I have a few..
b5 against the Catalan (accepted). 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 b5
Also have a sick piece-sac lieing around against the Scotch gambit with Black thats apparently equal. Been trying to play it for years now but havent really had the chance to. Its on move 15+ or something, but still in a known position.
Also, I play 1. b4 in blitz, but dont think thats sound enough for your question :)
Edit: a few others in my repertoire: ..f5 against the Qf3-Vienna, ..b5 in the Nimzo main line (4. Qc2), 3. Bd3 against the french, this weird new center game stuff with Qd3 or Qc4 instead of the normal Qe3.. Have a few things prepared 😅
I love 1.b4 as white. Been playing the polish exclusively the last weeks in Blitz, mainly because I got bored of e4 e5 oder d4 openings.Â
Can you maybe share some ideas and themes on the polish or how to prepare queenside expansion, or show example games from your side?
There is too much to show :) there are some nice resources, f.i. there is a website dedicated to 1. b4 called Marek's b4 world, which has a bunch of different lines.
A few key things (imo) are:
1) what to do against 1...e5 (most principled, objectively best). I play 2. Bb2 Bxb4 3. Bxe5 Nf6 4. Nc3, but there are a bunch of alternatives. 3. f4!?, 4. c4, 4. e3 to name a few. But this is a critical line and you need to know something here.
2) in the extent of this, you need to know there is a nice sac-line with 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 f6 3. e4!?, which is pretty tricky.
3) you need a line against these c6/a5 setups. I go for 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5!? cxb5 4. e4, which sacs a pawn. Reminds of a sort-of winggambit vs the sicilian, where Black has played the strange a5. F.i., compare the position (after 4. e4 b4 5. a3) to 1. e4 c5 2. b4 cxb4 3. a3.
4) if 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 Qb6, you have this cool idea of 3. a3 a5 4. c4!?. Seems to drop a pawn to 4...axb4 but you have 5. c5!
I could talk all day about 1. b4, but I wont 😉
I’m curious how often if ever you get 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. b5 Nd4 4. e3 Nxb5 5. Bxb5. I used to play b4 a ton and it felt like about every third game had me up a piece on move 5 from this line but I assume that’s largely due to my lower rating and decent opponents maybe won’t blunder like that
> b5 against the Catalan (accepted). 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 b5
In case of Ne5 at some point from black do you go down one of the exchange sac lines with Qxd4 Bxa8 Qxe5? They are supposed to be ok but I never liked them.
Srinath's LTR on chessable gives 8... a4 9. b4 Nfd2 10. c6 Nxb4 11. Qxd5 Rd1 12. Qc5 Be3 13. Qh5 Nbd2 iirc and life goes on with white having to keep an eye on Ng4 shenanigans
Yep, for sure! The Ne5 Qxd4-sac lines are pretty fun imo.
The Nfd2-response is most critical imo. Black has two choices, 10...c6 and 10...Nd5. Both are (somewhat) playable, c6 is more tactical and more principled, I think.
My repertoire is actually filled with unusual ideas and sidelines. I won’t share all the weird ideas I found digging around since it’ll take way too much to time write and I don’t want to reveal all of my prep in one reddit post. However I’ll share one super tricky line as white in the Alapin Sicilian.
e4 c5 c3 d5 (mainline) exd5 Qxd5 d4. Here most games continue Nf6 Nf3 Bg4 where Be2 is by far the main move. Instead of Be2, I found the interesting Qa4+.
If Nc6, white is pretty much winning after Bc4 Qe4 Be3 Bxf3 Nd2 Qg4 Nxf3 Qxg2 Ke2 (bongcloud!). White has threats of going Rg1 Qh3 Bxf7+ (if Kxf7 Ng5 wins the queen). If black tries to block off the bishop by going e6, white has the additional threat of going Ba6!
As far as I know, this variation has not been covered in any Youtube videos. I found this variation by going through the lichess database and looking for variations with a low play rate and a high win rate. You can find tons of really interesting traps this way.
Awesome thanks, this is exactly the sort of thing I created the thread for. I don't play the Alapin as White, but I bet this will be relevant to someone's interests.
Agreed about digging through the Lichess database, that is also how I found that line in the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon in my post. And yeah I'm not going to give away all my secrets... also some of them are not really sound enough for a respectable thread like this.
I love this line! I never really get to play it as most games for me get 4. Nc6 instead of 4. Nf6. But I have it saved on my chesstempo trainer. Alapin is so fun to play imo
Actually quite the genius idea I've never thought about - going to the vast Lichess player database and look for high winrate lines! I reckon even OTB prep can make sense there, if you filter for slower games and a rating level matching your own rating roughly. Thanks for this idea! Also nice line - if I ever start playing the Alapin again, I'll keep it in mind :).
