... and now Black has two enticing possibilities:

Discovering Chess Openings

1 ) 6 ... Ngxe5!? 7 £4 d5 8 Qe2 Bg4 9 N£3 and Black loses the pinned knight on e5. His attacking possibilities after 9 .. Bc5!, however, more than compensate. .

2) If Black doesn't trust the previous line, there's also the very logical 6 ... d5!. It's true that 7 exd6 is a discovered check, but following 7...Be6 8 dxc7 Qxc7 Black's development advantage (4-1, with White's queen still exposed) is be coming increasingly menacing. Furthermore, Black even has the very cheeky pseudo-sacrifice 8 ... Qd1 +!? 9 Kxd1 Nxf2+ 1 0 Ke1 Nxe4 when Black is still miles ahead in development and the c7-pawn will be picked off easily. 5 ...Be7! 5 ...Bb4 6 Bd2 0-0 7 0-0-0 Re8 is another logical continuation for Black, but with 5 ... Be7 Black blocks the e-file and prepares to further annoy the white queen. 6 Bd2 d5!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Delving Deeper Again exploiting the placing of White's queen, Black forces a liquidation of White's central pawn due to the threat of ... d5-d4, forking queen and knight. 7 exd5 Nxd5 Now White should probably play 8 Nxd5 Qxd5, when both queens are in play. What's interesting, though, is that the liquidation in the centre has actually left Black with a slight development lead (3-2), and this is probably enough to give him an edge overall. Let's see what happens if White tries to improve the position of his queen. 8 Qg3 Now at least the queen is doing something active (attacking the g7-pawn) and it's also no longer in the way of the d2-bishop, but... 8... Ncb4!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This very strong move introduces a new worry for White, but one that's again based on White's queen: normally it would be the queen's duty to protect the slightly vulnerable c2-pawn, but here that's no longer possible! Now 9 Qxg7? loses to 9 ... Bf6! followed by ...Nxc2+ and ...Nxal. White is already struggling here and it's easy to go further astray. Let's see what happened in the game A.Smith M.Ferguson, British League 2000. 9 0-0-0? Nxc3! 10 bxc3 Nxa2+ 11 Kb2 Be6 12 Ne2 c5 White's king is in a real mess! 13 N£4 Qb6+ 14 Kat Net!! 15 Bel The knight was immune: 15 Bxcl would have allowed mate in two after 15 ... Qa5+ 16 .Kb2 Qa2. After 15 Bel Black played 15 ... Bd6? in the game, but he could have rounded off his previous play in fine style with the move 15 ... Ba2!!,

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

after which White can resign on the spot. The threat is ... Qb1 mate, so 16 Rxcl is forced, but after 16 ... Qa5 there is no way to avoid checkmate; for example, 1 7 Kb2 c4! 18 Rd1 Qa3+ 19 Ka1 Bb3+ 20 Kb1 Qa2+ 21 Kcl Qxc2 mate! Now let's take a look at a second example of a queen arriving early on the d4square. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Nc3 N£6 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4 We've already seen this position in this chapter, and there we looked at both S ...Bb4 and S ...BcS. However, isn't it tempting to force White's queen out into the open? 5 ... Nxd4?! 6 Qxd4

Delving Deeper There's certainly some similarities between this position and the one reached after 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 Qxd4, but one or two significant differences too. The main change is that Black no longer has the option of attacking the queen with ...Nb8-c6 as this knight is no longer on the board. An associated point is that, with the ex change of a pair of knights, the board is less cluttered than it was at the beginning of the game. Both of these factors add up to leave White's queen being much less vulnerable than in the previous example. And if a queen is actually stable in the middle of the board, this can often be the best place for it; certainly it can demon strate its full range of powers here. Another difference between here and the previous example is that there are the added moves ... Ng8-f6 and . . .Nbl-c3. This is another plus for White: with the knight still on g8 Black could consider the idea of playing ... Ng8-e7-c6, in effect replacing the knight that's been traded. With the knight on f6, however, Black has to be wary of harassment via e4-e5. With this is mind, probably Black's best move here is simply 6 ...d6, taking the sting out of e4-e5, but let's see what could happen if Black insisted on trying to gain time on the queen: 6 b6? ...

Black prepares to attack the queen with ...Bc5, while the c8-bishop also now has an option of fianchettoing on b7. All well and good in theory, but White can throw a big spanner in the works. 7 e5! Bc5 8 Q£4

This is a real pain for Black because the knight is struggling for squares, especially since 8 . . .Nh5 allows a double attack with 9 Qf3!. 8 Ng8 9 Bc4! ...

Discovering Chess Openings White goes for mate on f7 scholar's style, but here it's under much more favour able circ*mstances. In fact, Black is dead lost! 9 Nh6 ...

Or 9 ... Qe7 1 0 Nd5! Qd8 1 1 Nxb6! when the discovered attack threatens both mate on £7 and the rook in the corner. 10 Qf3!

Now White threatens both Qxa8 and, more importantly, Bxh6 followed by Qx£7 mate. Black has no alternative but to give up some material. Not a good adver tisem*nt for 6 ... b6. Going back to the position after 6 Qxd4, there's a tendency in this position (or in many similar positions) for the inexperienced player to be enticed by 6 c5?!. ...

8 7 6 5

4 3 2

Delving Deeper You can understand the attractions to this move: Black gains time by attacking White's queen, and the pawn on cS certainly contributes towards controlling the centre. So it's often difficult to dissuade a young player from playing in this way. The trouble for Black is that the negatives outweigh the positives. The problems with this lunge are: 1) Black has permanently weakened the dS- and d6-squares; they can no longer be protected by pawns. The dS-square in particular will no doubt in terest White's knight and light-squared bishop, both of which would find it a very welcoming outpost. 2) By playing ... c7-c5 Black has also accepted a backward d-pawn, one that cannot be protected by its neighbours. This problem is magnified by the fact that White can attack the pawn down the half-open d-file. Let's look at how play could continue: 7 Qe3 Blocking the cl-bishop for the moment, but the queen plans to move to g3. 7 d6 ...

Black would love to be able to liquidate the central pawns with ...d7-d5 but, in contrast to the line we looked at from the Centre Game, this proves to be virtually impossible. After 7... Be7 White could even play 8 eS, as following 8 ... Ng4 9 Qe4 d6 the check with 10 BbS+! is very annoying: 10 ...Bd7 loses to 11 exd6! . 8 Bb5+ Bd7 9 Bxd7+ Qxd7 10 0-0 Be7 1 1 Qg3 0-0 1 2 Bh6! Nh5 1 3 Q£3 N£6 1 4 B£4

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

and White will continue with Radl, adding pressure to the vulnerable d6-pawn; this is a direct consequence of Black's 6th move. 87

Discovering Chess Openings

Poi nts to Remember 1 ) A queen i s only vulnerable out in the open if it can be easily attacked. 2) In general, the more exchanges of pieces that have occurred, the more powerful the queen becomes in the centre of the board.

H olding U p and Restrictin g So far in this book we've mainly concentrated on positions where both sides de velop easily. A typical example of this can be seen if we look at a possible line in our old favourite, the Scotch Game: 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 Bd3 d5 7 exd5 cxd5 8 o-o Be7 In a way Black would prefer to develop this bishop more actively on d6 or c5, but he has to be aware of problems resulting from the rook check on el. For instance, 8 . . Bd6 9 Re1 +! Be6 10 Bb5+! and Black is either forced to move his king or else lose a pawn after 10 ...Nd7 1 1 Qxd5; neither of these prospects is particularly enticing. .

9 B£4 0-0 10 Nd2 c6 11 c4 Bg4 12 Qc2 Qb6

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

A typical position: both sides have moved freely and after only 12 moves devel opment is more or less complete. If only development were always as easy! In reality the opening moves of a game often include a mixture of developing your own pieces and both holding up and restricting your opponent's development. For example, after the opening moves ... 1 e4 Nc6 2 d4 e5 ...White can play...

Delving Deeper 3 d5

...and Black's development is delayed because he has to spend a tempo doing something about the attack on the c6-knight. Furthermore, after... 3...Nce7 ...Black's development is restricted because the knight blocks the dark-squared bishop; it will have to move again (to g6) before the bishop is allowed out.

Question: What's wrong with the move 3 ... Nd4? Answer: White can play 4 c3! when the knight is lost because there is no safe re treat square. Let's now go back to a position we looked at earlier: 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 N£6 5 d3 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 0-0 d6 8 c3 0-0

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Discovering Chess Openings Here I noted that a common idea for White is 9 h3, and in return Black can play 9 ..h6. These are typical restriction moves that prevent ...Bg4 and Bg5 respectively, the most active locations for these bishops. .

Here's an example of restriction occurring earlier on in a game. 1 d4 N£6 If Black doesn't want to mirror White's first move with l...d5, this is the main way of preventing White from playing 2 e4. Notice how the first few moves seem to centre on the battle for control of e4. 2 c4 e6 3 N£3 b6

Black prepares to fianchetto on b7. This is known as the Queen's Indian Defence. 4 Nc3 Bb7 5 a3

Delving Deeper The sole purpose of this move is to prevent ... Bb4, which would pin White's knight and keep control of e4. Of course there's sometimes a fine line between a restrictive pawn move and an unnecessary pawn move. On this occasion it's believed that it's worth White ex pending an extra tempo to avoid the active bishop development, or at least this is a worthwhile, if not the only, option. Now let's go back to the position in the Scotch Game after 5 ...bxc6: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6

Instead of 6 Bd3, White can make life more difficult by playing the more forceful... 6 e5 ...with the idea of holding up Black's development due to the threat on the f6knight. Of course Black could move the knight here (6 ...Nd5 and 6 ... Ne4 are the obvious choices), but he could also carry on the theme of holding up and restrict ing with the move ... 6...Qe7! ... attacking and pinning the eS-pawn, after which White is obliged to spend time dealing with the simple threat of ...QxeS+. Actually, this is easier said than done. Following 7 Bf4?!, which looks desirable in that White defends eS by developing a piece, Black can gain time by attacking the bishop with 7...Nd5!; after 8 Bg3 Black could even grab a pawn with 8 ...Qb4+ 9 Nd2 Qxb2. Instead 7 f4 looks fairly natu ral, but then Black can pursue his attack on the e5-pawn with 7... d6. In fact theory considers ... 7 Qe2 ...to be White's best move, after which Black plays 91

Discovering Chess Openings 7 Nd5 ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

This position is a good example of restriction. By playing 6 Qe7, Black has wilfully blocked in his dark-squared bishop, thus creating problems with his own kingside development. On the other hand, with 7 Qe2 White has been forced to block in his own bishop so he also has trouble finishing off kingside development. The idea be hind Black's sophisticated play is that he believes that White will be more inconven ienced by his development problems than Black will be by his. The justification lies in the fact that Black has the upper hand in the standoff between the two queens; Black's queen is free to move whereas White's queen must stay guarding the e5pawn, at least until it is further defended or Black's queen no longer attacks it. ...

