Flipping the Bird: Bird's Opening

I've recently begun to experiment with 1. f4 - Bird's Opening. This is a fairly unpopular opening and is somewhat disrespected due to the king being more exposed. However, it is quite playable and offers a variety of options and exciting play.

The pawn move gives white a very strong grip on e5 and supports advances on the king-side. Also, it does not immediately disclose white's intentions - allowing white flexibility in the attacking motifs:

A classical bid for central control that works great against hypermodern defenses. This is quite solid when white gets his pieces behind the pawns. White grabs space in the center, and pawns that have moved are defended. The c-pawn affords protection against a bishop on g7 or trying to pin from f8. The f-pawn is typically used to strike forward against black's kingside.

Another great setup to launch a kingside attack. White has total control over the dark squares in the center with the dark squared bishop bearing down on the kingside. The king's knight can leap forward with an attack on g5 supported by the f-pawn and the rook is ready for action once the f-pawn is out of the way.

A flexible system with great ability to shift the attack to the queenside and support white's pieces advancing. The queenside pawns help stifle any queenside attacks black may be attempting and allow the dark squared bishop free reign over the a3-c1 diagonal.

Another fairly flexible system involving a kingside fianchetto which can offer some protection to the king with a kingside pawn storm. The diagonals are opened for the queen to a4, where it is not easily dislodged, and the dark square bishop once the f-pawn is advanced or captured.

For those of you that are fans of the hippo or universal type of systems, this setup works very well. White has expanded on the flanks making a solid but passive bid for central control. Follow up would be to castle, tuck the king on the h-square, and advance both central pawns and the queen forward one square. This formation has no weaknesses and focusses on counter-attack and trying to dance the knights around to more advantageous positions. It's not terribly exciting to play, in my opinion, but does work and is a good formation when aiming for a draw or pawn and king endgame.

A strong formation for a kingside attack. Note that the king's knight has maneuvered around to b3 to avoid early exchange. The queen can move over to e1 to support a kingside pawn advance. One would typically follow up with g4, and then either f5 or g5.


There's also a few different gambits possible with this opening. Black can reply with From's Gambit in the form of 1... e5 (in which case white can play it or offer the King's Gambit). If black replies with 1... d5 white can offer up c4 with Sturm's Gambit. I intend to delve further into these in a later post.

Anyway, here's a quick game from the other night for demonstration purposes:

1. f4 Nf6

2. Nf3 Nd5

3. e3 c6

4. b3 e6

5. Bb2 h5

I begin with my development and black moves his knight twice hoping for a quick pawn snatch, but e6 puts a damper on that. I fianchetto my bishop and he opens a diagonal for his queen and bishop and pushes back on the flank.

6. Nc3 g6

7. Nxd5 exd5

8. Bxh8 Bc5

I plan on exchanging knights to double black's pawns and black makes a blunder, allowing me to take the rook.

9. Bd3 Ke7

10. Bc3 Kf8

11. f5 gxf5

12. O-O d6

Black attacks my bishop causing me to retreat it, but he has lost castling rights and has a vulnerable kingside and minimal queenside development. I push the f-pawn to pry open the kingside and black tries to get his queenside activated.

13. Nd4 Nd7

14. Qxh5 Qe7

15. Qh8#

I start maneuvering my knight forward opening the diagonal for my queen. Black blundered again when trying to activate his queen allowing for a back-rank mate.

So, as you can see, this opening is safe as white as long as you play carefully. It allows for some creative and aggressive play and a possible edge for those of you who look for the psychological factor. For those of you looking for something new - give it a try!

Flying the Pterodactyal: Defenses

As I had previously posted, I've adopted the Robatsch Defense as Black to respond to 1. e4. I've had some luck with it and came across the Pterodactyl Defense as proposed by Eric Schiller and was intrigued as it followed a similar structure. Black's first two moves involve the fianchetto of the king's bishop. The third move involves moving the pawn to c5 - usually in order to get the queen out to a5 where it applies pressure and is not easily dislodged. The c5 move works great for getting some flank control of the center.

