Games to learn from : My favorite Openings (Part 1)

Hello everyone!

In this blog, I will be discussing about my favorite openings with both colors, in order to share my thoughts with you.

If you have any tips and tricks about a specific opening, please let me know in the comments below, it would be really helpful to see your ideas as well. For instance, I will start with the white pieces.

1. White Pieces

In general, I like to play as both colors, since I have tournament experience and some theory knowledge too. I am a C class player and I strive to be National Champion soon, but first, let’s focus on the openings instead.

My favorite 1.E4 opening is time-tested Italian game, mostly all variations.

The reason that I love the Italian Game so much is that it really expresses my style : Balanced game with a slight hint of aggression.

Also, it helps me understand the importance of the light-squared bishop and the eternal weakness of a2-g8 diagonal.

I have experimented with many, many openings, like London System, English Opening, Reti Opening, but after all, I found that this opening fits my style the best.

Although I play openings other than Italian Game and E4, it still remains my favorite after many years.

Finally, I am going to break down this game into small parts, so it becomes easier to understand.

When the game started, I had the white pieces, so I started the game with my favorite opening : 1.e4, my opponent did the same as well by playing the move 1.e5, fixing my pawn and freezing it at the moment.

I continued with the move 2.Nf3, which attacks his e5 pawn and now, my opponent has many choices : Does he neglect the pawn, does he defend it, or does he attack mine instead?

After about 30 seconds, he defendd with the move 2.Nc6, which defends his e5 pawn and keeps the game balanced.

Finally, white can opt for many different openings here, like 3.Bb5 (Spanish opening), 3.d4 (Scotch opening), 3.c3 (Ponziani opening) and many more, but I went for the classical Italian game instead, with the move 3.Bc4.

This opening tends to produce either some high-quality attacking games, or slow, positional ones. In my cases, I’ve had both occasions and either way, this opening is far from boring.

The idea behind this opening lies in the fast development of white’s pieces. Also, when the light-squared bishop comes up on c4, it eyes the weak square on f7, while supporting the whole a2-g8 diagonal. You’ll understand me, when you see this picture.

Here, black has many theoretical choices, but my opponent replies with the move 3.Bc5, developing his dark-squared bishop, making it active and on the receiving end, supports the g1-a7 diagonal instead.

If I am not careful, I could end up with a worse position later on, so it’s a wise choice to develop some more pieces instead. Understanding this, I played the following move 4. d3, giving my dark-squared bishop on c1 some space, so it can be more active in the future. (Although, 4.O-O(Short castling) would be reasonable as well)

This bishop will have some potential on c1-h6 diagonal after 4.d3

Now, black has quite a lot of moves to choose from, but my opponent decides to put on a little bit of pressure with the move 4.Nf6.

This move is very nice, because it simultaneously attacks the e4 pawn (but not intending to capture it), gains more control over the d5 square, developing his third minor piece and finally, preparing to castle his king and get faster development.

If you are confused, how black is trying to develop faster, look at the developed minor pieces down below. The blue-colored pieces are mine, and green-colored are his.

Obviously, I’m not a fan of giving the other side advantage on purpose, so I continue with my pet line 5. Nc3, gaining more control over the e4 pawn and the d5 square, developing my third minor piece and activating my queenside.

This position is promising for both sides, but…

If you think, that 5.Nc3 isn’t a game-changing move, you’re right, but you’ll soon see, how important each mistake and each square is. (Keep an eye on the d5 square)

Black doesn’t seem to have any problems with his position and plays the move 5.d6, which gets us into a dead-symmetrical position. Although, when symmetry appears in chess, one should always be aware of the dangers…

Symmetry can be very deceiving sometimes…

Here, I continue with a very logical move 6.Bg5, which develops my last minor piece and pins down the f6 knight to the queen.

After this move, white’s development is almost over and after castling on either side, white pieces can gain a small, but an promising edge.

Just look at black’s bishop next to their queen. Their pieces lack coordination…

Here, black tries to undermine my strong bishop and plays the move 6.h6, threatening to take the bishop and forcing it to either take the knight or move back.

Now, I didn’t develop my piece just to trade it off this soon, so logically, I go back and stay on this dangerous diagonal , with the move 7.Bh4. If black isn’t careful here, he can fall for a very nice trick…

The blue squares show important squares and pieces.

Here, castling is wrong, because if 7.O-O, I would play 8.Nd5! , to force the doubling f-pawns, which would rip up his kingside. (Note, that after 8.Nd5, 8.Nxd5 leads to a disaster, after the moves 9.Bxd8!, 9.Rxd8 and finally, 10.Bxd5 with a game-winning advantage).

Although I mentioned, that castling is bad here, my opponent tries the move 7.g5, trying to kick my bishop away and force it back to g3, where it will end up passive. However, I had a trick here, that he fell for. Can you spot it?

Although this move looks good, what would you play here to shock the opponent?

If you said 8.Nxg5, you are correct! This move shatters the kingside for black and makes their life harder.

Although computers judge this as slightly losing for white, it really isn’t in human games, because against a 2200+ rated player, I used the same trick and won easily, let this be a reminder :)

Here, black accepted the sacrifice and after the moves 8.hxg5, 9.Bxg5, I had two pawns for a piece and an very promising attack.

White is in good shape here.

After quite some time, my opponent responded with the move 9.Rg8, threatening my dangerous bishop once again.

I didn’t seem to care much, and responded with my planned move 10.h4, which creates a very strong passed pawn and defends my bishop strongly.

Will this attack prove himself?

Here, a very logical move, 10.Be6, was played by black, but I had planned 11.Nd5, not to allow the trade of light-squared bishops, since d5 square plays a key role in this attack.

To my surprise, he actually took the knight, which freezes his piece mobility and gives me plenty of time to breathe.

This bishop pair will soon prove its dominance.

Here, he played 12.Nd4, trying to activate it, but after a simple 13.c3, he had to retreat it to e6, which threatens my dark-squared bishop.

In this position, I played 14.Qb3, trying to attack b7 and e6 with the bishop-queen combo, but the computer suggests 14.Bxe6 and thinks, that 14.Qb3 blew the advantage. Oh well, can’t always be correct…

Looks good, but is it?

Here, my opponent had a blind spot by not playing 14. Nxg5 and instead, played the move 14.Ke7, trying to solidify his knight instead. This move makes me think, that 13.Ne6 was a defensive strategy, instead of an attack-killer one.

Black threw the advantage too…

Now, again, according to the computer, I can gain the advantage with the moves 15.Bxe6 and 16.O-O-O.

But, I am a human, so I play the more logical 15.O-O-O, which throws the advantage once again, but since my opponent isn’t defending well or using his chances, this opinion of the computer should be neglected in this case.

Here, the move, that blew it all away, was 15.c6, kicking my bishop away. Can you spot, why it was bad?

Can you see it?

If you couldn’t guess, I’ll tell you why.

First, we remove the defender , with the move 16.Bxe6.

Since 16.Kxe6 isn’t legal, 16.fxe6 is forced.

Now, the b7 pawn is undefended, so we just take it for free with the move 17.Qxb7+, which is also a check.

In this case, my opponent blundered horribly once again, with the move 17.Qd7, trying to trade queens…

Can you see, what’s wrong?

But,after the brilliant 18.Bxf6+!, black king is overloaded, so he resigned and I was victorious in this wild game.

Boom! What a game!

Black resigned, because…

1. If he takes the bishop, he loses his queen.

  2. If he doesn’t take the bishop and moves somewhere else, I just trade queens then and remain a piece up.

One scenario of the case, when the king doesn’t take the bishop.

You’ll see more of my games in my next blogs!

Cheers!

Thank You For Reading