Sometimes one little pawn move is enough to disrupt an entire development plan.

Delving Deeper In the above position Black has just played the careless move 6 ... c6, instead of which either 6 ... Bc5 or 6 ...Bb4 followed by ... d7-d6 would have been perfectly fine: Black could castle kingside and would also be ready to develop his light-squared bishop. After 6 ... c6, however, White can throw a proverbial spanner in the works with... 7 d6!

The pawn on d6 cuts Black's position in two and suddenly he has real problems completing development. The bishop on f8 has no moves along the f8-a3 diagonal, and even fianchettoing is problematic - the knight on g6 has to move first, and this is tied up defending the eS-pawn! As a consequence of this, Black will find it extremely difficult to arrange kingside castling. Furthermore, Black also has prob lems with his queenside, with the only possible development scheme seeming to be . . .b7-b5, ...Bb7 and ... Qb6. Even if Black manages to castle queenside, this still doesn't solve the problem of what to do on the other side of the board. The only thing that would really help Black would be to somehow surround and capture the d6-pawn, after which many of his troubles would disappear. Sadly, this is im practical, especially with threats imminent (NgS!).

Pin ning and U n pinning One of the most typical methods of restriction in the opening is the use of the pin. In most cases this seems to be a bishop pinning a knight to a king or a queen, thus (temporarily at least) preventing the knight in question from taking an active part in the game. Here's a common example: 1 d4 d5 2 c4

Discovering Chess Openings

This opening is called the Queen's Gambit, and I'll discuss it in more detail in the next chapter. 2 e6 3 Nc3 N£6 ...

So far White has been attacking Black's d5-pawn and Black has been solidly de fending it. 4 Bg5!

The best move according to theory. Not only does White develop a piece, he also to all extents and purposes disables an enemy piece: if the knight moves, it leaves the queen en prise, so Black can only really move the knight under exceptional circ*mstances. Note that the play so far has focussed very much around control of the dS- and e494

Delving Deeper squares - a typical battle for ascendancy in the centre.

Question: What should White play after the move 4 ... h6? Answer: White should capture with 5 Bxf6!. The point is that 5 ...Qxf6 loses a pawn after 6 cxd5 exdS 7 Nxd5. Black could capture with 5 ...gxf6 but following 6 cxd5 exd5 Black is left with doubled, isolated £-pawns - a real weakness. After 4 Bg5 Black can solve the problem of the pinned knight with... 4 Be7! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This is an unpinning move. The knight is now free to move (say to e4) because the queen would no longer be under threat; instead there would only be an offer of a trade of bishops. If now 5 Bxf6 Bxf6 Black has nothing to worry about. In contrast to the line 4...h6? 5 Bxf6 Qx£6, the queen on d8 protects dS so Black doesn't lose a . pawn. Instead of 4 ...Be7, Black could also consider the move 4...Bb4, adding an other pin to the game.

Pin n ing and the Question of Castling One o f the three golden rules o f the opening i s to ensure king safety. In the major ity of cases this means simply tucking up the king safely by castling. However, it's not always quite as simple as that. Sometimes when you castle early you have to be careful not to run into an attack by, say, inviting a pawn storm. Similarly, when the pawn centre is closed and your king is in no immediate danger in the middle of the board, on occasion it pays to keep your options open regarding whether to castle 'short' or 'long'. The following line shows Black benefiting greatly by the flexibility he has over where his king will eventually decide to go. It's also interesting because it demon-

Discovering Chess Openings

strates some of the positive and negative aspects of the very common Bg5 and ...Bg4 pins. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 d3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

A very solid but rather unambitious move: White has developed the bishop on c4, so he opens the cl-h6 diagonal to develop the other bishop. In Chapter 6 We'll take a look at the more challenging 4 c3, while later in this chapter we'll cover the very aggressive 4 b4!?. 4...Nf6 5 0-0 Given the slow nature of the play, White's king could have hidden behind the cen tral pawns for a couple more moves. However, I do wish to emphasize that 5 0-0 is certainly not a mistake; it's only the follow-up that is faulty. 5 ... d6 6 Bg5?!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Delving Deeper It's incredibly tempting to pin the knight, especially as there is no unpinning de vice available to Black with ... Be7. However, in this instance it's actually quite a poor idea. On the other hand, after 6 Nc3 the move 6 ...Bg4! is quite effective. Let's see what could happen if White followed suit: 7 Bg5 Nd4!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

(this is a very desirable follow-up to ...Bg4: pressure increases on White's f3-knight and now White is unable to avoid a wrecked pawn formation in front of his king) 8 Nd5 c6! 9 Nxf6+ gxf6 10 Bh4 (it's true that Black's kingside pawn structure is compromised just as White's will be; the crucial difference is that Black hasn't committed his king to the kingside) 10 ... Rg8 (even better: Black utilizes the newly opened file!) 1 1 Bg3 Qd7 12 c3 Nxf3+ 13 gxf3 Bh3 14 Re1 h5! (threatening to win the pinned bishop with ...h5-h4) 15 Kh1 h4 (anyway!) 16 Bxh4 Bg2+ 1 7 Kg1 Bx£3+...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Discovering Chess Openings ...with a decisive discovered check, winning the white queen. Instead of 7 Bg5, White should harass the bishop with 7 h3. Following 7...Bh5 White can break the pin with 8 g4 Bg6, but although it must be said the immediate danger has been averted, it's not all good news for White. The extended pawns on the kingside leave White's king rather lacking in cover and open to a later attack. Of course White could certainly consider playing 6 h3 to avoid 6...Bg4, but there is also a more sophisticated way, one which allows the pin but deals with it very effectively: 6 c3! (preventing . . . Nd4 and preparing to challenge the centre in the long run with d3-d4) 6... Bg4 7 Rel 0-0 8 h3 Bh5 9 Nbd2! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

... and White will follow up with the manoeuvre Nd2-fl-g3, attacking the bishop on hS and forcing Black to make a decision over its future. Black must exchange on f3, allow an exchange on hS or retreat with ... Bg6: in all cases White solves the problem of the pin. Getting back to 6 BgS?!, the question has to be asked, 'why is this dubious, but the pin after 6 Nc3 Bg4! a good idea?' All will become clearer in a couple of moves! 6 ...h6! 7 Bh4? White should have played 7 Bxf6 Qxf6 8 Nc3 with the idea of NdS, or perhaps simply 7 Be3, admitting that 6 BgS was a mistake. 7 g5! ...

Black breaks the pin by lunging forward on the kingside. The crucial difference between this and the line 6 Nc3 Bg4 7 h3 Bh5 8 g4 Bg6 is that Black's king isn't committed to the kingside. It can castle into safety on the queenside or, with the centre being so closed, on this occasion Black's king is safe enough for the moment on the e8-square. 8 Bg3 Bg4!

Delving Deeper

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This followed by a queen move and queenside castling gives Black a very promis ing position. He will gain good attacking chances on the kingside because he has achieved a head start with the tempo-gaining moves ...h7-h6 and ...g7-g5. This actual position arose in the game H.Jonatansson-B.Halldorsson, Reykjavik 1998. Let's follow it to its conclusion: 9 c3 Bb6 10 Nbd2 Nh5! The attack begins: Black's plans ...Q£6 and possibly ... N£4. Meanwhile, in anticipa tion of Black castling queenside, White gets going on the other wing. 11 b4 Q£6 12 Qb3 Nxg3 13 hxg3 h5!

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Now ...h5-h4 will blast open the h-file, an especially good idea since Black's rook on h8 will be activated. 99

Discovering Chess Openings 14 a4 Threatening to trap the bishop with a4-a5; this is prevented by Black's next move. 14 ... a5 15 Bd5 h4! The beginning of a well calculated sequence of moves that brings a decisive at tack. 16 gxh4 Bx£3 17 Nx£3 g4! 18 Ng5 After 1 8 Nh2 Qxh4 White is allowed a check with 19 Bx£7+, but following 19 ...Kf8 there's no follow-up and White is getting mated down the h-file. 18...Rxh4

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

19 Bx£7+ It's seems that White has some counterplay here, but in fact Black has it all under control, and it will be the attack down the h-file that will ultimately be the killer. Another option for White was 19 Nx£7, but following 19 . . .Qf4! 20 Bxc6+ Black plays the clever 20 ... Kf8! and White has no defence: 21 g3 Qxg3 is mate due to the pin on the £-pawn. 19...Ke7! Suddenly White is facing the prospect of Black doubling rooks with ...Rah8, and there is little that can be done about this. 20 Qe6+ Qxe6 21 Bxe6 Rah8! 0-1

(see following diagram) White threw in the towel as there is no good way to avoid mate down the h-file: after 22 g3 it's mate in two with 22 ... Rh1+ 23 Kg2 Rhh2.

1 00

Delving Deeper

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Going back to the position after 8 Bg3, Black can be more than happy with the outcome of the opening after 8 Bg4. However, I can't resist giving another possi bility for Black, which I believe was originally played by 19th century World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz. This is certainly more risky but perhaps offers even greater rewards! ...

8 h5!? ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

With the strong threat of ...h5-h4, trapping the bishop, but isn't the gS-pawn hang ing? 9 Nxg5 Very enticing, especially since the traditionally weak £7-pawn is now hanging. Steinitz's opponent (Dubois) resisted the temptation of the g-pawn and played the 101

Discovering Chess Openings sensible-looking 9 h4 and Steinitz replied with 9 ...Bg4!. Now if 10 hxg5 Black can press forward with his attack with 10 ...h4! 1 1 Bh2 h3! when things are already looking distinctly gloomy for White. One possible continuation is 12 gxf6 Qxf6 13 Nbd2 hxg2 14 Kxg2 0-0-0 15 Bg3 Bh3+ 16 Kg1 Rdg8! when there is no good de fence to the devastating threat of ...Rxg3+. 9 h4 ...

Black marches on, ignoring the threat! 10 Nx£7 hxg3!!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

And again! This is a fantastic queen sacrifice. 11 Nxd8 Bg4! Despite being a queen for a bishop to the good, it's very possible that White is completely lost here: Black's attack is even stronger than it looks. 12 Qd2 Alternatives amply demonstrate Black's winning ideas: a) 12 N£7 Rxh2! 13 Qd2 Nd4! 14 Nc3 Nf3+!! 15 gxf3 Bx£3 16 Qh6 (the only move to avoid ...Rh1 mate) 16 ...Rg2+! 17 Kh1 Rxf2+ 18 Kg1 Rg2+ 19 Kh1 Rg1 mate b) 12 Nxc6 gxf2+! 13 Kh1 Bxd1 14 Rxd1 Ng4 15 h3 Ne3!. c) 12 hxg3 Kxd8!! (ignoring the queen) 13 Qd2 Nd4 14 Nc3 Nf3+! 15 gxf3 Bxf3 and there is no defence to . . .Rh1 mate. 12...Nd4! Now Black threatens ...Nd4-e2+ followed by ...Rxh2 mate. White can prevents this, but Black also has another, less obvious, threat.

