4/12/2018 – The popular S.O.S. column from New In Chess Magazine, recently featured an almost comical second move for black against the English early fianchetto: 2...h5. NIC columnist Jeroen Bosch notes, ‘A move like 2...h5 gives rise to a lot of early creativity, of course.’ See what he means in this entertaining article from the leading global English chess magazine.
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"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).
White opts for the fianchetto without further ado. This makes a lot of sense since the square d5 has been singled out as a prime target by 1.c4. For the same reason, 2.♘c3 is the main line. Many White players (wanting to fianchetto their king’s bishop anyway) postpone the development of the queen’s knight these days in view of the reply 2...♗b4 (in the style of the Rossolimo Sicilian!).
As Victor Mikhalevski observes in his Beating Minor Openings (Quality Chess, 2016), 2.g3 owes its present popularity to Tony Kosten and Mihail Marin, who both wrote repertoire books for White based on the move order with 2.g3. Logically, 2...c6 is now a decent reply — ‘it’s square d5, stupid!’, as an American President might say to his opponent — and this is indeed the line that Mikhalevski advocates in the aforementioned tome (nearly 600 pages to combat ‘Minor Openings’!). And I am afraid that I have been guilty of combatting 2.g3 in the same sensible way. In a recent league match, one of my teammates went for a much more entertaining option. One that certainly deserves scrutiny in this column. 2...h5!?
Attaboy, that’s the spirit! The timid 2.g3 has suddenly been transformed into the proverbial red rag to a raging bull. The logic is all there — didn’t Fischer explain his strategy towards the Dragon as: open the h-file, sac, sac and mate? The English Opening is a reversed Sicilian after all!
Over the years there has been considerable GM support for hurling Harry the h-pawn forward. The likes of Richard Rapport, Ivan Sokolov and Ivan Popov are notable 2600+ adherents. A move like 2...h5 gives rise to a lot of early creativity, of course. For how should White respond?
Should he react by trying to prevent or prepare for ...h5-h4 with 3.h4, 3.h3 or 3.♘f3 ?
Should he just continue developing with 3.♘c3 or 3.♗g2 ?
Or should he adhere to that age-old principle that all ank attacks must be met in the centre: 3.d4 ?
All these questions will badger White after 2...h5, and each of the responses contains a certain logic. A deep theoretical survey makes no sense at all, but indications will be given concerning all of these possible answers.
Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.
Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.
Variation III 3.Nf3
Variation IV 3.Nc3
Variation V 3.Bg2 h4
Variation VI 3.d4
About New In Chess Magazine
New In Chess is read by club players in 116 countries.
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The magazine has regular contributions from all the world’s best players: Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Vishy Anand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk, Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan. Editor-in-chief is Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.
The second issue of the year contains 108 pages of the best in chess with Carlsen, Kasparov, Aronian, Kramnik, Fischer and many others:
Carlsen sets record with 6th win The 80th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee ended with a blitz playoff between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. The World Champion tends to win playoffs. Always. And this one was no exception.
Levon Aronian wins Gibraltar In his first appearance in an Open in more than a decade, Levon Aronian won the play-offs of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess. The traditionally generous prize for the best female player, £ 15,000, was pocketed by Pia Cramling.
The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.
Kasparov's musical favourites Garry Kasparov chose his musical favourites - from Mozart to Lloyd Webber - for a BBC radio program
Veni, Vidit, Vici In a personal account, the winner of the Tata Steel Challengers reveals how he transformed into a Master.
Judit Polgar It’s not easy to play after a loss, Judit Polgar argues. Or a win!
Maximize Your Tactics Find the right moves
Fischer Random anyone? Maxim Dlugy followed the Carlsen-Nakamura match and looks at the merits of Fischer Random.
New In ChessNew In Chess (NIC) was founded in 1984 and appears eight times a year. It is read by club players in 116 countries. A yearly subscription for eight issues costs €79.99.
In this video series Pert gives a strong and practical Black repertoire against the Anti-Sicilians such as the Bb5 Sicilian, the Grand Prix Attack, the Alapin and many more, from my years of experience playing the Sicilian.
Special: AVRO 1938. “All in One”: Anish Giri and Igor Stohl dissect two topical opening lines. Analyses from Norway Chess 2020 by Duda, Firouzja et al. Videos by Erwin l’Ami, Daniel King and Mihail Marin. 11 opening articles and much more!
If you want some inspiration for your next online or offline blitz games this video course is for you. Simon Williams shows his favorite opening traps in 60 minutes.
When it comes to strategy, one of the key things that chess professionals understand much better than amateur players is the role of the bishop which is the key theme on this video course.
Merijn van Delft: Update in the Keres Attack. Elisabeth Pähtz: Anti-Awerbach (only in German -Part II). „Lucky bag" with analyses by von Navara, Nielsen, Meier, Krasenkow, Huschenbeth, Müller et al.. Over 43,000 new games for your database!
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