Agreed. "Opening prep" is something reserved for more serious players. Speaking for myself, I believe that a solid grasp of openings from the 1930s can get you pretty far.
Need backup for Caro-Kann?
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Ok.
Personally I like playing the Caro-Kann but other than that I would recommend the Sicilian, French, and Alekhine. All lead to fairly solid positions like the Caro-Kann.
Have you made a decision?
kings pawn opening has some counter chances against white, or you could try a queenside fianchetto or Latvian gambit! (1.e4...e5 2.Kf3...f5!?)
But I like this idea of having 1 opening and being good at it.. My only openings are the Bird-always play it as white, always The Caro-kann against 1.e4 and dutch and indian against d4 or others ..trying to see if the dutch can be strong enough
Id rather use the extra time saved from new openings on things like money or girls - or homework =(
YourWorstEnemy wrote:
Personally I like playing the Caro-Kann but other than that I would recommend the Sicilian, French, and Alekhine. All lead to fairly solid positions like the Caro-Kann.
I don't agree about Alekhine. It's fairly interesting, but if white is prepared to face it, you'll get out of the opening +=. In fact last week I won my first ame with a player who has a National rating more than 2000. I knew that he played Alekhine against e4, so I sat down for 3 hours studying the Alekhine with white, as a result after 15 moves of opening theory I had a +=. It certainly isn't solid. it's good only as a surprising weapon.
kosmeg wrote:
I don't agree about Alekhine. It's fairly interesting, but if white is prepared to face it, you'll get out of the opening +=. In fact last week I won my first ame with a player who has a National rating more than 2000. I knew that he played Alekhine against e4, so I sat down for 3 hours studying the Alekhine with white, as a result after 15 moves of opening theory I had a +=. It certainly isn't solid. it's good only as a surprising weapon.
Practically every opening comes out with white having "+=" if white knows all the theory.
A cool variation of Caro-Kann that leads to sharper positions than usual is:
Sep 24, 2008
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#72
Interesting. But why would a Caro-Kann player want a sharper than usual variation?
Sep 24, 2008
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#73
I think Nd2 is more directed at the ...g6 variations, leaving the c-pawn free.
Sep 24, 2008
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#74
Also, the most popular move for white (more than 50% of the time) is a3 after ...b5
e4 c6
d4 d5
Nc3 b5
a3
ozzie_c_cobblepot wrote:
kosmeg: What is the line which you played as white?
Here is the whole game.
by the way, if I was missing something about the rook sac, let me know.
Sep 25, 2008
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#76
Cool game, good variation. Your analysis looks sound to me. :-)
tarrasch is good for anything that isnt whites e4 opening.
Sep 25, 2008
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#78
Ravetacular: I'm looking explicitly at an alternative to the Caro-Kann, which is in response to e4.
ozzie_c_cobblepot wrote:
Cool game, good variation. Your analysis looks sound to me. :-)
the funny thing is that I was searching for a draw as if I drew this game my team was winning the match and I was searching for a perpetual check, I was ready to play Rg5+ and draw but I said 'oh wait a minute...'
And the other thing. the variation I post is what I counted, not the right thing. 34.Qxh6+ wins faster(but less spectacular:-)) when I was counting I forgot that the pawn was on g5 and I thought that after 34...Kg8 I can't crab any further material because the queen is defending the g6 square:-). In fact I just noticed that Qxh6 is the right move:-).
Well yea of course they have opening knowledge. But they don't prepare for individual opponents.
In open swiss tournaments you don't know who you're going to be playing next until 5 minutes before the round starts. Not a lot of time to examine your opponents opening repertoire and prepare a devastating novelty!