Introduction
What’s in this book
This book is designed to help the reader find good solutions to rarely-played openings, openings of dubious worth, and openings which don’t involve a lot of theory but are still irritating to play against. The authors have been at this for over 30 years, and have written a number of books covering much of the same material. In addition to dozens of our own books, we have co-authored The Big Book of Busts (Hypermodern 1995), Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings (Cardoza 2003), and How to Succeed in the Queen Pawn Openings (Trafford 2006). Each of these deals with irregular and unconventional openings, along with fairly common ones with which inexperienced players are nonetheless unfamiliar. We have updated and expanded our analysis on those openings and added many new ones, emphasizing practical solutions that can be mastered quickly. Our inspiration comes from working with beginning and average players, who tend to have similar problems in openings and ask the same questions about them. The goal is not to provide an abstract survey of opening theory, but to give you the ammunition to punish your opponent for his or her opening inaccuracies (or, if the opening is a sound one, to solve your problems quickly and be ready to go on the offensive). Our emphasis is on typical games and ideas rather than dense analysis, although for certain openings we feel that it is helpful to go into considerable detail.
As chess teachers, we know how frustrating it is for our students to come up against unfamiliar openings and not know where to turn for advice. This is not a book of main lines played by professionals, but it covers a broad range of material from elementary openings to ones seen regularly at tournaments, and includes everything from really silly openings (1.h4, for example, or 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 f6 for Black), to inferior but tricky ones (e.g., 1.g4 for White, 1.e4 a6 for Black), to ambitious openings which are rarely used by grandmasters but are playable and dangerous (the Evans and Morra Gambits, for example). As a bonus, players on a club level will hopefully find something of value in our more serious discussion of sound but non-traditional openings such as the Trompowsky Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5) and the Two Knights Tango (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6). Similarly, we’ve shown ways to play against some slow or passive openings that frustrate our own students, such as the Colle and London Systems or the Veresov Attack. In between these extremes are a huge assortment of gambits, flank pawn adventures, and even piece sacrifices in the opening. No matter how crazy, all these variations have names, and you’ll find examples of them in the big databases.
There’s an interesting side benefit to studying these openings. Even when we’ve provided a reasonable answer to some wild variation, it can be fun to try out yourself, perhaps as a surprise weapon that your opponent is unlikely to have encountered before. After all, how many people have even heard of the Mokele Mbembe (1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Ne4!?), much less played against it? It has won a lot of games for those who know the ideas, as has the Fishing Pole (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Ng4!?). Black risks a lot with such moves, but White is a tempo ahead in chess and can afford to play strange ‘extra’ moves such as 2.a3 after 1.e4 e5, or 2.h3 after 1.d4 f5.
When you run into most of these openings and don’t know what to do, practical considerations take precedence. If the only way to refute an opening is to play a complex tactical variation, we’ll recommend that (some gambits require sharp replies, for example). But for the great majority of these openings, that won’t be necessary; we’ll provide a simple and safe way to approach the position, requiring little memorization and hopefully leading to a promising game. As explained in the advice section, this involves paying attention to the center and bringing your pieces out quickly, and not plunging into tactical adventures until an advantage is well established.
There’s a lot of fun material in this book and you may be surprised to see how even strong grandmasters have indulged in the craziest variations. Even the supposedly conservative World Champion Magnus Carlsen has played 1.a4 and 1.a3 (several times) as White (in the World Blitz Championships). As Black he played 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.e5 Nh5 (the ‘North Sea Defense’) against Adams in a crucial tournament game; and against Kramnik he tried 1.Nf3 b5 2.e4 Bb7 3.Bxb5 Bxe4.
To sum up, chess isn’t all main lines and 20 moves of theory; it’s fascinating to see the creative play which can result when one side or both dares to think outside of the box. We hope that you’ll be inspired by these opening adventures and create some of your own!
How the book is organized
We have divided our openings into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The emphasis is on inferior or strange openings, as represented by the Bad and the Ugly; but as a bonus, we’ve added some ‘Good’ ones and placed them at the end.
A ‘Bad’ opening is one that might be fun, but we think should be punishable, especially in tournament play. Some of them are just ridiculous. Nevertheless, students can learn a lot by learning why inferior openings are bad. A paragon of bad openings from Black’s point of view is the Fred (1.e4 f5), while the Ware Opening (1.a4) is a fairly useless way for White to start out. These are usually eccentric and sometimes silly openings, and we’ll provide a solution that gives the reader an advantage. Other bad openings are reasonably challenging, but ultimately lead to a significant disadvantage against best play.
The largest group of openings we discuss (including many truly ‘wild’ ones) fall into the ‘Ugly’ category. They are played in tournaments fairly often and aren’t necessarily objectively bad, but they usually violate some basic opening principles and look wrong to inexperienced players at first sight. By using our recommendations, you will be able to get good game (and sometimes a nearly winning one) against these openings.
The ‘Good’ openings are sound enough for tournament play, and sometimes very solid; we have found that many beginning and less-experienced students are bothered by them. That’s because either they aren’t familiar with the openings, or they are frustrated trying to come up with a plan against them. Over the years, we’ve tried to find simple solutions for these openings. For example, White might play the Fantasy Variation of the Caro-Kann, the Colle Attack, or the Evans Gambit. These are all quite playable, and we simply try to show you how to neutralize them without needing exotic solutions. An example for Black is the Budapest Gambit, which is sound but unfamiliar to many developing players, so we try to show the way to a small advantage against it. In this section, we’ve always tried to find straightforward solutions to the opening involved, but have not hesitated to present some serious and fairly detailed analysis when we felt it necessary.
For further enlightenment (and a bit of fun), most openings have a graphic representing our subjective opinion of its suitability for use in tournament play. We think that some marginal openings are playable in certain circumstances; for example, you might employ them against lower rated opponents. But some openings are just asking for trouble! The icons and their meanings are listed on page 9; don’t expect them to fit exactly, but they should be of some use.
Some General Advice and Examples
When you are confronted by an unfamiliar opening, you can usually obtain a good game by simply following a few basic opening principles. Of course, if you have studied this book and memorized its entire contents you are less likely to wander into strange territory, but that’s asking a bit much! So here are some handy rules of thumb for sound opening play:
Let’s look at how two World Champions used these basic ideas when confronted by the same unorthodox opening: