Learning 1.e4 e5 thoroughly

Yep, both Bruce Lee.  The reason i bring them up is, i recite them to my students, and ask them what they mean?  At first, you get answers that are all over the place.  But after awhile they start to understand them, and then finally get them.  At that point they really get why i stress opening principles, and not specific openings for class players under A class.

Another wise thing Bruce Lee said is in my profile.

My style is no style at all.

He was an innovator of combing elements from, say Kung-Fu, with Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, etc. The birth of mixed martial arts was a result of his philosophy.

In chess, you don't have to be only a positional player, or only a tactical player, or blah blah blah.

That might be a good quote for your students as well (although check I got it correct -- I may have paraphrased from memory).

All these tenets may apply to chess, martial arts, and many other aspects of life.

Yes, universal style as per Spassky.

Yes, I taught him everything he knew. He did well.

Hey, do you just have one style of significant other. Maybe, but I try not to be so rigid in life.

1. e4 c5

=)

CM is not a serious chess player . 

@Reb: You know what, that is the first thing you have said to me that kind of stung a little. You finally got to me. I guess the truth hurts.

A saw a thread going around titled Nobody Loves Me. You guys see that? I didn't look at it. I should join that thread instead of making these ridiculous threads.

Oh, thanks for tip though re playing Ruy as Black (in the other thread yesterday). That was pretty helpful. The Cordel Variation I had actually tried one time before you recommended that as a possibility, and I liked it. I'll try the other.

@Arawn: Your're probably right. May we please see your best Ruy Lopez, Closed System, Chigorin Defense System games so that I may learn? Could you post them? What is your USCF rating...or FIDE?

Black has many good choices against the Ruy imo , and its up to each player to find one ( or two ) that suits them . I used to love the breyer lines in the closed Ruy but have also played the Marshall counter attack , Cordel  variation and a few others .  I think the Open defense to the Ruy is also a good choice , IF it suits you . 

Thanks. Now back to openings.

I have great exprience with the Cordel but I recall Pfren giving a convincing line for white that made me abandon it.  The Marshall is great as well.  There's a defense against the Ruy for anyone, Neo-Archangelsk, Morphy variation, New Steinitz Defense, Breyer, Marshall Counter, Berlin Wall, Cordel, even the Schliemann might be sound though I don't like loosening too much before casthing and developing. 

hey bud, it's not about me it's about you. me posting a game in the "Ruy Lopez, Closed System, Chigorin Defense System" isn't going to help prevent you from making moves like Nxc6 and Nh4. but, just to humor you, i'll post a game. as you can see, i missed 26.Nh6+! - a tactic. so what do you think i did? do you think i opened my openings manual to memorize the next ten string of moves? okay well i did look want to find out what were better moves on move 12, but besides that, it has been a steady diet of tactics, tactics and more tactics.

i'm not so different from you. i wanted (and did) memorize main lines for stuff like the center game, danish gambit, vienna game, four knights opening, etc. it's fun to say you know the "closed Ruy Lopez, Chigorin Variation". makes you feel smart. but it won't save you from making simple tactical errors and just losing games.

here you go. one more for you. this time i was black. same tournament. this time i missed 20...e4!. a winning advantage.  

i must justify the last move by saying i touched my opponent's pawn and thus learned about the rule that you must take an opponent's piece if you touch it. that sucked.

so i have posted two recent tournament games in which i missed relatively simple tactical combinations that would have given me the upper hand and possible wins against players rated over a thousand points higher than myself.

I definitely agree with Reb that there are many excellent variations of the Spanish for Black to choose from. It's the Queen of Openings for a reason. The Open Variation is one that is good for training purposes, but I'm not sure it's that good as a long-term repertoire choice.

If you do decide to play the Open Spanish, start by playing through the games between Karpov and Korchnoi. Korchnoi had just authored the section for ECO on the Open Spanish, and Karpov proceeded to tear his analysis apart. 

This may be a good place to start:

Thanks all.

@Smyslov [OR ANYONE WITH INPUT]: Two questions.

(1) Why do you say you are not so sure that open Spanish is a good long-term choice?

(2) What are a few exemplary openings that might be better long-term choices (perhaps after one is more advanced) in your opinion, and why?

Who are the great champions of the Open Spanish ?  I can think of only two : Korchnoi and Larsen .  Are there others ?  

Max Euwe?

I'm not so sure because I basically know a little about 1 d4 openings and much less than that about the Spanish. However, the Spanish is often a rather closed opening for 1 e4 and it seems white has good chances keeping it that way and limiting black's counterplay if possible. Hence Fischer's favourite ploy of keeping the centre closed and attacking with pawns on the K side, often directly preventing the open variation, which might tend too much towards simplification. My recollection is that white keeps a small edge and black, when he goes into the open variation, may not have as many chances as he or she would often like. Could be wrong here because it's a long time since I played K-side openings.

Tx. I'll probably play the Closed Espanol as Black....perhaps as White to0...not sure....but my main deal is 1.d4 as White anyway...

Who are the great champions of the Open Spanish ?

Yusupov defended a fair number of them, including against Karpov and Kasparov.

He's an interesting character with an unusual taste in openings.