So today, I will look at the Evan's Gambit. This is probably one of my favorite openings of all time. Not only is it super agressive, but it results in a very sharp game and usually is very short. As you could imagine, like all openings, the Evan's Gambit (Created by Sailor Evans (Random fact lol)) has many lines that could be played. You just need to know a few things.
1. It results from the Italian Game Giuco Piano Variation which I will go over after this part
2. It is scored better than the main lines, so you should always deploy it.
Things you need to know for the actual game:
1. This opening revolves around attacking the weak square, F7
2. Stop the opponent from castling kingside. This means have your black bishop on a3 usually
3. Have your Queen on B3. It supports the bishop on C4
4. Have your bishop on c4 (It should already be there)
5. Remember: DO NOT LET YOUR OPPONENT CASTLE
I actually will finish this later.
Eric
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Side Note
Just as a side note, if any of you notate your games like Elise, and you want me to analyze them and tell you what you could have done better, then e-mail me your games at eric.zuberi@gmail.com. If you want me to go over a different opening as well, I would gladly tell you what you need to know and I would probably make a post to the blog about it as well. good luck with your games. Anyone from the LaSalle Chess Team who goes to the tournaments (Which is everyone) should notate your games so that we can look at them and see what you need to work on so that you can improve yourself. Good luck with your games again and I would really like to hear some comments about my posts and what I should do to improve them
Italian Game Part 1 or 3
Hey Guys,
I decided to have some fun today and look at the Italian Game trap for Black. It is called the Blackmar-Schilling Gambit or as I call it "instantaneous death" Lol. Well this is how it goes.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Nd4 (this leaves the pawn hanging and open to kill)
If the knight takes the "Free" pawn then Black has the brilliant move Qg5
4. Nxp Qg5
5. Nxf7 Qxg2
there are multiple options here. The knight can take the rook if it wanted to, the rook can move to f1 so that it is defended. Both of these instantly lose.
Lets look at Rf1 first
6. Rf1 Qxe4+
7. Now either the bishop blocks or the queen blocks. If the bishop blocks then you have Nf3 checkmate. If the queen blocks then you can play NxQ winning your opponents queen.
Now we look at if the knight takes the rook. Now you play QxR+. Your opponent has to play Ke2. Then you play Qxe4+ and then the king has to go to f1 and then you play Qh1 checkmate.
This is a lot of fun. I am not completely done with this post because it is incredibly long, but I will keep working on it and hopefully it will be done soon
I decided to have some fun today and look at the Italian Game trap for Black. It is called the Blackmar-Schilling Gambit or as I call it "instantaneous death" Lol. Well this is how it goes.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Nd4 (this leaves the pawn hanging and open to kill)
If the knight takes the "Free" pawn then Black has the brilliant move Qg5
4. Nxp Qg5
5. Nxf7 Qxg2
there are multiple options here. The knight can take the rook if it wanted to, the rook can move to f1 so that it is defended. Both of these instantly lose.
Lets look at Rf1 first
6. Rf1 Qxe4+
7. Now either the bishop blocks or the queen blocks. If the bishop blocks then you have Nf3 checkmate. If the queen blocks then you can play NxQ winning your opponents queen.
Now we look at if the knight takes the rook. Now you play QxR+. Your opponent has to play Ke2. Then you play Qxe4+ and then the king has to go to f1 and then you play Qh1 checkmate.
This is a lot of fun. I am not completely done with this post because it is incredibly long, but I will keep working on it and hopefully it will be done soon
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Halloween Gambit
Hey Guys,
This is probably one of the most interesting openings of all time. It derives from the four knights game which is very simple to get into. If you play this YOU MUST PLAY AGRESSIVELY! The whole point of this is to trade a knight for a pawn to then gain a strong center and play very agressively... In this post not only will I explain the opening, but I will explain some ideas that go with it.
Okay, to start you will need to know the opening moves; this is how it starts:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
This right here is the four knights game. Sorry about the caps, but here they come again. IMPORTANT: YOU NEED A CHESS BOARD TO LOOK AT THESE THINGS. I AM NOT WRITING THIS FOR FUN, I AM TRYING TO MAKE YOU BETTER SO PLEASE HAVE A CHESS BOARD!
Well now, you probably see the move Nxe5. This does look questionable because the knight can take back and then you have traded a knight for a pawn, and I understand it does sound bad, but if you look at the variations that come it is actually very good. So lets look at the Halloween Gambit position after a few moves.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 (?)