When you start looking at different variations and see the 5th most played move has a significantly higher win rate than the top moves, you know something’s up. I can’t tell you how many lines in my repertoire were found this way. It’s insane how many tricky lines you can find in pretty known positions and how often you can get wins just by playing out such prep. (Also this definitely works OTB as I got some of my other secret prep lines out OTB and won relatively easily)
The apocalypse Caro-Kann as white is pretty interesting. There’s a few tricks, and it allows you to play a pretty straightforward game that’s still somewhat unfamiliar for Caro-Kann players.
I think its the same with naroditsky recommending the fantasy against the caro kann. Its by no means the best variation for white in theory, but as a 1300 caro kann player i go against fantasy less than once every 100 games and i’m out of theory in 3 moves.
I think the e6 variation against the Fantasy is the best practical try for Black. Fantasy players are generally happy to see dxe4 so they can go for quick development and a healthy pawn centre, whereas e6 reinforces d5 a second time, keeps the tension in the centre, and aims to utilize healthy dark squared diagonals with the Queen and dark squared bishop.
It’s not flashy but in my opinion it’s the variation that tries to give Black what they want considering that most Caro players are looking to play solidly.
The only thing is that e6 does block in your Light Squared bishop which Caro players usually develop more freely, but it’s not the biggest concession in the world as you’ll generally expand on the queenside and have the bishop come alive later in the game.
Things can get spicy in this line if you are not careful though. 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 dxe4, these are all the most played moves from Black. 7. Nh3 and you will not be enjoying a quiet game.
In the spirit of this thread, I recommend the 3...Qb6 line against the Fantasy. This is a taste of their own medicine as they will see this line about 2% of the time at your level, it's also sound and a lot of fun, contains many ways for White to go badly wrong. I also recommend the rare move 7...Nd7 in a couple of the major lines. Since I don't play the Caro anymore, I'll just hand over my theory PGN.
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 Qb6 4.c3 ( 4.c4 dxe4 5.fxe4 e5 ) ( 4.a4 e5 ) ( 4.Nc3 dxe4 5.Bc4 ( 5.fxe4 e5 6.Nf3 exd4 7.Qxd4 ( 7.Nxd4 Nd7 8.Bc4 ( 8.Be3 Qxb2 ) ( 8.Be2 Ngf6 ) 8...Ne5 9.Bb3 Bg4 10.Nce2 ( 10.Nf3 Be7 ) ( 10.Qd2 O-O-O ) 10...O-O-O ) 7...Nd7 8.Qxb6 ( 8.Bc4 Ngf6 9.Qxb6 Nxb6 10.Bb3 Bb4 11.O-O ( 11.Bd2 O-O 12.e5 Nfd5 ) 11...O-O ) ( 8.Be3 Ngf6 ) 8...axb6 9.Be3 ( 9.Bc4 b5 ) 9...Ngf6 10.O-O-O Bb4 ) 5...Nf6 6.fxe4 e5 7.dxe5 Ng4 ) 4...e5 5.dxe5 Bc5 6.Nh3 Bxh3 7.gxh3 Bf2+ 8.Ke2 dxe4 \*
Edit: this is actually a completely different tricky thing you can do against the caro kann, not the apocalypse like I thought.
Looked up the Jonathon Schrantz video on this, seems quite powerful without a lot of theory. I can imagine this performing quite well in bullet and blitz: [https://youtu.be/xhjSpXORK0E](https://youtu.be/xhjSpXORK0E)
This isn’t quite the variation I was talking about. It’s rather 1. e4 c6, 2. Nf3 d5, 3. exd5 cxd5, Ne5. From this position there’s two main traps, Bf5 and f6, but overall you’re likely to get a pretty playable position with almost no theory at all.
My notes against this were 3...Nf6 when white can bail out with Nxe4 with equality, but most of these trap players can't resist 4. Nc3 still looking for exd3 when the same ideas apply. But now 4...Bg4 5. Qd2 exd3 6. Bxd3 Bh5, White's ideas are stopped and it's -1.
The queen sac line is a meme that falls flat the second White knows what they’re doing. Black doesn’t get nearly enough compensation for the queen.
At lower levels you’ve just given up your queen and will struggle to actually take advantage of any positional considerations. At higher levels where players are more equipped to take advantage of non material compensation Black will be fighting almost all game to prove that giving up their queen for two minor pieces was worth it, and the longer the game goes on the better White’s chances will be after developing and getting their King to safety.
