So some of you really like the Four Knights Opening - and still use it on occasion as part of your "opening repertoire" - that is the openings that you know and use in tournaments or whenever you play chess with your friends and family. You pull all of your openings out of your surprise bag of opening tricks and those players who do not know what you will play for your openings may be caught off guard and make a mistake early on. So let us take a deeper look at this terrific opening. One that we should all start off with before we move on to sharper opening weapon systems.
I have noticed that some of you have been using the "let us pill up the pressure on the pinned Black Knight" plan as White. At some point you are going to run into someone who knows how to prevent that plan. In this game the plan is prevented - but White still wins the game!
To really create a situation where we can play for a win we have to create an imbalance in the position - let us say that we need to make it a complex battle. That is the problem - some people feel - with this opening, the FOUR KNIGHTS. The safety net you enjoy - a straight forward opening - will not give you enough of the opening advantage that could be yours if you are playing a sharper or more complex opening with the white pieces. Like if you played - ahem - the Ruy Lopez or something else. Ahem - you know, something like, let us say - the Ruy Lopez, ahem, right? Anyways - let us take a look at a really great game taken from a book all about the FOUR KNIGHTS OPENING.
Do not get me wrong here - the FOUR KNIGHTS is a great opening. We just will want to add other openings to our bag of tricks as we face stronger opponents. As we climb the ladder of chess ability we shall have to know our openings even better as we face stronger and better prepared opposition. Which is why I want to put lessons up here on the FOUR KNIGHTS - to prepare all of you! Let's learn something new about a great opening today! Pay attention - and enjoy! - Coach Sean Tobin.
"A chess player half surprised by your choice of opening variation is a chess player half beaten!" - Coach Sean.
It is easy to make a mistake when you are in unfamiliar territory. Of course the kinds of positions that we know well will help us to find the right kind of plans during a game as well. So playing an opening that we play quite a bit - or that we have practiced will really give us an edge in our tournament games.
This game is "interesting" - I do not think the player of the White pieces "had" to lose this game. But perhaps he didn't know the opening that he played - maybe he tried it on a lark. That can get you into trouble!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment