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The Study of the Opening - Part 1 So what do I want to play as white? How do I handle the 1.e4? These and similar questions every chess player must answer one day (well, maybe more often…) in his/her life. How then should you approach studying chess openings? We have some ideas that we hope will simplify or at least make this process more bearable. These are some pointers for your study that we would like you to consider:
After a bit of study you will begin to notice recurring tactical themes for you and your opponent in your particular opening. Learn them! If you see a nice tactical shot in an opening add it to your opening notebook. Be forewarned that this will not replace tactical drills but will greatly aid you in your study of the openings and preparation for a tournament. Simply put it: It is up to you to decide how to balance your openings, middle-game and ending study. We would advice you to concentrate on your weaknesses but not to totally neglect the other important aspects of the game. Before proceeding keep in mind that:
Get a role model or a specialist that plays your beloved system. Once you have reviewed the opening principles the next step is to focus on a specific opening. After examining a few games you think it would be cool to learn how to play the Petroff and crush opponent after opponent like Karpov does with this trusted weapon. Ah! We can only hope to play like Karpov one day but learning how to play the Petroff is certainly not beyond your grasp. First set aside a block of time, grab your favorite beverage and get comfortable. Study takes time and it should be a comfortable and enjoyable process. Without further ado let’s begin. Through out these games we will be pointing out important tips for the beginning opening student in bold face type. The BIG PictureAt this point you should focus on the big picture plan of the opening. Simply, how does it address all the principles we discussed above? Anand,V (2781) - Karpov,A (2710) [C42] [Click here to follow along on an interactive JavaScript board.]
Five moves have been made and several questions come to mind: Why doesn’t black take at e4 right away? Why does black plays d5 in two tempi? If an ex-world champion such as Karpov is making these moves, or not making them there must be a good reason for it.
The student writes those questions and keeps them for future reference. Anyway, the answer to the questions posed can be obtained easily by reflecting upon the position (best option), studying the line in one elemental manual and/or using an engine. But we are just watching some games here so let us relax for the time being. Let us check on three things here:
Black is holding well in all of the above departments and the game is about equal. These are simple things to monitor in the game until the middle-game emerges.
Interesting position: Ten moves have been made and White has an isolated pawn while Black has the bishop pair… Still, a fair assessment for the position is that White is slightly better because of his lead in development, the fact that Black’s king is still in the center and the knight at e4 is somewhat insecure. An external analysis (i.e., checking on tempi, material and space) indicates that Black has survived the first ten moves and that if he hangs on he might have good prospects. In Znosko-Borovski’s How not to play Chess it is possible to learn how to do an external analysis that in essence consists in verifying material, space and time. Again, you need not to buy this book.
The last move by White is nasty! Black’s queen bishop is being threatened by a pawn trying to deflect it from the defense of his knight on e4. This is a threat that needs to be addressed! Something must be done to remove the threat to the bishop and keep the knight guarded. Karpov’s ...Bg6 is an amazingly simple move that takes care of the lateral demonstration by White. (This might be extremely basic but we are also keeping tactical shots on the agenda!) For the time being we are not considering what could White/Black have done better but just watching a show and asking simple questions.
Wow! Karpov takes care of the threats with such simplicity. This last move is tough to understand but we will attempt to explain the justification for this move: Perhaps the king is safely protected at f8 and away from White’s rook’s influence, the bishop at e7 is unpinned thereby making it available for more important tasks (Development!) One more thing, Black’s king rook will eventually need to develop and since White pushed the g-pawn it is likely that the h-file will be opened after an eventual h5 by Black while the coordination of the pieces will not be affected and the rook at h8 will not be under-utilized.
Maybe we are wrong in the interpretation of Black’s intention by moving the king to f8 but either way we are trying to understand what’s going on and to identify opening patterns. By the way, we have seen some tactical motifs here like deflection and attack in White’s 12th move, and unpinning of a piece. It is important not to lose sight of those motifs when studying a game.
So h5 was an option here after all! If we were pressed to choose a side we would pick Black because of his static advantages: better pawn structure, safer king (even without castling!) and his dynamic advantages: better coordination of pieces and the bishop pair. However, we can’t help wondering why is it that Anand didn’t take at c7? Perhaps he wasn’t happy about opening the h-file, the pressure on h2 after Bd6, and the pressure on the d-file with black’s queen’s rook. Good thing that we didn’t lose sight of the fact that Black left a pawn hanging! Deep calculation would indicate whether Anand and Karpov missed this or if this is a legitimate trap by Black. We leave that for you to discover. Move seventeen already? Time flies when you are having fun! Where does an opening end and where does the middle-game start? It is very tough to provide an answer to this question in a short article written by enthusiastic amateurs (that would be us.) However, without getting into the opening to middle-game transition debate we can ask a far more practical question: how many moves from the opening will I commit to memory? If you restrict and understand your repertoire, ten moves (20 half moves) into the opening is honestly not too large a number of moves to commit to memory. Also, the more games you review, the more you revise your lines, and the more you play through them, the easier it will become to remember specific lines. “If I remember right, the transition from the opening to the middle game occurs when all pieces are developed, the king is secured, and the rooks are either connected or participating actively in the struggle.” - Diego
We considered here: 21.R1e3, instead of the move in the game with the idea of taking over the seventh rank. Most likely GM Anand is right and we are wrong but an important part of forming your own understanding of chess is challenging even the greatest player’s moves and ideas.
“I would have panicked with that pawn at d6” (Diego)… It is amazing how Karpov, apparently forced to defend, finds his way out of this and succeeds in earning the full point.
We believe that Karpov made a mistake on his last move and that Anand could have played 28 Qc4+ Kh8 29.fxg6 Qf8 winning. (Sing it: Tactics, Tactics, Tactics!)
Amazing game. Karpov could have lost it and some things need to be considered in the future. For the time being we see that an isolated queen pawn structure...
...can arrive for White and that Black might get the bishop pair. The idea of Kf8 – h5 etc. seems interesting and we will see if it repeats in other games or at least try to find an alternative way of handling this opening.
“I need a refill.” - Tony Refreshed?
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