1 02

Delving Deeper

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 b

13 Nc3 13 h3 Ne2+ 14 Khl allows the beautiful l4. . .Rxh3+!! 15 gxh3 B£3 mate. It's true that White can spoil the fun by giving up his queen with 1 4 Qxe2! although after 14 ... Bxe2 things still look good for Black. 13...Nf3+!!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 b

This stunning move, an idea that also cropped up twice in the notes to White's 1 2th move, is the real justification behind Black's queen sacrifice. 14 gx£3 White is forced to capture because moving the king in the corner allows an im mediate checkmate with 14.. Rxh2. .

14...Bxf3 1 03

Discovering Chess Openings Now Black threatens mate with . . . gxh2, and then ... g1Q if necessary. There is only one way to prevent this, but then another mate becomes available. Note the major part the bishop on cS plays here. None of this would have worked had the pawn on f2 not been pinned to the king. 15 hxg3 Rhl mate!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

A very nice finish. Given some of the variations above, it's quite understandable why someone would be attracted to playing 8 . . .h5! even when there's a cast-iron alternative in 8. .Bg4. .

Points to Remember 1) With a closed centre it's sometimes not such a necessity to castle so early. In certain positions leaving your king in the centre for a few more moves can give welcome flexibility: your opponent isn't sure which side to attack. 2) Pins in the opening are powerful weapons and they need to be handled care fully; that's true for the pinner as well as the one being pinned!

G a m bits A gambit is an opening where a player offers to give up material (usually a pawn but sometimes more) in return for some benefits. Usually this advantage consists of one or more of the following:

1 04

Delving Deeper 1) A clear lead in development. 2) Control of the centre. 3) A weakness in the enemy camp. When deciding on the soundness of a gambit, a player has to weigh up whether these advantages compensate for the material invested. Even if objectively this might not be the case, the gambit may still be worth playing because: 1 ) In a practical game it's very possible an opponent won't be able to solve the specific problems caused by the gambit. 2) They are great fun to play and lead to very exciting chess! Perhaps the easiest thing to do here is to pick an example of well-known gambit and illustrate the possibilities it gives: 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4!?

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This introduces the Evans Gambit, named after Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to employ it. In the nineteenth century it was known as a fear some weapon, with many experts actually suggesting it was the refutation of 3...Bc5. Eventually defensive resources were found for Black and some of its sting has been drawn. Nevertheless, even today it's well respected and has been played by some top grandmasters including Kasparov, Alexander Morozevich and Nigel Short. 4... Bxb4 Of course the thing about many gambits is that they do not necessarily have to be

1 05

Discovering Chess Openings

accepted. Here Black can decline the pawn on offer with the simple retreat 4 ...Bb6.

Question: Following 4 ...Bb6 can White safely win a pawn after 5 bS Nd4? 6 NxeS? Answer: No! Initially this looks good for White, but Black has a very powerful move in 6 ...Qg5!,

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

attacking both the knight on eS and the pawn on g2. Now the tempting 7 Nx£7 loses immediately after 7...Qxg2! 8 R£1 Qxe4+ 9 Be2 Nf3 mate! 5 c3! This logical follow-up gains time by attacking the black bishop and also reveals two crucial points behind White's pawn sacrifice: 1 ) c2-c3 prepares to support the desirable central advance d2-d4. White's idea if Black captures with ...exd4 is to recapture with the c-pawn, thus maintain ing control with two pawns abreast in the centre. 2) It also makes way for the queen to develop on the dl-a4 diagonal. In par ticular, the possibility of Qb3, piling up on Black's f7-pawn, is something both players have to bear in mind. Add the half-open b-file and the activation of the cl-bishop via a3 or b2 into the mix, and it becomes clear that there's a lot of substance to the Evans Gambit. 5 Ba5 ...

S ..BcS and ...Be7 are the main alternatives for Black. Of course it's impossible here to give a detailed theoretical overview; I only wish to introduce some of the at tacking possibilities that the Evans provides. .

6 d4!

1 06

Delving Deeper

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

It looked as though Black's previous move made this advance less desirable due to the pin on the aS-el diagonal, but White goes ahead anyway! 6 0-0 is of course possible but this does give Black a chance to consolidate with 6 ... d6! 7 d4 Bb6! (guarding against Qa4 and d4-d5 ideas). Now the continuation 8 dxeS dxe5 9 Qxd8+ Nxd8 10 Nxe5 regains the pawn, but following 10 ... Be6 White's initiative has all but expired. This type of line illustrates well how accurately both sides must play in gambit variations. One slack move by the gambiteer can often see his attack totally fizzle out. 6 exd4 ...

6 ...d6 is a solid way for Black to play. Now White continues with 7 Qb3 when Black should play the awkward 7... Qd7. The problem with something like 7... Qf6? is that White has the tactic 8 dS! Nce7 9 Qa4+! winning the bishop. The occurrence of these little tricks means that Black must constantly stay on his toes. 7 0-0! Rapid development is more important than reclaiming one of the pawns. In any case, 7 cxd4 was illegal, and White's idea was never to recapture on d4 with the knight. 7 dxc3 ...

I've given this greedy pawn grab as the 'main line' only to demonstrate the possi bilities for White if Black goes astray. 7... Nge7! as a much stronger move, with Black happy to give back one of the pawns in order to complete development and fight for the centre. Following 8 cxd4 Black's idea is to strike back with 8 ... d5! 9 exdS NxdS.

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8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

White definitely has some compensation for the pawn here and can increase the pressure with 10 Qb3 Nce7 1 1 Ba3, but theory considers Black's position to be okay with careful play. It's very useful for Black that the bishop on aS covers e1, thus rul ing out any potentially annoying Re1 . Earlier on, a critical alternative for White is 8 Ng5, intending to meet 8 ...Ne5 with 9 Bxf7+! Nxf7 10 Nxf7 Kxf7 11 Qh5+ and QxaS. 8 Qb3! At the moment White is three pawns down, but the first threat arrives and White's pieces are really going to enjoy the open lines. s

...

Q£6

8 ...Qe7 9 Nxc3 also gives White good play for the pawn. Black's difficulties are illustrated by the following high-profile example involving Bobby Fischer: 9 . . Nf6 10 Nd5! Nxd5 1 1 exd5 Ne5 12 Nxe5 Qxe5 13 Bb2 Qg5 14 h4! Qxh4 15 Bxg7 Rg8 1 6 Rae1+ Bxe1 17 Rxe1+ Kd8 1 8 Qg3! .

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

1 08

Delving Deeper (R.Fischer-R.Fine, USA 1964) and Black resigned in view of the fine finish 18 . Qxg3 19 Bf6 mate. .

9 e5! Not giving Black any time to settle. 9 . Qg6 ..

9 . Nxe5? runs into the pin 10 Re1, and following 10 .. d6 White wins the bishop with 1 1 Nxe5 dxe5 1 2 Qb5+! . .

10 Nxc3 Nge7 11 Ba3! 0-0 12 Rad1!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Black has survived the opening few moves and has even managed to castle. How ever, despite the two-pawn deficit, White's tremendous piece activity would en courage most players to take his side here. As well as grabbing the material on offer and then 'hanging on', there is another way to approach facing gambits; that is to return some or all of the material in or der to diffuse the opponent's initiative. Take the following example: 1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 c3 This is the Danish Gambit. The 'main line' now continues... 3 ... dxc3 4 Bc4 cxb2 5 Bxb2 With those bishops pointing towards Black's kingside like trident missiles, this position looks quite frightening from Black's point of view. Those who enjoy fac ing attacks will happily keep hold of the two pawns and defend grimly. However, many players will prefer to return the material in order to gain time for develop ment. In fact, the main line theory runs...

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Discovering Chess Openings

5... d5! Development is the key! 6 Bxd5 N£6! 7 Bx£7+ Has Black missed something? 7 ... Kx£7 8 Qxd8 Bb4+! No, this discovered attack means that the queen is regained. 9 Qd2 Bxd2+ 10 Nxd2

... and the tactical exchanges have led to material equality and a roughly level posi tion. To keep up the true gambit spirit, White could avoid this simplification with 7

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Delving Deeper

Nc3!?, but at least by returning one of the pawns Black has managed not to fall too far behind in development. Similarly, earlier Black could have transformed the nature of the position by strik ing back in the centre with the central thrust 3 ... d5!?. Following 4 exd5 Qxd5 5 cxd4

White has regained his pawn, but it's a totally different type of game: Black's de velopment after 5... Nc6 6 N£3 Bg4 7 Be2 Bb4+ 8 Nc3 is just as rapid and as active as White's.

Never miss a check; it m ight be mate! Okay, it probably won't be mate, but it could be just as devastating. Something that inexperienced players are prone to missing in the opening is an important check, especially one that is part of a tactical device. Once an avenue of attack is open to either king, always be wary of any possible checks. Don't forget, checks 'beat' all other threats! The following 'trick' would catch out quite a few newcomers to the game, and I can say this with some confidence because it's even been known to catch out very experienced players. In fact, on my database of games, I found 79 occurrences of Black losing a piece, and some of the victims' ratings indicated that they were very strong club players! 1 e4 c5 The Sicilian Defence, which cropped up in Chapter 1. We'll discuss it in more de tail in Chapters 5 and 6. 2 N£3 d6 3 c3 N£6 4 Be2

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Question: Isn't there a pawn that Black can grab here? Answer: Let's see... 4...Nxe4?? 5 Qa4+!

Check! Black has to block the a4-e8 diagonal and White will simply follow up with Qxe4, leaving him a piece for a pawn to the good.

