Supercourse on Openings
To explore strategic similarities in certain openings
1. Open Games (Giuoco Piano / Ruy Lopez)
Hi, This is GM Mike Rohde, and welcome to the Supercourse "Openings You Should Know". Everyone, from beginner to Grandmaster, is concerned about the openings. The main questions are "What openings should I play", "Do I know my openings well enough", and "How do I build a repertoire". In this course we are going to learn something about the openings and, just as important, how to attack the strategic planning questions in building an effective opening repertoire.
When I was about 12-13 years old, I studied Modern Chess Openings, 10th edition and developed a great understanding of most openings. While I am not suggesting that you go out and get comparable volumes (especially as we are going to give you all of the information right here), I am going to give you this secret of top players - -
The best way to become a good openings player is to learn a little bit about a lot of openings!
Then, later you develop your opening repertoire from a position of strength, confident that you can specialize to pursue enhanced results. Most learning players make a huge mistake learning one or two openings, and then they are lost when they are out of their limited repertoires!
Section 1 Open Games
Lets start with the Double King-Pawn openings. As you may have learned from the Italian Game Tutorial here at Chesswise, you really must learn the Giuoco Piano and the Two Knights Defense. By learning, in the context of this supercourse, I really mean being able to play with relative confidence the first 8-10 moves of the opening. Now, even if you decide that you will not play the Ruy Lopez, because you are always going to play the Giuoco with White, and you play, for example, the Sicilian with Black, I think you will do yourself a tremendous favor by learning a few moves of the Ruy Lopez anyway! This is what I mean by having a good openings education because different openings have some similar ideas and some contrasting ideas, and you can increase your chess strength geometrically by becoming familiar with them.
After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 is the Italian Game, comprising the Giuoco Piano and the Two Knights Defense. There is no question that this is one of the most important positions in chess. If Black plays 3 Nf6 (which is the Two Knights Defense), then 4 Ng5 already attacks the weak square f7. Particularly for children and other beginning players, this creates all sorts of problems. White is threatening to capture on f7 with his knight, with a double attack against Black's queen and rook. Therefore, Black virtually has to play the move 4 d5, blocking off the White bishop from attacking f7. Then White plays 5 exd5 and unless Black already has some special knowledge about this position, he is likely to get into some trouble. This is because the natural move 5 Nxd5 allows too strong lines for White. Probably the strongest move for White here is 6 d4, as then 6 Nxd4 is a mistake because of 7 c3, spearing the knights along the d-file. Going back to the position after 6 d4, if Black plays 6 exd4, then 7 O-O is strong, as Black is coming under a direct attack. White has an even more tempting move after Black's 5 Nxd5. This is 6 Nxf7, a really fun move to play because of its name: the Fried Liver Attack. After 6 Kxf7 7 Qf3+, then Black has to play 7 Ke6 if he wants to avoid losing back his knight on d5 for nothing. After 8 Nc3, the position is a little unclear but certainly full of danger for Black.
Thus, in this short little segment, we have learned a little bit about the Fried Liver. But there is a better way for Black to play the Two Knights Defense, and let's start that from the beginning. This is, after the opening moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d5 5 exd5, Black should play the move 5 Na5 (by the way, 5 Nd4 is an even more complicated alternative). Black's trip to the edge of the board with 5 Na5 is a pawn sacrifice after 6 Bb5+ c6 7 dxc6 bxc6, but the line makes sense for this reason: White started an early attack with 4 Ng5 which, although it caused a problem on f7, also decentralized the White knight and committed time to the attack (at the cost of regular development). If Black can derail the White initiative, it may be worth a pawn to do so, as then Black will have neutralized White's threats and taken advantage of the lack of development of White's other forces. For this reason, the Two Knights Defense is a perfectly good defense to play (although Fischer and Steinitz, for example, preferred the White side of it), only if you know about 7 or 8 moves of theory. I still advise all of my young students, for whom memorizing theory can be difficult, to avoid the Two Knights Defense signature move 3 Nf6, and play 3 Bc5, which is the Giuoco Piano.
Let's move to the basic position of the Giuoco Piano. This comes about after the moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5. Giuoco Piano, paradoxically, is Italian for "Quiet Game". The important point about 3 ... Bc5 is that Black obtains classical development with counterattacking chances, and also, White cannot start the attack against f7 with the move 4 Ng5? as Black's queen still controls that square. After the move 4 d3, we arrive at the Giuoco Pianissimo ("Very Quiet Game"). Nevertheless, this is how many games develop, and quite logically. With 4 d3 White envisions the move Nf3-g5 as his queen bishop now defends that square. However, the important point about playing the Giuoco Piano for Black is that now he plays 4 ... Nf6. Then the move 5 Ng5 is not very strong as Black will play 5 ... O-O, castling and defending the f7 point with his rook. Therefore, White should refrain from 5 Ng5 and instead play developing moves like Bc1-g5, Nb1-c3 and castling, and Black will often do the same. The symmetrical nature of the position is what gives it the name "Quiet Game", but things can get pretty wild, depending on who can get their attack going first, using the queen bishop on g5 (or, for Black, g4), and then moving the queen knight into the center (d5 or d4) to increase the pressure on the pinned piece.