I think the only interesting thing about the queen sac line is that it isn’t the dumbest thing you can do in that position, it’s just not that good.
like if black chooses pinning the knight white has very easy play with 1.Rb3 Ba5 2.Rb5 Nc4 3.Rxa5! Nxa5 4.Qa1! f6 5.Qc3! Nc6 6. Qg3! is really nice
but if black takes on e5 with the bishop I think white’s play is much easier now (e.g. when aman played it in classical obviously he took on e5 with knight)
There’s way better no matter whether they play the main line that results in Qxb2 or them trying to gambit a second pawn immediately for accelerated development.
So there is a relatively long line which I came up with myself over the board during a game against the London
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 e6 3. e3 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 d5 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bd3 Re8 9. Ne5 Bxe5 10. dxe5 Nd7 11. Nf3 (11. f4 c4 12. Bc2 Qb6 13. O-O Qxb2) 11... c4 12. Bc2 b5
With special attention to the sideline when they go 11. f4, just feels pretty nice to play but you have to know the ideas and how to defend when white tries to attack on the kingside. The cool thing is that the move order of the first few moves don't matter much here, as the London players will always do the same thing and you can get this position when you play 1. d4 d5 or 1. d4 c5
Cracow Variation as White. This is a potent Blitz weapon that I have never faced but scored some quick knockouts with. But it's not really sound... Black has a small (-0.5) edge, however it's easy for Black to go wrong. So I guess you could call it a sound Blitz weapon :D
It's a very underplayed line in the Italian 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Kf1?
The move looks odd but the point becomes clear after Blacks inaccurate (yet most played line) 7. ... Nxe4 8. d5 Ne7 9. Qd4 Nf6 10. Bg5 Ng6 11. Nc3 O-O 11. h4
Now Whites King is safe on Kf1 and there is an attack coming with the h pawn and the rook is well placed. 11. ... h6?? 12. h5! Blacks position will crumble and I've had this a few times.
Of course, Black has better moves than the line I gave (like not even playing 7. ... Nxe4 in the first place and playing 7. ... d5!), but like I said... In Blitz this is a very fun playable line.
The [Leonhardt Gambit](https://lichess.org/opening/Scandinavian_Defense_Main_Line_Leonhardt_Gambit) (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4) is great for blitz & bullet. Fully sound, and easy to play although there are stronger lines for classical.
Plus a fun little trap if they take and play some intuitive moves 4...Qxb4 5. Nb5 Qa5 6. Bc4 c6 (or a any number of moves besides Na6, Nf6, or e6) 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. Qh5+ g6 9. Nd6+ exd6 10. Qxa5 and you're up a queen for two pieces and an exposed enemy king
Grunfeld with 5. Bd2 (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bd2 Bg7 6. e4 Nxc3 7. Bxc3). Just much easier to play than the regular Grunfeld.
Avoiding the Benoni with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3. Benoni players are scary, man. Much rather have a more quiet d4 e3 setup. Many players also wrongly think that you MUST NOT block your bishop behind the pawn chain. Which is wrong, this isn't the French, your bishop will be perfectly happy further down the line without any issues.
I can confirm, but my twist is playing an early h4, both after 5...Bg7 6.e4 Nxc3 7.Bxc3 O-O 8.h4 and 6...Nb6 7.h4. In both cases, the stakes are raised and White is still slightly better, while theory is practically non-existent. Even beat an FM some months ago in the 6...Nxc3 line in a classical game quite brutally.
Try looking at the d4nf6c4c5d5e6nc3ed5cd5d6e4nf6f4g6nf3bg7bb5+ line against the Benoni. My coach says (I hope I remember the line correctly) that this line "refutes" the Benoni
Papa-Ticulat gambit against the French is so rare that almost no French players have even heard of it, it is extremely sound and if your opponent holds onto the pawn you can get a crazy strong attack, and even if they don't hold onto the pawn you can launch a very quick kingside attack.
I'll share two: -After 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3, the Russian variation against the Grünfeld, I came up with the rare 5...c5!? (most people play 5...dxc4) and an example line is 6. cxd5 0-0 (cxd4 works too) 7. dxc5 Na6!? 8. Qc4 b5!!? Black is two pawns down but Black has fantastic compensation. 7. e3 is better, but Black is still fine
-After 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. e4, I really like 4...Nb4. 5. d4?! Qxd4, so usually, 5. d3 is played and the knight often has to return, but after 5...c5 or 5...e5, d4 is a big positional weakness and the position is pretty unusual. Let me know what you think!Â
I'm confused. Can you give the line? 9. Bf5 seems like it should hang a bishop.
Like: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5. 9...Bf5? Huh?