Patzer sees a check! On the other end o f th e scale, there's the well-known term i n chess circles, 'Patzer sees a check; patzer plays a check.' In the opening it's tempting to develop a piece with check because this seemingly gains time. However, if the opponent has a beneficial way to get out of check, often the check isn't worth giving in the first place. For example: 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 d4 It's the Scotch again! So far we've only looked at examples where Black deals with the attack on e5 by exchanging pawns in the centre, but why not throw in a check first? 3 ... Bb4+? 4 c3! That's why! Instead of gaining time, Black actually loses time because the bishop is forced to retreat, and White has gained the useful move c2-c3. What's worse for Black is that to protect the pawn on e5, the bishop is forced to move to a very un fortunate square. 4...Bd6

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Delving Deeper

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

We've talked about the problem of the bishop being developed in front of the d pawn before. It's a pretty grim situation, for this bishop and even more so for the one on c8! In this next example, Black plays the same check ( ...Bb4), but under much more favourable circ*mstances. 1 d4 N£6 2 c4 e6 3 N£3 Bb4+

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Here the big difference is that White's c-pawn has already advanced to c4, so there is no option for White to gain time by attacking the bishop with c2-c3. White must block with either the knight or bishop (4 Nc3, 4 Nbd2 or 4 Bd2). After knight moves Black is free to carry on developing, while after 4 Bd2 Black could trade

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bishops and again continue developing or else protect the bishop (4...a5, 4 ... c5 or 4 ... Qe7 are the usual ways to do this). So 3...Bb4+ is a perfectly acceptable move and is known as the Bogo-Indian Defence.

Spri nging off the Edge It's true that knights are not usually very happy pieces on the edge of the board, but that doesn't mean to say this scenario should be completely avoided (guide lines, not rules, remember!). There are quite a few cases where a knight will use the side of the board as a step ping stone to greener pastures: 1 d4 N£6 2 c4 e5!? This is called the Budapest Gambit. 3 dxe5 Ng4 4 e3 White could try to hang onto the extra pawn, but here he prefers to simply give it back. 4... Nxe5

Here White could play the natural S Nf3, offering an exchange of knights. How ever, there's also nothing wrong with... 5 Nh3!? If White were to leave the knight on this square, then this would be a poor idea, but the intention is to follow up with N£4. On the £4-square the knight is doing a good job controlling a key central point d5, a square White can dominate after playing Nf4 and Nc3.

1 14

Delving Deeper Here's another example: 1 N£3 d5 2 c4 dxc4

White should have no qualms about playing the move 3 Na3 here. After all, the knight is only on a very short stop on a3; next move it plans to capture the pawn on c4.

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Exercises

1 ) In this position White can play 7 NbS with the threat of Nc7+, winning an ex change. Is this a good idea?

2) In this position Black, already a pawn ahead, has the option of grabbing White's e-pawn with 6 Nxe4. Is winning this central pawn worth the risk involved? ...

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Delving Deeper

3) The main line of the Caro-Kann Defence begins 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4. In this position, can you suggest two ways for Black to develop with threats and on each occasion consider White's replies?

4) Here are two positions that could arise from the Sicilian Defence. Explain briefly why one is commonly seen in tournament play whereas the other is hardly ever witnessed.

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C h a pter Five

Pawn P lay

So far we've concentrated mainly on pieces and how they should develop, whereas the role of the pawns in the opening has been somewhat neglected. In this chapter I'm hoping to redress the balance by studying a few basic pawn struc tures arising from the opening before moving on to some typical pawn breaks that are worth remembering. Finally, there's the much misunderstood subject of dou bled pawns: when they are a clear weakness compared to when they prove to be a strength.

The Classica l Centre The side which controls the centre automatically enjoys morefreedom for his pieces. Reuben Fine

In Chapter 1 we were introduced to the concept of the classical centre and its ad vantages. Now I want to talk a bit more about this, and especially the possibilities of building the classical centre in 1 e4 and 1 d4 openings, assuming Black prevents an immediate set-up, e.g. by playing 1 e4 e5 or 1 d4 d5.

Building the Classica l Centre after 1 e4 e S The diagram above shows a fundamental pawn structure that could easily arise via 1 e4 e5. White has created the classical centre by playing the preparatory pawn move c2-c3, which has supported the central advance d2-d4. The point is that if Black were to trade pawns on d4 with ... l exd4 ...

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Pawn Play

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

...then White is in a position to maintain the classical centre with .. .

2 cxd4

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Now we have reached a pawn structure that is known to be very favourable for White due to his extra space and control of the centre. Unless Black is able to put this classical centre under real pressure by attacking it with pieces, he is more likely to refrain from playing ... exd4, preferring to keep the tension in the position; the pawn on e5 is, after all, defended with ... d7-d6. In tum White has the option of exchanging pawns on e5 with the move dxe5, but it's clear that after the recapture ... dxe5 Black has as much presence in the centre as White. Thus White is also often reluctant to release the tension.

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8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

The Tim ing of c2-c3 Let's just suppose for a moment that White definitely wishes to create a classical pawn centre after 1 e4 eS (we've already seen openings, such as the Scotch Game, where White's concern is more to do with rapid development), and that the move c2-c3 obviously comes into play at some moment. In that case the timing of this advance is very important. Let's first of all look at the very extreme case where White puts this idea above everything else and plays c2-c3 as early as move two. 1 e4 e5 2 c3

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Pawn Play

Perfectly logical play of course: White wants to play d2-d4 as soon as possible. Indeed the great Paul Morphy, arguably the strongest player of the 19th century, played this at least once.

Question: Can you find two weaknesses of the move 2 c3? Answer: Firstly, it doesn't do much for White's development and, secondly, it de prives the bl-knight of its favourite square. There's also a third point that's equally important: unlike 2 Nf3 it doesn't create a direct threat, so Black isn't forced onto the back foot. Played so early on in the game, a non-developing and non-threatening move such as c2-c3 gives Black the opportunity to grab the initiative: 2 Nf6! ...

Suddenly White's previous move doesn't look so attractive. Black immediately attacks the e4-pawn just at a time when the natural defensive move Nc3 is out of the question. The problem for White is that there is no obvious way to both defend e4 and keep the d2-d4 dream alive, for example: a) The most obvious way to protect the e4-pawn is with 3 d3, but this rather con tradicts White's previous move, and certainly the idea of d4 has to be put onto the back-burner for a while, or perhaps for good if Black follows up energetically with 3 ... d5!. b) 3 Qc2 is idealistic but before White is able to play d2-d4 Black gets in first. Fol lowing 3 ... d5! 4 exd5 Qxd5! it's an occasion where the queen is well placed in the centre: there's no Nc3 to harass it, while (with different colours) we saw in Chap ter 4 the structural problems associated with playing c3-c4 here. In short, Black is doing well after 4...Qxd5.

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c) I would hope by now that you would be quick to reject both 3 f3?! and 3 Bd3?! for reasons we've spoken about before. In each case 3 ... d5! is again a good answer. When all is said and done, the only really challenging move for White is ... 3 d4 ...even if Black can immediately eliminate one pawn in White's central pairing: 3 Nxe4 ...

Question: What does White play after 3 ...exd4 here? Answer: 4 e5! followed by cxd4. 4 dxe5

4 d5! •••

The safest move. In the Morphy game I mentioned (versus. A.Bottin, Paris 1858) the young American showed his legendary attacking skills against the tempting 4 ...Bc5!? after 5 Qg4!? Nxf2? (5 ...Bxf2+ 6 Kd1 d5 7 Qxg7 R£8 should be played) 6 Qxg7! R£8 7 Bg5! f6 8 exf6 Rxf6 (8 ...Nxh1 9 Be2! and Bh5+ will be crushing) 9 Bxf6 Be7 10 Qg8+ and Black resigned. After 4 ... d5 Black has a very comfortable position and this is the reason why 2 c3 is hardly ever seen in tournament chess. 5 f3? loses material to 5 . . .Qh4+! 6 g3 Nxg3!, and it's difficult to get rid of Black's knight without playing... 5 exd6 ...but after. . . 5 ...Nxd6 ...Black can even claim to be slightly ahead in development in this position with out any central pawns.

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Pawn Play

Question: Why is S ..Bxd6 not a stronger option for Black than S .. Nxd6? .

Answer: White wins a piece with 6 Qa4+! . Never miss a check! Let's look at an example where White delays the plan of c2-c3 and d2-d4, only opting for it at a more suitable moment. 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bb5 The Ruy Lopez, which we've already come across in Chapters 2 and 4. 3 ... a6 4 Ba4 N£6 5 0-0 b5 6 Bb3 Bb7 In Chapter 4 we examined the possibility of grabbing the pawn with 6 ... Nxe4. Here Black chooses a safer alternative. Those who are keen to attach a name to each line should call this the Archangel Variation. 7 Rel!

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The difference between this and the previous example is that with 7 Re1 White has found an economical way to protect the e4-pawn; crucially one that doesn't inter fere with the natural process of establishing the classical pawn centre with c2-c3 and d2-d4. Because White has already developed a few pieces and castled quickly, Black is in a less favourable position if he tries to take over the initiative in the cen tre. 7 Bc5 ...

More active than 8 ...Be7, although the flipside is that 8 . . .Bc5 does rather walk straight into White's main plan (see the next note). 8 c3! There's no reason to hesitate now, and there's the added bonus that d2-d4 will gain time by attacking the bishop. 8 d6! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Black prepares to base his defence around the solid support of the e5-pawn - a very sensible option. In the previous example we saw Black answering c2-c3 with a very quick ... d7-d5, taking the initiative in the centre. However, in this particular position, the idea is unfeasible, After 8 . . . d5? 9 exd5 Nxd5 we see one of the hidden points of Re1: it doesn't only defend the e5-pawn, it also discourages Black from central activity such as this. Following 10 Nxe5 0-0 1 1 Nxc6 Bxc6 12 d4 White is a good pawn ahead, while 10 d4!, exploiting the pin on the e-file, is probably even stronger. 9 d4 Bb6! The right follow-up to the previous move, with Black holding firm in the centre. 9 ...exd4 10 cxd4 reaches a structure which, as I mentioned earlier, is usually very favourable for White unless Black can quickly put the centre under pressure.

1 24

Pawn Play

10 Be3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Taking steps to protect his prize asset: the centre (the more aggressive 10 Bg5 also looks sensible). This position has been reached many, many times in tournament play. White's centre gives him an edge, but Black is very solid and has no real rea son to complain either.

Question: White's bishop has just blocked the rook's defence of the e4-pawn. Should Black take advantage by grabbing the e-pawn on offer with 10 ...Nxe4? Answer: Certainly not! Following 1 1 dS! White wins a piece due to uncovered at tacks on the e4-knight (I'll leave it to you to check the variations). Again we see the power of the e1-rook! A typical continuation is 10 ...0-0 11 Nbd2 (defending e4) 1 l . . .h6 (preventing BgS or Ng5, and thus preparing ...Ng4 followed by ... Nxe3) 12 h3

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

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Discovering Chess Openings

(preventing ... Ng4) and so on. One can see by the moves played the emphasis both sides place on the central battle.

