Reaching for 2200: The Chess.com Study Plan Week 1
After one week of following the chess.com study plan (https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory) I have, frankly, not accomplished much. My original plan for this week was to watch IM Danny Rensch's video series, Pawn Structures 101. Each of the videos is about half an hour, and I watched one per day, using the rest of my available time to read articles, blogs, play games, study some openings, do vote chess work for one of the clubs I'm in (Vote Chess Fans Club), and so on and so forth. Since last Tuesday when I started the plan I've watched five videos. On Tuesday I did the half of the very first task that was listed in the Advanced study plan in Openings, 1. Expand your Knowledge of Common Structures and Plans, and read eight articles (which is less time consuming and could be fit into one training session):
- Do You Need To Study Junk Openings? by GM Gregory Serper
- Monster Opening Preparation by IM Jeremy Silman
- Monster Opening Preparation Part 2 by IM Jeremy Silman
- Kostya's Blueprint: Learning Structures Part 1 by FM Kostya Kavutskiy
- Kostya's Blueprint: Learning Structures Part 2 by FM Kostya Kavutskiy
- Can You Still Specialize In An Opening? by GM Bryan Smith
- An Opening Line for Club Players by GM Gregory Serper
- An Opening Line for Masters by GM Gregory Serper
On Wednesday I started Danny's Pawn Structures 101 series. The study plan only assigns ten videos in the series for you to watch, but in the whole series there are much more videos which I will probably also watch. As usual Danny's videos are high quality and instructive, and I would recommend them to any players who are looking to improve. The first video assigned was
Pawn Structure 101: Orthodox/Minority Attack
In this one Danny explains the plans of both sides, how the structure affects that, and shows and comments on an example game with this structure. If you don't know what the "Orthodox/Minority Attack" position or pawn structure, here it is (just the pawn skeleton, of course there will be pieces):
It's called the Orthodox/Minority Attack pawn structure because it's mainly created by Orthodox Queen's Gambit lines in which white's main plan is to advance b4-b5 with the a-pawn helping if needed, which is called a minority attack because two of white's pawns are attack three of black's pawns. Then white can utilize the queenside weaknesses. Black's plan is to use the e-file and start a kingside attack, perhaps placing a bishop on d6, lifting the rook on e8 to e6 and g6/h6, jumping a knight to e4, and so on. As is known, you want to attack on the side that your pawn chain is pointing, in this case white's chain is f2-e3-d4, pointing to the queenside where he has the open c-file, and black's is b7-c6-d5 pointing to the kingside where he has the open e-file.
The video I watched on Thursday was
Pawn Structure 101: Panov-Botvinnik
Danny explained the same things that he did for the first video, and he will do the same for all of the videos, but for the specific structure being examined in the given video. In this case it is the Panov-Botvinnik structure (pawn skeleton again):
I'm going to be brief summarizing this one because we have three more videos to summarize, but this one is easy. White's positionally winning because of his three-on-two pawn majority on the queenside and if the game goes into an endgame white will win (of course, unless there is some other feature of the position which would change the outcome drastically like a queen capturing all white's pawns) by creating a passed pawn. Black needs to stop this by playing dynamically and preparing a break with either ...e5 or ...b6.
On Friday, I learned more about the Stonewall and realized how completely wrong I was playing it as black:
Pawn Structure 101: The Stonewall
I did not move the black pawns because there are many ways that black can set them up. Also, white's c-pawn usually comes to c3 to bolster the center, but the Stonewall pawn structure is defined by pawns on d4, e3, and f4. The main and obvious idea for white is to start a kingside attack, since he has more space there and his pieces are pointing there. As black, this is where I was wrong. I pushed my d-pawn to d5 most of the time (not all the time, though) when playing against this formation, which is not a great idea. That's because I was taught to be a French player and always play the French system with pawns on e6 and d5 virtually no matter what white plays. Now I'm changing from that and play more modern openings, like the KID. It should be very easy for me, as a KID player, so switch to playing d6 instead of d5 and to fianchetto the kingside bishop (and probably the queenside bishop too). The reason why d6 is better than d5 in the Stonewall for black is because white wants to place a knight on the beautiful e5 square, and another on f3, when white's attack will be fast and supported by the knights. With the pawn on d6 e5 is denied to white's pieces.
Saturday I literally just forgot to watch one of the videos because I had a tennis tournament.
On Sunday and today (Tuesday), since I didn't watch a video yesterday to write another post, I watched:
Pawn Structure 101: Caro-Slav 1
Looks at when white has a c-pawn and the d5 break.
Pawn Structure 101: Caro-Slav 2
Looks at when white has an e-pawn and the e5 push to gain space and a kingside attack.
The Caro-Slav is one of the most reached pawn structures ever, and Danny has a whole seven videos on it, looking at it from the white side and the black side, and with variations on if white has a c-pawn or d-pawn, on c3, c4, e3, and e4. It's called the Caro-Slav structure because it's defined by black having pawns on c6 and e6 an white having a pawn on d4 (with a pawn on the e-file or c-file), and is reached most commonly through the Slav Defense to the QG and the Caro-Kann. Here are some Caro-Slav positions. The last two will almost always transpose to the first two, because white wants to gain space and attacking chances by pushing c3-c4 or e3-e4:
Let's start with white's plan when he has a c-pawn, which is most common in Caro-Kann lines (black trades his d-pawn for white's e-pawn, and then white pushes c4 and black pushes e6, leaving us with the Caro-Slav position). The main idea is to place his pieces on their ideal squares, which is possible because of his advantage in space, something black cannot do. Then, after enough maneuvering to satisfy white, he prepares the d5 break, opening the center wide and giving his pieces open files and diagonals to attack on. The tactics will usually favor white because of his better placed pieces and space advantage. This is all assuming black cannot carry out his plan, which I will explain later.
When white has an e-pawn, it is a little bit different. He can also play for the same d5 break, and that's a good plan, but there is another route which is also good, playing for e5 instead of d5. Playing e5 does quite a few things. First off, the cons. e5 gives away the nice d5 square that would be immediately snatched by a black knight. That's probably the only con I can think of. The of e5 pros are that it gains space on the kingside, prepares to attack on the kingside, removes a knight that could have been on f6 but now might be settling into d5, and opens the b1-h7 diagonal for light-squared bishop and queen.
If black doesn't fight back early enough, he'll be forced to die a slow, painful death. White will just maneuver around, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, while black shuffles his pieces around on the first two ranks. So, black needs a way to prevent that. The most common ways are to blow up the center with either ...c5 or ...e5, of which the former is more frequently seen in many openings that lead to the Caro-Slav formation. However black must make sure that he must not play either of the breaks if white can respond with d4- d5 effectively, which could create a passed pawn in some scenarios or open lines to attack.
There's a lot more to say, and Danny can explain it much better and much faster, so I suggest you go and watch the videos if you haven't already. It's worth it. The names of the videos I inserted above are links, or you can go search them up.
So I've done about three quarters of the first section of the Openings section of the Advanced study plan. After I finish 1. Expand your Knowledge of Common Structures and Plans, I will 2. Learn About Creating An Opening Repertoire. Then I need to 3. Start a Black Repertoire versus 1.e4 and 4. Start a black repertoire versus 1.d4. After that I look at it from white's side and 5. Start a White Repertoire with 1.e4 or 1.d4, and I'll mainly focus on 1. e4 since that is more to my style, but I will also look at 1. d4 because I may play it occasionally. After that I will 6. Test Your Opening Understanding and 7. Gain Practical Experience With Your Openings. Last of all, I will learn how to 8. Analyze Your Games. I don't think I'll have to study that too much since I'm well-versed in doing that, but I'll check it out to see if there's anything else I need to learn.
All that just for the first of five sections. This might take longer than I planned. No problem!
So far since starting the plan I my rating has changed...
DRUMROLLLLLLLLLLL PLEASE!!!!
+2.
Hmm. At least it didn't go down! Here's a game I played a few days ago, there were quite a lot of mistakes and inaccuracies but it is instructive to see me down an exchange for a few pawns and watch the pawns steamroll my opponent. I will leave it without comment.
After the game I was 1994 but then lost a game and ended the day at 1987, two points higher than my starting point of 1985.
Well, we'll see how I do with the study plan this week, and I'll post an update like this one next Tuesday. Thanks for reading!
