Fundamental Chess Openings by Paul van der Sterren

Author:Paul van der Sterren [Sterren, Paul van der]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Chess
ISBN: 9781906454517
Publisher: Gambit Publications
Published: 2013-12-26T06:00:00+00:00

White to play

What justifies this little yet significant move is the fact that 4 Bxc6 dxc6 5 Nxe5 does not win a pawn (yet), because of 5...Qd4, but a much deeper point of 3...a6 is revealed after 4 Ba4: from now on Black has the opportunity of breaking the pin of the c6-knight by playing ...b5 at a moment of his own choosing. It is from this position that the great main lines of the Ruy Lopez have germinated, some of them more than twenty moves deep and with innumerable subvariations.

Nevertheless, around 2000 the natural and simple move 3...Nf6 enjoyed a wave of enormous popularity. This is the Berlin Defence, which is much older than 3...a6, but seemed to have all but disappeared in the 20th century, when it was thought that on general grounds the insertion of 3...a6 4 Ba4 could only be to Black’s advantage. But the present popularity of 3...Nf6 is based on a highly specific way of making use of White’s bishop standing on b5 rather than at a4.

3...f5 is a move of a totally different calibre. This is in fact a variation on the theme of the King’s Gambit and it has caused many a 3 Bb5 player a headache over the years. Although always looked upon with distrust at the very highest level, this bold pawn sacrifice has always had a large following among the masses. It is called the Jaenisch Gambit or Schliemann Defence and it is only recommended for lovers of sharp and concrete variations who are not afraid of taking risks.

I shall treat these three moves as main lines in this book. But in a truly great opening like the Ruy Lopez, almost all legal moves have been investigated at one time or another and have been given a name, an assessment and a set of variations in chess literature. The best of these ‘alternative’ lines are undoubtedly quite playable and each of them has its own (modest) circle of adherents.

3...d6 (D), for example, the Steinitz Defence, certainly deserves our respect, if only because it is named after the first world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900).

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