So this is the basic halloween gambit position. Note that it is good because of the fact that white has such a powerful pawn center. So now black has three options. He can play Nc6 again, he can play Ng6, and he can play the interesting move Bb4. I tend to like Bb4 because although you give the knight back, you now have messed whites plans up, and made the game much more difficult. This rarely happens though because it is not the best choice (supposedly). Remember that in tournament play Ng6 is the best, then Nc6, and then Bb4 because you always want to keep the material. Lets first look at Nc6 which is pretty terrible.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Nc6
From here, you can play
6. d5 Ne5
7. f4 Ng6
8. e5 Ng8
9. d6 cxd6
10.exd6 (?)
This is basically the resulting line of the Nc6 line the idea behid this is that you can now have a strong pawn on d6 and you also have the idea of playing Qe2 check aka Qe2+ (check is symbolized by the plus) which basically allows you to win whatever blocks by taking it with the pawn and then you have a pawn that is one square from promoting into another queen. You also have the idea of trying to get your knight onto c7 and checking the queen and getting the rook. This usually turns out well for white.
Now here is the Ng6 route which isn't good at all for white. This will lose if your opponent does this so therefore it is not reccomended in actual tournaments but it is a lot of fun to play against.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Ng6
6. e5 Ng8
7. Bc4 (?)
This is actually a good position for white when I looked at it. It still gives black a slight advantage, but white has two good pieces plus some strong pawns. Black has a knight that has traveled across the board and hasn't developed anything else. If white attacks well then white could win this game.
The Bb4 move doesnt have much theory, but the game would look like this.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Bb4
6. dxe5 Nxe4 (Exploiting a pin)
7. Depending on what white does, you have to move well.
This usually also gives white a reasonable game, but is a very good counter as well.
As you can clearly see, the halloween gambit is very tricky, but can turn out well. I would like to play it against a few of you guys at the Chess club and see who does well with it. Maybe some of you can make it your signature opening.
This is probably one of the most interesting openings of all time. It derives from the four knights game which is very simple to get into. If you play this YOU MUST PLAY AGRESSIVELY! The whole point of this is to trade a knight for a pawn to then gain a strong center and play very agressively... In this post not only will I explain the opening, but I will explain some ideas that go with it.
Okay, to start you will need to know the opening moves; this is how it starts:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
This right here is the four knights game. Sorry about the caps, but here they come again. IMPORTANT: YOU NEED A CHESS BOARD TO LOOK AT THESE THINGS. I AM NOT WRITING THIS FOR FUN, I AM TRYING TO MAKE YOU BETTER SO PLEASE HAVE A CHESS BOARD!
Well now, you probably see the move Nxe5. This does look questionable because the knight can take back and then you have traded a knight for a pawn, and I understand it does sound bad, but if you look at the variations that come it is actually very good. So lets look at the Halloween Gambit position after a few moves.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 (?)
So this is the basic halloween gambit position. Note that it is good because of the fact that white has such a powerful pawn center. So now black has three options. He can play Nc6 again, he can play Ng6, and he can play the interesting move Bb4. I tend to like Bb4 because although you give the knight back, you now have messed whites plans up, and made the game much more difficult. This rarely happens though because it is not the best choice (supposedly). Remember that in tournament play Ng6 is the best, then Nc6, and then Bb4 because you always want to keep the material. Lets first look at Nc6 which is pretty terrible.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Nc6
From here, you can play
6. d5 Ne5
7. f4 Ng6
8. e5 Ng8
9. d6 cxd6
10.exd6 (?)
This is basically the resulting line of the Nc6 line the idea behid this is that you can now have a strong pawn on d6 and you also have the idea of playing Qe2 check aka Qe2+ (check is symbolized by the plus) which basically allows you to win whatever blocks by taking it with the pawn and then you have a pawn that is one square from promoting into another queen. You also have the idea of trying to get your knight onto c7 and checking the queen and getting the rook. This usually turns out well for white.
Now here is the Ng6 route which isn't good at all for white. This will lose if your opponent does this so therefore it is not reccomended in actual tournaments but it is a lot of fun to play against.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Ng6
6. e5 Ng8
7. Bc4 (?)
This is actually a good position for white when I looked at it. It still gives black a slight advantage, but white has two good pieces plus some strong pawns. Black has a knight that has traveled across the board and hasn't developed anything else. If white attacks well then white could win this game.
The Bb4 move doesnt have much theory, but the game would look like this.
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Nxe5 Nxe5
5. d4 Bb4
6. dxe5 Nxe4 (Exploiting a pin)
7. Depending on what white does, you have to move well.
This usually also gives white a reasonable game, but is a very good counter as well.
As you can clearly see, the halloween gambit is very tricky, but can turn out well. I would like to play it against a few of you guys at the Chess club and see who does well with it. Maybe some of you can make it your signature opening.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game)
Okay, So today, I am going to go over the Ruy Lopez for white. This opening has the highest win percentage from white so it is good to know... If you play this be aware that black has two traps that you can fall into. These are the fishing pole and the mortimer trap. I will go over these as well. So lets look at the Ruy in general.
