1. e4 e5: A Discussion (Eventually Middlegames) - GM Ben Finegold

okay now today I wanted to talk about efore v5 and the reason I want to talk about that is many-fold but since I teach a lot of kids classes this is what I see a lot especially in this room after the kids classes are over it's it's an e4 e5 extravaganza now many of you are familiar with Steve Davis the snooker player right who was actually look a little like him and he was good in the early 90s when I lived in Belgium and he was the best hooker player in the world and there was a chess book written in England where he wrote the forward to the book because he's also a chess player and he was explaining he played chess as a kid and he was okay but he had to quit because chess was too boring and so he played snooker could go into something a little less boring the reason Steve Davis said chess was boring is he said every game he played started like this okay with with no exception okay and he wanted to have like a different openings or different kinds of games and this was too boring okay the truth hurts okay when you're right you're right now the problem isn't that chess is boring problem is he was playing the most boring possible moves with both sides and then he was complaining it was boring so that's not okay so that position that I showed you happens at about one third of kids games and never happens at the Grandmaster level because grandmasters have a little more understanding of what we're trying to do and in fact we're going to go back half a move I was teaching class today at a school and I explained that white would like to go here and that shocked one of the kids and I said the reason you're playing e5 or c5 have you played the Sicilian is when they play d4 you're going to take it and one kid was very happy about me saying that because he said whenever they play d4 I never know if I should take it yeah well that's why you're playing e5 so you could take the pawn on d4 now you don't always take the pawn on d4 but it's a good rule to live by if you're not sure then take things okay now I want to talk about several things and we're going to go back in time again actually we're to go back times several times then forward in time they'll be like a Quinton Tarantino video or not even clear what what era were in right now okay slightly less violent but only slightly okay now in double King pawn when I lived in Belgium in 1988 one of my good friends there was international master Luke Wynans who was the best player in Belgium since he's become Grand Master Luke Wynans and also since some players from other countries moved to Belgium he doesn't play much anymore this was 25 years ago him he was the leading authority in Belgium on e4 e5 especially with black and he told me if you want to be the world champion you got to play e4 e5 and I was thinking back there's a lot of world champions who didn't play e5 against efore in their main repertoire but they still played it occasionally and of course there's a lot of great games where Karpov is white and black in this position Bobby Fischer of course almost always play d4 and there are a few games where he played ePHI but not many and Kasparov of course won many brilliant C's against Karpov playing e4 and has also played a 5 and since we have this discussion in the late 80s and early 90s I think you remember pretty well I think you were there at that time now every top player in the world plays e45 it's gotten more popular since we have this talk the main reason is the Berlin defense which has played at the top level but at the lower levels is almost never played and the Berlin defense is in the real Lopez now one of the reasons we see a lot of top level Berlin's and we see very few at the lower level is that lower level players don't like the move Bishop b5 too sophisticated okay they want to play they want to play Bishop c4 and take on f7 at some point they want to play d4 and sack all their pawns they're not interested in Bishop b5 and playing this long maneuvering game higher rated players don't like to sacrifice their pieces as much so we see lots of real Lopez's now as you all know in 2000 there was a World Championship match between which two players anybody you that's correct well how are you correct what feeling all right all right and and that match Kramnik introduced as his main weapon the Berlin previous to that the two leading practitioners on the circuit where Alex Scherzer also known as Alex not guilty Scherzer and Arthur biz guy okay now Arthur busy ire when he played the Berlin a draw was okay and when Scherzer played the Berlin he was playing for a win and they played the same way where they would go into this end game okay and this is the so-called Berlin end game which I have no reason to talk about today but it happens to be very popular at the top level and if you took all the top players in the world they would have this position with white and black just not at the same time okay and that's why II 45 became so popular normally Kasparov would win with white and when you play kramnik and the match that you just revealed