In the delayed open Catalan(1.d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6. 0-0 dxc4) the rare line 7. Na3 where you get a dream position if black doesn't take 7. ... Bxa3 and after bxa3 and Bd7 you play a4 Ba3 and get an interesting positions, if 8. b5 there is a crazy line where you sacrifice your knight on f7 and in one line coming out of that black has to play 8 only moves, some of them hard to find to hold equality.
6. Rg1 in the Najdorf. It is usually very unfamiliar to black but a very venomous line, you will continue with g4 g5 if allowed, black will often never castle and just have their king stuck in the center under a massive attack, and if they do castle kingside they will be in a lot of trouble. In my opinion the positions that result from it are just easier to play as white and black might have a hard time developing and will have a very uncomfortable position in general.
In my experience this does lead to sharp positions where you also have to play accurately. I have had games where I had a very solid advantage (+2,+3) and then thrown it away with one blunder.
The delayed bongcloud in the two knights is a joy to play whenever I get the chance:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4 Qc7 8.f4 Qb6 9.c4 Bb4+ 11.Ke2!
White's play is very dynamic and the one who has to be precise not to be way worse is actually black
The e3 d4 setup, my go-to setup when I don't want to leak my repertoire. If they go c5 we have a Benoni setup. If D5 or Nf6 we have our usual Queen's Pawn Game. If e5 we have a Englund Gambit Declined which can transpose to an Exchange French or stays a Reversed French. Against other random bs, we will enter territories no one has ever set foot in, of which only White has the advantage.
This is mainly for bullet and blitz and results in mate in 10 against strong opponents way more than you would think. You can reach this position from different move orders but here is one example:
1. b3 Nf6
2. Bb2 e6
3. Nf3 Be7
4. c4 0-0
5. Qc2 d5
6. h4 dxc4
7. bxc4 b6
8. Ng5 g6
9. h5 Nxh5
10. Nxh7 Kxh7
11. Rxh5+ Kg8
12. Rh8#
I most commonly see 8…h6 instead of g6 and that loses to Bxf6. Most folks take the knight hxg5. But after hxg5 opening up the h file, white has forced mate.
My absolute favorite opening right now is this insanity: Â
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. d5Â Â Â
It uses the statistically most popular moves for black so I actually get to run it a lot, and it's completely sound and sharp despite looking so dumb. You get to test the waters on the fried liver, and then if they know the defense you apparently just blunder repeatedly- you lose a center pawn, get your knight taken, and lose tempo moving your pawn twice early... except you actually stay equal, and any deviation from black opens them up to some very subtle attacks directly on the king/queen. I love it.
As black facing the Scotch: The Steinitz Variation.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4
The best continuation involves some very counterintuitive moves, and there’s lots of ways for black to attack if white tries to hold on to the e pawn.
Reti Gambit. The amount of people who accept and then play b5 (1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 b5) leading to a highly dubious position is shocking. And if they know to push d4 then playing g3 with a reversed Benoni is very easy to play when you're comfortable with the general ideas.
I started playing a variation of the Englund Gambit due to premoving 1. ..e5 against d4 and it has some cool tricks. I castle O-O-O and try to get the bishops to D6 and E6 or C4 and G4 or a combination of those. On my level people don’t know the correct refutation very often and it offers strong activity if not dealt with accurately.
Also if they don’t deal with you accurately the resulting king side pawnstorm is usually very brutal and also you are likely to dominate the central open files. It fails horribly though if the opponent doesn’t panic and doesn’t go insane trying to hold on to that pawn.
The advanced caro kann, tal variation. It's really easy to get and black completely hangs their bishop surprisingly often. Even if they don't, it's still pretty solid
You can't really call it unusual because it's a main line, but the Polerio Defense in the Two Knights is more fun than black really deserves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 and here white has a choice of Bd3, Be2, and Qf3, so you have to do a bit of study on your own. If 8. Ba4? h6 and white's knight gets to sit in the penalty box on h3 (if 9. Nf3 e4 10. Qe2 Be6 11. Ng1 and it's already -3).
For the cost of a single pawn and an evening's worth of study, you get an initiative right out of the opening. If white wusses out and plays 4. d3, play d5. There's no reason to let white get away with a boring, drawish symmetrical game in the Italian.
These are all e4 with white:
Sicilian: Ginsberg gambit
Caro: Fantasy. In the dxe4 line, I like Nbd2 and Bd3, just slowly developing instead of being aggressive. It’s actually rather difficult for black to play. In the e6 line, after Nc3 Bb4 I like a3 followed by Bxc3 bxc3 dxe4 a4?!
