The Budapest Gambit begins after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 We are playing this as black. This is not one of the more solid gambits(like the queen's gambit, or the Evan's Gambit). White has about 8 responses to our gambit: 1. Accepting 2. Push 3. Nf3 ...
The Stafford Gambit is initiated after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6(The Petrov's Defense) 3. Nxe5 Nc6(The Stafford Gambit) The only real move for them is to take our knight, with 4. Nxc6, we must capture back with the d-pawn(dxc6). This gambit is reli...
The Closed Sicilian Defense begins after 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Our best move is d6. From here white has a few options, the Grand Prix Attack, The Magnus Sicilian, The Traditional Variation and the Keres Variation. If they play f4, the Grand Prix att...
The Réti opening begins after 1. Nf3. This opening is sometimes referred to as the "Zukertort" Opening. Your opponent has many responses, many of them being 'invitations' to different openings. For example Nc6, will likely transpose int...
The London System starts after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 This is a set up based opening, our setup will look like this: a bishop on d3, a knight on d2, and pawns on c3 and d3. We will castle. In the opening, we want to control e5. While do...
The Polish Opening begins after 1. b4 The Polish Opening, sometimes referred to as the Orangutan, or Sokolsky(named after GM Alexey Sokolsky) opening, is a rare opening, considering it happens once in about 220 games. The first thing you might...
The Colle System begins after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 This opening is a system, meaning it can be played against near anything. For example 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3. It can stop anyone trying to play a King's Indian Defense or something els...
The Catalan begins after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g6 The first thing you should notice is that we are doing is a fianchetto of the light-squared bishop. So likely, our next move is Bg2, even if they play d5. If they take on c4, we play Nf3. I...
This chess puzzle will likely be good to remember in an endgame. This is the puzzle: If you can solve this, you're pretty good at Chess Endgames. It is quite tricky, so take your time. If you want the answer, scroll down. ...
The Benoni Defense begins after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 This is a defense, so an opening for black. If at your level, opponents are playing the London system, play the Old Benoni Defense, it immediately strikes against their d4-pawn. Back to the Be...
The Philidor Defense begins after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 This is a defense so it's an opening for black. It was created by chess player and musician François-André Danican Philidor. Here is some of his music:That was a banger. If whi...
The Slav Defense begins after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 This is one of the best ways to decline the Queen's Gambit(1. d4 d5 2. c4), as you're not giving the opportunity to your opponent to trade a wing pawn for a central pawn, like in the standard Q...
The Classical Scandinavian Defense begins after 1. e4 d5 This is a defense, meaning it's for black. The mainline will start after we recapture with our queen. After Qxd5 they play Nc3 to kick our queen. Move it to a5. After d4 or Nf3, these ar...
The Center Game The Center Game begins after 1. e4 e5 2. d4 It is called the Center Game because you put two pawns in the center(duh). Your opponent has 2 responses: accepting or declining. If they decline the game usually transposes into an...
The Dutch Defense begins after 1. d4 f5 It is a defense, meaning it is for black, and is a mirrored Sicilian(1. e4 c5). We aim to control the e4 square, a key central square, without playing boring d5. If they play e4, this is called the Staun...
The Vienna begins after 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 We can play what's called the Vienna Gambit, with f4 since we haven't blocked the f-pawn with our knight going to f3. We can only do this after the opponent plays Nf6. If they accept the gambit we ...
The Ponziani begins after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c6 We prepare the d4 push with c3, controlling the center. Your opponent has 3 options, d5, Nf6, or f5. I will go over Nf6 first, which is the Jaenisch Counterattack. We can ignore that and push...
The Sicilian begins after 1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is a more advanced opening, and you should try learning it only after you've learned minimum 3 other defenses(openings for black). If you're looking for some pointers, look on my blog. This openi...
The Petrov's Defense is sometimes referred to as the Russian defense, or the Petroff's Defense. It begins with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 I wouldn't recommend e5 against e4, but that is what you must do if you want to play the Petrov's. the most comm...
The Old Benoni starts with 1. d4 c5. This pawn is not hanging due to Qa5+. If they take, rather than Qa5+, e6 would be stronger. It attacks the pawn and they can't guard it with b4. Because after 3. b4 a5 4. c3 axb4 5. cxb4 Qf6 wins a ...
The Scotch games starts after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 The best move for black is to take on d4. You should take back with the knight(duh). If they take your knight, this is good for you. The queen takes the knight and if they kick the queen ...
The Bird's Opening begins with 1. f4 The Opponent can have 2 main responses, not playing e5, and playing e5. If they do not play e5, you will solidify control of that square, with natural moves like Nf3 and a queenside fianchetto with move...
I had played two games today, they were pretty brilliant. Here is game 1: Game 2: And those were my games. This was kind of a throw away blog. I think everyone should review there games like this. You can make a PGN of your games with comm...
The English opening begins with 1. c4 Reversed Sicilian with e5 Your opponent can respond with natural move e5, controlling the center. You will play Nc3, play g3 and prepare a fianchetto. If they want to play aggressive after that w...
The King's Gambit is like the Queen's gambit's weird(and weaker) cousin. It starts on move 2 after 1. e4 e5. We play f4, a mirrored queen's gambit. Black can respond in many ways to this, by accepting, declining or with a countergambit. ...