he did not win he did not win one game and people said hey if Kasparov can't win with why this must be okay for black and since that match they've been playing the Berlin okay now I was actually very lucky okay because when I moved to Belgium I played efore c5 I put the Sicilian and this was in 1988 and of course talking to Luke Wynans I was introduced to plug a 45 a lot and Luke plays a line that nobody plays after Knight f6 he plays Bishop c5 okay and what's good about this for me is I was playing Knight f6 my opponent I sold I played Bishop c5 then they started thinking okay then kramnik hooked me up as he's known to do kramnik started playing Knight takes e4 so often other players followed soon that this became a very popular line and you could argue this variation with Knight takes e4 is as popular or more popular than the normal a six now when I played Knight f6 Bishop c5 nobody cared okay they're like yeah whatever I don't know anything then people started learning Knight takes e4 because it became very popular so now when I had this position my opponents assumed I was going to play Knight takes e4 because that became popular this never became popular so that worked out pretty well for me and I still play this today and I still have good results I've played it in US Championships I've played it the club I've played all over the world and I have some funny wins and I'll show you one today okay but I wanted to give back to e4 e5 because basically there's this story time today I want to tell you some funny stories now let's say I want to say friend I don't want to say acquaintance I don't want to say enemy enemies the closest game someone that I know in Chicago gives chess lessons to children this this position sorry you know who it is and and this person was teaching this position a lot because this position happens all the time and of course when kids are playing especially kids rate under a thousand Bishop c4 is the move of choice okay as opposed to weapon of choice right comer okay good plows essentially yesterday working out all right so when I analyze this with Fat Boy slim oh wait a minute when I analyze this we were talking about this position and he said something funny to me he said I tell all my students to play Bishop c5 and then if their opponent plays 90 g5 attacking f7 they take the knight and I said okay that's good and a lot of kids play 9 g5 because that's the program to play Knight g5 they got a take out of seven now he said unfortunately about 50% of the time his students forget and play Knight f6 they just can't remember to play Bishop c5 so he tells his kids when you forget to play Bishop c5 and this position occurs you're going to play this smooth an unknown move although it's known a little bit not known of the people in this room and the idea is if Knight takes we play d5 and if white takes on f7 it's very complicated and he would analyze this with his kids of course if you're a kid rated 400 and your opponent plays Knight takes e4 you don't know that move and his opponents would get confused and they would do well okay but there's a longer part of the story and one of the stories is there is a coach in Chicago I don't know who it is and he told his kids you should play Knight g5 and I'm like okay the Knights hanging then he tells his kids d4 now this is mastering the middle game you have to master that your queen is attacked and when I showed this today in a school some of the kids took with the pawn some took with a knight and some took with a bishop but nobody knows their queen was attacked and that was the whole point so there's an there's an educator in Chicago who explains that in this position you're going to take this Queen more often than not unless you watch this video okay and okay after d4 if you're just staring at the pawn on d4 you can see how people would miss Bishop takes g5 queen's eggs g2 is not good for Wyatt okay now you don't have to master the middle game you could 15-under the middle game and still win and now white loses everything now this reminded me of a terrible movie with a great actor and that movie is anyone the illusion defense also a book and the illusion defense stars John Turturro not to be confused with Nicholas Turturro who's not as not as good okay and in that movie and yesterday chess club Mario of all people was showing a trap and I was like Mario showing a trap okay and Mario's trap starts with the move Knight to d4 okay now one of my favorite games of this line is the game toxify Baja Mian one of our you know previous g-man residences was white and didn't know this move and made the mistake Knight takes e5 and after suspicious play by both colors the game ended in a draw although her opponent was 400 points lower rated so okay of course every move here is good for white except that one c3 is good Knight takes Knight is good and castles is good 9 takes e5 is falling into the trap now in the movie the loser defense where he's supposed to be playing in a tournament I mean whites not going to know world chainage up level ok so the move obviously is Queen to g5 now that there is no