The Sicilian The other way Black can prevent an immediate classical centre after 1 e4 by pre paring to trade pawns is the Sicilian Defence: 1 e4 c5

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, the Sicilian is the most popular and widely-played opening in the history of chess. The reason for its huge popularity is the widely held belief that it allows Black to play for a win without unjustified risks. From the very first move Black sharply unbalances the position by creating an asymmetrical pawn structure. Let's continue by playing one or two natural moves: 2 N£3 d6 This certainly isn't the only move, as we'll discover in Chapter 6. 3 d4 White plays in 'Scotch Game' style, opening the centre very quickly. 3 ... cxd4! Exchanging the c-pawn for White's d-pawn is an essential part of the Sicilian's strategy. 4 Nxd4 N£6 5 Nc3 e6 Again Black has moves other than 5 ...e6, but I've chosen this for the moment to illustrate best the structural battle.

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Pawn Play

The group of variations where White plays an early d2-d4 and, after the exchange of pawns, recaptures with the knight is called the Open Sicilian. The first thing to notice about the diagram is that White can certainly develop more freely than Black; both his bishops, for example, have a wide range of options, whereas Black's are more limited. Black, however, has a very subtle structural advantage, one that is very difficult to appreciate at first sight. The advantage he has is his superior control of the critical central squares due to his d- and e-pawns. Note here that they control the squares £5, e5, d5 and c5; White's solitary pawn on e4 only controls d5 and f5 - half the number of squares! A simplistic view, perhaps, but it's factors like this which really attract players to the Sicilian.

Building a Classica l Centre a gainst the Sicilian Of course, just as after 1 e4 e5, White isn't forced to play 2 Nf3 followed by an immediate d2-d4. There's certainly an argument for trying to build a centre with c2-c3 and d2-d4. So, just as with 1 e4 e5, let's take a brief look at White attempting to do this, beginning with the immediate...

l e4 c5 2 c3 (seefollowing diagram} This is unimaginatively named the c3 Sicilian. If Black continues with something non-threatening such as 2 ... d6, 2 ...e6 or 2...Nc6, White will certainly reply with 3 d4.

Question: Can you suggest two natural ways for Black to try to exploit the non developing nature of White's second move?

Answer: With either 2 . . . d5! or 2 ...Nf6!.

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Discovering Chess Openings

Note that both of these moves play on the fact that White can no longer develop the queen's knight on c3 as the pawn is in the way. Let's examine each in tum: a) 2 d5 ...

Directly attacking e4. Normally White would be reasonably happy to force Black's queen into the centre, but following... 3 exd5 Qxd5 ...the problem is that the most natural way to harass the queen to gain time, Nc3, is impossible and so Black's queen is fairly comfortably placed in the centre (I only say 'fairly' because Black still has to be careful) . White can stake some claim for the centre with... 4 d4

128

Pawn Play

...but with the e-pawn off the board White obviously won't be dominating the cen tre. There are plenty of ways the game could continue from here, and this book certainly isn't the place to reproduce the oodles of theory. Instead I'll content my self with just giving a logical sequence of development: 4 ... Nf6 5 N£3 Bg4 6 Be2 e6 7 0-0 Nc6 ... etc. with a level position. b) 2... Nf6

This exploits White's second move in similar way: White can no longer protect e4 in the most natural way with Nc3. If White protects the pawn on e4 in order to keep his hopes alive of a classical centre, he is forced to make a concession, for example: a) 3 d3, though not bad, is not ideal because the pawn really wants to go to d4 in one go. b) 3 Bd3!? breaks a cardinal rule in that it blocks the d-pawn. In fact here it's not so bad, as White plans Bd3-c2 followed by d2-d4. It's probably a bit too slow to really give White a plus, even though play is interesting after, say, 3 ...Nc6 4 Nf3! (4 Bc2 d5 shatters White's plans) 4 ... d5 5 e5 Ng4 6 Qe2 c4 7 Bc2 Qc7 8 Ba4. c) 3 Qc2!? defends e4 and therefore has some logic to it, but somehow it looks un natural and White must be careful his queen doesn't get harassed. A cautionary tale was provided in the game C.Cave-H.Urday Caceres, Elista Olympiad 1998 after 3 ... Nc6 4 Nf3 e6 5 d4 cxd4 6 cxd4 Nb4! 7 Qe2 (the only way to stay protecting e4, even if the queen is unfortunately placed, blocking the fl-bishop) 7. . . d5! 8 e5 Ne4! 9 a3?? Qc7! (attacking c1 as well as threatening ... Nc2+) 10 Kdl Nd3! !. . .

1 29

Discovering Chess Openings

7 6 5 4 3

1 a

...when White could have quite easily resigned here and now, especially as 1 1 Be3 Nexf2+! 12 Bxf2 allows mate with 12 ... Qcl, while 1 1 Qxd3 Nxf2+ is a winning 'family' fork. Okay, so White has ways of defending e4, but nothing really convincing. Instead White's most popular choice here by an overwhelming margin is ... 3 e5! It's not difficult to see why either. White turns Black's threat on its head and it's now Black having to deal with a threat: good, logical opening play. 3 Nd5 ...

The best square. 3 ...Ne4?? loses the knight after 4 d3!. 4 d4 cxd4 5 cxd4

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Pawn Play

Okay, White has some form of central pawn formation (he has at least kept both e and d-pawns), and in a way it looks more menacing than the classical centre due to the advanced nature of the e-pawn. But in fact as it stands the centre is not quite so strong because: 1) It covers fewer central squares. 2) It leaves Black with an outpost on dS, conveniently taken up by the knight. 3) It is more prone to attack. Regarding the final point, Black can choose immediate action against White's cen tre with... 5 d6 ...

... when one of White's pawn duo is likely to be exchanged in the next few moves. Perhaps I'm painting too bleak a picture. It's not all doom and gloom for White, and this is certainly a very playable line from White's point of view. I'm just try ing to illustrate it's not possible to create the classical centre after 2 c3 if Black de velops dynamically. Let's now look at some possibilities if, as in the Ruy Lopez, White delays playing c2-c3 and instead concentrates on rapid development before building the centre. 1 e4 c5 2 N£3 d6 One of the points of this move is to prepare ...Nf6 without the possibility of this knight being kicked away with e4-e5. 3 Bb5+

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Discovering Chess Openings

After 3 Bc4 Black does well to attack White's e-pawn immediately before White has a chance to defend it with 0-0 followed by Rel : 3 . . .Nf6! 4 Qe2 (of course 4 d3 and; 4 Nc3 are possible, but for now I'm only concentrating on moves that keep up the idea of a quick c2-c3 and d2-d4) 4... Nc6 5 c3 Bg4! (preventing 6 d4) 6 0-0 e6 7 Rdl Be7 8 d4 cxd4 9 cxd4 (finally creating the desired centre but. ..) 9 . d5! 10 exd5 Nxd5 and Black has immediately managed to trade off one of the pawns leaving him with a comfortable game. ..

3 Bd7 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 5 0-0 ...

Now at least White can answer ... Nf6 with Rel which, as we saw in the Ruy Lo pez, seems the most natural way to defend e4 if White is aiming for c2-c3 and d2d4. 5 Nc6 6 c3 N£6 7 Rel ...

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Pawn Play

All is set for the construction of the classical centre. What should Black do? 7 e6! 8 d4 cxd4 9 cxd4 d5! ...

Fighting back in the centre. In the Ruy Lopez example we saw Black basing his strategy around supporting his e5-pawn; here he does something similar but with the d-pawn. The point here is that White cannot keep the classical centre as there is no way to protect the e4-pawn with f2-f3. White must either advance to e5 or trade one of his central duo. 10 e5 Ne4

The tension has gone in the centre and it's become closed with a French Defence structure (more on this later in the chapter). It's a sensible idea for White to chal lenge Black's strong knight with 1 1 Nbd2 when play typically continues 1l...Nxd2 12 Bxd2 Be7 with a roughly equal position.

Pawn Play with 1 d4 d s Time for a change! I know that 1 e4 openings have dominated the proceedings so far (and I make no apologies for that!) but now it's time to look at some pawn play after 1 d4 d5. It will soon become clear that there are one or two important differ ences between this and the action after 1 e4 e5. The main difference is seen when White tries to create a classical centre. Just as with 1 e4 e5 and 1 e4 c5, let's go through the same process and look at a few examples: 1 d4 d5 2 f3 Immediately going for the classical centre with e2-e4. But those who have read Chapter 3 (I hope you all have!) know that the f2-f3 should signal the ringing of some alarm bells.

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Discovering Chess Openings

2 e6 ...

Not the best move, but I've chosen it here simply to highlight one of the problems with the f2-f3 and e2-e4 plan. 3 e4?! dxe4! 4 fxe4? Classical centre achieved . . . 4 ... Qh4+!

... for all of one move, as ...Qxe4 is up next! Pretty disastrous for White, even more so if he insists on playing 5 g3? after which 5 . .Qxe4+ nets the rook on hl. .

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Pawn Play

So, point taken: if White wants to play f2-f3 and e2-e4 he has to be careful about problems with king safety. Let's now try a similar, but more circ*mspect, ap proach: 1 d4 d5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 f3 Now that the moves Nc3 and Nf6 have been inserted, there are fewer problems to worry about based on ...Qh4+ tricks, so White feels more justified in trying for e2e4. However... 3...c5!

Throughout the next few pages I hope you'll begin to appreciate the vital role the c-pawn lunge plays in 1 d4 openings. Crucially, with this move Black has been the one to strike first, and White's hopes of creating the classical centre have been shattered.

Question: Can't White win a pawn here with the obvious 4 dxc5? Answer: Yes, temporarily, but he cannot hang onto it. In fact after 4 dxc5? Black can grab the advantage with 4 ... d4! when having to move the knight is very awkward for White.

(seefollowing diagram) Here are the options: a) 5 t:Jb5? loses the knight to 5 ...Qa5+! and ...Qxb5. b) 5 Na4 protects the c5-pawn for the moment, but after 5. . .Qa5+! White's only move to keep the knight is 6 c3. However, White's position remains precarious after 6 ... Bd7! 7 b3 (what else?) 7 . . .Bxa4 8 bxa4 dxc3 when Black has regained his pawn and others (c5) are likely to follow.

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Discovering Chess Openings

c) 5 Nbl is very depressing for White, and after 5 . . .e5!

(threatening ... Bxc5) it's Black who has taken over the centre. Added to this White's lag in development and the weakening f3 and it's clear the opening has been a bit of a disaster. If White could hang onto his extra pawn, all would not be lost, but sadly this is impossible. If 6 b4 Black replies with 6 ... a5! breaking the pawn chain before White has a chance to consolidate. I'll leave you to work out why White loses his pawn; suffice to say that 7 a3 doesn't help as 7... axb4 exploits the pin on the a-file. d) 5 Ne4 offers a trade of knights, and following 5 ...Nxe4 6 fxe4 eS Black will once more regain his pawn with a very nice position (7 b4 is met by 7. . a5!) Note that ...Qh4+ is suddenly a possibility again. .

136

Pawn Play

Going back to White's fourth move, it's clear that White should refrain from 4 dxc5, but what else? 4 e3 supports the d4-pawn but is clearly a compromise after the ini tial grandiose plan of e2-e4. Following 4...Nc6 the move f2-f3 looks more than a little silly if White isn't playing e4. Note that 5 dxc5 still doesn't win a pawn: 5...e5 6 Na4 and amongst others, Black can even use the trick 6 ... Bxc5 7 Nxc5 QaS+ 8 c3 Qxc5 ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

...when a development count reveals a very poor showing for White. In fact, in the absence of useful alternatives, it seems that after 3... c5! White's best bet is to go 'all in' with... 4 e4! The idea is to offer a pawn sacrifice after 4... dxe4 with 5 d5! exf3 6 Nxf3. Of course Black could go down this route, but another promising continuation is... 4...cxd4 5 Qxd4 Nc6

h 137

Discovering Chess Openings

6 Bb5 Otherwise White must lose time with his queen and Black would follow up with ... d5-d4!. 6 Bd7 7 Bxc6 Bxc6 8 e5 •..

At least this way White keeps one central pawn. 8 exdS NxdS 9 Nge2 e6 is more than comfortable for Black. 8 Nd7 9 £4 e6 ...

... and Black will continue with ...BcS, gaining time on the white queen. The game S.Warkentin-O.Komeev, Le Touquet 1993 continued 10 Nf3 Bc5 1 1 Qd3 Qb6 when one of the problems with White's position was that kingside castling was ruled out. In any case, this probably isn't the kind of position White was envisaging when playing 3 f3. Before disregarding the plan of f2-f3 and e2-e4 completely, I want to look at a line where White delays it a move further. 1 d4 d5 2 Nc3 N£6 3 Bg5 A mirror image of the Ruy Lopez - seems pretty logical. In fact this opening has a name: the Veresov. 3 ... Nbd7 Black has other playable moves (3 ...Bf5 is sensible, and 3 . . . c5!? is more adventur ous) but this is the traditional main line. It might seem a little odd to block the c8bishop, but on the other hand if White captures on £6 Black now has the option of recapturing with the knight. Also, on d7 the knight supports the ... c7-c5 advance, and we saw how powerful that was in the previous example.

138

Pawn Play

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Let's see what happens if White again goes for f2-f3: 4 £3 cS!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

White is slightly more favourably placed here than in the previous example (not difficult really!), but this is still the move to play. 5 e4! Again rapidly opening lines is the best course. 5 dxc5 is certainly more playable here than in the previous example because there is no ... d5-d4 and Black has to watch his d5-pawn. However, theory considers Black's chances to be good after 5...e6, planning to regain the pawn. For example: 6 b4 h6 7 Bh4 b6! (not giving White the chance to consolidate) 8 c6 Ne5 and now if White tries to keep hold of his extra pawn with 9 b5, then 9 ...Bb4 is strong: 10 Qd4 Nc4 1 1 Rbl e5! 12 Qd3 B£5!

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Discovering Chess Openings

13 Qxf5 Bxc3+ 14 Kf2 Bd4+ looks horribly unpleasant for White. 5 ... cxd4 5 . . .dxe4 is also possible, when White offers a pawn sacrifice with 6 d5. 6 Qxd4 e5!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Of course! Gaining time on the queen makes this the obvious choice. 7 Qa4 d4 8 Nd5 Be7 9 Nxe7 Qxe7 Okay, not a disaster for White (in fact the position is roughly level), but not exactly world domination in the centre either (Black has more central pawn presence). Another annoying thing from White's point of view is that there's no equivalent of the Scotch Opening after 1 d4 d5 because, in contrast to 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 d4, there is no queen supporting the e4 advance. So just how is White supposed to play these 1 d4 d5 positions? Is he resigned to the fact that there is no real pawn action? Not quite ...

I ntrod ucing the Queen's G a m bit! 1 d4 d5 2 c4! This is the Queen's Gambit - White gives Black the opportunity to capture a pawn. However, strictly speaking this is not a true gambit like the ones discussed in the previous chapter because Black isn't able to hold on to his extra pawn. After all the hassle White was experiencing trying to arrange an effective e4 in the previous examples, it should become clear what White's basic strategy is here: the aim is simply to get rid of the d5-pawn so that the opposition to the e4 advance suddenly disappears. 140

Pawn Play

There's obviously considerable choice for both sides, but let's just see what hap pens if Black accepts the pawn offer, White tries to regain it immediately and Black doesn't play ball: 2 . dxc4 .

This is unsurprisingly called the Queen's Gambit Accepted. 3 e3 Again not the only move (4 e4 and 4 Nf3 are also played), but useful for this demon stration. With 3 e3 White adds support to the d4-pawn and plans to recapture with Bxc4. Let's see what could happen if Black grimly tries to hold on to this pawn. 3 ...b5?! 4 a4! c6? 5 axb5 cxb5? 6 Q£3!

Oops! The only way to avoid losing the rook is with 6 ... Nc6, but then White sim141

Discovering Chess Openings

ply captures with 7 Qxc6+. 3 ...Be6 is better than 3 ...b5, but it's still ugly (the f8-bishop has a right to complain) and in any case 4 Na3 regains the pawn by force. Black can achieve a perfectly reasonable position as long as he realizes that he cannot hang onto his pawn. In stead he should simply develop with 3 ... Nf6 4 Bxc4. Here he shouldn't be tempted by 4...Bg4?, as 5 Qb3!, attacking both b7 and f7, is a strong reply. Instead Black should be content with 5 ...e6, after which he can strike back in the centre with the pawn break ... c7-c5 Now that it's established there are no worries about White losing a pawn with the Queen's Gambit, let's have a look at how the pawn play in this opening influences the battle for the centre. The following game, from a simultaneous display given by Garry Kasparov, is an illustration both of the power of the Queen's Gambit and of central domination.

G.Kasparov-J.Rebelo Lisbon 1999 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 The most solid reply - Black refuses to give any ground away in the centre. If White captures on d5 then Black is ready to recapture with the pawn, thus keep ing control of the important central squares. 3 Nc3 Again sensible play - White develops the knight to its normal square and adds pressure to the centre. 3 ...Nf6 4 cxd5 Nxd5

142

Pawn Play

Although it would perhaps be a little harsh to call this a genuine mistake, it does rather give White a free hand in the centre and it kind of justifies White's opening. More consistent is 4... exd5!, preserving a grip on the e4-square and thus prevent ing White from continuing with e2-e4. 5 e4 N£6?! This is definitely an error as it loses valuable time. Black should play S . . .Nxc3 6 bxc3 cS!, attacking White's centre. 6 N£3 h6?! This unquestionably comes under the 'unnecessary pawn move' category. Black probably wanted to prevent White from playing BgS, but using a move to rule this out smacks of extravagance, especially since BgS can be met by the unpinning ...Be7. It's crucial that Black doesn't fall too far behind in development. 7 Bd3

Notice that White is nothing out of the ordinary - just good developing moves. 7 Nc6 8 0-0 ...

Question: Why can't Black grab a pawn with 8 . . . Nxd4 here? Answer: After 9 Nxd4 Qxd4 White has a decisive discovered attack with 10 Bb5+, winning the black queen. 8 Bd7 ...

Perhaps this is a good time to point out that there's a difference between simply moving pieces and developing them. It's true that Black has just moved the bishop from c8 to d7, but you could hardly call this piece developed. It has no scope and the only square it can move to is back to c8!

143

Discovering Chess Openings

The trouble is that Black is already suffering for his failure to fight for the centre. Black would like to push his e-pawn to e5 so that the light-squared bishop has more freedom, but this is just not possible - all of the crucial central squares are firmly in White's control. 9 Rel

Adding further support to the centre and moving the rook onto the same file as the black king. Black now hurriedly prepares to castle, but unfortunately for him it will be a case of ' out of the frying pan but into the fire' . 9 Bb4 10 a3 ...

Attacking the bishop, which retreats one square. 10... Ba5 11 Bc2! 144

Pawn Play

A clever little retreat, the point of which will be revealed in a few moves. 11 ...0-0 Black is castling into a storm but it's difficult to suggest anything else. 12 e5!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

An excellent move, forcing Black to move his defensive knight and opening up the long bl-h7 diagonal for direct attacking purposes. Note how White's bishops point menacingly like trident missiles in the direction of Black's king. 12...Nd5 13 Nxd5! Now the tactics begin and they unsurprisingly favour White. 13...exd5 If 13 ... Bxe1 the point of 11 Bc2! is revealed with 14 Qd3! .

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

145

Disco vering Chess Openings

The queen and bishop form a deadly force along the diagonal; the immediate threat is Qh7 mate. Now 14... f5 loses after 15 exf6 when the threat of a devastating Qh7 is still in the air. Instead Black can prevent this with 14 . . .g6 but then White continues with 15 Nf6+! Kg7 16 Nxe1, when White is material ahead and still has a strong attack. 14 b4 Blocking out the threat to the rook on e1 and forcing the bishop to move again. 14 ... Bb6 15 Qd3! There are no secrets to White's play; it's simply logical and direct. The threat of Qh7 mate looms again and Black is forced to take evasive action.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

15... g6 This prevents the queen penetrating with devastating effect but there is a price to pay: a vital defensive pawn is lost. 16 Bxh6 Re8 The rook moves out of attack from the bishop. Kasparov now creates a typical checkmating pattern. Black is powerless to prevent this because his king doesn't have enough protection - all his minor pieces are bunched on the queenside. 17 Bg5 B£5 Black replies to the threat to his queen with a counter-threat to White's. 18 Qd2! Qd7 19 B£6! Suddenly Black's in big trouble. White intends to play Qh6, after which Black has no way to deal with the dual threats of Qg7 mate and Qh8 mate. 19 ... Kh7 20 Qg5

14 6

Pawn Play

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Now White threatens checkmate in two moves with 21 Qh4+ Kg8 22 Qh8 mate. 20... Bg4 To block the check on h4 but... 21 Qh4+ Bh5

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

22 Qxh5+! 1-0 The queen is safe because the pawn on g6 is pinned by the bishop on c2. Now Black resigned as it's checkmate next move (22 ...Kg8 23 Qh8 mate).

