In this week's Chess Questions Answered video, I showed why the Glek Four Knights is a great choice for White, and not only as a way of meeting the annoying Petroff Defence. It can also enable White to meet Alekhine's Defence (1.e4 Nf6) with 2.Nc3, which will lead to a Four Knights after 2...e5 3.Nf3 Nc6.
Another thing I like about the Four Knights is that White has several other choices on his fourth move, besides Glek's 4.g3. The Scotch Four Knights, with 4.d4, has been shown to contain a lot of poison and 4.Bb5 is another popular choice. White has also tried a lot of unusual moves such as 4.Be2, 4.a3 and 4.h3, all of which require Black to know what he's doing.
Generally speaking I think it's good to be the one with the choices in the opening. There are some perfectly sound lines where this is not possible, making it easier for your opponent to prepare and risking having to learn a whole new opening should something bad happen to the only way of playing it.
Training Tournaments
Here are the latest scheduled events:
Sunday February 22nd, 5pm UK London System
Sunday February 22nd, 6.15pm UK Catalan
Video Discounts
This week's discount is 40% off the Eastern Clamp Sicilian using the code 'feb20to28'. This is a non theoretical approach to beating the Sicilian based on a clamping strategy, pioneered by Canadian IM Lawrence Day. It also features a refined move order developed by Mikhail Shereshevsky, a famous coach, and adopted by his students together with GMs Yuri Balashov and Victor Kupreichik. More recently it has been adopted by a new generation, including Hrvoje Stevic and Alexei Fedorov.
Last week's discount was 40% off Positional Play with 1.e4 using the code 'feb13to21', which is still valid until tomorrow. 1.e4 is often associated with tactical play and heavy theory, but it can also be played in a positional fashion using lines such as Bishop's Opening, Sicilians with 3.Bb5 and the King's Indian Attack. In this series of videos I outline this method of play and show some wrinkles from my own games.
Upcoming Events
I'm going to enter the Manchester Rapidplay in March, in addition to the 4NCL Congress over Easter and the England 50+ first team in the World Senior Team Championships at the end of April.
March 22nd: Manchester Rapidplay, Bolton
A local event for me with pretty good prizes. You can find details and enter here.
April 3 - 6: 4NCL Easter Congress, Daventry
I try to make most of the 4NCL Congresses because I like them so much. This one is 7 rounds, and played over Easter weekend.
April 18 - 29: World Senior Team Championships, Durres, Albania
I've had confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ first team for this one.
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