knight on f3 to capture it and White's greed has got it into some precarious situation or got her in a precarious situation as was happened in the game and I don't know what talks have did but the game will got really crazy and ended up in a draw this game was about five years ago now in the movie and the trap that's in every book is white continues to be greedy with 9 takes f7 another mistake queen's eggs g2 threatening the rook and also Queen takes tricks pretty good so a rook F one Queen takes e4 check the best move is Queen e2 which gives the Queen away but probably your typical player would play Bishop e2 now when I showed this in class today the first suggestion was 92 and when I said that was wrong the second suggestion was Queen e2 also wrong normally I get the wrong suggestion of knights e2 which wins the Queen and that would win the game but there's a better move than all of those moves which was pointed out by the third student which is Knight f3 mate and that was played in the lusion defense movie because in movies Grandmaster games and then five okay so there's a lot of traps in e4 e5 if you're going to play e4 you fight with either color you have to know these kinds of tricks okay now I want to go back because of course as soon as this position occurred one of the kids yelled fried liver fried liver okay this is not the fried liver and I'm a vegetarian so I don't want to hear it okay the fried liver is assuming both sides make a lot of mistakes okay and so you guys know what I'm talking about right he's like yeah a lot of mistakes me okay you can put your hand out at home okay so Knight f6 which is a reasonable move unless you're Mike comer then it's just terrible Knight g5 d5 now in this position 90% of grandmasters would play Knight a5 and maybe five or two Tambor so I would play b5 or 94 remember some crazy movies like it's b5 right all right now in the fried liver black makes the error Knight takes d5 and white makes the error Knight takes f7 so Knight a5 is the preference of all good players in fact the first u.s. championship ever held it the you at the Chess Club saw the move Knight a5 between which two players does those Alex are comer now Alex Nakamura versus freed al that's correct naka winning in what 23 moves not not very long game a miniature and naka won the tournament ok but 9 a 5 is the normal move now of course after Knight takes d5 d4 is very hard to meet because the bishop is protecting the knight and Knight takes d4 loses a piece to c3 and your Knights are all hanging so d4 sort of annoying I've analyzed d4 but since I'll never have white or black in this position I didn't really care very much ok but that's the move a grand minister would play and then nobody would play Knight takes d5 unless this was the year 1750 then ok maybe ok so in this position some people want to play Knight f6 and after d3 which is just as popular as 95 at the top level black can choose between Bishop e7 and Bishop c5 the idea with this should be 7 is we can castle in our Bishop won't get harassed on c5 we're going to keep it on e7 so there's no pen and so forth now because of this there's an opening defense called the Hungarian defense ok and that is very similar to the Petrosian variation and my comers favorite opening the qgd no nobody got that ok Bensimon almost got that ok now or as Mike would say the qg n now the qg d the Petrosian variation is to play Bishop e7 before Knight f6 which we could also do here so let's play Bishop e7 the idea is if we Castle Knight f6 and if Knight g5 we just castle whenever somebody plays 9 g5 attacking f7 you want to castle if it's legal that's not legal you could try anyway okay now attribution should be 7 White has a very aggressive way of playing d4 well I guess after castles it's illegal d4 and c3 ok it may surprise some of you that the most common move for black and probably the best is Alex well I said the best no I think Knight a5 is better yeah solid right ok and after 985 it's unclear what should happen but black is fine ok now when I was 14 years old I had this position and my opponent took on c3 which is OK and I play Queen d5 and now he made a very big mistake something none of the kids in the kids class would ever do what did black - that was a mistake not only is 96 not a mistake that's the only move see so maybe I should ask for mistakes more often you'll play better there is no other move you must play 9 HX ok and instead of 9 h6 what did my opponent do while Knight f6 is pretty bad but he did something even worse after 9 f6 I may have died and then he would have won the game instead he resigned so even worse the knight f6 okay and when he resigned you know he could play Knight h6 like all of you know defending mate and after takes that I'm still threatening me but I've won a piece and when he didn't realize is he can castle here and the computer engine say white is slightly better white is up a piece but black has a couple of threats pawn takes h6 and pawn takes beats hero and a good way for white supply is to take defending b2 and then take on c3 materials equal blacks King is a little