Bringing the queen out seems to work fairly well in some cases, but not always (eg. when white doesn't advance the d-pawn). I've discovered, however, that black can get a very solid position by following up with Nc3 - making a very strong bid on the d4 square with three attackers. This feels like a great hyper-modern setup... having a pawn and knight ready to bust open the center for the bishop to control the a1-h8 diagonal!

I'm sure that Mr. Schiller does cover this variation and that this is a version of the Sicilian Defense. I've found that I really enjoy this setup - often with the fianchetto, one can run into a bind, blocking a bishop when doing a 5-6 pawn advance in the center. By displacing that pawn structure just over to the wing, you leave the bishops open allowing for some great development and counter-attacking opportunity.

Here's a game that I just played last evening:

1. e4 g6
2. f4 Bg7
3. Nf3 c5

White has opened up building his pawn center and bringing out his king's knight. The knight gives great center control and kingside defense, and by advancing the f-pawn first he's made a strong grab on the king-side. From what I've seen, a number of people seem to think moving the f-pawn is a weak move as it's a naturally weak pawn and weakens the kingside defense. I disagree, however, in that it allows for an aggressive kingside assault later on. While white developed towards the kingside, I open with the bid for control over the long diagonal.

4. Bc4 Nc6
5. O-O Nf6

White brings out the bishop, attacking my weak f7 square. I notice that his e-pawn is left undefended, so I bring out the knight for the attack.

6. f5 Nxe4
7. fxg6 hxg6
8. d3 Nf6

He surprised me by moving his f-pawn forward to attack my kingside pawns. I hadn't castled yet, so figured I would punch back with my knight and let him open my h-file for the rook.

9. Nc3 d5
10. Bb5 Qd6

He made a developing move with his knight, and I threatened his bishop. My possession of the square was safe, having the knight and queen to back up the move. It kicked his bishop - trying to pin my knight to the king. I brought my queen up to protect the knight and to attack the weak h2 square.

11. Bd2 Ng4
12. Qc1 Bd4+
13. Kh1 Rxh2+

I was then able to leap in to the attack with my knight. This gave me a knight, rook, and queen all attacking the h2 square, along with my light squared bishop aimed in that direction. His best chance was likely to try and block the diagonal by maneuvering his knight on c3 into the way, however he followed up with trying to align his bishop and queen to tear into the kingside. This wasn't an issue to worry about since I had my bishop, knight, and rook guarding the entry in. It was just a matter of me pressing forward with the attack and he resigned, seeing that I would mate in one more move.

So, in all, I was quite pleased with how this defense plays out - the pieces seem to coordinate well together and present a great opportunity to bust things open at the right time.

Scholars vs. Robots

Godzilla vs. King Kong...
Cowboys vs. Aliens...
Ninjas vs. Pirates...
Caveman vs. Astronaut...

The debates have raged on since the beginning of time.
I bring to you now... Scholars vs. Robots.

Okay... well it's really the Scholar's Mate Opening vs. the Robatsch Defense. And maybe it does technically transpose into a sort of Pirc. And it turns out it really isn't a fair fight. But the name is pretty damned catchy!

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Scholar's Mate. For those of you that aren't, white will open with e4 to bring out his bishop to c4 and his queen to either f3 or h5. Both pieces are aimed at black's weak f7 square (defended by just the king initially). If black doesn't play carefully, it's just a couple of moves for white to checkmate.

I was victim to a Scholar's Mate a few months ago when I first started playing. I kicked myself afterwards as I was familiar with it, but it was a good lesson in humility and paying attention. Now, it is a perfectly fair opening and a good teaching tool, but there's a lot of people out on the net playing this for a quick way to boost their ratings against newer players. They also tend to offer fairly hefty bets up front too.

I don't play by the rules, however...
If black plays smartly, he will be at a huge advantage. If you take note of the number of attackers vs. defenders for a square, and make developing moves that threaten him you should have no problem taking the battle to his front yard.

