Bishop's Opening

I have been seeing the Bishop's Opening more and more and would like to know how to best play against it. I seem to get off to a bad start and have to work back to a good state.

Hi EasternRegent,

I have played against this opening a number of times, and the move that I prefer to play is this:

However, it is very difficult to give you a complete repertoire because there are so many different moves that White can play after this. What move(s) are you struggling against the most?

I too have played Nf6, but I still seem to have trouble taking the pressure off f7 and creating pressure of my own. I tend to lose my center pawns in the process. I will try to find the last game I played against it and post it.

I too have been seeing the Bishop's opening more and more.

Looks to me like White has to defend e4.  After they do so, you could play either d5 or d6 and then Bf6.  But then it has been a few years since I played the Bishop and then it was as white.  I don’t see the Bishop as Black because I play the French. 

After 3. d3 it's possible to play in the centre with c6+d5.

That helps.

just follow opening principles:

Control the center

Develop minor pieces toward the center

Castle

Connect your rooks

The system in #6 is good for Black.

Actually the most testing line is 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2! with a caveman 8.Qg5 attack in mind. Black can equalize though with some accurate moves (I see no reason to go into details here).

I tend to see 3. Nc3 more than 3. d3, which transposes the game into an Italian or Vienna more often than not. There is a lot of theory on those openings that you could study.

Good luck!

Actually it transposes to quick equality after 3...Nxe4, e.g. 4.Qh5 Nd6 5.Bb3 Be7, or to a wonderful mess after 5...Nc6 (in place of the safe and sound 5...Be7).

Here is a game with the line pfren mentions after Nc3. I think Caruana had at least some advantage but that probably wasn't because of the opening which is quite equal but because he played better later on.

In reality, Caruana was at least slightly better after the opening.

Ntrilis in his recent 1...e5 repertoire book (Quality Chess) gives an improvement over Giri's play that I have suggested at the Chesspub forum: 7...b5! (the big idea is waiting for white to occupy the f3 square with a knight before going ...Nc6-a5, when this square is not available for white's LSB) 8.Nge2 Nc6 9.Qf4 b4 10.Nd5 a5! with complex play, where Black is at least equal. Actually my analysis goes further, but I think I will keep it for myself...

3...c6 is definitely the critical line.

I don't know what you usually play but against me almost everyone plays ...Nc6/...Bc5 instead, which basically leads to a favourable King's Gambit for White after f4.

Rather a matter of taste. The plan with ...Nc6 and ...Na5 is also good, but requires a bit more care from Black- white has some positional trumps for Black's bishop pair..

If I'm not mistaken Bareev played 3...c6!, he lost that game, I bought the chess informant back then, it was light blue (57 I think), I can't find it right now, but anyway the opponent was Kasparov. Played in the past by Greco, Lucena, Philidor and Bent Larsen ( but don't take this for granted ).

You mean that one?

A bit irrelevant probably, ...a5 came rather early. The old way to play the position is 5...Bd6, but the refrinement 5...Bb4+ is almost surely an improvement.

Yes, it was a very good game.