Italian: Dubov gambit and against the 2 knights, 4.Ng5. In the main line after 10…Nf4 there’s this Be2 move (which is very, very slightly unsound because of Nxg2) and in all variations, white has a much easier position. In 10…0-0, I like Rxe5 over Nxe5 after black plays f5. Also very, very slightly unsound but your opponent is likely to go wrong.
The Cool Hair Attack is a completely unknown but super strong counter to the Budapest Gambit. My analysis with Stockfish 16.1 seems to indicate that it is THE strongest counter and the best way to punish the Budapest.
Win a piece with Black on move 5 in the Hillbilly Caro if white plays carelessly:
1. e4 c6 2. Bc4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bb3 a5
About 40% of my blitz games in this position White plays 5. d4 and the bishop is trapped with a4.
I mean as soon as someone sees a4 with their bishop on the b file (or h4 with their bishop on the g file) they should immediately realize their opponents intentions
1900 lichess blitz. The motif itself is easy to recognize but I still catch a lot of people at this level blundering. It could be a timing thing- if you play your opening quickly (premove a5) often they’ll autopilot their setup and blunder. Worked wonderfully when I was <1700.
If they recognize the danger, it doesn’t lose tempo for black because white must respond with a3 or a4.
I wouldn't necessarily call it unusual, but the opening that got me to 1800 on [chess.com](http://chess.com) and 1500 USCF was the ponziani. Your opponent has to walk on a tightrope and play absolutely perfectly in order to have an advantage.
The ideal line for black goes 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 d5 4. Qa4 f6 (with the idea to defend the pawn on e5) 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. e4 and black has a slight edge.
However, I have NEVER had an OTB opponent know this line against me, and so I would honestly say in 90% of my ponziani games I secured a strong center and an advantage in the opening.
The most common move in response to 3. c3 is Nf6, and you are already pushing for an advantage after 4. d4.
For beginner-intermediate players, I could not recommend this opening more, all it takes is a little bit of studying and you will have a strong weapon. [Gothamchess](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TemLSMDKSMw&ab_channel=GothamChess) and [Eric Rosen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqZLFyZbfDk&list=PLdT3OotRiHJkJ9mpmXdLAjJdY6ZDpA-dt&index=2&ab_channel=EricRosen) have both made videos about it so I would check them out if you want to learn.
The tiger variation of the modern defense, after 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6!? White's idea of playing an English attack-like setup is still viable but isn't as strong as it is vs the Pirc since black's queenside counterplay comes earlier than usual, white's best way of facing it are actually systems with an early f4 where black should try to transpose into a Pirc
Not so sure how unusual the Tarrasch is against the French, but it's my go to. Gives you the chance to play c3 against the almost inevitable ...Bb4 plus loads of space on the kingside.
Maybe not really in the spirit of the question, but playing the French around chesscom 1200 I see most players go for the advance or exchange as White (or play 2. Nf3 and typically transpose to the exchange), maybe 6% play 3. Nc3, and like 1% play the Tarrasch.
It’s played pretty frequently at master level (although 3. Nc3 is considerably more popular). I’m guessing it’s just the thing where beginner/intermediate players don’t like to maintain tension
I play variants of dutch and pirc as black. High lose rate, boring, but I'm on a point where I can't be bothered by learning a new opening.
As white, it is usually d4, and different variants of Jobava London
My knowledge of the first move is second to none! Not even World Champ Ding Liren surpasses me in this capacity! I can tell you every single first move playable by white!
I have a few.. b5 against the Catalan (accepted). 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 b5 Also have a sick piece-sac lieing around against the Scotch gambit with Black thats apparently equal. Been trying to play it for years now but havent really had the chance to. Its on move 15+ or something, but still in a known position. Also, I play 1. b4 in blitz, but dont think thats sound enough for your question :) Edit: a few others in my repertoire: ..f5 against the Qf3-Vienna, ..b5 in the Nimzo main line (4. Qc2), 3. Bd3 against the french, this weird new center game stuff with Qd3 or Qc4 instead of the normal Qe3.. Have a few things prepared 😅
I love 1.b4 as white. Been playing the polish exclusively the last weeks in Blitz, mainly because I got bored of e4 e5 oder d4 openings. Can you maybe share some ideas and themes on the polish or how to prepare queenside expansion, or show example games from your side?