Game 1:

1. e4 g6
2. Bc4 Nf6 (the signal that he's trying a scholar's mate)
3. Nh3 Nxe4 (he's looking to bring the knight down to g5 for an extra attacker on f7... I munch on a pawn)
4. Qf3 Nd6 (he's not giving up on this... I can support the weak square with my knight)
5. Bd5 e6 (I guess he ran out of tricks... hey - free attack)
6. Bb3 Nc6 (he runs away and I develop - knights and pawns are excellent queen hunters this early on)
7. d3 Nd4 (I develop and push his queen)
8. Qe3 N6f5 (see above)
9. Qe5 Bg7 (same thing)
10. Qf4 Bh6 (he was gracious enough to skewer his queen and bishop)
11. Qe5 f6 (do you see a theme?)
12. He offered a draw.
13. I laughed.
14. He offered to reduce the bet.
15. I laughed more.
16. He disconnected.

Game 2:

1. e4 g6
2. Bc4 Nf6 (sigh... here we go again...)
3. Qf3 Nc6 (yep... I'll just develop and protect)
4. c3 Ne5 (guess he ran out of ideas... I'll just have to start the dance)
5. Qf4 Nxc4 (chow time)
6. b3 e5 (I'll trade you a knight for a queen)
7. Qf3 Nb6
8. Bb2 d5
9. h3 dxe4 (he's making it too easy)
10. Qe2 Nbd5 (getting into position)
11. c4 Nf4 (position gotten into)
12. Qf1 Nd3+ (hail to the king, baby!)
13. Ke2 Nxb2 (chow time, round 2)
14. f3 Nh5 (well... if you're gonna make me an outpost...)
15. Qe1 Qd3+ (queen check, double defended)
16. Kf2 Bc5+ (I'm getting disappointed that I might not get to castle here...)
17. Qe3 Bxe3+ (ahh... dessert!)
18.  dxe3 Qd1 (like I care...)
19. g4 Nd3+
20. Kg2 Qe1 (mate is just around the corner)
21. He offered a draw.
22. I laughed.
23. He offered to reduce the bet.
24. I laughed more.
25. He disconnected.

Interesting how they play the same endgame, eh?
Guess they better go get their school money back!

Black plays an early ... d5? in The English

I played another English Opening today and was surprised by my opponent's response to 1. c4. He replied back with 1... d5. As far as I know, this is a rather weak move, and there's no decent lines that follow this gambit. I had played my opponent previously, and he's fairly decent, so I think he must have been unfamiliar with the English or perhaps just trying something out. The whole point of the early d5 by black is to recapture with his queen, but it just leaves her open to being chased around.

1. c4 d5
2. cxd5 Qxd5
3. Nc3 Qd7

As mentioned, he offered up his d-pawn to take back and get rapid development of his queen. Unfortunately, this doesn't work since the knight can be brought up to attack to queen forcing her to retreat.

4. d4 Nc6
5. d5 Nb4
6. a3 Na6

I pushed forward to grab the center with my d-pawn and he brought out his queen's knight. This was another mistake he made - allowing me to advance the d-pawn, backed up by my queen, to attack his knight. He moved it out of the way, but allowed me to chase it into a corner with my a-pawn. Much stronger would have been for him to try and grab e5 with it.

7. e4 e6
8. Nf3 exd5
9. Nxd5 c6

I made a few developing moves - grabbing the center with my e-pawn and bring out the other knight. He took my d-pawn and I took back with my knight supported by the e-pawn.

10. Bxa6 cxd5
11. Ne5 Qd6
12. Bb5+ Ke7

I took his knight with my bishop. I was expecting him to take the bishop back and double up his pawns, but he surprised me by taking my knight in the center. I was able to land my knight on e5, further attacking his queen. He brought his queen down, forking my knight and bishop, but wasn't able to back it up as I dodged with my bishop by checking the king. He had no choice but to start bringing his king into the center (Kd8 leaves the king and rook open to being forked by the knight).

