18 Bird Opening - Chigorin 3..Bg4

18 - Updated 11 November 2025

I have three Chigorin lines in my Bad6 repertoire. The most popular Chigorin variation is 3..Bg4. Black is planning to play  ..Bxf3 followed by the ..e5 break. A consistent feature of my repertoire is: if you can pin the QN, then do it!