Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Bishop's Opening

by Robert Ris
7/30/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris gives all those looking for a simple repertoire with White against 1.e4 e5 a simple solution: to play 2.Bc4. The model games he presents, with Nepomniachtchi, Firouzja and Kasparov marshaling the white pieces, show how dangerous this opening can be. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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

A simple way to deal with 1.e4 e5

Looking for a simple repertoire with White against 1.e4 e5? The Bishop's Opening, starting with 2.Bc4 is a very interesting choice to avoid the main lines of the Petroff and the Ruy Lopez. Moreover, placing the bishop on c4 at once has gained in popularity recently.

An additional point to postponing the king's knight development to f3 is that White retains the possibility of opting for a quick f2-f4, intending to seize the initiative on the kingside. The ensuing lines are very interesting, full of play and often lead to fresh positions. The main game of this week's show is Nepomniachtchi v Anand — however, in the other two model games, by Firouzja (crushing Carlsen!) and Kasparov (defeating Caruana), it becomes clear that Black does not have it easy against this seemingly quiet opening.

Exercise: How should White cope with the threats against f2? 

 
Nepomniachtchi, Ian vs. Anand, Viswanathan
White to move

You can move the pieces on the live diagram!

This week's show

Robert is on air every other Thursday at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EST)

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Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.

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