This video is a brief overview of chess openings and their names. Hi all I'm going to do a slightly different video today it's gonna be a very brief
overview of 1.e4 opening names which is something I was thinking of but was
prompted by someone on YouTube recently my message box so I'm really looking
particularly at 1.e4. So after 1.e4 what are the common responses and what are they all
called ? Well we can look at the most common responses by following the pawns
so a6 has this ever been played before ? It's called the St George Defence (also known as the Baker's defence)
It was used by Tony miles against Anatoly Karpov successfully so it's not
as bad as it looks it might have the idea of b5 later and Bishop b7.
Maybe e6 and a kind of French defense setup. Now let's look at the next move b6
- The Owen's defense (also known as the Queen's Fianchetto Defence or Greek Defense) is another very rare bird defense with the idea of fianchettoing the
Queen's Bishop and again you might play e6 later maybe Bishop b4 and
sometimes attack the e4 square. But these two are not really main line
openings. The Sicilian defence is a main line opening one of the most popular and best
scoring the source of this content is wiki by the way and there are many
variations the Sicilian which I'll try and touch on once we get this very brief
overview of looking at the pawns. The caro-kann defense is a rock-solid
defense which was used quite a lot by Anatoly Karpov off against Garry Kasparov actually in
some of the World Championship matches. So after d4 black plays d5 and it is a
favorite of Anatoly Karpov. And it's got a reputation for being very solid
basically. d6 is the Pirc defense (sometimes known as the Ufimtsev Defence or Yugoslav Defence).
And often black plays g6 later and
Bishop g7. 1 ... d5 is the the Scandinavian Defense (or Center Counter Defense, or Center Counter Game)
It used to be thought in the times of Aron Nimzovich (one of the great hypermodernists) that it should be very bad as it was
losing time with the queen. However it's not as bad as
it looks because often black can sort of kind of just play like Queen a5 for
example and then Bishop f5 and then get a sort of caro-kann setup with the
pawns. So the loss of time is is often balanced by how solid blacks position is
and the Grandmaster Ian Rodgers from Australia became a major exponent of
this opening to revitalize it so that's not as bad as it seems. 1... e6 is a
very very popular defense the French defense so it's known for its solidity
and resilience so the French defense the main lines of the French defense after
d4 d5 we have here Knight c3 which is the Paulsen variation so now three black
major options here. Bishop b4 is the Winawer variation of the French. Knight
f6 is the Classical variation of the French. exe4 is the Rubinstein
variation of French. Okay so that's the French defense another major opening f5
is just rubbish you shouldn't ever play it but it's called the Fred Defence. (also known as sometimes the Duras Gambit, Reversed From, Tiers Counter-Gambit). g6 is called
the Modern defence so black aims to fianchetto the bishop and pressurize the
dark squares. It often gives White a big Center there's a lot of variations in
this. It is quite a popular opening but not as popular as the French or the
Sicilian defense. So h6 is something which International Master Michael Basman would play
following up with g5 and Bishop g7 perhaps c5 later. It's not as bad as it
seems because it is a kind of dark square strategy trying to pressurize the
d4 square. Basman has crushed quite a few people this like playing g4 later and
White's position has often fallen to bits so these rare birds are
not as bad as they seem. Now that was a very very brief overview
let's focus in on some particular Sicilian lines which is the most popular
one of the most popular replies to e4. So Knight f3 is often played and now here
blacks got a number of major options e6 or d6 or knight c6.
Let's choose d6 and after d4, White usually plays d4 to have this trade of
pawns for the flank pawn and now here black usually plays Knight
f6 to attack that e4 pawn so white plays Knight c3 and now here often the
move favored by Garry Kasparov is a6 because it stops something Bishop b5
checks so Sicilian Najdorf. What are the alternatives. An immediate e6 is the
Scheveningen variation but you can play a Scheveningen by playing a6 first
and so that's not as recommendable actually as the immediate a6.
g6 is the dragon variation known as the pawn structure looks a bit like a
fire-breathing dragon with this fire-breathing Bishop on that
diagonal. (In his 1953 autobiography, the Russian chess master and amateur astronomer Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky claimed that he coined the name "Dragon Variation" in 1901, after the fancied resemblance between Black's kingside pawn structure and the constellation Draco). So here let's have a look let's say a6 then and Bishop e3 is the
English attack because it was played by a lot of English GM's
Bishop e2 is kind of the classical variation where white plays quite
modestly especially e6 - this is this the Scheveningen (also known as the classical variation).
White might Castle and later play things like key Kh1 f4-f5 what else is there? e5
probably not very good. Be careful about weakening
the d5 square so lets have a rewind here. Instead of d6 knight c6 is
one of my favorites but I'm not going to play it much this season. It can lead
to the Sicilian Sveshnikov variation. After Nf6
and now e5 - this is the Sveshnikov variation.
So White usually plays Nb5 there. There's a lot of theory
on this Sveshnikov variation. So you see there's a lot of flavors of the Sicilian defense
so that's a very very brief overview there now e5 the King pawn game is of
course a major defense after Knight f3 knight c6 we have the Ruy Lopez.
So that's the most often played. In the 19th century there was a lot of
favor for Bishop c4 now if black plays Bishop c5 that's called the Giuoco Piano.
If black plays Knight f6 that's the "Two Knights defense". If black plays after
Knight f3 actually though instead of Nc6 there's there's some alternatives here
fo f5 is the Latvian counter gambit so that's the very aggressive attempt to
maybe undermine White's pawn Center and get fast development if black can
recapture the bishop on f5. d6 is the philidor's defense that was used a lot
by Emanuel Lasker one of the earliest world chess champions is quite a solid way of
playing
so knight c6 is actually just the most common move so that's a very very brief
overview of 1.e4 systems. In later videos I will hone in on particular
defenses. Let me know in your comments actually what areas you want me to zoom
in on as far as 1.e4 openings go. Do you want me to look at the Sicilian or
the French defence. But anyway in summary and conclusion I just want to say that the
three main most popular in my view are the Sicilian defense, the French
defense is very popular. e5 is obviously very popular as well the symmetrical
like King pawn game. So those are the three main openings which I consider the most popular.
Slightly less popular is the caro-kann defence or the Pirc defense or the Modern
defense. Oh I forgot to mention actually the Alekhine's defence which was even used
by Bobby Fischer in 1972 World Championship match.
so the Alekhine defence is named after Alexander Alekhine another world
champion so that's a very provocative idea of encouraging whites to move the
pawns forward because blacks biting in the center so so this is the Alekhine's defence.
The exchange variation so anyway so we'll go back so so basically I hope you learnt
something new from that and if there is a demand for more opening videos which
can zoom into particular lines tell me which particular lines. Also I might do a
brief overview of of 1. d4 and 1. c4 if there's interest thanks for listening
and I hope that's giving you a little bit more insight into the openings of
chess with 1.e4 being played. You can use this Chess opening explorer by visiting www.chessworld.net and heading for the Improve menu ... Learn from the Masters. The chess board is interactive there. Thanks very much!