14 7

Discovering Chess Open ings

The Blocked Centre So far we've looked at openings where there is either a quick central pawn trade (the Scotch Game; the Open Sicilian) or one where the tension remains in the cen tre (the Ruy Lopez). However, in some openings the centre very quickly becomes blocked, such as in the French Defence. 1 e4 e6

This is certainly a departure from l . . .e5 and l . ..c5. In the French Defence, Black doesn't actually prevent White from erecting the classical centre. He does, how ever, create a strongpoint for himself on the d5-square which puts immediate pressure on White's e4-pawn. 2 d4 d5 Okay, White has to do something about Black's simple threat to capture the pawn on e4. Earlier we saw the natural developing move 3 Nc3, and in this chapter we've seen the problem with 3 f3? - 3. . . dxe4 4 fxe4 Qh4+!. One option for White is to advance the e-pawn, leading to the unsurprisingly named Advance Variation. 3 e5 Now the centre is well and truly blocked. It's easy to see that White has more space than Black and this could become a major advantage: for a start White's de velopment looks as if it will be much easier than Black's. If Black develops passively there's a very good chance he will get squashed and suffocate. It's imperative that he takes immediate measures to attack and try to destroy White's d4-e5 pawn centre. Assuming White's not going to be foolish enough to leave his d4-pawn en prise to a piece, there is only one strategy for Black to try to dissolve White's centre, and that is using his own pawns. He can

148

Pawn Play

attack White's d4-e5 pawn chain at the base with ... c7-c5, at the front with . . .f7-f6, or even a combination of both. This type of pawn move is called a pawn break, and we'll look at a few more examples of these throughout the rest of this chapter.

3...c5! Black begins by attacking the base of White's pawn chain. 4 c3!

An excellent move, adding further protection to the pawn on d4; in this way it could be said that White is extending the pawn chain. If Black captures on d4 White is ready to recapture with the pawn on c3, thereby keeping a pawn on d4. This is cru cial because the pawn on d4 supports White's more advanced pawn on e5. White should resist the temptation to capture on cS because this leaves the e5149

Discovering Chess Openings

pawn weak and White's centre would be in serious danger of crumbling: 4 dxc5?! Nc6! 5 Nf3 Bxc5 (note that Black is already ahead in development) 6 Bd3 and now the consistent way for Black to continue is to eliminate White's only remaining pawn in the centre with 6 . . .£6!, after which White has to be very careful. Defending e5 with 7 Bf4? looks natural, but following 7...fxe5 8 Nxe5? Qf6! White is in real trouble due to the threats on e5, f4 and f2. Instead, after 7 exf6 Nxf6 8 0-0 0-0 . . .

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

. . .we see a position where Black's opening strategy has been a success: he is ac tively developed, White's pawn centre has been destroyed and Black's own pawn centre (e6/d5) is influential and could become very strong. 4 Nc6 ...

Black develops a piece and continues to add pressure to White's centre. S N£3

150

Pawn Play

Likewise, White develops and further protects his centre. This is a typical position in the Advance Variation of the French Defence. White has more space but Black is rock-solid. Note that one problem for Black is that the knight on g8 cannot de velop on its normal square f6 because this is attacked by the white pawn on e5. Black can get over this problem by playing the knight to e7 (or sometimes even h6) and then to f5 where it plays a major role by further attacking d4. There are quite a few ways to play for each side from here. Let's just look at one possible line: 5 Qb6 ...

The queen is well placed on b6: it adds mounting pressure to d4 but is far enough back not to become too exposed to attack. 6 Be2

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

6 Bd3 develops the bishop more actively. Take away five points if you thought Black could now win a pawn with 6 ... cxd4 7 cxd4 Nxd4?? 8 Nxd4 Qxd4, because White has a decisive discovered attack with 9 Bb5+!. Instead Black should prepare ... Nxd4 with 7...Bd7!, after which defending d4 gives White a headache. Indeed in practice White tends to offer a pawn sacrifice with 8 0-0. Without wishing to delve into the enormous theory of the Advance French, I would just like to point out that the move 6 a3!? is very popular in tournament play. White both prevents anything coming to b4 and even prepares queenside expansion with b2-b4. Following, say, 6 ... Nh6 7 b4 cxd4 8 cxd4 N£5 White can pro tect the vulnerable d4-pawn with Bb2. 6 cxd4 7 cxd4 Nge7 ...

(seefollowing diagram)

151

Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2

As mentioned earlier, this knight is heading for f5. 8 Na3!? This knight uses the edge as a springboard: its final destination will be c2 where it will add further protection to d4. 8...Nf5 9 Nc2 Bb4+ Now White is forced to move his king (Black wins a pawn after either 10 Bd2 Bxd2+ 11 Qxd2 Qxb2, or 10 Nxb4 Qxb4+). However, after. . . lO Kfl

7 6 5 4 3 2

.. .it's not such a disaster for White that he has lost castling rights: his king is quite safe due to the closed nature of the position. Indeed, White will be able to 'castle by hand' with g2-g3 and Kg2. 152

Pawn Play

Points to remember 1 ) With the centre blocked play takes on a slower nature. High-speed develop ment isn't quite so important as it is in a more open position. 2) The central pawns shield the kings, making them less vulnerable then in an open position. In view of this there's sometimes not so much of an urgency to cas tle early.

The Hypermodern School Up until now we have dealt in the main with the classical way to play chess open ings. There are no excuses for this because, after all, most experts agree that new comers to the game should begin by playing classical openings: it's easier to de velop chess skills in this way. However, there is another equally important ap proach to chess openings which a developing player is especially likely to encoun ter as he improves. This is called the hypermodern approach, and it advocates speedy development and controlling the centre from a distance with pieces rather than the occupation of the centre with pawns. In many hypermodern openings the opponent is actually invited to occupy the centre with pawns, the idea being that in the long run this centre could be prone to attack. The hypermodern school of chess came to prominence in the 1920s. Its advocates included two of the leading players of that time: Richard Reti and Aron Nimzowitsch. One of the most popular hypermodern openings around today was the creation of Aron Nimzowitsch and is called the Nimzo-Indian Defence. Let's take a look at one variation of this, which was a big favourite of mine in my youth. 1 d4 N£6

Even on the first move we see the hypermodernism at work: e2-e4 is prevented by a piece (the knight) rather than a pawn (after l...d5). 2 c4!

(seefollowing diagram) As we've seen already in this chapter, the c-pawn plays a vital role in d4 open ings. With 2 c4 White is effectively going for 'world domination' in the centre. White now plans to bring the knight out to c3 and follow up with e2-e4. After 2 Nc3 Black would have no qualms in going back to the classical approach with 2 Nc3 d5!; we saw earlier how difficult it is for White to establish a centre here. 2 e6 3 Nc3 ...

1 53

Discovering Chess Openings

Now White plans e2-e4. Black still has a chance here to revert back to the classical approach with 3... d5, but the hypermodern option is... 3 Bb4! ...

Pinning the knight to the king and thus keeping control of the e4-square: 4 e4? simply loses a pawn to 4 ... Nxe4!. White now has many different possibilities, but here I will just select one that best illustrates Black's ideas in this line. 4 e3 White decides to develop his kingside with moves such as Bd3 and Nf3. The only small drawback to this move is that the bishop on c1 is temporarily hemmed in. However, 4 e3 is still a very popular response to the Nimzo-Indian. After 4 e3 Black has a few options, but if Black wishes to continue in hypermodern 1 54

Pawn Play

fashion, the best is probably . ..

4 b6 ...

This fianchetto really fits in with the hypermodern approach of controlling the centre from a distance. On b7 the bishop plays an active part in the battle for the e4-square. 5 Bd3 White continues to develop classically. Instead 5 Nge2! ? may look a little strange as it blocks in the £1-bishop, but this is a playable alternative. White plans to con tinue with a2-a3 to attack the bishop on b4, and if this is met by ...Bxc3+, White recaptures with the knight on e2. 5 Bb7 6 N£3 ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Again White develops in a classical fashion. 6 Ne4!? ...

This is the most ambitious way for Black to play in this opening system - he con tinues to control the centre with pieces. 7 Qc2 A natural move, defending the knight on c3 and adding more pressure to e4. 7 £5! ..•

Supporting the knight in the centre and creating possible attacking chances on the kingside (see later). 8 0-0 Now the c3-knight is no longer pinned, so White is threatening to simply win a pawn with Nxe4. Thus Black eliminates this knight before castling. 8 Bxc3 9 bxc3 0-0 10 Nd2 ...

1 55

Discovering Chess Openings

Still the battle for e4 continues, with White taking steps to dislodge the powerful looking knight. Another way to do this would be with 10 Ne1 and f2-f3. 10 Qh4! ...

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

This is an aggressive move that adds extra support to e4 and creates some tactical chances on the kingside. White now has to be very careful - a reason why this sys tem of development is popular amongst Black players. 11 Ba3? Even though I give this attack on the f8-rooks as the 'main line', 11 Ba3 is actually a big mistake which loses. The notes below indicate White's best course of action. a) 11 g3?! seems to present problems for Black, as how can the queen stay protect ing the knight on e4? Well, the answer is that it doesn't even need to move! Black can play the very cheeky 1 l ...Ng5!!,

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

156

Pawn Play

ready to meet 12 gxh4 with 12 ...Nh3 mate! If White blocks the diagonal with 12 e4 then Black can calmly capture with 12 ... fxe4! because following 13 gxh4 Nh3+ 14 Kg2 exd3+ 15 Kxh3 dxc2 Black regains the queen with a very good position. b) 11 f3!, blunting the long diagonal, is White's safest and best move: l l . ..Nxd2 12 Bxd2 Nc6 13 e4 fxe4 14 fxe4 d6 gives a roughly level position. ll Nxd2! 12 Qxd2 ...

After 12 Bx£8 the quickest way for Black to win is with 12 ...Nf3+! 13 gx£3 (or 13 Khl Qxh2 mate) 13 ...Qg5+ 14 Khl Bx£3 mate. 12... Bxg2!!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I a

A bolt out of the blue! This sacrifice is a surprisingly common theme and is well worth remembering. 13 Kxg2 If White captures the rook with 13 Bx£8 Black doesn't follow suit with 13 ...Bxfl but plays the quiet but devastating 13 ... Bf3! when White has no way to prevent checkmate, for example 14 Rfcl Qh3! 15 Bfl Qg4+ and mate next move. 13 ... Qg4+ 14 Kh1 Q£3+ 15 Kg1 Rf6!

(see following diagram) This rook lift onto the third rank reveals another positive point of the earlier move 7 . . .f5. Black did have the option of forcing perpetual check with 15 . . .Qg4+ 16 Khl Qf3+ 1 7 Kgl Qg4+ etc, but 15 ... Rf6 aims for much, much more. 16 Rfdl Qh3! Very precise play by Black, who now threatens the devastating ...Rg6+. Note that the immediate 16 ... Rg6+? allows White's king to escape after 1 7 K£1.