funny but black has two bishops another way for white supply is Bishop to c1 which of course I like as it retreats and that defends the pawn and saves the bishop now we have night before again with a dual threat and the only way to stop both if you'd like to stop both is Queen d1 and then C two forks the pieces for some reason in a previous class I know if it was in this room one one person suggested Queen d3 and one suggested Queen d2 okay very suspicious Queen do you want a safer okay now in the hungarian defense normally after the move Bishop e7 d4 black can play the move D 6 and after takes you can take with the pawn and after it takes you can take with the bishop and ok I'd rather have white but it's certain somewhat boring and white doesn't have to take on e5 y can simply develop so the hungarian defense not popular at the top level what is pop with the top level is Bishop c5 also not popular is Bishop c4 this should be 5 is far more popular now if your opponent plays the Scotch with the move d4 then of course there's only one move to play as we discussed earlier in class you take it that's why you played the movie five okay now unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view I was analyzing a game today between some of the kids and black played with I'd never seen before d5 trying to confuse the teacher I was guessing taking on e5 was a good move but white instead took and now made a move that's very very very suspicious Knight c3 is a normal move but he played g3 not a good move black played Bishop g4 this is really mastering the middle again get all your pieces out and crush your opponent white played Knight d2 it didn't say which one then with these guys I wasn't sure Knight takes d4 Bishop to G to c4 okay alright now in this position black can win a lot of material by playing Knight takes f3 check and if Knight takes f3 black just takes everything Bishop takes check and takes the rook ok beginner breakdown instead black played Bishop takes f3 and then they got to a position where black was a pawn up he immediately hung his F pawn and in this position which I'm afraid to evaluate white made a move they was so bad it was unbelievable I would probably play C 3 white played Knight see for opening this up for the to the King and somehow black played the best move here I was shocked what is the best move you you're 2/3 right change the F to something else my comer that was too easy for comfortable okay yeah actually yeah what was he thinking will you people at home don't know what you're missing Lulu what should he do it's Lulu it's not Knight f3 it's night-night b3 notice how it's check which comer now notices and attacks the rook and black one a ruck and I can't show you the rest but I would start crying but you would too okay the point is d5 very suspicious but not punished properly so the fortune favors the brave something like that but normally you would you would take this and then if white takes we have a normal scotch or black develops this piece is one of two ways usually unless your Steinitz and you buy this terrible okay and also at the lower levels people like to sack all their pawns because they don't have any pawns left yay and white doesn't have any pawns okay and this is some gambit of which I don't know the name it's The Goring gambit of the Scotch game but nobody knows okay except those guys mr. scotch okay now gambits are popular at the lower level because they you've done a politic see what happens every game its Grandmaster level we don't like to be done in e pawn so we don't do that okay now let's get back to reality let's look at a couple of games with this line that Luke Wynans taught me since my comer is actually in the audience I will flip the board causing temporary confusion alex Marler it's a 45 a discussion it's mastering the little game which we're going to talk about now okay now when I play Bishop c5 obviously I'm not playing Knight takes e4 which would not be good mastering the little game does get to an end game right away fact the last tournament I played in a couple weeks ago I played three games all three games were end games after move 15 some after move 10 some earlier so there was no middle game lecture from that tournament so Bishop c5 now we're going to see a middle game now there's two ways for white to play white can play C 3 and d 4 which makes sense or white can play this trick we've already talked about 95 and if 95 then d4 and after 95 you can take the knight on e5 like I just did or you could take on e4 in fact I was playing in with Ray Robson just when I started working here actually and in Chicago and he thought 35 minutes here or as Ray Robson would say a short thing and played the move Knight takes f7 which actually has been played before exactly yeah unfortunately so did I so as the game continued I was better than I was worse and then I lost and then he got a GM norm and I didn't okay then the next turn I get a GM norm and he didn't and now I'm not sure who's better or taller okay or lives in st. Louis okay the answers to those questions are fried green tomatoes all right and also