13. Bf4 Qc5
14. Ba4 dxe4
15. Rc1 Qa5+

I brought out my bishop to support the center knight and he went after my bishop with his queen. I still had a defended square to retreat through though to be able to hold the diagonal. He had very little hold on the center with both his queen and king exposed. I brought my rook out to further limit the scope of the queen and he retreated her over to the side, checking my king.

16. b4 Qa6
17. Rc7+ Ke6

I attacked her with my b-pawn, causing her to yet again retreat. This allowed me to take control of the 7th rank with my rook - a rook on the 7th is a huge advantage!

18. Bb3+ Kf5
19. Qg4+ Kf6
20 Rxf7#

After that, it was just a simple matter of repeatedly checking his king into checkmate!

I had put up a post last month about the dangers of early queen development. As is evidenced here, it is a very risky strategy leaving her to be chased around while your opponent gets to develop!

Working on my defenses: Robatsch Defense

So, as a new player to the game, one of the things I've been working on is trying to develop an opening repertoire that fits my style. I've been quite happy as white with opening with The English (1. c4) but have been bouncing around with different setups for black to see what works for me.

For playing against 1. e4 I did some research/trialing on a few different systems. The open games (responding 1... e5) don't really appeal to me. I tried the French and had decent luck with it, but found the position to be very restrictive with the blocked in bishop. I fooled around just a bit with the Caro-Kann, but my opponents wouldn't oblige and play the main lines. I played with the Philodor a bit (playing the e5 first to see if I could get into the falkbeer countergambit and then the philodor as a backup) but found it just as restrictive as the French. The Sicilian I sort of stayed away from due to the vast depth of theory. Playing e6 and a queenside fianchetto was working okay for me, but I wanted to go with something a bit more aggressive.

I read through Yasser Seirwan's Winning Chess Openings and was really intrigued with his thoughts on the Pirc Defense. The only thing I found a bit restrictive was having the knight blocking the bishop. It often ended up that it held me back from making a really strong move. It's been said that with chess one often thinks "if only I could make two moves in a row...". How true!

I did a bit more research into kingside fianchetto openings and came across The Robatcsh Defense. It's often called The Modern, and very often confused with The Pirc. They share a similar structure and the Robatcsh can very easily transpose into the Pirc if of benefit.

The basic philosophy behind the Robatsch (and other defenses of similar structure) is that white will expand his territory with a strong pawn center, and black will align his pieces around it for an unbalanced counter attack. White commits himself to an aggressive structure, and black retains flexibility.

The basic opening is:
1... g6
2... Bg7 (fianchettoing the bishop to control the h8-a1 diagonal)
3... d6 (preventing white from advancing with e5)

Black delays playing the king's knight so as not to block off the powerful bishop with Nf6. Nf6 however is a very strong defender of the h-file though! As such, you may have to play it eventually if required, or one can try defending by advancing the h-pawn to protect against a quick coordinated strike by white's queen and knight (I got quickly mated a few times before figuring this out, lol). The king's knight will fit nicely at Ne7 protecting the center and making room for a castling. This means the e-pawn must be moved forward, which can get in the way of black's light squared bishop initially if moved to e6.

Although black maintains great flexibility, he will have to time the counter-attack right or get steamrolled if white knows what he is doing. This means that black must pay very, very close attention to the number of defenders and attackers on white's pieces and be prepared to strike out when at an advantage.

Anyway, to illustrate some of these principles here's a game from the other night:

1. e4 g6
2. d4 Bg7
3. Nf3 d6
4. Bc4 c6

White opened up with a pretty standard two pawn center with developing his knight and bishop. I replied back with the standard Robatsch Defense. White had both his e-pawn and light squared bishop hanging, which gave me an idea for how to move forward on the queen-side.

5. O-O b5
6. Bb3 e6
7. a3 Ne7
8. Re1 Nd7

White castled and I thrust my b-pawn forward to kick his bishop back and cause him to lose some tempo. I then advanced my e-pawn to e6 to let me bring my knights into the center and castle. White advanced his a-pawn to defend on the queenside and brought his rook out to bear down on the center and protect the e-pawn.

