Opening tactics Chess Puzzles

Background reading

Chess opening

The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory. The other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences, known as openings, have standard names such as "Sicilian Defense". The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage. Opening moves that are considered standard are referred to as "book moves", or simply "book". When a game begins to deviate from known opening theory, the players are said to be "out of book". Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and they continue doing so throughout their careers as opening theory continues to evolve. Players at the club level also study openings, but the importance of the opening phase is less there since games are rarely decided in the opening. The study of openings can become unbalanced if it is to the exclusion of tactical training and middlegame and endgame strategy. A new sequence of moves in the opening is referred to as a theoretical novelty. When kept secret until used in a competitive game, it is often known as a prepared variation, a powerful weapon in top-class competition.

Common aims in opening play

Whether they are trying to gain the upper hand as White, or to equalize as Black or to create dynamic imbalances, players generally devote a lot of attention in the opening stages to the following strategies: * Control of the center: At the start of the game, it is not clear on which part of the board the pieces will be needed. Controlling the central squares, however, allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent. The classical view is that central control is best effected by placing pawns there, ideally establishing pawns on d4 and e4 (or d5 and e5 for Black). However, the hypermodern school showed that it was not always necessary or even desirable to occupy the center in this way, and that too broad a pawn front could be attacked and destroyed, leaving its architect vulnerable; an impressive-looking pawn center is worth little unless it can be maintained. The hypermoderns instead advocated controlling the center from a distance with pieces, breaking down one's opponent's center, and only taking over the center oneself later in the game. This leads to openings such as Alekhine's Defense – in a line like 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 (the Four Pawns Attack) White has a formidable pawn center for the moment, but Black hopes to undermine it later in the game, leaving White's position exposed. * King safety: The king is somewhat exposed in the middle of the board. Measures must be taken to reduce his vulnerability. It is therefore common for both players either to castle in the opening (simultaneously developing one of the rooks) or to otherwise bring the king to the side of the board via artificial castling. * Prevention of pawn weaknesses: Most openings strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled and backward pawns, pawn islands, etc. Some openings sacrifice endgame considerations for a quick attack on the opponent's position. Some unbalanced openings for Black, in particular, make use of this idea, such as the Dutch and the Sicilian. Other openings, such as the Alekhine and the Benoni, invite the opponent to overextend and form pawn weaknesses. Specific openings accept pawn weaknesses in exchange for compensation in the form of dynamic play. (See Pawn structure.) * Piece coordination: As the players mobilize their pieces, they both seek to ensure that they are working harmoniously towards the control of key squares. * Creating positions in which the player is more comfortable than the opponent: Transposition is one common way of doing this. Apart from these ideas, other strategies used in the middlegame may also be carried out in the opening. These include preparing pawn breaks to create counterplay, creating weaknesses in the opponent's pawn structure, seizing control of key squares, making favorable exchanges of minor pieces (e.g. gaining the bishop pair), or gaining a space advantage, whether in the center or on the flanks.

Top-level objectives

At higher levels of competition, for many years the main objectives of opening play were to obtain a better position when playing as White and to equalize when playing as Black. The idea behind this is that playing first gives White a slight initial advantage; for example, White will be the first to attack if the game opens symmetrically (Black mirrors White's moves). Since about the 1950s another objective has gradually become more dominant. According to IM Jeremy Silman, the purpose of the opening is to create dynamic imbalances between the two sides, which will determine the character of the middlegame and the strategic plans chosen by both sides. For example, in the main line of the Winawer Variation of the French Defense (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3), White will try to use their bishop pair and space advantage to mount an attack on Black's kingside, while Black will seek simplifying exchanges (in particular, trading off one of White's bishops to blunt this advantage) and counterattack against the weakened pawns on White's queenside; both players accept different combinations of advantages and disadvantages. This idea was a doctrine of the Soviet school of chess. A third objective, which is complementary to the previous ones and has been common since the 19th century, is to lure the opponent into positions with which the player is more familiar and comfortable than the opponent. This is usually done by transpositions, in which a game that apparently starts with one opening can reach a position that is normally produced by a different opening.

Opening repertoires

Most players realize after a while that they play certain types of positions better than others, and that the amount of theory they can learn is limited. Therefore, most players specialize in certain openings where they know the theory and that lead to positions they favor. The main elements a player needs to consider in a repertoire are: * As White, whether to open with 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, or 1.Nf3 * As Black, a defense against any of these openings A very narrow repertoire allows for deeper specialization but also makes a player less flexible to vary against different opponents. In addition, opponents may find it easier to prepare against a player with a narrow repertoire. The main openings in a repertoire are usually reasonably sound; that is, they should lead to playable positions even against optimal counterplay. Unsound gambits are sometimes used as surprise weapons, but are unreliable for a stable repertoire. Repertoires often change as a player develops, and a player's advancement may be stifled if the opening repertoire does not evolve. Some openings that are effective against amateur players are less effective at the master level. For example, Black obtains active play in return for a pawn in the Benko Gambit; amateur players may have trouble defending against Black's activity, while masters are more skilled at defending and making use of the extra pawn. Some openings are so complex and theoretical that amateur players will have trouble understanding them. An example is the Perenyi Attack of the Sicilian Defense (see diagram), which yields an immensely complicated and tactical position which even strong players have difficulty handling, and which is beyond the comprehension of most amateurs.

