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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
While looking for a sharp system against the French, I recently decided to take a gander at the latest developments in Advance Variation. When studying a new opening it does make a lot of sense to follow in the footsteps of the leading experts. Inspired by a convincing win by Shirov against Lomasov in the Nutcracker tournament last week, I was eager trying this system for the first time in my life and was very fortunate to reach a familiar position in a game in the Dutch League only two days later. Despite some mutual errors I managed to win in quite a spectacular way.
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Know the Terrain Vol. 5: The Philidor Structure
The Philidor structure (White pawns on d4 and e4, Black pawns on d6 and e5), is a fundamental position in the open games. In his new training course, IM Sam Collins shows you just how much explosive power is packed into this apparently simple structure.
Exercise: Try to calculate the consequences of both 22...♛xe2 and 22...♝c6.
Move the pieces on the live diagram — solution below!
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When choosing an opening repertoire, there are days when you want to play for a win with Black, when you want to bear down on your opponent’s position with a potentially crushing attack. The Najdorf is perfect for just such occasions. Strategy, combinations, attack and defence, sacrifices and marvellous manoeuvres — exciting chess is all about the Najdorf!
Robert is live every other Thursday at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 13:00 EST)
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
