Chess Openings

Tactical vs. Positional openings

Link to the Google Presentation for an overview of chess openings that I found on Reddit.

To-Do: look up if I can embed lichess games directly here on the site using this.

Tactical opening

• Usually sharp & typically open position
• Often many pawns have been traded off
• Gambit openings (willingly sacrificing material to gain lead in development)
• Tends to require more theory
• Gambits are good for players that love to sacrifice material & work well against unprepared players, especially in speed chess (blitz, bullet)

Positional opening

• Often closed position
• Pawns blocking each other in the center
• Gradual improvement by maneuvering
• Depriving opponents pieces of active squares, preparing pawn breaks
• Play tends to be slow paced, knowledge of general strategy is more important than memorizing theory

System based vs. Theory based openings

System based

• The same piece setup - regardless what the opponent plays (more or less)
  • Flexible move order
  • Less chance of committing a serious blunder in the opening
• Often leads to more passive and defensive positions
• May lead to playing “mindless” chess
• You can learn the same position over and over
  • Well suited for beginners, for long-term development it might be a bad idea though

Theory based

• Usually requires players to memorize some concrete lines
• Most tactical openings are theory-based
• Useful for people with good memory, especially tactical openings with many traps

Classical vs. Hypermodern openings

Classical

• Physically occupying the center with pawns
• Use center pawns to maintain a space advantage

Hypermodern

• Not necessary to directly occupy the center
• Instead controlling the center from a distance using pieces
• Trying to lure the opponent to over-extend their center pawns
• Often uses fianchetto, bishop controls the central squares at a safe distance
• More cramped positions, trickier and less intuitive to play well - however the positional challenge can be a natural step in chess development

Openings with 1.e4 - King’s Pawn Game

Why?

• Occupies center with a pawn
• Controls the center - d5 and f5
• Opens diagonal for queen and light-square bishop
• Typically leads to more agressive and tactical games

Open Game - Openings with 1.e4 e5

Italian Game

• one of the oldest classical openings for white
• flexible - can be sharp, slow and positional
• theoretical - requires preparation
• opponents will have experience with it

Some ideas in the Italian Game:

• White wants to play the d4 pawn break to open the position
• White preserves the light square bishop by playing a3 (making space for it on a2)
• The knight on b1 can be re-routed to the kingside by playing Nbd2 to f1 to g3 and later to f5
• Black has attacking chances on the kingside involving their dark-square bishop on the a7-g1 diagonal

Common lines:

• 3..Bc5 - Giuoco Piano
  • 4.c3 - Classical Variation
  • 4.d3 - Guoco Pianissimo
  • 4.b4 - Evans Gambit
• 3..Nf6 - Two Knights Defense
  • 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7! - Fried Liver Attack