Opening nomenclature

Major changes in the rules of chess in the late fifteenth century increased the speed of the game, consequently emphasizing the importance of opening study. Thus, early chess books, such as the 1497 text of Luis Ramirez de Lucena, present opening analysis, as do Pedro Damiano (1512) and Ruy López de Segura (1561). Ruy López's disagreement with Damiano regarding the merits of 2...Nc6 led to 3.Bb5 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6) being named for him as the Ruy Lopez or Spanish Opening. Opening theory was studied more scientifically from the 1840s on, and many opening variations were discovered and named in this period and later. Opening nomenclature developed haphazardly, and most names are historical accidents not based on systematic principles. In the early 1930s, the nascent FIDE embarked on a project to standardize opening nomenclature, culminating in the publication of a short booklet in 1933, but this had little impact. The oldest openings tend to be named for geographic places and people. Many openings are named after nationalities of players who advocated them, for example Indian, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Scotch, Russian, Italian, Scandinavian and Sicilian, or places where important games featuring the opening were played such as Vienna, Berlin, and Wilkes-Barre. The Catalan System is named after the Catalonia region. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. Broadly, these terms are used as follows: * Game: Used for some of the oldest named openings, such as the Scotch Game, Vienna Game, and Four Knights Game. In the 19th century it was used for other common openings such as the Sicilian Defense ("Sicilian Game") and French Defense ("French Game"). * Opening: This usually refers to an opening played by White, such as the English Opening or Bird's Opening. * Defense: Refers to an opening chosen by Black, such as Two Knights Defense or Caro-Kann Defense. Some openings described as "defenses", such as the King's Indian Defense and Sicilian Defense, can in fact be quite aggressive. * Gambit: An opening that involves the sacrifice of material, usually one or more pawns. Most openings described as "Gambits" are played by White (e.g., King's Gambit), but a few are played by Black (e.g., Latvian Gambit, Stafford Gambit). The terms "Accepted" or "Declined" may be appended to the name, depending on whether the opponent takes the offered material, as in the Queen's Gambit Accepted and Queen's Gambit Declined. In the case of the Queen's Gambit, the sacrifice of material is only temporary as there is no good way for Black to keep the pawn. * Countergambit: A gambit played by Black, often in response to another gambit. Examples of this include the Albin Countergambit in response to the Queen's Gambit, the Falkbeer Countergambit in response to the King's Gambit, and the Greco Counter Gambit (the former name of the Latvian Gambit) in response to the King's Knight Opening. * Variation: Used to describe a branch of another named opening, for example the Najdorf Variation, a line of the Sicilian Defense. * System: A method of development that can be used against many different setups by the opponent. Examples include London System, Colle System, Réti System, Barcza System, and Hedgehog System. * Attack: Usually used to describe an aggressive or provocative variation such as the Albin–Chatard Attack (or Chatard–Alekhine Attack), the Fried Liver Attack in the Two Knights Defense, and the Grob Attack. The King's Indian Attack is an exception, describing a King's Indian Defense with colors reversed. * Reversed, inverted: A Black opening played by White, or more rarely a White opening played by Black. Examples include the Sicilian Reversed (from the English Opening) and the Inverted Hungarian. The Reti, King's Indian Attack, Sicilian Reversed (from the English), and other "Black played by White with an extra tempo" often start with 1.Nf3 or 1.c4. * Anti-: Prefix for openings designed to avoid a specific line, for example the Anti-Marshall (against the Marshall (Counter) Attack in the Ruy Lopez) and the Anti-Meran Gambit (against the Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav Defense).

Classification of chess openings

Chess openings are primarily categorized by move sequences. In the initial position, White has twenty legal moves. Of these, 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.Nf3, and 1.c4 are by far the most popular as these moves do the most to promote rapid development and control of the center. Black has twenty complementary responses to White's opening move. * Single king pawn or semi-open games (1.e4 other) * Double queen pawn or closed games (1.d4 d5) * Single queen pawn or semi-closed games (1.d4 other) * Flank openings (including 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.f4, and others) * Unusual first moves for White The Indian systems (1.d4 Nf6) are the most important of the semi-closed games, and warrant separate treatment.