Let's examine the position in detail from the Giuoco Pianissimo after moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 d3 Nf6. Then play often continues 5 Nc3 d6 with a symmetrical position. Notice that if Black now starts copying, he will get in trouble, as is almost always the case. For example, we can continue with 6 O-O O-O 7 Bg5 Bg4?! 8 Nd5 Nd4?! Black now is in bad shape after 9 Bxf6 gxf6 (notice that the copying 9 Bxf3 loses to 10 Qd2! Qd7 11 Qg5) 10 Qd2! and 10 Bxf3 will lose to 11 Qh6. Going back to the position after 6 O-O, 6 Bg4 is an interesting move for Black. Then 7 Bg5 is actually not strong for White, because Black plays 7 h6, and then 8 Bh4 g5 is good for Black. White's extra tempo has worked against him in this instance because he used it to castle while Black remained uncastled. This allows Black to throw his kingside pawns forward with impunity against White's castled king. Therefore, after 6 Bg4, let's play a more circumspect move for White 7 h3. Then Black can consider the wild 7 h5, hoping again to use the fact that White has castled and he has not. 7 h5 is not really a strong move because White can play quiet moves such as 8 Be3 or 8 Bg5 here, but if White is either too curious or too greedy, and plays 8 hxg4, an amazing scenario can follow. Naturally, Black plays 8 hxg4, and then on 9 Ng5, 9 g3 is strong. If White then continues on the path of self-destruction with 10 Nxf7, then the punishment is 10 Nxe4!! This move threatens to play Rh8-h1+ followed by Qd8-h4+ and mate, or to play simply Qd8-h4 at once. After 11 Nxd8, White gets mated by 11 ... gxf2+ 12 Rxf2 Bxf2+ 13 Kf1 Rh1+ 14 Ke2 Nd4 mate.
To recap, we can now state with authority that in the Two Knights Defense, the main issue is White's early attack on f7, and in the Giuoco Pianissimo, the battle revolves around who can institute an effective pin on the opposing king's knight. Instead of attempting to learn every move of these openings (at this state in any event an impossible task), let's see what the Ruy Lopez has to offer in terms of strategic insight. After the opening moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6, White plays 3 Bb5 to reach the Ruy Lopez, also known as the Spanish, and universally regarded as one of the cornerstones of chess opening theory. With 3 Bb5, White is not thinking about directly attacking the opponent's king (recognizing, that is, that Black will probably castle kingside); rather, he is interested in "pressurizing" the pawn at e5. In this regard, White would like to force Black into one of the following: give up central space with the exchange e5xd4 (where a White pawn on d4 may be backed up by a pawn on c3), or maintain the pawn at e5 at the cost of passive or tactically unfavorable piece placement.
The immediate question in the Ruy Lopez is whether White is really threatening to win a pawn right now. The Morphy Defense, which arises after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6, openly challenges this aspect of the Ruy. If then White plays 4 Bxc6 (the Exchange Variation), Black should play 4 dxc6 and then if 5 Nxe5, then 5 Qd4, with a double attack on the knight and the e-pawn, is good for Black (and also, by the way, 5 Qg5 and 5 Qe7 would also recover the pawn). So White is not menacing the e-pawn right now. But in this Exchange Variation, White should play not the hasty 5 Nxe5, but rather, 5 O-O, a line popularized by Bobby Fischer. Then the threat to e5 becomes real, and on, for example, 5 f6, then 6 d4 illustrates some of the themes we discussed pressure on e5 designed to win better control of the center. After 6 exd4 7 Qxd4, White has the better pawn structure, but here Black's two bishops serve to minimize his disadvantage.
Therefore, instead of the Exchange Variation, White more often simply retreats his bishop to a4. After the moves 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 the pressure on e5 still exists, but in more muted form, as Black can now break the pseudo-pin with the move b7-b5. To understand the dynamics of this opening, let's follow the main line of the Closed Ruy Lopez. After 4 Ba4, Black plays 4 Nf6, instituting a counter-attack against White's e-pawn on e4. Then 5 O-O prepares play on the e-file, ready to meet 5 Nxe4, which would be the Open Defense to the Ruy with 6 d4, effectively winning back Black's e-pawn as 6 exd4 7 Re1 would be dangerous. Going back to 5 O-O, Black can play 5 Be7. This move blocks the e-file and threatens to capture White's e-pawn with impunity. Now White plays 6 Re1, defending his own e-pawn, and for the first time White is actually threatening the pawn on e5! Specifically, the threat is 6 Bxc6 dxc6 7 Nxe5. Therefore, Black now plays 6 b5, shielding the c6-knight from the eyes of White's bishop. After 7 Bb3 both sides will generally proceed with their development, but we should note that White's main plan is still to play c2-c3 and then d2-d4 to box Black into a passive position.
Now let's revisit the Giuoco Piano for a moment. After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5, the move 4 c3, known as the Moeller Variation, poses problems for Black. Here White aims to play the move d2-d4, not only to push back the Black bishop, but also to run over the square e5, and hand-to-hand combat can arise very quickly. The main line is 4 ... Nf6 5 d4 exd4 6 cxd4, and now if Black plays a bishop retreat, the advance of White's center pawns can be overwhelming. Therefore, Black must gain time with 6 Bb4+ with continuing complications.
In my view, this is a good example of the need to learn a little bit about a lot of different openings. Familiarity with the Ruy Lopez strategy of obtaining central pressure can make a player much stronger in, say, the Giuoco Piano.
Section 2 Semi-Open Defenses
Defenses to 1 e4 other than the Double King-Pawn Defense 1 e5 are known as the Semi-Open Defenses. There is a great virtue that all the Semi-Open Defenses have in comparison with 1 e5 they do not weaken the a2