New DVD: Simon Williams – The Black Lion
7/6/2016 – Looking for an interesting, exciting, aggressive and flexible opening to
play against 1 e4!? Then the Black Lion is just the opening for you! The
Lion gets ready to roar after 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7
5.Bc4 Be7 6.0–0 c6. This opening, first brought into the
limelight by Dutch amateur players Jerry van Rekom and Leo Jansen, now gets
the grandmaster treatment. Simon Williams suggests a simple to learn, yet
deadly system of development for Black. Add it to your tournament repertoire.
Find the right combination! ChessBase 15 program + new Mega Database 2019 with 7.6 million games and more than 70,000 master analyses. Plus ChessBase Magazine (DVD + magazine) and CB Premium membership for 1 year!
Simon Williams: The Black Lion
An aggressive version of the Philidor Defense
Looking for an interesting, exciting, aggressive and flexible opening to play against 1 e4!? Then the Black Lion is just the opening for you! The Lion gets ready to roar after 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.0–0 c6
– and now Black wants to attack with an early ...g5.
This opening, first brought into the limelight by Dutch amateur players Jerry van Rekom and Leo Jansen, now gets the grandmaster treatment. Simon Williams suggests a simple to learn, yet deadly system of development for Black. Simon explains the main ideas of this opening in an easy and entertaining manner, using examples from such maverick players as Baadur Jobava. In what other opening do you get a chance to attack White’s castled King with an early ...g5? Let the Lion roar and the fun commence!
Sample: Simon Williams – The Black Lion – An aggressive version of the Philidor Defense
Interview with Simon Williams
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Simon Williams became a IM in 1998 and a GM in 2008. For the last 15 years he has concentrated on teaching, playing and making instructional chess DVDs. He is the author of numerous chess books, like "Play the Classical Dutch", which got voted, in New in Chess, as one of the top 10 chess books of all time. Order Simon Williams' Black Lion now
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Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
Rubbish opening and I want my money back!
There are at least 5 obvious moves or themes for white which can be described as anti-Lion. They totally take away the Black Lion's main intent, which is the king-side attack. The issue I have with this DVD/Chessbase installment is that Simon avoids going into detail of said white type of moves. He mentions them briefly, but offers no real solutions or alternatives to them. Other than the "book anti-Lion" of f2-f4.
For example, a whites Nh4 seems weakening for white, but if black persists with the ill-advised ...b6 / ...Nh7 setup, to keep the king-side attack theme alive, then black ends up in quite a mess himself. I for example was faced with a counter king-side attack! Nor is there a game in the database to support the proposed idea.
And so on. Just to mention one good example. By the way, I also have the famous Black Lion book by van Rekom Jerry & Jensen Leo. It's slightly more illuminating and yet inaccurate at other times. But it doesn't add much to what this Chessbase product already has to offer.
I'll be honest and blunt with you. I want my money back or initiate a trade or something. But the Black Lion, other than having a cult following, is rubbish if it's the main theme - kingside attack - you're after.
P.S.: I played about 30 to 40 long-play games with the Black Lion. My current Chess.com Glicko-rating is 1695. My Elo rating on Lichess.com is 2061 (7 wins, 1 loss).
There are at least 5 obvious moves or themes for white which can be described as anti-Lion. They totally take away the Black Lion's main intent, which is the king-side attack. The issue I have with this DVD/Chessbase installment is that Simon avoids going into detail of said white type of moves. He mentions them briefly, but offers no real solutions or alternatives to them. Other than the "book anti-Lion" of f2-f4.
For example, a whites Nh4 seems weakening for white, but if black persists with the ill-advised ...b6 / ...Nh7 setup, to keep the king-side attack theme alive, then black ends up in quite a mess himself. I for example was faced with a counter king-side attack! Nor is there a game in the database to support the proposed idea.
And so on. Just to mention one good example. By the way, I also have the famous Black Lion book by van Rekom Jerry & Jensen Leo. It's slightly more illuminating and yet inaccurate at other times. But it doesn't add much to what this Chessbase product already has to offer.
I'll be honest and blunt with you. I want my money back or initiate a trade or something. But the Black Lion, other than having a cult following, is rubbish if it's the main theme - kingside attack - you're after.
P.S.: I played about 30 to 40 long-play games with the Black Lion. My current Chess.com Glicko-rating is 1695. My Elo rating on Lichess.com is 2061 (7 wins, 1 loss).
Avoid the download version ... very problematic, very unstable, and little-to-no support from CBase. Get the DVD instead, if it's available.
I'm @1400. I just took down a 2100 player at my club with it in 46 moves. It completely tied him up behind his front wall of white pawns until I worked my way around his extended Kingside pawns (he thought he was attacking me!). Very interesting opening and he "burned" a lot of minutes trying to figure it out ... he hadn't ever seen it before; didn't know what to do except push his center pawns then his queenside pawns until I took the B file and stifled any further queenside advances.
Is the whole DVD shown from White's perspective? Seems strange for a DVD about a Black defense.
well explained
4.dxe5!? draw. :O
I like Frits comment -- yes, nothing like renaming an established variation!
I don't want to characterize Williams as a schlock-meister of the chess authoring world, but he does seem to sensationalize the material.
As with most chess openings, you can find attacking lines.
There is a Wiki article that actually sheds some light on the question if White is forced to go into this improved Hanham (aka Black Lion) or not. Readers should check it out.
I don't want to characterize Williams as a schlock-meister of the chess authoring world, but he does seem to sensationalize the material.
As with most chess openings, you can find attacking lines.
There is a Wiki article that actually sheds some light on the question if White is forced to go into this improved Hanham (aka Black Lion) or not. Readers should check it out.
That's basic Philidor opening. And whatever words may apply to it (stable, solid, hard to break etc.), I think "deadly" or "aggressive" are not one of them.
"This opening, first brought into the limelight by Dutch amateur players Jerry van Rekom and Leo Jansen"... They wrote a book about it with a lot of original analysis. They also hijacked the opening, which always had, and should still have, the name Hanham Defence. Even the idea of postponing castling and attack with g7-g5 was played by James Moore Hanham (1840-1923). Good marketing strategy by my countrymen!
Wow, Williams' intro has really sold me on this!!!
I had always difficulties to get some advantage against this system. It is quite stable for black.
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