Queen e2 is the move that's the more common move and I've played Knight takes e5 and Knight takes e4 and I've done okay with both but not against Ray Robson okay the other way to play for white is to play C 3 and d 4 now I hope this is being broadcast in England and Steve Davis is watching us Steve your snooker games okay okay but Knight c3 boring and double King pawn openings white would like to play C 3 and d 4 when you get to the super grand master level d4 is a bit much so you play d3 that you play d4 later that's way a little slower magnus carlsen approved okay and I Castle of course and d4 now one thing tonight got the kids today which they promptly forgot was when your opponent plays C 3 and d 4 and a double King pawn opening you have two possibilities you can move your bishop or you can take the point earlier I told you always take the pawn ah the mysteries of life that's why pencils have erasers you are going to take this pawn when the White King is on e 1 so in the Joko piano which is no joke Bishop c4 Bishop c5 c3 ok now the White King is on e 1 we take and play Bishop b4 check and at some point we take this pawn or play d5 or do both depending on what white does and Black has in theory equalized and the position I'm showing you and the real Lopez where White has already castled now we don't take on d4 because if we take on d4 this should be 4 is not check and there's a very good reason to play c3 for white we get to play d4 and it's defended but there's a very bad reason the knight can't go to c3 so if you trade pawns and let White's Knight go to c3 White's just can have a big Center so Bishop b6 is the move and the idea is we're not losing a pawn because your pawn is attacked and a lot of the Berlin variations when you take this pawn you're very worried about your King on i-84 King isn't on e8 you're not worried anymore ok and white can take which I faced this is the more common move Bishop to g5 Luke went on sand I argued for years about whether to play d6 or play h6 and then d6 and we still argue he thinks you shouldn't play h6 and I think you should maybe he's changed his mind in the last 20 years I know I haven't yeah see he's right yeah so you agree with me okay now after h6 there's a funny line which I very rarely face but it's funny they take minor e they take my other night then they take upon luckily this pawn is hanging and I've actually had this position more than once it's pretty boring but you know it's e4 e5 what do you want we want from me okay now most of my opponents play Bishop H for maintaining the pin and then I play d6 okay now uh in the last 25 years I have two really nice wins against grandmasters from this position both games were very short one game was less than 20 moves and one game was less than 25 moves and you would think with black in this position you should never win quickly because how do you master the middle game when the game was already all ending okay and one game was against Boris cry-baby crimen and the other was against joseph heller's joseph heller's sounds like an author Ferdinand tellers yeah I knew was somebody yeah I guess that was a let's see kinda make a joke about that I didn't prepare one so okay thank you so one game was played in 2002 World Open where I got my first Grand Master norm and my opponent played Knight BDC would offer to draw okay now since I won the game do you think I accepted the draw what do you think nah he's paid attention in my last class it was a 50/50 split 20 kids said yes 20 said no and 20 voted for Pat Buchanan yeah now I was like wait a minute this Queen is protecting this pawn now it's not so I took upon her a for me and my opponent played as missions ugh though the way some kids pronounced it today I'm not sure they took missions look-ins looks long and mixed them so it was I was very confused okay now of course if he takes my pawn I'll just take back so he took my knight then I play desicions again stead of taking his Bishop I took his pawn then he played his missions ugh and I heard on the radio yesterday desperado your favorite song right he's like yeah okay and he must have had an eagle eye to see this desperado nothing they're just rolling over dine at home okay so he played Bishop takes B seven of course he takes my pawn and I take his Bishop you can see that I have seven pawns and he has six so before taking on c3 he took this threatening my rook I took and he took and if you count the pawns I'll give you a minute six to six okay but I want to win this point this pawns attacked twice and it's defended once sounds good right but my knight is pinned so i unpinned by night and now when he plays Bishop g3 I'm a pawn up and I'll win with my two bishops but my opponent wasn't so nice he sacrificed a piece and now that pin is sort of nasty I defended my knight he attacks it again I played Queen e7 and now he missed a chance to get his piece back with the move e5 and everybody is attacking everybody else very confusing and the computer says that I should take and then take and then play the crazy move d5 and black is better I would not have played d5 I think I would have played Queen takes c3 yeah the idea behind e5 is if he takes it then i skewer his queen a knight okay in any case instead of E 5 my opponent play Queen e3 I played queen East Queen g3 I play Queen e6 he played this terrible move and now he did something shocking my comer will never forgive him he resigned yeah and the computer says black is winning all right now that game was played on board two of the 2002 World open in round 7 now before that I was living in Europe and I played a tournament a nice is that your favorite country yeah that's I agree with that okay and I was playing either Ferdinand or joseph heller's we'll never know okay and the reason we haven't heard of Ferdinand dollars except for you maybe maybe is because he quit chess and what did he do instead of chess he's an attorney gay in his home country of Sweden so he went from chess grandmaster to Swedish attorney and in this position instead of playing the Boris cry-baby crime and move which led to a loss eventually he took everything he took my night he took my pawn and now he defended his pawn with Knight BD - ok now my pawn structure is a little raggedy but I have a nice bishop ok and now my pawn is attacked so I protected it that's how I roll ok now I told you this was a class of stories Luke went on who showed me this line was playing a tournament in your favorite city in France although nobody in my last class had ever heard of this city or could name it it's the second biggest city after Paris pen Simon two for two okay Leon France and as all of you remember in 1990 the World Chess Championship between Karpov and Kasparov was played half of New York and half in Leon I'm sure you all remember that especially those of you who were born yet okay and when I was playing this game in Reykjavik and Iceland my friend Lou Quinn honest was playing a tournament Leon France turned out we got home at the same time I mean like in our apartments so I walked into my apartment and my phone rang and I said hello well maybe I said Bonjour you never know I was in Brussels and he said hi this is Luke I just came back from Leon I just walked in the door and I just came back from Reykjavik I walked in the door and we talked about our tournaments and I said I need Ferdinand howlers with black and 23 moves and then he said you did and he said Queen a4 and I said that's right so just from what I told him he figured out this position occurred and white played Queen a4 that's why he's a grandmaster and you're sitting in some scary room right now so there's a reason okay and I said how did you know now of course today every game is shown live with 500 commentators so everybody would know but back then in 1988 he said he had this position in Leon and his opponent played like Queen e2 or rook e1 and they drew quickly and the guy said I was thinking about playing Queen a4 but that loses a piece my opponent played Queen a4 and lost a piece so I did better than one so now the student has become the teacher now I could take this night for free except for one thing the other night what if I could attack this Knight and make it move away hmm well done so I played the obvious move pawn g5 and when I play plunge e5 my opponent put his head down and shook his head for about a minute and a half so I said well okay I thought he said two-piece but I guess he didn't okay and this ship to g3 and g4 and the game ended pretty quickly I want a piece for two ponds I can't remember the game because I'm old but if I could remember the game I would think it went something like this what did he do now he played here that's right doesn't make any sense and here he resigned I think that was the game yeah okay it's like silk remember games I played a long time ago as long as I won and there was a very long complicated story okay now this is actually removing the defender but he removed his own defender that was very nice of him because the knight on D 2 has two defenders this night and this Queen he moved one of them away and I moved the other one away well usually when I show this as a puzzle my students say Bishop g4 attacking the knight and I'm like what are you talking about the other and I just takes back so that doesn't really do it pawns attacking Knights that'll do it and when you're a grandmaster like me you can move your pawn three spaces ahead also just going to stop with here right he's like I don't know maybe sounds good right okay now you'll see my book cheat like a grandmaster that's coming out soon co-written by Boris log even off alright who's not a grandmaster terrible alright so I learned a lot from a 45 from Luke Wynans and what I like about this variation is when I play Bishop c5 especially now my opponents are expecting the Berlin because everybody's playing the Berlin now and then when I play here they're not as familiar with Bishop c5 even though it sort of looks like a joke Oh piano it's a little bit different because sometimes Y can try to win this pawn sometimes black tries to win this pawn and usually we just develop our pieces then we get an equalist type position of course I've had this