What do I want to reach with my new opening repertoire? In the first place, I want a direction to my actions.
Floundering around
For years, I played my openings by means of chance. Since I can learn pretty quick a bunch of variations, I usually can replace a repertoire within a few weeks. I have done this so many times in the past. But the problem with variations is, that they will hit sooner or later the end of the variation. Black is slightly better. Now what? If you can't answer that question, you might as well rephrase the question with: So what?
Feedback
By choosing a direction for my actions, I create the possibility for feedback. If you don't know what you want to achieve, you have no way to judge whether you achieved it. In fact, the direction you choose initially, doesn't matter all that much. Since feedback should guarantee that you correct your direction along the way. Hence I will not hesitate to stretch matters to the brink of absurdity. The fastest way to end up in the middle is to test the extremes first.
Initial direction
So what initial direction shall I choose? An opening should lead to a certain type of middlegame. Aox provided me with a bunch of papers about the middlegame. That will be my main direction. Nimzowitsch wrote about centralization. That will be my practical guide. Further media:
- DVD FM Storey The Sniper!
- DVD FM Storey The White Sniper
- Videos GM Ron Henley about the Sniper
Saving time
An important reason for choosing a direction, is that it saves time. Big time. Without direction, you can think about a move until the cows come home. If you have no goal, you cannot know if you have reached it. For me that used to mean that I always ended up in time trouble. Now I chase a goal, I play much faster.
Practical matters
There are many ways to play an opening. There is no absolute right way. Hence I will not try to find the best moves. Good enough moves will do. If you stick out your c5 pawn early in the game as black, you might well end up with a majority in the center, once your c pawn is traded for his d pawn. From that moment on, you created an extra possibility: you can trade pieces and enter an endgame. Trying to convert the central pawn majority into a win.
His system
Nimzowitsch' system tells us how to treat a center:
- restraint
- blockade
- destroy
Great blog. Really enjoy it. You mention papers on the middlegame in your post above. Are you able to give some examples. Always want to learn sound middlegame theory. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteD
Temposchlucker wrote (in response to a comment by Aox):
ReplyDeleteThen I play the HAD
1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 g6
3.d4 cxd4
Already in this position we can begin using PoPLoAFun to guide our move choices. Obviously, d4 is the only significant PoP at the moment, and the long diagonal (a1-h8) is the LoA.
White now has to decide what direction to take the game. He can try to take advantage of the move order to get his Queen in the center with a threat by recapturing on d4 with 4. Qxd4, threatening the Rh8. A more-or-less “forced” sequence ensues: 4. … Nf6 [close to an “only move”] 5. e5 Nc6 [“only move”] 6. Qa4 Nd5 [“only move”] 7. Qe4 [getting the Queen back into the center] Ndb4 8. Bb5 Bg7 9. a3 Na6.
Chess Tempo Database indicates that Black has increased chances for a draw, but not a win in this variation: W=25%;D=75%;B=0% - 4 games. (4 games are not statistically significant, IMHO.)
I think I would try to find a different variation earlier, if trying to win with Black.
Theory says:
Delete1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 g6
3.d4 cxd4
4.Qxd4
2. ... g6 allows the retake with the queen but avoids the real buzzkill Bb5 for the dynamic ambitious black player.
4. ... Nf6
5.e5 Nc6
6.Qa4 Nd5
7.Qe4 Nb6!
Nb4 is refuted 10 years ago by Sutovsky.
The knight is less vulnerable on b6 than on b4. It is well placed to deter white's Bc4. White has to be extremely accurate to not immediately be worse. There are a lot of ways to go astray for him.
But actually I wrote this post to get away from the seducing variations, and to introduce the spirit of the center-inspired-opening. If you take away most pieces from the board after move 7, an unbalanced endgame is left over, where black has the majority in the center and has good chances to play for a win.
DeleteThe pawn majority comes at a cost for black: he has less space. So any trade will relief the pressure from black, and make his majority more import. It is about trading the right pieces and getting the center rolling.
"Before the endgame the gods have placed the middlegame." - Tarrasch
ReplyDeleteThe older "classical" openings fit together nicely with "general principles" of opening play which were made explicit by Steinitz and others of that generation (Tarrasch, Lasker and Capablanca). The Hypermoderns challenged those "general principles" (and the exponents of them). The Soviet School combined the Hypermodern viewpoint and Alekhine's dynamic style of play into the "concrete" way of playing. One of the important things that allows "modern" openings to be played (and to thus be playable) is an immediate focus on concrete variations and "plans" from the very first move. This modern emphasis on concrete variations is the thesis of IM John Watson's seminal book Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances since Nimzowitsch as well as GM Mihai Suba's Dynamic Chess Strategy.
I'll try to refrain from enumerating "seducing variations" in future comments. I look forward to your ruminations on these openings.