Chess Openings Handouts

Openings

N.B.
The example games used in the openings handouts are kept in a separate database. If you can't find something you are looking for here, it may be among my old r.g.c. posts.

General Opening Principles {D}
Openings for Beginners {D}
Open Games with 1.e4 e5 {D}
Semi-Open Games with 1.e4 {C}
Closed Games with 1.d4 d5 {B}
Semi-Closed Games (Indian and Hypermodern) {A}
The London Chess Centre has published a whole bunch of introductory stuff on Openings, but you have to pay for any meat. [A Lynx-hostile site]

General Opening Principles {D}

10 rules for the opening {D}

The central dogmas of opening theory, and some other complementary notes.

Choosing an opening repertoire {DCBA}

Some brief and basic advice.

The Ideas behind some Chess openings {D/C}

- that is, the ones the BCF thinks juniors should know a bit about. But please, juniors, adults and anybody else, No more Old Stodge!

Four choices in the opening {B/A}

Putting together a repertoire that suits you.

Gambit Play {C/D}

In memoriam, Ken Smith

The secret arts of castling {C/D}

"Castle because you will or because you must; but not because you can." -- Pillsbury.

Tales of the Unexpected {C}

Some simple but often overlooked advice on dealing with unusual openings.

The Hypermodern Approach {B}

(Not for beginners!)

Endgame Openings

Openings played with a view to exchanging Queens early on.

- Once you have played for a while you might want to look at some specific variations: for example, The Italian Game {D} (80K) for White or Black is probably all you need to know for the next year (Word 6 version with Tilburg font for download here).

- After that you might want to look at Playing White against odd Black lines {C}, Playing Black against 1. e4 {D} [incl. Two Knights' Defence (*)] and Playing Black against 1. d4 {C}. I also have a sneaking fondness for the Petroff Defence for Beginners {C} as Black. [(*) I'm delighted to say that the Wilkes-Barre/Traxler line has its own web pages at Echecs.]

N.B. Some of these booklets convert to hundreds of Kb of HTML with 8x8 GIF elements, so, I've used text-only diagrams here.

19 Jan 2000: By popular request, you can now have these four documents with the usual diagrams.

I hesitated to put these up with full diagrams before, since they are so big, but the Web has got a lot faster since then, and thanks to all the "developments" in Web software since 1993, people have got used to waiting ages for stuff to download ;-).

If you are curious to expand your repertoire, having got the hang of attacking play and tactics, you might want to reconsider your basic Four choices in the opening {C}. Also, Steve Martinson described some openings to look at if you have had enough of 3. Bc4.

Playing 1. d2-d4 at junior level

I got started writing booklets in the first place because I have always been concerned about juniors and beginners playing 1.d2-d4. I generally advise don't, but some will do anyhow. So, I've now got three booklets: (1) why you shouldn't play 1.d2-d4, (2) what to do if you insist on playing 1.d2-d4, and (3) what you can do if your opponent plays 1.d2-d4.

(1) why you shouldn't play 1.d2-d4 ( Playing 1.d2-d4 at junior level)
(2) what to do if you insist on playing 1.d2-d4: One of my first booklets was on the Colle System {C}, which is based on some notes by Fine with example games. [To see what this one looks like on paper there is 700k of PostScript on FTP]
(3) what you can do if your opponent plays 1.d2-d4.: I keep scratching this itch!; First, look in the revised booklet Playing 1.d2-d4 at junior level; I often recommend Botvinnik's treatment of the Dutch Stonewall, for juniors: Playing Black against 1. d4: the Dutch Stonewall {D} 30K.; I had another think about this and the Cambridge springs for better players {C/B} and came up with the Playing Black against 1. d4 booklet mentioned elsewhere.

A minor openings survey {D/C} 30 Apr 98

How do people actually play, and why?

Open Games {D}

No more Old Stodge! {D}

Instead, play...

The Italian Game {D}

The Giuoco Piano and Evans' Gambit are ideal for juniors, beginners and other players. Lytham Ex Chess Club have some information for club-players on the Scotch Gambit.

Playing Black against odd 1.e4 Openings {B}

The Two Knights' Defence, and a repertoire for Black against 1.e4 if White does not play the Italian.