They Ruy Lopez starts out like this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 (?)
Depending on what the question mark is, you can decide what you want to do. If you are playing black I reccomend Nf3 which allows for multiple traps, but the most popular move is a6, kicking the bishop. The first move we will look at is a6. So the move order is:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
Now from here the only logical move is Ba4 because Bc4 you could have done before that. You can also take the knight. I like to take the knight but remember that if they take the knight with the queen pawn then you can't capture the pawn on a5 or Qa4! happens. This is a really bad position for white. Lets continue with what I was saying about Ba4 though:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4
from here, black will either play b5 kicking the bishop once again, but then you can play Bb3. If your opponent wants to be a "prick" then he will play a5 and threaten a4 which would be trapping your bishop, but then you can either play a4 or a3 and give your bishop a square to hide and stop the threat. Note that if your opponent does this, this is good for you because your opponents queenside fell apart for no reason.
Here is the move order if that happened that I would play:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4 b5
5. Bb3 a5
6. a3 b4
7. Ba2 ......
White is clearly winning in this position. Black has nothing for his bad queenside except an open rook which will still take a while to develop and it won't be good to have the rook in the game right now anyway.
The other thing that I like to do is just take the knight. This is very efficient if you can make it to the endgame (When their is one or no minor/ major pieces left) and pawns. Double pawns will then suck. I love tactics and positional games so this is my favorite. I can't really explain how to play it because it doesn't have a "main" line, it is just your playing style that you have to use.
The last thing that you have to know is how to play the Nf6 variant of this opening.
It looks like this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 Nf6
From here you should castle!! if the knight takes the pawn on e4 then you can play Re1! winning the pawn back and making black waste a move with his knight. Wasting your opponents move is called a tempo. You want to gain a lot of tempos and not have to deal with your opponent getting them.
Usually your opponent won't take the pawn, he will usually continue with a6 and then you just get to play naturally... I reccomend taking the knight here. If your opponent wants to play and try to trick you, then he will play Ng4: This is called the fishing pole trap. He is trying to bait you into playing h3 which would allow for the brilliant move h5. From there, if you capture the knight, then the pxg4. and then when your knight moves he has Qh4 which forces mate. So never fall for this. Here is the notation:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 Nf3
4. Castle Ng4
5. h3 h5
6. hxg4 hxg4
7. Nh2 Qh4
White either resigns or plays the move f3 which is easily countered with the simple g3. Now white has no escape.
8. f3 g3
9. White is mated no matter what.
So that is basically the Ruy Lopez for you... I hope I helped and maybe you will use this in one of your games.
They Ruy Lopez starts out like this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 (?)
Depending on what the question mark is, you can decide what you want to do. If you are playing black I reccomend Nf3 which allows for multiple traps, but the most popular move is a6, kicking the bishop. The first move we will look at is a6. So the move order is:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
Now from here the only logical move is Ba4 because Bc4 you could have done before that. You can also take the knight. I like to take the knight but remember that if they take the knight with the queen pawn then you can't capture the pawn on a5 or Qa4! happens. This is a really bad position for white. Lets continue with what I was saying about Ba4 though:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4
from here, black will either play b5 kicking the bishop once again, but then you can play Bb3. If your opponent wants to be a "prick" then he will play a5 and threaten a4 which would be trapping your bishop, but then you can either play a4 or a3 and give your bishop a square to hide and stop the threat. Note that if your opponent does this, this is good for you because your opponents queenside fell apart for no reason.
Here is the move order if that happened that I would play:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4 b5
5. Bb3 a5
6. a3 b4
7. Ba2 ......
White is clearly winning in this position. Black has nothing for his bad queenside except an open rook which will still take a while to develop and it won't be good to have the rook in the game right now anyway.
The other thing that I like to do is just take the knight. This is very efficient if you can make it to the endgame (When their is one or no minor/ major pieces left) and pawns. Double pawns will then suck. I love tactics and positional games so this is my favorite. I can't really explain how to play it because it doesn't have a "main" line, it is just your playing style that you have to use.
The last thing that you have to know is how to play the Nf6 variant of this opening.
It looks like this:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 Nf6
From here you should castle!! if the knight takes the pawn on e4 then you can play Re1! winning the pawn back and making black waste a move with his knight. Wasting your opponents move is called a tempo. You want to gain a lot of tempos and not have to deal with your opponent getting them.
