Category Archives: WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, COACHING, OPENINGS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

HOW TO STUDY CHESS VIDEOS

During this week's webinar I was asked how many times it's good to watch a chess opening video. I would say that the answer is rather nuanced.

To learn openings I recommend a combination of watching videos, training games and playing around with any pgn file to look for alternatives and see what the engine says. The amount of time used on these three approaches will vary from person to person and how much time they have available.

Personally I tend to watch videos, often whilst doing some other activity such as using a stationary exercise bike. I would like to spend time examining the variations with an engine and playing through them on a real chess board, unfortunately it's difficult to find time. As for training games, this tends to be my lowest priority, but I've put it there because I'd need both time and a suitable partner. In the past I've tested openings in correspondence games but tend to lose interest once the opening stage is over.

I would not recommend my approach to anybody else, I think we all have to find our own way. A good way to start is by watching Tiger Chess material and then play in the Tiger Chess training tournaments on Lichess.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments will feature the Colle, which appears in both the Building an Opening Repertoire course and the White 1.d4 Repertoire:

Sunday November 10th at 5pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c5

Sunday November 10th at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6

Upcoming Events

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

December 1, 2024: Bolton Rapid Play
A fairly local event for me, so I'll be playing to to get some practice. Details can be found here.

December 7, 2024: Huddersfield Chess Club Seminar
I've run a number of seminars at this great club, this is the first since before COVID. Their website is here.

January 17-19: Huddersfield 4NCL Congress
I really enjoy the 4NCL Congresses as they're played under excellent conditions in nice hotels. This is the first one in Huddersfield, you can find details here.

January 27th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.

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.

July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year? There's a rumour on Tim Spanton's blog that they would be. I think I might go for the 50+ event if this is the case.

I'm hopeful that I'll get to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Walbrzych, Poland, April 4-14) in which I've said I'll play in any team and on any board.

Hope you have a great weekend! Meanwhile please note that there are discounts on my Vimeo videos listed in my newsletter.

Nigel

CLINIC, NEWS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

NOVEMBER 2022 CLINIC

The November clinic featured some more games in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, this time starting after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5. It also featured an interesting duel between two of the regular participants in these events.

Most of the games were very hard fought, but in one of them White demonstrated some neat twists in the opening and found a devastating shot from the following position (see diagram):

OldSpeckledHen - DanStaples, White to play

White uncorked the brilliant 17.Bxg6! after which 17...hxg6 18.Qxg6 Bf8 19.exf6 Re6 20.Bxg7 forced resignation (1-0), not a difficult sacrifice but a very instructive one.

Tigerchess.com Themed Training events are a great opportunity to practice key positions from regular openings, and are open to everyone who joins the Tiger Chess Team. Participating in these events helps players develop an insight into the openings played, above and beyond looking at them in a book or on a video.

Nigel Davies

QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

MAY 2022 CLINIC

The May clinic features games with the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation from the Tiger Chess Themed Training Tournaments on Lichess. The starting position was the one that arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Bg5 c6 7.Qc2 O-O 8.e3 Nbd7 9.Bd3 Re8 10.O-O Nf8, which is considered a key opening position. This features in two Tiger Chess courses, the White 1.d4 Repertoire course (in which 11.h3 is recommended for White) and the Building an Opening Repertoire course in which it is recommended for Black.

Both sides have chances in this line and it is rich in strategic and tactical ideas. One of the key plans for White is a minority attack with b2-b4-b5. Dandanmian brought this off in one of his games and here he had a winning idea (see diagram):

 

Dandanmian - NN: White to play

White to play found 21.Ba6!, winning the rook on c8 because 21...Ra8 is met by 22.Bb7. Black struggled on for some moves but the position is hopeless.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, FRENCH DEFENCE, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

APRIL 2022 CLINIC

The April Clinic once again features games from the Tigerchess.com Themed Training team tournaments. There were three different starting positions for the tournaments selected, the Steinitz French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7), the Tarrasch French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5) and the Gruenfeld Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 c5). All these lines feature in Tiger Chess opening repertoires.

Black managed to bring off a nice finish in one of the Gruenfeld games. White had just played 23.Qb2-a1 in order to defend the back rank, but how did Black forced immediate resignation with his next move?

Weich - OldSpeckledHen, Black to play

Black played 23..Qxc2! after which 24.Rxc2 Rd1+ leads to mate. White resigned at this point (0-1).

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, OPENINGS, UPDATES, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

SEPTEMBER 2020 CLINIC: EVEN MORE INTERNET GAMES

The latest clinic is now online, featuring even more internet games. There are some signs that face to face competitive chess is returning, at least in countries with a low transmission rate. Hopefully this will soon extend to the rest of us.

The highlights this time were the two games sent in by J. P. using the new White d2-d4 Repertoire. He won both games in fine style, one of them featuring a nice tactic at the end. In the position below it is White to play (see diagram):

JP vs. NN

White played 24.Nxd5! which has devastating consequences; if Black captures the knight with 24...exd5 then 25.Bxd5+ followed by capturing on c4 will leave White two pawns up. The knight on c4 is threatened anyway, and so is the rook on c7, so Black chose instead to resign (1-0).

It's good to see this repertoire working for people; founded upon logical plans it aims to minimise the number of variations people have to learn rather than present them with reams of unfathomable computer analysis.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, OPENINGS, UPDATES, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

AUGUST 2020 CLINIC: EVEN MORE INTERNET GAMES

Many of us are still shielding and over-the-board tournaments are only just starting up again. So once again the clinic is devoted largely to internet games, with all their 'variability'. I think that one of the main issues with such games is their low value, if you lose you can easily find another opponent and may have better luck. Inevitably this means that playing standards will be highly variable.

This month's clinic featured a cross section of such games together with some interesting points. It was also gratifying to see a win for White using the White 1.d2-d4 Repertoire Course, a game by M. L. reaching the following position after the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 O-O 8. Be2 c5 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3 Bg4:

ML vs. NN; White to Play

Despite the fact that all his moves look 'natural', Black had in fact played inaccurately with the nonchalent 7...0-0 instead of 7...c5 8.Be3 Qa5!. This now gave White the opportunity to play 11. d5 and after 11...Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Ne5 13. Rc1 b6?! 14. Be2 e6 15. c4 exd5 16. cxd5 Re8?! 17. f4 Nd7 18. e5, White had obtained a crushing position and soon went on to win.

This is one of the issues with the Gruenfeld, it needs Black to play very accurately. And this in turn is why I tend to recommend the Queen's Gambit Declined for Black, it's much more forgiving if you play it inaccurately.

Nigel Davies

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