My Road to Master, Part 6 - Getting more serious!

Since my last blog post, which I drafted quickly after my first tournament in more than ten years, I've started to look a bit more serious at chess and my goals. As the title clearly states, my intention is to (one day) achieve the rank of 'Master'. The most basic way of achieving that title is to cap my rating at 2200 and hold that rating for over a span of at least 27 official FIDE rated games. 

Taking that into account, I really started taking that statement of myself serious. "How will I ever reach that goal?" I started asking myself. I looked down at my amateur chess set, picking up a Knight and thumbling with my favorite piece in my right hand. I started looking at my blog posts, my recent games, my first games, and so forth. Soon enough, this simple yet obvious line of thought popped into my mind: "To reach 2200, I need to get more serious. To get more serious, I need to put in serious work. To put in serious work, I need to forego some of the parts of the game which I purely do for the joy of it and turn towards what will make my odds of gaining rating and achieving my goal." 

That last part of the line of thought sounds rather dubious, doesn't it? It did to me. Let me explain real short. I enjoy pet peeve lines against strong openings, such as the French or the Sicilian. I play chess mainly to have fun (in conjunction to win of course!). I only play 1. e4 just because I like e4, not because I always know what I'm doing. Just to name a few facets. 

But at that same tournament, multiple players voiced the same opinions and thoughts about my chess games. I showed some degree of knowledge on the game of chess, I understood basic principles and I showed potential. On the other end of these positive remarks were the tips they gave me: I should start looking into alternative openings for White and I should put more effort into creating a viable opening repertoire for Black (even though they admired my choice for the Pirc, yay!) against e4 and d4. For a start, that is. And so I thought, and I thought, and I thought. 

At long last, I picked up the chess board, sat down with a notebook and began my attempt at getting 'more serious'. I started looking into the move I disliked for the past two years: 1. d4!

Part One - A more flexible repertoire

1. d4 would be the new go-to move I'm going to play as White for 2019. It is from this move that I'll try to gain new insights and better play. 'Why?', you ask? Well, it provides completely new situations for me to explore. I can enjoy chess from a new and fresh approach and accumulate new knowledge I might not have encountered through playing e4. Secondly, I avoid playing those pet peeve lines. I won't have to whip out my ridiculously hilarious but highly satisfying '2. b3!' lines. Neither will I have to learn real lines of play against two openings I don't like facing. 

I sat down, chess board and computer at the ready, and I began taking a 'serious' and more scientific approach to creating a repertoire around 1. d4. I divided my notebook into multiple parts: 

• 1. d4 against the Indian Defenses  ' 1. ... Nf6' 
• 1. d4 against the Benoni (2. ... c5)
• 1. d4 against '1. ...d5'

Today I tackled the first two chapters in this session of repertoire building. I looked at what I wanted to achieve as White right off the bat against the Indian Defenses. I wanted to sidestep the Defenses I employed myself against d4, such as The Queen's Indian or the Nimzo-Indian Defense. I wanted to gain a minimal advantage out of the opening while keeping my play very positional but highly flexible. I wanted to play in a manner that was applicable against a variety of defenses against d4. With that all noted, I opened the chess opening explorer and wikipedia and started searching. Here's what I achieved today! 

* Like always, I'm putting my study into diagrams with annotations and extra information below. 

Part Two - Revisiting the Catalan

I chose the Catalan, since it provided a slight edge for White. White's King is quite safe early on, White enjoys long-term pressure against Black's center and queenside and the Catalan provides some nice hidden positional threats. 

Part Three - The Indian King!

Again, a fianchetto along the h1-a8 diagonal. This variation provides more safety for White's King than the Classical Variation (according to the Wiki, that is!) and leads to play on the queenside. Perfect!

Part Four - Indians from Austria?! 

Even the Grünfeld is tackled through using the fianchetto on g2! That just leaves one more defense to tackle for the day...

Part Five - The sorrowful c-pawn...

There's also the Benko Gambit.... but, eh... I wasn't up for the task of puzzling that one out today. 

Closing remarks

Do realise that this piece of theory study is just all pen and paper work (and part computer). To truly see if my prep works, I'd have to try and employ what I've learned as White against live players. Only then can I start to learn about my preferred choice of opening with d4 against the Indian Defenses. 

Next time I'll do a bit on how I'm going to try and tackle the rest of the Defenses, such as the Slav, the Semi-Slav and the Queen's Gambit Accepted! Untill then, see you next time!