English Opening Great Snake Variation

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AbhiGOlash

I like to play the English quite a lot but recently I have been losing to this variation quite frequently. Please help!

Sarvi2

Try a different opening....

Yigor

There are tons of possibilities after the first move. Maybe U should post a more advanced position to analyse.

Firethorn15

I play this as Black. It can be quite good fun for Black. All the normal English plans apply (b4-b5 or Nd5 etc.) but you need to watch out for ...g5 and ...f4 ideas. A timely f4 will help stop this. For example:

 

tinotimes100

Here's a game where I played against the Great Snake Variation.  I did lose the game, but I think I did good in the opening.  What I like about the English Opening is it doesn't matter how the opponent responds for the most part.  I always follow the same plan, g3, bg2, e3, nfe2, o-o, and finally d4.  Hope this helps.

Yigor

Tinotimes100, your opening is okay. 5...Na5?! is a black's inaccuracy. So, U made mistakes somewhere later in the middlegame.

tinotimes100

Definitely Yigor. This game isn't very instructive for Black. 

But to AbhiGOlash and fellow English players, my advice would be to try trading dark bishops since it's black's best piece.  Maybe go for Bh6 when you can recapture with your queen, and then push your f pawn and go for a lolli's mate

LosingAndLearning81
Yigor wrote:

Tinotimes100, your opening is okay. 5...Na5?! is a black's inaccuracy. So, U made mistakes somewhere later in the middlegame.

Saying he made mistakes is an understatement. The dude had mate in 2 on the 27th move and completely blew it, giving white a perpetual check (fortunately for him it was above his opponents skill level to find).

CouchBishop

Tino, you've probably seen that 13.Bxf8 was the initial mistake. If he takes on a1 then Qxa1 leaves White still with a stronger position.