many times now I have to tell you something funny I was giving a sign wall somewhere where was i given the Simon I think it was in South Carolina yeah they're in the news lately right Clemson and all and my opponent played rookie one and my Simon that I gave and actually this was played in the game of gold goes where he played Knight g4 might come a recommended attacking f2 and after a rookie to 9 to d4 game we trade and actually black can play Queen h4 and h5 and get a big attack while white is asleep here this looks like everybody who ever lived versus Morphy okay and Gokul won his game and I won my game in like 12 moves and I remember there was a theme where upon at some point we'll make some illegal moose for white my opponent played h3 and then in some position I played Queen g3 this was the key theme of the game notice Quan takes Queen is illegal because it's illegal and this is going to be me and if my opponent takes I got a nice rook over here to also help me meet you okay and I had some game like this an assignment which ended in like 10 moves okay although I'm pretty sure my opponent didn't play a three rip D through a two well they might have played worst moves it's not clear yeah so rookie ones not a good move in any kind of opening like this when there's a bishop at night bearing down on you my comer would agree normally when you're playing rook e1 there is no Knight g4 there is no Bishop c5 and you're just helping your knight swing around here what English up diet good job so I've had a lot of success with e45 but I still play it rarely I prefer c5 the Sicilian and obviously pizza related you know arguments and when I was a kid I played the French defense every game so I went from playing the French to playing the Sicilian to playing E 5 to sort of playing the Sicilian more now and now that I'll play often I like to play all three not at the same time but if possible and sometimes this is even even a 45 these openings all look like each other okay and I've had some Sicilians lately that look like a 45 I don't know how it happens it always happens in these Bishop b5 lines okay my opponents think they're playing the real Lopez even though it's Sicilian okay and we get these positions and it reminds me of a 45 especially when something silly like this happens and I've had positions like these and this looks more like a 45 and e4 c5 so and a lot of my Sicilians and French's look like each other I'm sure Alex Marlar would agree often you're playing east six nc5 and you're not even sure where the opening came from when I was analyzing with a listen Allah Khanna we would look at the advanced French of the Sicilian because she was playing white and we would sometimes get positions that looked like this the advanced French because sometimes she was playing C 3 against the Sicilian her opponent would play e6 and we would get these positions okay they would transpose so even if you play only e4 e5 or you only play the Sicilian you only play the French sometimes it looks like other openings and having a general knowledge of those openings can help you in the middle game with what the right plans are just showing one opening is it enough when things start to look differently and the last thing I'll say is although it's not e45 a lot of times in the Smiths Morra a lot of good players are playing Knight f6 or they're playing some other variation declining the gambit and you have to know C 3 Sicilian type positions so even if it's Eve 45 and you're ready for the real opaz the Joko piano the scotch there's other things like the vienna and the king's gambit which we didn't talk about today which you won't face very often but if you do and your opponent knows it better than you do you better be ready for that so e4 e5 looks boring looks symmetrical but there's a lot of poison there's a lot of different variations and anybody who's watched beginner breakdown or as I call it beginner beatdown they know when the night comes to g5 and attacks f7 this is not a boring opening thank you for coming to whatever this lecture was called and I'll see you guys on Thursday

Channel: Saint Louis Chess Club

Views: 561,657

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Id: F2MkdD1B77E

Length: 43min 39sec (2619 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/avodaboi]

His lectures are gold.

[u/manu_facere]

Been meaning to ask this for a while. If the berlin is so notorious for drawing chances for black why do top players even play the ruy lopez as white?

[u/Greenerli]

It's the first time I'm watching a lecture of Ben Finegold. I don't understand exactly his purpose. He seems to talk about a lot of things, and it doesn't seem really organized. He speaks a little bit about Italian Game at the beginning, then, Berlin, then Scotch Opening. I don't really understand the main subject of this video.

Could you explain me what he wants to say ? What is his main purpose ?

[u/thekeylimeinmiami]

Also, because of the Berlin, the Ponziani Opening is gaining traction because after the move c3 at move 3, Black may not be prepared to go into some of the detailed lines.