9. Bg5 O-O
10. h3 c5

He then brought out his dark squared biship to pin my knight to my queen, I castled, he made a luft for his king, and I thrust out in the center with my c-pawn.

11. dxc5 Nxc5
12. Ba2 Bxb2
13. Bxe7 Qxe7
14. Nc3 Bxc3

He took the bait of taking my c-pawn, not wanting to lose his center. This let me take back with my knight, attacking his bishop again. More importantly, it opened up the diagonal for me to trap and attack his rook. He tried to punch back by threatening my queen and rook but it was just a simple recapture for me. His only option to get some minimal compensation for his rook was to get his knight out of the way to let his queen recapture. He did move his knight to the wrong square, allowing me to first capture it and then fork the rooks. Either way though, at best he was going to be down a rook for a knight in material. When he realised his mistake at this point, white resigned (I would have prefered to play it out a bit more first).

Anyway, as you can see, although black starts off in a fairly passive manner, this opening provide some great flexibility with how black chooses to develop and some great counter-attacking opportunity if one can orchestrate and time the offensive well.

And they say the English isn't sharp...

As I've mentioned I've been a big fan of the English Opening and am using 1. c4 as my main opening move. You get a solid anchor to exert pressure/control over the middle, it's not easily/effectively threatened immediately, and it retains a flexible position.

I was away this week on work, but managed to play a few games at the hotel during the evening. My record was pretty much 50-50 as I'm fooling around with trying to get a better feel for some black systems that interested me. The games were all played with a 2-minute limit per move - enough to do some thinking, but not deep calculation (for me at this stage in my career, anyway) so it takes on a bit of an intuitive theme.

Looking around on some boards, it seems the English has a reputation for being highly positional and not very sharp. I disagree as I find it to be a very flexible system that incorporates as much of an element as you wish it to.

Anyway, here we go to the game (against a higher rated opponent at 1515):

1. c4 Nf6
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. g3 b6
4. Bg2 d5

I open up fighting for control of d5 and e4, while not committing anything too much. My opponent used a double knight opening to keep his options open, moved the b-pawn for a fianchetto should he choose to, and then tried to occupy the d5-square. Doing a quick simplified analysis shows that I have 3 attackers on that square (pawn, knight, and bishop) and my opponent has only 2 defenders (knight and queen), so I decided to take.

5. cxd5 Nb4
6. e4 e6


My opponent realised that he would lose if he fought back for that square, and so moved his knight to a potential forking square. I then thrust a pawn into the center to support the advanced d-pawn. Looking back on this now, I missed a much stronger move - Qa4, forking the unprotected knight and the queen. I'm kicking myself for that right now, but hey - that's what time pressure does.

7. Qe2 exd5
8. exd5+ Be7

I'm still mulling over this move. I left myself open to a knight fork of my king and rook, but saw an opportunity for expanding control in the center. At the time, I figured I would give it a go and sacrifice the rook while his knight becomes dimly placed afterwards and I can thrust out with the counter-attack.

9. d6 cxd6
10. Bxa8 Bf5
11. Bg2 Nc2+
12. Kd1 Nxa1

I opened a line for my bishop to spear the rook. Looking back again, I could have made the intermediate move of Qa5+, forking the knight and king, instead of immediately taking the rook. He finally brought his knight in to take my rook. Comparing positions at this point, I feel that I'm at an advantage. I have a bishop controlling the long diagonal, a queen with three open lines, and a decent pawn structure. His knight, although in my territory, isn't doing much at the moment, and he only has one bishop exerting influence in my region. My bishop is the only unprotected piece, while he has and undefended rook, bishop, knight, and two pawns, and a decimated queen-side. I noticed a pretty impressive tactical opportunity to take!

13. Qb5+  Qd7
14. Bc6 Bc2+

I was happy to see that he decided to defend his king with his queen as he was looking for counterplay with his bishop in my zone. This allowed me to explore the power of the pin!

