Category Archives: MIDDLEGAMES

MIDDLEGAMES, OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

THE EASTERN CLAMP ANTI-SICILIAN

This week I published a first series of videos on of a new set of 1.e4 openings for White. I had previously balked at the idea of doing so as I felt that 1.e4 was too chaotic to allow the assimilation of positional ideas and too theoretical for amateurs to play with confidence. I changed my mind after discovering 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4, which I've dubbed The Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian. 

What's the idea behind this line? There are several. In the late 1980s I used to play 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.g3 in order to get a Closed Sicilian but without White's knight on c3. However I struggled against 3...d5 4.Nd2 Nf6 5.Bg2 e5 6.Ngf3 Be7; White's position is playable here but he's certainly not better. Reluctantly I gave it up and started using 1.d4 and Flank Openings instead, but I wish I'd taken a closer look at 3.f4. Yuri Balashov, a Closed Sicilian aficionado, was already playing this in the 1980s and it was also being advocated by Mikhail Shereshevsky, a famous coach. White takes central space, and the onus is on Black to try and offset this somehow.

From an amateur's perspective the advantage of this line is that it does not require a lot of theoretical knowledge, or any updates of such knowledge on an ongoing basis. It can be played mainly with ideas and plans, and the one sharp line looks rather dubious for Black. There are other low maintainance lines with 1.e4 and I will be covering more of these over the coming months. As an example, the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5) can be met with 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3, the strategically clear Exchange Variation.
 

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature the Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian, with two major branches from Black:

Sunday February 16th at 5pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 d5

Sunday February 16th at 6.15pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 g6

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

April 4-14 2025: European Senior Team Championship

I finally got confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ 1st team, apparently on board 3 of a team that includes Michael Adams, John Emms, myself, Steve Dishman and Graeme Buckley.

April 24-28 2025: English Senior Championships

I'm hoping to be invited to these and may now be eligible for either section. You can find details here. 

July 31st - 10th August 2025: British Championships
These have now been confirmed for Liverpool on these dates, you can find details here. If I get invited to play in the main Championships, I'll probably accept. Otherwise I'm eligible for both the 50+ and 65+ sections, and should have a chance of doing well in either.

There will probably be one or two events between April and the end of July, it's important to keep playing in order to maintain good form.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays and another weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

MIDDLEGAMES, OPENINGS, PAWN LEVERS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TIGER CHESS STRATEGY COURSE, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

THE WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

The White 1.d2-d4 Repertoire Course is a stand-alone opening course which considerably extends the White lines presented in the Building an Opening Repertoire course. It has over 16 hours of video which explain key games and ideas plus a pgn (portable game notation) file of recommended variations that can be built upon, extended and important into software such as Chess Position Trainer. The 98 games from the videos are also included in pgn format.

As in the Building an Opening Repertoire course, White is still playing 1.d4 followed by 2.Nf3 but will then follow up with 3.c4 against most of Black's defences. The Colle is still to be used after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 but the ...d7-d5 lines are met with the Rubinstein-Zukertort line and those with 3...b6 are answered with 4.Bd3 Bb7 5.0-0 c5 6.c4, transposing into the 4.e3 line of the Queen's Indian but without allowing annoying lines such as the Bogo-Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 Bb4+), Modern Benoni (3...c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6) or Blumenfeld Gambit (3...c5 4.d5 b5).

A particularly important aspect of this course for the developing player is the inclusion of openings which act as touchstones for the understanding of positional play, including the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5) and King's Indian Petrosian System (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.d5). These openings are particularly rich in plans and pawn levers, which helps students develop a deeper understanding of the material presented in the Tiger Chess Strategy Course.

Wherever possible the lines have been selected so that important position types can be practiced but without the need to learn a lot of intricate variations. This is in keeping with the Tiger Chess approach of developing core skills, and therefore playing strength, in the most efficient way. The full running order is as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange I
3. Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange II
4. Slav Exchange
5. Queen's Gambit Accepted
6. Other 1...d5 Lines
7. King's Indian
8. Modern, Old Indian and 1...d6
9. Gruenfeld Defence
10. Queen's Indian via 2...e6 3.e3 b6
11. Rubinstein-Zukertort Colle via 2...e6 3.e3 d5
12. Anti-Benoni
13. Dutch Defence
14. Miscellaneous Defences

This course is suitable for players over 1700 Elo who want a high quality opening repertoire for White that is based on plans and strategy rather than intricate theoretical variations. You need to be a Tiger Chess member to get it and continue to view it, which is why it priced at just $24.95. You can get it at the add-on videos page but need to be a logged on member to see the option to purchase it.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, DEFENCE, MIDDLEGAMES

NOVEMBER 2019 CLINIC: GOOD DEFENCE

The November clinic was devoted to the topic of good defence, which tends to be quite rare at amateur level. The top requirements include calculating ability, objectivity and a refusal to give in without making the best possible fight of it. There's also a need to counterattack wherever possible, which is not always easy after having been under pressure.

The following position was reached in one of the submissions, with White having just played 25.Nf3-d4 (see diagram below). What should Black now do?

Black to play

The answer was the brilliant 25...g5!, which undermined White's central wedge and brought the bishop on g7 to life. After 26.Qxe4 gxf4 27.Qxf4 Ng6 28.Qe4 Qxe5 Black had broken the attack and stood better, though he narrowly failed to win.

Nigel Davies