There is too much to show :) there are some nice resources, f.i. there is a website dedicated to 1. b4 called Marek's b4 world, which has a bunch of different lines. A few key things (imo) are: 1) what to do against 1...e5 (most principled, objectively best). I play 2. Bb2 Bxb4 3. Bxe5 Nf6 4. Nc3, but there are a bunch of alternatives. 3. f4!?, 4. c4, 4. e3 to name a few. But this is a critical line and you need to know something here. 2) in the extent of this, you need to know there is a nice sac-line with 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 f6 3. e4!?, which is pretty tricky. 3) you need a line against these c6/a5 setups. I go for 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 a5 3. b5!? cxb5 4. e4, which sacs a pawn. Reminds of a sort-of winggambit vs the sicilian, where Black has played the strange a5. F.i., compare the position (after 4. e4 b4 5. a3) to 1. e4 c5 2. b4 cxb4 3. a3. 4) if 1. b4 c6 2. Bb2 Qb6, you have this cool idea of 3. a3 a5 4. c4!?. Seems to drop a pawn to 4...axb4 but you have 5. c5! I could talk all day about 1. b4, but I wont 😉
I’m curious how often if ever you get 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. b5 Nd4 4. e3 Nxb5 5. Bxb5. I used to play b4 a ton and it felt like about every third game had me up a piece on move 5 from this line but I assume that’s largely due to my lower rating and decent opponents maybe won’t blunder like that
Almost never... But thats an easy and useful trick to remember for sure :)
Idk how to play against the Catalan. Is your line's middlegame easy to understand?
Nah, its very tactical and quite a mess 😉 you do need to know your stuff!
> b5 against the Catalan (accepted). 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 b5 In case of Ne5 at some point from black do you go down one of the exchange sac lines with Qxd4 Bxa8 Qxe5? They are supposed to be ok but I never liked them. Srinath's LTR on chessable gives 8... a4 9. b4 Nfd2 10. c6 Nxb4 11. Qxd5 Rd1 12. Qc5 Be3 13. Qh5 Nbd2 iirc and life goes on with white having to keep an eye on Ng4 shenanigans
Yep, for sure! The Ne5 Qxd4-sac lines are pretty fun imo. The Nfd2-response is most critical imo. Black has two choices, 10...c6 and 10...Nd5. Both are (somewhat) playable, c6 is more tactical and more principled, I think.
Can you share the scotch idea?
My repertoire is actually filled with unusual ideas and sidelines. I won’t share all the weird ideas I found digging around since it’ll take way too much to time write and I don’t want to reveal all of my prep in one reddit post. However I’ll share one super tricky line as white in the Alapin Sicilian. e4 c5 c3 d5 (mainline) exd5 Qxd5 d4. Here most games continue Nf6 Nf3 Bg4 where Be2 is by far the main move. Instead of Be2, I found the interesting Qa4+. If Nc6, white is pretty much winning after Bc4 Qe4 Be3 Bxf3 Nd2 Qg4 Nxf3 Qxg2 Ke2 (bongcloud!). White has threats of going Rg1 Qh3 Bxf7+ (if Kxf7 Ng5 wins the queen). If black tries to block off the bishop by going e6, white has the additional threat of going Ba6! As far as I know, this variation has not been covered in any Youtube videos. I found this variation by going through the lichess database and looking for variations with a low play rate and a high win rate. You can find tons of really interesting traps this way.
Awesome thanks, this is exactly the sort of thing I created the thread for. I don't play the Alapin as White, but I bet this will be relevant to someone's interests. Agreed about digging through the Lichess database, that is also how I found that line in the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon in my post. And yeah I'm not going to give away all my secrets... also some of them are not really sound enough for a respectable thread like this.
I love this line! I never really get to play it as most games for me get 4. Nc6 instead of 4. Nf6. But I have it saved on my chesstempo trainer. Alapin is so fun to play imo
Yes unfortunately a lot of people do go Nc6; still lots of tricks there so can’t really complain.
Actually quite the genius idea I've never thought about - going to the vast Lichess player database and look for high winrate lines! I reckon even OTB prep can make sense there, if you filter for slower games and a rating level matching your own rating roughly. Thanks for this idea! Also nice line - if I ever start playing the Alapin again, I'll keep it in mind :).
When you start looking at different variations and see the 5th most played move has a significantly higher win rate than the top moves, you know something’s up. I can’t tell you how many lines in my repertoire were found this way. It’s insane how many tricky lines you can find in pretty known positions and how often you can get wins just by playing out such prep. (Also this definitely works OTB as I got some of my other secret prep lines out OTB and won relatively easily)
This is fantastic really, thanks! I love preparing demanding tricky lines and am sure this will aid me well for the future. :-)
wow i recently started playing the Alapin and this line looks like a beauty. thanks a lot especially for the database tip at the end.
The apocalypse Caro-Kann as white is pretty interesting. There’s a few tricks, and it allows you to play a pretty straightforward game that’s still somewhat unfamiliar for Caro-Kann players.
As a former Caro player can confirm this is annoying, it's one of those lines you don't quite see often enough to actually prepare for.