15. Ke1 Bd3
16. Bxd7+ Nxd7
17. Qxd3 Ne5

At first I was worried that this had just led to our queens taking each other's bishops, but the power of the pin shone through. I took his queen, checking his king, which limited his moves, thus allowing me to take his bishop as well. We traded bishops and I got a queen for free. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

18. Qb5+ Nd7
19. Nf3 O-O
20. Qxd7 Nc2+
21. Kd1 Nd4
22. Qxe7 Nxf3

I missed trapping and taking his knight with Qb1. It would have been for free. I put my queen on the king hunt and developed the lazy knight. He pinned himself to allow a castling. It left his knight hanging which allowed me to scoop it up, while he made a check that he couldn't back up. I moved my king in to attack his knight. He moved it out of the way, attacking my knight. This gave me a choice to make - take his knight and let his bishop get away, or take his bishop and lose my knight. I spent nearly my whole move time limit thinking this one through and decided that since things were opening up, that his bishop was of more value and needed to be taken out.

23. Qxa7 Nd4
24. Qxb6 Nf5
25. Re1 h6
26. Qc6 Kh7

With a time limit I figured it was smarter to play practically instead of trying to get a fancy, but risky checkmate pattern going. I started chowing down on pawns and he maneuvered his knight to put a stop to it. This meant it was time to bring out my rook and get my queen into position. He made a luft for his king and was getting ready to run.

27. Re8 Nd4
28. Qd7 Rh8
29. Rxh8+ Kxh8

He tried to get his knight involved but my queen just dodged him. We exchanged rooks which increased my material advantage ratio. At this point I had a nice, simple, and safe pawn march end game that he was powerless to stop it.

30. Qxd6 Nf5
31. Qb8+ Kh7
32. b4 g5
33. b5 h5
34. b6 h4
35. g4 Ne7
36. b7 Nc6
37. Qc7 Nd4
38. b8=Q Nf3
39. Qxf7+ Kh6
40. Qh8#

All in all, I was happy with the game. There were no significant blunders and I think we both played well enough (although there was room for improvement for sure). His biggest mistake was in allowing his queen to be pinned to his king and I was able to capitalise on that. Either way though, at that point he was in a tough position to defend.

As I was saying, the English Opening offers a lot of flexibility with how you choose to play. In this game, we have some great examples of piling on attackers, pins, forks, discovered checks/attacks, and sacrifice, along with strategic positioning. Pretty exciting if you ask me!

Playing the Catalan

I've found myself to be a big fan of the English Opening. I like having that pawn anchor on c4 and the flexibility the system provides. I played a game the other night and it transposed into a Catalan Opening. (I'm not sure if it specifically is that opening, but the setup for me, as white, was the same). I was pleased to see that it opened up that way. The Catalan was an opening that I've been interested in. I don't know what it is exactly, but something with the setup intuitively appeals to me.

1. c4 Nf6
2. g3 Nc6
3. d4 e6

I started with the English Opening, preparing the kingside fianchetto, but noticed with black's second move, I could make a bid for some center space by playing d4.

4. Bg2 d5
5. Nf3 Bb4+
6. Nc3 Bxc3+
7. bxc3 O-O

I completed my setup and black brought out his bishop, forcing my knight into a pin. Looking back, I should have seen it coming and perhaps have played an early a3 to keep the bishop away, instead of exchanging and doubling my pawns.

8. Ba3 Ne4
9. Bxf8 Qxf8
10. Qc1 dxc4

Fortunately, it left a line open for my bishop to spear his rook. I suspect he must have missed seeing that. I then bumped my queen over to avoid his knight forking her and the rook. My king could have taken the knight, but castling rights would have been lost.
11. O-O b5
12. Ne5 Nxe5
13. Bxe4 Rb8
14. dxe5 Qc5

I then castled and set my knight up to lure his off the diagonal of my bishop. He obliged and took my knight with his, which allowed me to take his other knight, forcing him to move his rook out of jeopardy and allowing me to take his other knight with my pawn.