Usually your opponent won't take the pawn, he will usually continue with a6 and then you just get to play naturally... I reccomend taking the knight here. If your opponent wants to play and try to trick you, then he will play Ng4: This is called the fishing pole trap. He is trying to bait you into playing h3 which would allow for the brilliant move h5. From there, if you capture the knight, then the pxg4. and then when your knight moves he has Qh4 which forces mate. So never fall for this. Here is the notation:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 Nf3
4. Castle Ng4
5. h3 h5
6. hxg4 hxg4
7. Nh2 Qh4
White either resigns or plays the move f3 which is easily countered with the simple g3. Now white has no escape.
8. f3 g3
9. White is mated no matter what.
So that is basically the Ruy Lopez for you... I hope I helped and maybe you will use this in one of your games.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Hey LaSalle Chess Team,
I decided to make a blog to help our team out. This is just for the basics and skills that everyone needs to know to play a good game. Anyone who has any comments or suggestions on my blog from the team can tell me at the practices (which will be on friday this week) or leave it in the comments section.
Lets start with the openings... This is definitely the most crucial part of the game because if you can't survive the opening, then you won't get to the middlegame even if you play like a GrandMaster in the middle game (which no one on our team plays like) lol. The first thing for everyone to realize is how they want to play. If they are agressive, then they are going to want to attack later on so it makes sense to set up an attacking position. If you want to play defensive then don't set up an attack, rather set up a defense.
Some of the major things for the opening that you should remember is to
Develop your minor pieces
castle
Control the center of the board
I have a few openings that I will go over now, but if you want any others for me to go over then make a comment. I will do my best to cover them.
First off I will look at whites choices
For aggresive players you are mostly going to want to play e4 (Look up modern chess notation on google if you don't know what this means)
For positional players or players who want to make it to the endgame and have a more solid game with out major tactics should play d4
These are just your two opening moves that make sense. Most of the others are good, but these are the most reccomended (by myself) If you want to play moves like h4 and a4 I highly don't reccomend it.
If you are an agressive white player I reccomend these openings I will later go over these openings... this is just an introduction.
Ruy Lopez
Italian Game
Evans Gambit: Comes from the Italian Game Giuco Piano variation
Fried Liver Attack: Comes from the Italian Game Two Knights Defense
Four Knights Defense
Halloween Gambit: Not reccomended for tournaments but a lot of fun to play because it makes the game really interesting.
Agressive players should be prepared against the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, and other miscellaneous defenses. The only ones to worry about are the two that I named.
For Positional Players:
The queens Gambit
The Blackmar Diemer: If you like to play an agressive Game as white, but like d4 to Start (SPENCER)
Be prepared for:
the benoni Defense
The Benko Gambit
The Albin Countergambit
Thats about it on openings. If you have any others you want me to add, please leave a comment. The be prepared for is for black. Even if you don't know an opening that is played against you, just follow opening principles. This should still give you a good enough game.
I decided to make a blog to help our team out. This is just for the basics and skills that everyone needs to know to play a good game. Anyone who has any comments or suggestions on my blog from the team can tell me at the practices (which will be on friday this week) or leave it in the comments section.
Lets start with the openings... This is definitely the most crucial part of the game because if you can't survive the opening, then you won't get to the middlegame even if you play like a GrandMaster in the middle game (which no one on our team plays like) lol. The first thing for everyone to realize is how they want to play. If they are agressive, then they are going to want to attack later on so it makes sense to set up an attacking position. If you want to play defensive then don't set up an attack, rather set up a defense.
Some of the major things for the opening that you should remember is to
Develop your minor pieces
castle
Control the center of the board
I have a few openings that I will go over now, but if you want any others for me to go over then make a comment. I will do my best to cover them.
First off I will look at whites choices
For aggresive players you are mostly going to want to play e4 (Look up modern chess notation on google if you don't know what this means)
For positional players or players who want to make it to the endgame and have a more solid game with out major tactics should play d4
These are just your two opening moves that make sense. Most of the others are good, but these are the most reccomended (by myself) If you want to play moves like h4 and a4 I highly don't reccomend it.
If you are an agressive white player I reccomend these openings I will later go over these openings... this is just an introduction.
Ruy Lopez
Italian Game
Evans Gambit: Comes from the Italian Game Giuco Piano variation
Fried Liver Attack: Comes from the Italian Game Two Knights Defense
Four Knights Defense
Halloween Gambit: Not reccomended for tournaments but a lot of fun to play because it makes the game really interesting.
Agressive players should be prepared against the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, and other miscellaneous defenses. The only ones to worry about are the two that I named.
For Positional Players:
The queens Gambit
The Blackmar Diemer: If you like to play an agressive Game as white, but like d4 to Start (SPENCER)
Be prepared for:
the benoni Defense
The Benko Gambit
The Albin Countergambit
Thats about it on openings. If you have any others you want me to add, please leave a comment. The be prepared for is for black. Even if you don't know an opening that is played against you, just follow opening principles. This should still give you a good enough game.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)