Chess Openings

There’s actually a really interesting and pretty new line by the great opening expert Nikolaos Ntirlis in his book Reimagining 1. e4. I don’t play 1.e4 myself, but my best friend does, and since we hang out a lot, I kind of know it too. I’ll drop a few of his diagrams and annotations here.

“I have a soft spot for the Scandinavian, as I love the simplicity and practicality of it. After the exchange of Black’s d-pawn for White’s e-pawn, Black will have a 4–3 majority of pawns on the kingside. If you’ve read my book Playing the English , you will know why I’m a fan of that pawn structure. Simply put, a Scandinavian player is hoping for a better endgame. It’s like the Caro-Kann, except that here Black virtually forces the desired structure, rather than allowing the option of e4-e5, which is legal but totally ineffective here. The assurance of reaching the desired pawn structure is what makes the Scandinavian such a practical opening choice.”

“Engine games allow us to see how a position might get played out when both sides are playing near-perfect chess. That’s why every top player uses engine games for their preparation, and why opening geeks like me download the latest engine games every month. The names of these two engines might not be familiar to you, but they are both rated over 3350. That’s around 200 points below the top-rated Stockfish, but still stratospherically strong by human standards.”

There are some 20 more pages written about this, but I will not copy all of that. It’s an interesting idea in any case. If anyone needs the book, just DM me, and I can send you in PDF.

I hope it helps. :)

@DavidGaming08 thanks for sharing this idea at first glance I looked at the idea of 3. h3 in horror. It seemed to be a waiting move when we can develop with tempo and perhaps costing a tempo later down the line with having to go h3 h4 instead of just h2 h4.

The more I've looked at this (with a bit of engine help and discovery) the more I can see the point and it's quite clever. The best way to punish h3 is to stop playing the Scandinavian. Ideas like c5 and e5 jump out (giving up the usual c6 and e6 structure).

If your opponents best moves are to do to opposite of what they have planned you'll lead them into very murky waters. If they just play usual moves you get in a useful pawn push to control the g4 square and prepare to target Bf5.

Another line that comes up as liking this is the Qe6+ which is not very standard for your Scandinavian player.

There's an interesting gambit that is just very good for White in the standard position.

Lots of development for a pawn and Blacks Queen is very oddly placed with zero support. This, unsurprisingly, is alot better for White.

With the h3 move white gives up an extra pawn, loses one developed piece and this is now close to an even position (very slight edge for black) despite two pawns being gambitted!

Given that the Scandinavian player that will play Qe6+ knows that the first set of moves is very good for White would they choose to go into this line for the extra pawn and giving away lots of compensation for potentially a very miserable game?

This feels like a clever psychological play for White that gains information or forces black to play against their natural style.

Very nice observations, @Cartoon46! I hadn’t really looked at this in depth before, but your comment got me curious, so I tried to figure out what both sides can do here.

From White’s point of view, it’s pretty encouraging that even though 3…Qe6+ (which looks kinda weird at first) seems to equalize, there are basically no games with it in the masters database. So unless someone is really well-prepared, it’s not something you’re likely to face. Feels very much like a novelty.

Even in the 3…Qe6+ line, White still seems to get decent play. You can go for the sharp line you mentioned and just sac two pawns for activity, or play something calmer like 4. Ne2, where the idea is that the queen on e6 is a bit awkward anyway.

Either way, it looks like things get sharp pretty quickly. From what I can tell, White’s main plan is Bf4, Nc3, Qd2, and then long castle (O-O-O)—so yeah, opposite-side castling and chaos.

I might actually give this a try in my next OTB game if I run into a Scandinavian player. :)

HUGE appreciation @DavidGaming08 @Cartoon46 for your knowledge and taking the time to share this, I’ll definitely check these out because I’m really in need of some solid plans here! :D

@Wind always happy to share knowledge and get into opening theory. Especially since it's by far the part of the game I find most interesting!

Same here. I find opening theory and endgames fascinating, and I am happy to share all that I can!

Actually an interesting line, I had Scandinavian prep already but it's always very dificult to maintain the advantage because the lines are long, and the plans for me are usually annoying, but this seems like a nice off beat line. It has been a while since I faced an scandinavian player but gonna try it the next time

thank you guys!!

Hmmm... interestingly, Scandinavian is my favourite opening with Black. Attacking the middle right from the start.

So, I have a (through not paying attention) entered one of the Chess960 tournaments. So far quite interesting. My question: How many of you have played that style and are the opening principles exactly the same as for normal chess? Would this be good practice for learning opening principles? Any pointers for the openings when the back rank looks different than the standard?

Does anyone have any openings to recommend that are irregular and not silly or too risky? I want to learn more openings that I will be able to surprise my opponent with.

Learn the Latvian Gambit. You'll play in a large percentage of your games (most of your games as Black) and your opponents will usually not know how to play accurately.

EDIT: Nevermind. I just saw your rating and realized that you are far above gambits.

From my limited experience, the opening principles are generally the same: push pawns to seize the center, push pawns to open up your Queen & bishops, king safety. The main difference is that you need to beware of the bishops’ lines of sight before playing your first move. Because of those lines of sight and because of what pieces need to be moved for castling, you might not push a center pawn first.

I play the Scotch game as white(I’ve been playing this since I was 600), King’s Indian against d4 and c4 as black, and just e5 against e4 as black. I have the free intermediate course on chess.com, which has some theory for the scotch, but I only have the Kings Indian Opening thing on chess.com, and I would appreciate some theory or some resources regarding the Kings Indian, and I would appreciate some recommendations for an opening against e4 as black.

g3 and b3 are pretty good openings no one knows the theory that well for g3 you can go for a KIA or an English setup and for b3 you can go for a reverse QID or a Reti setup. Same for black. As for e4 openings, Vienna, Four knights scotch fit in this criteria too.

I love the modern benoni against d4, once you understand the pawn structure, if you survive the initial pressure you often get a lot of queenside play and it’s pretty offbeat. Downside is that it’s really sharp and pretty easy to mess up.

w suggestion

I agree that it's decent when the opponent has no idea what to do or plays quietly. But I don't really see how you would survive white's plan with d4 c4 d5 e4 f4 pawn pushes. (for example : https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/168562487966/analysis) Personally, I have 20% winrate with the old benoni as black ... (often transposes into the modern benoni)

I found a course by GM Alonso on chessable and the suggestions are pretty useful, including for that line, but yes, if white’s booked up then it gets tricky.

This is one of the lines:

It’s one of the longest lines I know, more often than not, people go out of book sooner and if you trade the LSB then you’re usually surviving

can someone provide suggestions on how to learn NID and QID? (or where to learn)