Anyone who was born before 1990 likely had the overall viewpoint that the Classical Sicilian was a bit of an odd opening, a bit harder to play than the Najdorf, but at the same time, the only critical answer that White had was the Rauzer.

The only books that I remember were Easy Guide to the Classical Sicilian by Jouni Ÿrjölä and Jussi Tella, as well as The Complete Richter-Rauzer by Viacheslav Osnos. I remember the titles and the authors' names by heart up to now.

I know that there are more Classical Sicilian publications, like Sam Shankland's LTR, as well as some Richter-Rauzer books by Yugoslav GM Zdenko Kožul, but how is the opening considered nowadays? Is it still considered a bit odd to play, since the Rauzer structures are highly unique and hard to play for both sides? Is its reputation akin to what we were told decades ago, that it is playable, but slightly less reputable than the Najdorf?

Computers find theoretical equality in the Classical Sicilian from what I have analysed by myself, but I am guessing the Rauzer doubled f-pawn structures can be a bit cumbersome to play in OTB games?

Like the title says, what are some gambits where it’s dangerous to not accept the pawn?

My favorite (as White) Alekhine-Chatard falls into this category.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4! If Black wants equality they have to take the pawn 6…Bxg5 7.hg Qxg5 8.Nh3 Qh4! etc…

Hi guys, I've been considering playing a repertoire based on the Benoni and Semi-Tarrasch for Black. I understand it's a little wonky to be playing two openings that are so different at the same time, but it seems interesting to me. I've played the Benoni for a while now, so I would not have to learn so many lines, and the Semi-Tarrasch seems more fun than people have given it credit for to be honest.

Please help me out with any lines/variations/transpositions I might be missing, cheers!

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5 4. d5 (4. Nf3 is covered by transposition below) exd5 5. cxd5 d6 gets us a Fianchetto Benoni

2. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 gets us Benoni positions without f4, i.e. we dodge the dreaded taimanov. There are some nuances because White has not committed the Knight to c3, but i don't think there are any great differences?

3. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. Nc3 d5 gets us a Semi-Tarrasch

4. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. g3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 d5 6. Bg2 e5 gets us an interesting Catalan-esque line that with a little bit of work would make me more booked up than the opponent, perchance. By transposition: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5 4. Nf3 cxd4 etc.

5. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 c5 gets us the Semi-Tarrasch

6. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 with either 4... Nxd5 for a Semi-Tarrasch position; after say 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 c5 7. Nf3, or 7. Rb1. Or alternatively 4... exd5 for a carlsbad.

7. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 with some standard Qgd.

Ofcourse there are still the alternatives for white on move 2 to play against, but those I faced after a 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 moveorder anyhow.

Since learning 1...e5 around a year ago, I only play the Berlin. Is this bad for my development as a player? If so, where should I turn to? The chigorin? I am 1700 fide for context

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I started playing the traditional 1...e5 against 1.e4, but I still don't fully understand the typical plans and ideas in the pawn structures that come from these openings.

Can anyone recommend some good books that focus on this topic? It would be a great help.

I know about the well-known book Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide, but it only covers the Ruy Lopez very little.

Thanks in advance!

I'm 2100-2200 in rapid and blitz lichess but I'm still struggling playing as black against d4. Any recommendations? Are there any free and reputable resources where I can study opening repertoire courses such as nimzo indian, QGD etc. My only weapon against d4 is reverse london set-up . Most of the time it leads pretty boring positions.

Hey everyone,

After a short break, I’m back with my monthly AMA, which I first started 1.5 years ago.

A little about me for those joining for the first time: I’m a semi-pro chess player currently competing in six national team championships and 2-3 individual tournaments each year. I became an FM at 18, and my rating has stayed above 2300 ever since, with an online peak of around 2800. I stepped back from professional chess at 20to focus on other parts of my life. At that time I started coaching part-time. I’m most proud of winning the European U12 Rapid Chess Championship.

What’s probably most unique about me is my unconventional chess upbringing. This shaped my style into something creative, aggressive, sharp, and unorthodox. My opening choices reflect this as well: I prefer rare, razor-sharp lines over classical systems, often relying on my own independent analysis. This mindset gives me a strong insight in middlegame positions, which I consider my greatest strength.

Beyond the board, I’m passionate about activities that enhance my performance in chess and life. I explore these ideas through my blog, where I share insights on how “off-board” improvements can make an improvement in your game.

I enjoy looking at tournaments and playing guess the move through games. I would like to do this with The World Youth Championships and annotate the games. However, once I have finished, I don't actually know how to use the time I spent to improve my game. Sure I can put the engine on but I don't think that helps me for strategical mistakes. Any advice?

Hey everyone, tomorrow I am playing the first game of seven of my first OTB tournament ever.

It is classical chess so I'll probably end up playing for some hours.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you!

Hi, until what ELO is it reasonable to onetrick openings in the time of modern opening prep? I'm not asking about possible, but reasonable with the aim to maximize progress.

I, as a 1700 rated player who often sends pgn games from the local team matches, noticed a pretty funny pattern in the opening choice and gameplay of some of the players there and If anyone rated 2000-2100 and above would care to explain the reasons for it or disprove the existence of such pattern, I would be really glad.

I've noticed many players from 1900-2000 up playing openings like philidor, modern defence or any other such opening that would be by some people considered "passive" or "unsound" as black such as modern or owens defence, philidor and so on, with insanely positive results against my peers, while Im out there, trying to memorise semi-slav, sicilian and symetrical systems with little to no success(Okay I give piece away by move 12 on a bad day and crush 1900 on a good one, but compared to them, I have a lot worse results).

Do you guys also play flank systems or philidor if youre higher rated, and whats your thought process behind it if you do? Why do you do it if you do, and do you think my observation could be true for larger scale of players than tje few local good ones I see here?

Thanks a lot in advance and I apologise for the wording in my post. I have insane problems to fornulate normal sentence these days but I would love to understand this

On Tuesday I'm playing against an opponent who will likely play the London System.

I'm rated 1700 Elo and I don't know how to prepare my opening: there are too many variations and I'm not sure which one to choose. d5 and a quick Bd6? King's Indian? Nf6 and c5?

What software and tools are typically used?

I am European, and I would like to travel and play some chess tournaments. I want to go to unique places (unique from my European outlook). What are India, Uzkebistan and Kazakstan like for tournaments? Costs, safety, and comfort are my main concerns. I don't care about players being underrated or anything like that, as I don't care about my rating

I was annoyed with parents lobbing the match area in tournament we have in Denmark.

I am using a game tracker which send the a small time frame around when the move happened to my cloud.

I am using it in my own chess club, the example I share below is from our friendly match, Aarslev vs Odense chess clubs.

The way it works is: https://youtube.com/shorts/y5Sw9eGkf20

Here is the recorded lichess link : https://lichess.org/dZWcxvOL

And here the game is broadcasted anyone who wants to watch it alive(shameful I was crashed in the game)
https://games.chessgaze.com/?table=%C3%85RSLEVCLUB&game=game10

I want to keep the app free but keeping stuff in my servers has a cost. That is why I am just sending 7-8 pictures around when actually a move happens instead of recording the whole game now.

My question, in tournaments what is important? Is my approach good enough or should I record the whole video as well on top of holding a small time frame around when move happens?

Is there more info that users are interested, I already run some analysis on server side for users to understand if move was good or not. And keep track how long the specific move was. Also send event whenever a illegal move happens which might be helpful to arbiter. But keep the application login free I am not asking users to type their names or anything. They just give a random board name like "board14" so users can search their names.

Alternate title for those who are annoyed at my use of aggressive - c4 vs nf3: which do you prefer?

1.Nf3

The Reti positions with 1. ...d5 2.c4 are very fun, and there’s also 2.e3 playing in a more Keymer-esque manner. You can also go for a King’s Indian attack even. Perhaps it’s more flexible than the English, but is it the more attacking of the two?

1.c4

You get the reversed Sicilian, but you also have to contend with a lot of Nf6 and symmetrical English positions. Botvinnik setups can occasionally get exciting later on with the right opening for an f-pawn push, but it’s also a lot of slower, positional play.

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As one point of comparison, take chess able - I see Jan Gustaffson has a course on Nf3 coming out soon on chess able titled “Gustafsson's Aggressive 1.Nf3: The Keymer System” - and while that may be simply advertising copy, I note that there are more courses on Nf3 in general than ones on the English, and there are several that advertise as aggressive, Canty’s Nf3 course even being labelled as “hyper-aggressive.” Again, I see this mostly as an advertising tool, but it’s not entirely fabricated either.

If anyone here has played both, particularly if you think of yourself as a more dynamic, tactical player, I'd love to hear your thoughts! I asked this a while back and I think it’s time I revisit the question, so I hope the dialogue generated here is useful for more than just myself.