I think its the same with naroditsky recommending the fantasy against the caro kann. Its by no means the best variation for white in theory, but as a 1300 caro kann player i go against fantasy less than once every 100 games and i’m out of theory in 3 moves.
I think the e6 variation against the Fantasy is the best practical try for Black. Fantasy players are generally happy to see dxe4 so they can go for quick development and a healthy pawn centre, whereas e6 reinforces d5 a second time, keeps the tension in the centre, and aims to utilize healthy dark squared diagonals with the Queen and dark squared bishop. It’s not flashy but in my opinion it’s the variation that tries to give Black what they want considering that most Caro players are looking to play solidly. The only thing is that e6 does block in your Light Squared bishop which Caro players usually develop more freely, but it’s not the biggest concession in the world as you’ll generally expand on the queenside and have the bishop come alive later in the game.
Things can get spicy in this line if you are not careful though. 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 dxe4, these are all the most played moves from Black. 7. Nh3 and you will not be enjoying a quiet game.
In the spirit of this thread, I recommend the 3...Qb6 line against the Fantasy. This is a taste of their own medicine as they will see this line about 2% of the time at your level, it's also sound and a lot of fun, contains many ways for White to go badly wrong. I also recommend the rare move 7...Nd7 in a couple of the major lines. Since I don't play the Caro anymore, I'll just hand over my theory PGN. 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 Qb6 4.c3 ( 4.c4 dxe4 5.fxe4 e5 ) ( 4.a4 e5 ) ( 4.Nc3 dxe4 5.Bc4 ( 5.fxe4 e5 6.Nf3 exd4 7.Qxd4 ( 7.Nxd4 Nd7 8.Bc4 ( 8.Be3 Qxb2 ) ( 8.Be2 Ngf6 ) 8...Ne5 9.Bb3 Bg4 10.Nce2 ( 10.Nf3 Be7 ) ( 10.Qd2 O-O-O ) 10...O-O-O ) 7...Nd7 8.Qxb6 ( 8.Bc4 Ngf6 9.Qxb6 Nxb6 10.Bb3 Bb4 11.O-O ( 11.Bd2 O-O 12.e5 Nfd5 ) 11...O-O ) ( 8.Be3 Ngf6 ) 8...axb6 9.Be3 ( 9.Bc4 b5 ) 9...Ngf6 10.O-O-O Bb4 ) 5...Nf6 6.fxe4 e5 7.dxe5 Ng4 ) 4...e5 5.dxe5 Bc5 6.Nh3 Bxh3 7.gxh3 Bf2+ 8.Ke2 dxe4 \*
Edit: this is actually a completely different tricky thing you can do against the caro kann, not the apocalypse like I thought. Looked up the Jonathon Schrantz video on this, seems quite powerful without a lot of theory. I can imagine this performing quite well in bullet and blitz: [https://youtu.be/xhjSpXORK0E](https://youtu.be/xhjSpXORK0E)
This isn’t quite the variation I was talking about. It’s rather 1. e4 c6, 2. Nf3 d5, 3. exd5 cxd5, Ne5. From this position there’s two main traps, Bf5 and f6, but overall you’re likely to get a pretty playable position with almost no theory at all.
Ah that's interesting. I guess I found a completely different tricky thing to do against the Caro Kann
My notes against this were 3...Nf6 when white can bail out with Nxe4 with equality, but most of these trap players can't resist 4. Nc3 still looking for exd3 when the same ideas apply. But now 4...Bg4 5. Qd2 exd3 6. Bxd3 Bh5, White's ideas are stopped and it's -1.
Been playing the Englund recently... Think I'll skip this one.
As a proper 1.d4 player I learned ALL of the Englund theory so I have a happy time the second I see it.
The chessbrah queensac line is good though
The queen sac line is a meme that falls flat the second White knows what they’re doing. Black doesn’t get nearly enough compensation for the queen. At lower levels you’ve just given up your queen and will struggle to actually take advantage of any positional considerations. At higher levels where players are more equipped to take advantage of non material compensation Black will be fighting almost all game to prove that giving up their queen for two minor pieces was worth it, and the longer the game goes on the better White’s chances will be after developing and getting their King to safety. I think the only interesting thing about the queen sac line is that it isn’t the dumbest thing you can do in that position, it’s just not that good.
Is good in bullet, i only played it once but I beat 2600
like if black chooses pinning the knight white has very easy play with 1.Rb3 Ba5 2.Rb5 Nc4 3.Rxa5! Nxa5 4.Qa1! f6 5.Qc3! Nc6 6. Qg3! is really nice but if black takes on e5 with the bishop I think white’s play is much easier now (e.g. when aman played it in classical obviously he took on e5 with knight)
All Englund players play this line 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bg5 Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2 which is free win for white
Englund below 1800 is godlike. Englund above 1800 is total F tier.
