James Drake, an occasional correspondent and freelance websoot
prifreader, writes:
"I note your recommendation to play
open openings when starting out to get more experience with tactics. I
wonder if this applies to correspondence games. I've been playing them
over the Internet the last few years and am at the stage where I get
creamed by opponents who know long lines of the Sicilian or Ruy Lopez.
Given that I've been somewhat influence by Purdy's recommended openings
in
Action
Chess
" My question to you is this; I have
pretty much settled on the Colle system for my opening but cannot find
a
defense that I like playing. I am not trying to be a Grand Master or
anything I just want to be a good solid player. I've been thinking
about
the Tarrasch and the Modern. The Modern from what I've read can be used
for just about any White opening which I guess is what I would prefer
(I'm not sure that is aggressive enough for me). The Tarrasch is just
an
answer to Queen Pawn openings; then I would have to learn a defense for
Most people suggest that beginning chessplayers should play
1.e2-e4 and aim for a open, attacking style of game.
Some players may like to try 1.d2-d4. I wrote
this piece after I watched 3 out of 4 boards at a match open with
1. d2-d4, and in my opinion, played it poorly.
[There is a superb essay by Reti on the legacy of
the hypermoderns which was published in Virginia
Chess in 1993, archived at Palle Mathiasen's World
Champions site at http://www.chesschampions.com/reti.html]
Oh dear, link rot got to it. Reproduced without permission here.
NIMZOVITCH founded the HYPERMODERN school, and wrote a very
The trouble with the Pirc is that Black will just lurk behind
his pawns, and your pieces won't find much to attack. I play the
Pirc/Modern as Black, and am always more impressed by systems which
threaten to open lines with pawn breaks than any of the piece play
lines. But that's not to say they aren't all dangerous; the player
with a plan will always beat the player without one.
"Club players and home enthusiasts often ask me to recommend
an openings system for White which is safe, yet aggressive and does
not require a superb memory and months of intense learning. In such
cases I invariably recommend the King's Indian Attack" -
Keene
Here's another trawl of typical mistakes, this time from the first
20 moves of each game of the WECU Minor Championship at Exmouth in
Easter 1999.
The games are appended with notes mostly from DR: "out of book"
is Fritz' comment, and Fritz has also blunderchecked the games.
Let’s first have a look at which openings were played:
