The Queen’s Gambit is white’s most popular response to the Symmetrical Queen’s Pawn Opening, and the most popular pawn “sacrifice” in chess opening theory by far. C4 helps white fight for a space advantage in the center, which is a key component of the Opening Principles. The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. There is a large body of theory regarding how the game should be played in each of these phases, especially the opening and endgame. Those who write about chess theory, who are often also eminent players, are referred to as 'theorists' or 'theoreticians'. D4 openings tend to be more forgiving than 1. E4 openings so far as traps are concerned. Pieces should be mobilized quickly, but it is less common for a natural-looking move to lead to a sudden demise, in contrast to several 1. E4 traps such as the Philidor Defense, Hanham Variation.
How much opening theory does the average chess player really need to know? Certainly nowhere near the amount book publishers tell us we need to know. Before you opening theory purists start screaming “what does some aged, long in the tooth guitar player who spent most of his career in a Bacchus induced stupor know.
The Sicilian defence is undoubtedly the most popular opening in modern chess, to such an extent that it makes up a quarter of all games in the Chess Informant database. It is the most successful of all Black's defences to 1.e4, although this success has resulted in the opening accumulating a large body of opening theory. First analysed by Italian players in the 16th century, the Sicilian was considered an unorthodox opening throughout the 19th century, and even into the 20th century as 1.e4 e5 and 1.d4 d5 remained the most popular way to open the game. It wasn't until the 1940s and 1950s, when many dynamic openings such as the King's Indian were being explored, that the Sicilian defence took centre stage. Since then, its popularity has never declined.
Games starting with the Sicilian defence are divided into two broad categories - the Open Sicilians, where white plays a quick Nf3 and d4 and attempts to open the position to take advantage of Black's slow development (as the move 1... c5 does nothing to help develop Black's pieces), and the Anti-Sicilians, which consist of various other systems played by White to avoid the huge amount of theory associated with the Open Sicilian. In this tutorial, we will be looking at the Open Sicilian, while the Anti-Sicilians will be covered separately.
The Najdorf Variation
Although such a hugely complicated opening as the Najdorf could never be covered adequately in 20 games, never mind two, these examples should illustrate the cutthroat attacks that can arise.
J. Polgar vs Gelfand, Novgorod 1996
De Vreugt vs Naiditsch, Corus B, Wijk aan Zee 2003
The Dragon Variation
Here are some examples of attack and counter attack in the Sicilian Dragon from master play.
Byrne vs Ciocaltea, Hastings 1972
Whitehead vs Miles, Lone Pine 1980
The Sveshnikov Variation
Here are some examples of the tactical chaos that can arise in the Sveshnikov.
Anand vs Z. Polgar, Munich 1991
Milos vs Krasenkow, FIDE World Championship, Tripoli 2004
Chess Opening Theory Youtube
The Taimanov Variation
Here are some grandmaster games to illustrate how play can develop in the Taimanov variation.
Kryvoruchko vs Vaibhav, Abu Dhabi 2015
Naiditsch vs Nisipeanu, European Championship, Warsaw 2005
Chess Opening Theory Pdf
The first few moves in the chess opening lays the foundation for every chess game. Most of the chess openings have been named and analyzed for hundreds of years. It is important if you want to be successful in chess to be familiar with some of the most popular openings and understand the theory behind the moves. In this section we cover everything you need to know about the most popular chess openings. The boards below will let you know if the opening is offensive or defensive. Once you find the opening you want, click to watch an in depth video and see some of the famous chess games that have been played using that opening.
Many beginners ask what they should study first. While it’s important to understand concepts more than memorizing moves of a particular opening there are a few specific openings that all chess players should start with because they are so widely played. For white, a player should first learn the King’s Gambit, Queen’s Gambit, Ruy Lopez and the English. For black, a player should first learn the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, Scandinavian, and the Slav.
It’s important for any chess player to figure out what type of strategy they like to play. Each opening has a very different play style. Once someone determines what type of game they like to play they can then learn other openings that lead to those type of games.
Chess Opening Theory Table
If you would like to filter the openings by a specific move you can click the move below: