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
In recent games various strong players had some great results with the Centre Game (1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4). Against all the basic opening principles White brings out the queen early and is forced to spend quite a number of moves to find the ideal setup.
Still, after 3...Nc6, thanks to the small innovation of retreating the queen to d3 instead of e3, White succeeds in finding nice squares for his minor pieces and can quickly start thinking about launching an attack with opposite-castled kings. The ensuing positions offer White great attacking chances and various strong players have fallen victim of this relatively new approach. In this week's Fast & Furious show quite a number of miniatures are being presented.
Here's a warm-up: How should White start the attack?
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