Petroff's Defence {C}

An excellent defence for beginners and Grandmasters

Lessons in Philidor's Defence {C/D}

Some tactical ideas in a tricky opening

The Ruy Lopez {B/C}

Spanish Torture?

Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation

An opening played with a view to the endgame! There are Other Endgame Openings

The King's Gambit {B}

The latest addition to these opening guides is The Ideas behind the King's Gambit {B}, with an accompanying handout on the Variations of the King's Gambit {B}. [ I incline more to Lombardy's view that "at the amateur level, anything is playable" than the master view [ (1), (2) ] that all such openings suck. Well perhaps they do, at master level.]

The Modern Italian Game {B}

A modern positional approach to some old tactical openings (Giuoco Piano, Bishop's Opening and Two Knights' Defence).

Semi-Open Games {C}

PLaying White against odd Black openings

If your opponents do not reply with a view to playing the Italian Game, here is a choice of three repertoires against the main half-open defences, and some suggestions against unusual Black systems after 1...e5.

The French Defence for Beginners {C} (over 100k)

This is mostly on the variations: there is another one on the Ideas behind the French Defence {C}, which has example games in.

An Introduction to the Sicilian Defence {B}

Some basics with examples: includes An Introduction to the King's Indian Attack {C}.
This booklet emerged out of a couple of discussions with our better juniors, who were interested in knowing a bit more about the Sicilian Defence, and more particularly, what to play against it at White. Bob Martin was kind enough to send me Five Sicilians from Club Play with notes describing his assessment and thinking during play.

[See also Introduction to the Sicilian, Steve Spurgeon's page at Bath, and the (Sicilian) Dragon's Lair.]

Closed Sicilian with ...e5 {A} 12k ASCII

Some notes by my esteemed colleague Chris Bellers

Closed Games {B}

Playing 1.d2-d4 at junior level

- Don't!

"It is a piece of dead flesh kept over long on ice....more the tool of a coward than an adventurer." -- Tony SANTASIERE

the Colle System {C}

...which is based on some notes by Fine with example games. [To see what this one looks like on paper there is 700k of PostScript on FTP]

Playing Black against 1. d4: the Dutch Stonewall {D} 30K.

I had another think about this and the Cambridge Springs for better players {C/B} and came up with...

Playing Black against 1. d4

A choice of solid or more active defences based on 1...d7-d5.

The Isolated Queen's Pawn in the Queen's Gambit Accepted {B}

Some thematic notes by Peter Lane

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit {C}

There are a few things stirring on the net relevant to the BDG from Ryan Ripley, which led to something from me and from me again. These may now be compared with the variation index of BDG World magazine. Ryan's initiative was an attempt to get some newsgroup discussion going about opening choices, but not many folk contributed constructively and the thread died. Over to you!

I also posted something on Gary Lane's book (an author I usually admire, and a book which Tim Harding has praised).

There are some dedicated pages on the BDG from Jyrki Heikkinen (alongside superb stuff on the Diemer-Duhm Gambit, a related Anti-French line: this is a model of how to present chess openings on the Web), Tom Purser (editor of Blackmar-Diemer Gambit World magazine) and David Flude. There is even a BDG newsgroup in existence, but there is little or no relevant traffic on it. Tom recently organised a BDG theme e-mail tournament, and you can read about my adventures if you're interested.

Semi-Closed Games {A}

Custer's Last Stand (over 100k) {C} {B}

Playing Anti-Indian systems: an introduction for White

Beating the Anti-Indians {B} {A} (about 200k)

Playing Black against Anti-Indian systems: strategies for players of Indian systems with ...e6 or ...g6 .

You know when you've been Benko'd: {A} an introduction to the Benko Gambit from Black's point of view

Examples with light notes from my colleague Steve Homer

The Ideas behind The English Opening {A/B}

Someone should have talked me out of writing this one...

Chris Bellers gave the lie to the idea that the English is a bit slow by taking us through a collection showing the sharper side of the Deadly English

The Modern Defence {B}

- handle with care...

Dr. Dave

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This document (openings.html) was last modified on 13 Aug 2005 by [cool blue cat]