The "double fianchetto" opening

The "double fianchetto " concept. For Black

Wait a minute, am I just talking about the "hippo" or "hippopotamus defence" ? not necessarily.

I am presenting here a flexible opening for Black which we can apply to virtually any first move from White.

Here comes the "double fianchetto" concept

Each bishop will be developed via a "fianchetto", meaning h8-a1 and a8-h1 diagonals.

Here's how I succesfully deployed my bishops in this game with Black.

One of the benefits is that we can play fairly quickly with Black. We will not put our pawns in the center, we can let White play d2-d4 and e2-e4

This concept is applied by ALL top Grandmasters. it is flexible and not easy to find a flaw with.

Let's start with this guy

Here's how Magnus Carlsen @magnuscarlsen used the concept against 1e4 with a Modern Defense . in the case b7-b5 was played as Black attacked White's king. To note, Magnus is known as a super positional and superb endgame player, but in this one, he furiously attacked White ( a US GM)

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but this can work against 1d4

one of the GMs who is using this system very very often is GM Bortnyk.

Bortnyk (@oleksandr_bortnyk) is known to play the Alekhine 1e4 Nf6 with Black but against 1d4 or 1 Nf3 , he often goes for the double fianchetto, not the "hypo" variation

leveraging a game he played on a competing free chess platform which may remain unnamed in this sentence (lol). (There are different move orders for instance 1d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 b6 3 c4 would reach same position as black)

Please note that Black fights for the center. The move Ne4! usually leads to the knights exchange on e4 and our bishop on e4 will prevent White to control the center. Our bishop on g7 will awaken on the a1-h8 diagonal. Bortnyk makes it look easy.

Please note that Bortnyk is not as well as known as Magnus Carlsen or Hikaru Nakamura but he has defeated both many times in blitz online, and once in the same Titled Tuesday

Incredible !

This could be another blog entry.

Now comes something important. What is a nice way to beat the London System with Black ?

1d4 Nf6  2Bf4, the famous or infamous London System.

Well the double fianchetto is perfectly acceptable.

In the next game, I want to showcase another strong blitz player GM Minh Le (@wonderfultime)

Minh Le defeated Bortnyk with the Black pieces

Here's the game with annotations !