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Discovering Chess Openings

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

17 £4 There is no defence, for example 17 Bfl Rg6+ 1 8 Kh1 Qf3+ 19 Bg2 Qxg2 mate. 17...Rg6+ 18 K£2 Rg2+

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

19 K£1 The only other move was 19 Ke1, but then 19 ... Rg1+ 20 Kf2 Qg2 is mate. 19 ... Qf3+ 20 Ke1 Rg1+ 21 Bfl Rx£1 mate.

Pawn brea ks We've already taken a brief look at a few pawn breaks (1 d4 d5 2 c4!, and 1 e4 e6 2

158

Pawn Play

d4 dS 3 eS c5! come to mind) but here I'd quite like to look at one or two more. As well as being important weapons in the battle for the centre, pawn breaks are also useful for trying to introduce rooks into the game. For example, following the opening moves ... 1 e4 e5 2 N£3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 N£6 5 0-0 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 d3 0-0

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

... White has quite a few possibilities (8 Bg5, 8 Be3, 8 Nc3 and 8 c3 all come to mind). Another option, however, is the move . . . 8 a4! ...the idea being to bring the rook on a1 to life (otherwise it would take a long time for this rook to see any action).

Question: Does White have a threat after 8 a4? Answer: Yes, simply 9 axbS is a big threat because Black cannot recapture due to the pin on the a-file. Black has three main ways of dealing with this problem: 1) He could play 8 ...Bb7, so that after 9 axb5 axb5 Black's rook is protected 2) He could play 8 ...Rb8, again so that 9 axb5 can be answered by 9 ... axb5. 3) He could play 8 ...b4!?, not allowing the a-file to be opened at all.

Attacking with the f-pawn ! What's this? Just a couple of chapters ago I was harping on about all the problems with moving the £-pawn so early on in the opening. I could imagine you quite rightly demanding 'Make your mind up for goodness sake!' Well, I never said 159

Disco vering Chess Openings

chess was an easy game! Under the right circ*mstances (and with due care and attention) the advance of the £-pawn and, in particular, the pawn break with £2-£4 (or .. .£5-£7 for Black) can achieve some real positives: 1 ) It can be useful in the battle for the centre. 2) The £-pawn can be used as a battering ram in an attack. 3) It can be exchanged, which leads to an open file for the rooks. The following example is a good illustration of how it's possible to activate rooks in the early middlegame.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

White has all his pieces developed and has castled. The question is what to do next. It would be quite easy here for White to manoeuvre around with his pieces, not really making any progress. A good question to ask here is, 'How do I activate my rooks?' Here White comes up with a very effective answer. 11 Nh2! Unblocking the £-pawn. ll N£8 ...

The black knight heads for e6, a nice square from where it eyes d4. Note that cas tling was impossible as the h6-pawn would have been hanging. 12 £4! Suddenly the rook on f1 is looking a lot happier! 12... exf4 13 Rx£4 Ne6 14 R£2! 1 60

Pawn Play

This is better than going all the way back to £1, as White wishes to double rooks on the £-file. 14...Nd4 15 Rafl

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

White has made major progress since the previous diagram because now both white rooks are very much in the game. In some 1 e4 eS openings White can go for the £2-£4 break very early: l e5 2 Bc4 ...

The Bishop's Opening (another name that's easy to work out!). White refrains from playing N£3 just yet because the £-pawn doesn't want to be blocked. 2. Nf6 3 d3 Nc6 4 Nc3 Be7 ..

161

Discovering Chess Openings

Now White could revert back to 'normality' with 5 N£3, but much more ambitious is ... 5 £4!? d6 ...and only now... 6 Nf3 The point is that after White castles kingside his rook immediately finds a role to play along the £-file. From this position let's follow the game G.Mohr-D.Rozakis, Ikaria 1993, which graphically illustrates the attacking chances that White is able to drum up in this type of position. 6 0-0 ...

6 . Bg4 is a natural alternative, after which Black may well look to increase the pressure on the pinned knight with ...Nd4. One possible continuation is 7 h3 Bx£3 8 Qx£3 Nd4 and now White can deal with the double attack on f3 and c2 with 9 Q£2. .

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

Question: Is 9. . .Nh5, threatening to win the queen with ...Bh4, a good idea? Answer: No! 9 ... Nh5 allows White to demonstrate a tactic based on the opening of the £-file: 10 Bx£7+!! Kxf7 (otherwise the bishop simply captures the knight on h5) 11 fxe5+ (the point: a discovered check leaving the d4-knight en prise) 1 l . . .Ke8 12 Qxd4 Bh4+ 13 Kd1 when both kings are no longer able to castle, but it's White who has a healthy extra two pawns. 7 0-0 Bg4 8 Qel Qd7 9 £5! This is another promising way to use the £-pawn. Certainly White could have ex changed on eS and then tried to use the half-open £-file, but instead here he keeps things closed, the idea being to use the advanced £-pawn as a battering ram for an 1 62

Pawn Play

attack on the kingside. It has to be said that Black is already gasping for air on that side of the board - he is extremely restricted.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

9 Bxf3 10 Rx£3! Nd4 11 Rh3! ...

White must have seen this idea before agreeing to recapture on f3 with the rook, since defending the c2-pawn with 1 1 R£2 would have led to some embarrassment after 1 1 ...Ng4! . With 1 1 Rh3 White is ready to sacrifice a whole rook, and Black doesn't need asking twice. ll Nxc2 12 Qh4 Nxa1? ...

Of course this must have been incredibly tempting, but in hindsight Black should have declined the offer, even though White keeps a strong attack after 12 ... c6 13 Bg5 Rfd8 14 R£1. 13 Bg5!

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

h 1 63

Discovering Chess Openings

13 ...c6 Trying desperately to arrange ... d6-d5, but it's too late: White's attack is simply too strong. That said, alternatives are no better at this stage, for example: a) 13 ...h6 14 Bxh6! and Black has no chance of survival (14 ...Nxe4 15 Bg5! and it's mate next move). b) 13 ...Rfe8 14 Bxf6 Bxf6 15 Qxh7+ K£8 16 Nd5!, covering the escape square on e7 and threatening Qh8 mate. The only defence is 16 ... g6 but after 17 Nxf6 it's all over for Black. 14 Bx£6 h6 The only way to stop Qxh7. 15 Rg3! Bx£6 16 Qx£6 g5

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a

17 Qg6+! 1-0 Using the pin on the £-pawn. It's mate after 17 ...I

Discovering Chess Openings Building Opening Skills From Basic Principles by John Emms - PDFCOFFEE.COM (2024)

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How many openings should a beginner chess player know? ›

Firstly, don't worry about memorizing too many openings, but you should pick a few, and most importantly, understand why the moves are being played. Beginners should have one opening as the White pieces (1. e4 or 1. d4, play a few games with both to see which suits your style), and a response as Black to 1.

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What is the most Analysed chess opening? ›

I'd say the top 10 lines with the most memorizing to do just to survive are, in order starting with the highest:

Botvinnik Semi-Slav.
Sicilian Dragon - Yugoslav Attack.
Sicilian Najdorf - 6.Bg5.
King's Indian - Bayonet Attack.
Ruy Lopez - Zaitsev Variation.
Semi-Slav - Anti-Moscow with 6.Bh4.

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Are chess openings worth learning? ›

Yes, ultimately games won't be decided because of a good opening, but learning openings gets you accustomed to certain structures/positions, which allows for easier middlegame play. Tactics flow from superior positions, so I don't see any harm in having a solid opening repertoire.

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Is it worth memorizing chess openings? ›

The only time you need to memorize is when there is some forced moves, and all other leads to worse positions. For example, memorizing the main lines of Poisoned Pawn variation of Najdorf as black is very important, but memorizing in the 4...

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What is the easiest opening in chess to learn? ›

Some of the best chess openings for beginners are:

The Italian Game.
The Sicilian Defense.
The French Defense.
The Ruy-Lopez.
The Slav Defense.

Oct 30, 2023

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What is the 20-40-40 rule in chess? ›

Follow the 20/40/40 rule. 20% opening 40% middle game and 40% endgame. After your games, analyse your mistakes. If you see a pattern, make sure you try to eliminate it.

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What is the #1 best chess opening? ›

The best opening moves (and most popular) in a game of chess are 1. e4 (the King's Pawn Opening), 1. d4 (the Queen's Pawn Opening), 1. Nf3 (the Réti Opening), 1.

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What is the 1 1 rule in chess? ›

For example, 1 | 1 means a game of 1 minute per player with 1 second increment for the player who just completes a move. 15 | 10 means a game of 15 minutes per player with 10 second increment for the player who just completes a move.

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What is the deadliest chess opening? ›

1.King Pawn Game: Busch-Gass Gambit (C40)

1.King Pawn Game: Busch-Gass Gambit (C40) *
Italian Game Classical Variation, Center Attack (C53) *
3.Indian Game: Lazard Gambit (A45) *
Budapest Defense: Fajarowicz Variation (A51) *
5.Benoni Defense: General (A43) *
Reti Opening (A09) ...
Philidor Defense (C41) ...
8.Vienna Game (C27)

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What was Bobby Fischer's favorite chess opening? ›

There was far more than the World Chess Championship at stake. As his first move, Bobby played c4 (English Opening, Queen's Gambit) instead of his favorite and strongest start: e4 (King Pawn).

What is the best chess engine to study openings? ›

There are several opening training software programs on the internet. Probably the 2 best are Chess Wizard(Bookup) and Chessbase.

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Is chess hard work or talent? ›

Like life and most other games, Chess is not an exception to hard work paying off. Every chess professional at any level spends the majority of their life studying the game, equivalent to tens of thousands of hours of sheer hard work. Chess is all about your mental strength, preparedness, and never-say-die attitude.

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What is the best opening system in chess? ›

The best opening moves (and most popular) in a game of chess are 1. e4 (the King's Pawn Opening), 1. d4 (the Queen's Pawn Opening), 1. Nf3 (the Réti Opening), 1.

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How do you memorize opening theory in chess? ›

Write your opening down somewhere . Read it every day. ...
Just play nearly every variation and take a look at the end position. If you like it, write it down, remember it and play it. ...
You need to know the plans of the opening and not only the moves. If you know the plans, you can play without knowing the moves.

Jul 31, 2013

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What is the most effective way to learn chess? ›

One of the best ways to learn the basics and affirm your understanding of the rules is to practice playing. This is best done by playing online against a computer or another person. Playing against a computer, whether online or a real electronic chess computer, ensures that you are making correct "legal" moves.

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Discovering Chess Openings Building Opening Skills From Basic Principles by John Emms - PDFCOFFEE.COM (2024)

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What is the best tool to learn chess openings? ›

What was Bobby Fischer's favorite chess opening? ›

References