Mastering Pattern Recognition in the Opening
Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to understand better the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, it helps when you can just
The move 4...Nd7 may not be as popular as the original main line 4...Bf5 and the trendy 4...Nf6, but it's still considered to be a reliable system dealing with the Caro-Kann.
However, this particular variation is not without risk for Black as can be seen in this week's game Lagarde-Kamsky. True to his style Kamsky didn't fancy a theoretical battle in the main line (6...e6) and deviated with the rare 6...Qc7?!, which is known to be bad for Black since the game Van der Wiel-Karpov, Amsterdam 1987.
But during the game both Lagarde and Kamsky didn't seem fully aware of all the subtleties and this led to a very fascinating opening battle with mutual mistakes.
Here's a warm-up: How does White take advantage of Black's inaccurate opening play?
You can move the pieces on the live diagram!
The Scotch Gambit is a brazen yet utterly sound system for White who immediately opens up the position, by sacrificing a central pawn, in an attempt to assassinate the enemy king as quickly as possible.
Special attention will be paid to Intermediate Moves, Quiet Moves, Sacrifices on Empty Squares, Mating Patterns, Ignoring Opponents Threat, Calculation in Defence and Method of Comparison. Plus 50 interactive examples to test your knowledge.
Many more Fast and Furious episodes are available in ChessBase Videos