Which one do you prefer?

As far as I know, the Petrov is not being played as much as the Spanish for Black, when the Petrov has always been a great 'blocking weapon' to stonewall White against 1. e4. Instead, I keep seeing all levels go for 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 as Black, and, from what I see both in the US Championships and the Olympiad, White is winning a lot of those Italian games.

Given this, why not just go for the Petrov? Are they scared of the 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 line that was super popular? Stockfish 19 shows that both 5...Nxc3 and 5...Nf6!?, often considered to be bad, are both equalisers.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Bf4 a5 10. Rd1 a4

This line will not be a secret to some of you here, since it has been played by almost all top players facing the Catalan in the past few years (Nepo, Grischuk, Le in World Rapid for starters). Also, I can see that it's not super rare in the Lichess >2200 bracket.

Usually I would prefer to write about rare lines on this sub, but I was really happy to learn about this line recently and would like to share. I don't how to put it exactly, but facing the Catalan used to be frustrating.

Besides the line I mentioned in the diagram, 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 b6 9. Ne5 Bb7 10. Rd1 Nbd7 11. cxd5 cxd5, there are also lines like 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 O-O 7.O-O c6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Bf4 b6 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Rc1 where White forces an early cxd5 cxd5 and then forces 30 boring moves of shuffling in a symmetrical structure because they have "the bishop pair" or "control of c-file" but really it's more akin to chess terrorism. It's really nice that 9..a5 solves this (with some caveats).

Now I may return to the Bb4+ Intermezzo lines again, based on the 9..a5 and 10..a4 idea, instead of the riskier tries I have been using against the Catalan. Honestly I am super out of depth with something so theoretical like the Catalan, so take what I wrote with a pinch of salt and do your own research :D

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Additional note: While Black would indeed like to delay b7-b6 as long as possible... if Black does not manage to get in a4 before White plays b3, then Black will have to meet b2-b3 with b7-b6.

Example 1: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. b3 b6

Example 2: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Bf4 a5 10. b3 b6

The reason is that White has supported c4-pawn with b2-b3, which signals their intention of Nc3 and e2-e4 next. Thus Black has to quickly play b7-b6 and Ba6 to renew the pressure on c4.

Hello!

I watched a video today from Ramesh RB and he talked about these two kinds of positions, i am 1800 fide right now 2100 online!

And i just realised i dont know any about These kinds of positions, and i want to know more!

Firstly i am looking for good resources for free or not that expensive!

I am willing to learn from books and etc.

I think this is a really important theme that i dont know yet.

Or someone who could give me example and explain it to me would be helpful!

Or any good videos.

Thanks!

I switched from Chess.com to ICC because I found it better for playing without distractions, but I wanted to know the rating equivalents. I got over 2000 in rapid games, but it's not fully defined yet because I've only played 4 games.

Anyone who is over 30 years old likely has a dogmatic belief that the Albin is += at best for Black, and absolute rubbish at worst. Nowadays, however, Black has the ridiculous resource 5. a3 g6!? in the Albin main line.

Then there is this course: The Albin Countergambit - A Revolutionary Approach for Black by Basso and Jobava.

I find it tedious to play with black against english opening.

So i got the idea to try play Morra reversed, eg 1. c4 e5 and 2. .. d5.

What do you think? Anyone tried it?

In another thread that I cannot find at this time, I saw how someone recommended playing in norm tournaments in these three countries.

Anyone who has played this year in any IM or GM norm tournaments, especially the round-robins, how was your experience?

Anyone has practical experience in this specific sideline in the Scotch? What are the middlegame plans for the two sides (Preferable for black)

I am struggling a lil bit with this move from white side.

Does anyone have some interested line or sideline which is also very practical and supported by the engine?

Have you guys noticed how all the top players now adays are in great shape? I did and at the start of the year wanted to get in better shape anyway so I started doing CrossFit consistently.

My chess has never been better

I swear to god no wonder fischer and kasparov were such killers at the board. If I do a hard sweaty workout before a tournament I feel as if I am on fire while my opponents are still waking up. I'm up nearly 300 elo this year alone as a grown ass man.

I'm not alone in thinking this. GM jesse Kirai talked about doing crossfit on the chess dojo podcast and I think he won the US seniors recently. I do not know if it is 1-1 but I have noticed a sizeable difference to my game when I eat healthy, sleep well and exercise really hard. Highly recommend it!