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
Whenever Garry Kasparov returns to the board the crowd gets excited, especially when he employs again his favorite Sicilian Najdorf with the Black pieces. On the first day of the Blitz section of the Grand Chess Tour he got to face the variation 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 none less than three times, but the choice of 7...Qc7 didn't work out well for him.
In all his three games with Van Foreest, Duda and Anand he got with problems out of the opening. For me a good reason to further investigate this particular variation and explain the key ideas for White how to fight for an advantage, combining both positional concepts as well as tactical motifs to build up quickly a massive attack against the black king.
Exercise: With some precise moves Jorden van Foreest managed to win in just a few moves. Do you see White's winning idea?
You can move the pieces on the live diagram!
Strategy Training: How to Make a Plan
In every game of chess, there comes a moment when one is confronted with the question: what should I do now?
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.
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