15. Rd1 Ba6
16. Qf4 Qe7
17. Rab1 Qa3

I then took command of the open and semi-open files with my rook, and slid my queen over to help protect my center which was hanging. I'm not sure what he was up to... he stuck his bishop behind a pawn, and lost some time with jogging his queen.

18. Rd7 Rf8
19. Rxc7 Qa5
20. Rxa7 Qb6

This allowed me to lift up my rook to the 7th rank and start busting up pawns. It's often said that a rook on the 7th can be deadly, and two on the 7th is usually deciding.

21. Qh4 h6
22. Qe7 Bc8

He had been bringing his pieces back to try and regroup to get my rook out of there. I slid my queen over to the h-file to have two attacks (queen and bishop) on his h-pawn. He noticed my plan and moved his pawn, but I was able to sneak my queen up to the 7th as well.

23. a4 Ba6
24. axb5 Bc8
25. Bg6 Qd8
26. Bxf7+ Kh8

I was able to bring my bishop around to have three pieces, all attacking the f-pawn which was protected only by a rook and his king. He had all of his pieces on defense, but being a full rook behind was severely disadvantaged.

27. b6 h5
28. Qxd8 Rxd8
29. b7 Bxb7
30. Rbxb7 Rf8

I traded queens - being up in material it puts the material ratio in my favour. I was also able to lure his bishop to be taken by my rook by threatening pawn promotion.

31. Bxe6 Re8
32. Bxc4

At this point I had a bishop and two rooks to his one, and a few more pawns. He tried to chase my bishop and I just kept dodging by taking his remaining pawns. At this point, black resigned.

I think I found what it was that was appealing to me about this position. It reminds me of a boxer... ready to deliver a devastating 1-2 combo!

Gambitting along

I just played another interesting game as black today.

White opened up with:

1. e4 e6

e6 has been my standard defensive reply as black. I usually follow up with a queenside fianchetto. It's not necessarily the strongest response, but I've found it to be very flexible as it's conservative with the pawn structure, and opens lines for development. I like having the queenside fianchetto with that bishop bearing down on the kingside. However, white surprised me by pushing the pawn early with:

2. e5...

Now I haven't studied the Scandanavian Opening in much depth, but this did seem to offer a similar opportunity, but I thought I would sneak in an extra attack first.

2. ... Nc6
3. d4 d6
4. Nf3 dxe5

White declined my pawn by developing his knight to add an extra defender, so I scooped up the pawn. His defending pawn was pinned to his queen - meaning that if he used it I could exchange queens and force him to lose castling rights.

5. Nxe5 Qxd4

He took the pawn back and I scooped up another one - my queen defended by my knight.

6. Nxc6 Qe4+
7. Be3 Qxc6

I could have taken his queen, but saw that I could get a free knight with a double attack.

8. Nc3 Bb4

He brought out his knight which allowed me to pin it to the king with my bishop. I don't like parting with my bishops, but the exchange (bishop-knight) is equal value plus I get to wreck his pawn structure.

9. Qd3 Nf6
10. a3 BxC3+
11. bxc3 O-O

I wasn't sure what he was up to bringing his queen out, so I figured I should get ready to castle. They often say to "castle early, castle often", but I've found that there tends to be an optimal time that comes at a critical point in the game to make that decision. He tried to kick my bishop with his a-pawn, so I took the knight and doubled his pawns.

12. f3 Nd5
13. Bd4 e5
14. Bxe5 Re8

White started his advance on the kingside. I didn't have strong move in mind, so I figured I would move my knight to the centre laying down some pressure. He moved his bishop which gave me an interesting opportunity. I advanced my e-pawn attacking it - offering it up for him to take which allowed me to pin his bishop with my rook.

15. f4 Nxf4
16. Qd4 Nxg2+
17. Bxg2 Qxg2

He made a mistake by advancing his f-pawn to protect the bishop and left it hanging for my knight to take. My knight then leapt to the attack to devastate the kingside structure. I lost it to the bishop but my queen had his back. White was left with a wreaked pawn structure and exposed king.

18. Rg1 Rxe5+
19. Qxe5 Qxg1+

He was hoping to take my queen, but by taking his bishop I put him in check forcing him to take with his queen off the same diagonal as his rook allowing me to take it.

20. Kd2 Qf2+
21. Qe2 Qf4+
22. Ke1 Bh3

I was close to getting licked. I had to put him in check and keep the initiative as he had a possible bank rank mater brewing on me. After a little dancing and getting my queen safe I could bring out my bishop - freeing my rook and blocking a potential escape square or two for the king.

23. Rb1 Qh4+
24. Kd2 Qg5+
25. Ke1 Qg1+
26. Kd2 Rd8+

He made a useless move with his rook. It would have been better to bring it up to his king for protection. I danced around a little more and pushed him into a skewer of the rook through the king. I was just about to take it, but noticed that I could bring my rook out which would force an exchange of that rook for his queen first. At this point he resigned.

This was definitely a stressful game. He made a couple of mistakes, I was able to use them to my advantage. I think in part that I got lucky that I didn't miss anything too significant. I definitely feel much more comfortable playing the quieter games, but this certainly was exciting!

Danger of the Queen Raid

I just played at game this morning (as white) on yahoo against an opponent rated at 1360. I think it was interesting in how it demonstrates the dangers of developing the queen too early. My opponent was trying to play aggressively by bringing his queen out earlier than typical which left it open to being chased around and exchanged off the board...

1. c4 e5
2. e3 Nf6
3. g3 d5
4. Nc3 d4
5. exd4 Qxd4
I started with the English Opening. My first three moves were pawn moves that opened up lines for development and left me in a flexible position. He then made a bid for the center with a push of the d-pawn. I scooped it up after a developing move and wasn't expecting him to take it back with his queen.

6. Nge2 Qxc4
7. Bg2 Bc5
8. Qa4+ Qxa4
9. Nxa4 Bd6
10. O-O O-O
I obliged him with chasing his queen around. Looking back I think 6. Nf3 would have been stronger by limiting the queen more, but at the time I had an interest in controlling f4 and d4. I then fianchetto'd to gain a stronger hold on the center before forcing an exchange of the queens. I wasn't too concerned about losing mine in the exchange if it was a piece that he favoured heavily. At the end of the exchange, I feel that I was in a better position development-wise - his queenside is pretty much inactive and his bishops aren't on the best diagonals.

11. d4 c6
12. Re1 e4
13. Bf4 Bb4
14. Red1 Re8
15. Nec3 b5
I then made a push for center occupation with the d-pawn, defended by my knight on Ne2. I then slid my rook behind my knight (for defense and possible discovered attack later) and got my bishop out on the f4 square. He went after my rook with his bishop... I should have seen that coming, but I managed to interpose my knight which was defended. I'm good with losing a knight for a bishop when things are starting to open up.

16. Nc5 Bg4
17. Re1 Rd8
18. N5xe4 Bxc3
19. bxc3 Nxe4
20. Bxe4 Bd7
He was attacking my knight with his b-pawn, but made a great little outpost for me to jump to. He attacked my rook with his bishop, forcing me to move it and then he eyed his rook down on my d-pawn. I wasn't too concerend - I took out his central e-pawn with my outposted knight. He couldn't take the square back without loosing that knight, and he took my other knight with his bishop. Good with me - as I said I like bishops for knights as things are opening up, and he was looking to remove a defender of e4. He took it with his knight, but my fianchetto'd bishop nailed him.

21. Re3 a5
22. Rae1 Na6
23. d5 cxd5
24. Bxd5 Ra7
25. Re7 Rf8
I then made a rook lift so that I could later double up on them. He was trying something on the flank. I then pushed my d-pawn up more attacking his c-pawn and opening things up for the bishop pair to spear his rook if I got a chance. I then parked my rook on the 7th... always a good place to sit.

26. Be3 Rc7
27. Bb6 Rcc8
28. Rxd7 Rxc3
29. Rxf7 Rxf7
30. Re8#

I then chased his rook with my bishops to get him to move to the back rank so I could take his bishop. When his rook took c3, it was game over!