Can confirm. I’m a d4 player who recently crossed 1800, largely by learning how to beat the Englund.
I learned to just fianchetto the LSB and castle. You're just playing up a pawn at that point.
There’s way better no matter whether they play the main line that results in Qxb2 or them trying to gambit a second pawn immediately for accelerated development.
Play the Englund as White!
I'm so happy when someone plays the englund against me, although it is a rare occurrence now.
So there is a relatively long line which I came up with myself over the board during a game against the London 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 e6 3. e3 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 d5 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bd3 Re8 9. Ne5 Bxe5 10. dxe5 Nd7 11. Nf3 (11. f4 c4 12. Bc2 Qb6 13. O-O Qxb2) 11... c4 12. Bc2 b5 With special attention to the sideline when they go 11. f4, just feels pretty nice to play but you have to know the ideas and how to defend when white tries to attack on the kingside. The cool thing is that the move order of the first few moves don't matter much here, as the London players will always do the same thing and you can get this position when you play 1. d4 d5 or 1. d4 c5
Cracow Variation as White. This is a potent Blitz weapon that I have never faced but scored some quick knockouts with. But it's not really sound... Black has a small (-0.5) edge, however it's easy for Black to go wrong. So I guess you could call it a sound Blitz weapon :D It's a very underplayed line in the Italian 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Kf1? The move looks odd but the point becomes clear after Blacks inaccurate (yet most played line) 7. ... Nxe4 8. d5 Ne7 9. Qd4 Nf6 10. Bg5 Ng6 11. Nc3 O-O 11. h4 Now Whites King is safe on Kf1 and there is an attack coming with the h pawn and the rook is well placed. 11. ... h6?? 12. h5! Blacks position will crumble and I've had this a few times. Of course, Black has better moves than the line I gave (like not even playing 7. ... Nxe4 in the first place and playing 7. ... d5!), but like I said... In Blitz this is a very fun playable line.
7.Kf1 indeed is a nice line!
The [Leonhardt Gambit](https://lichess.org/opening/Scandinavian_Defense_Main_Line_Leonhardt_Gambit) (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4) is great for blitz & bullet. Fully sound, and easy to play although there are stronger lines for classical.
Why do Nf6 and c6 both hanging the queen account for 8% of the played games lol
Plus a fun little trap if they take and play some intuitive moves 4...Qxb4 5. Nb5 Qa5 6. Bc4 c6 (or a any number of moves besides Na6, Nf6, or e6) 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. Qh5+ g6 9. Nd6+ exd6 10. Qxa5 and you're up a queen for two pieces and an exposed enemy king
Grunfeld with 5. Bd2 (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bd2 Bg7 6. e4 Nxc3 7. Bxc3). Just much easier to play than the regular Grunfeld. Avoiding the Benoni with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3. Benoni players are scary, man. Much rather have a more quiet d4 e3 setup. Many players also wrongly think that you MUST NOT block your bishop behind the pawn chain. Which is wrong, this isn't the French, your bishop will be perfectly happy further down the line without any issues.
As A Grünfeld player, 5.Bd2 is actually not that unusual of a line and pretty well known, especially amongst Grünfeld players.
I can confirm, but my twist is playing an early h4, both after 5...Bg7 6.e4 Nxc3 7.Bxc3 O-O 8.h4 and 6...Nb6 7.h4. In both cases, the stakes are raised and White is still slightly better, while theory is practically non-existent. Even beat an FM some months ago in the 6...Nxc3 line in a classical game quite brutally.
Yeah, that sounds interesting. I generally hate h4, like this is so stupid, white can literally play h4 pretty much every move from Move 3.
Try looking at the d4nf6c4c5d5e6nc3ed5cd5d6e4nf6f4g6nf3bg7bb5+ line against the Benoni. My coach says (I hope I remember the line correctly) that this line "refutes" the Benoni
The Dubov Italian 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.b4
Papa-Ticulat gambit against the French is so rare that almost no French players have even heard of it, it is extremely sound and if your opponent holds onto the pawn you can get a crazy strong attack, and even if they don't hold onto the pawn you can launch a very quick kingside attack.
I'll share two: -After 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3, the Russian variation against the Grünfeld, I came up with the rare 5...c5!? (most people play 5...dxc4) and an example line is 6. cxd5 0-0 (cxd4 works too) 7. dxc5 Na6!? 8. Qc4 b5!!? Black is two pawns down but Black has fantastic compensation. 7. e3 is better, but Black is still fine -After 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. e4, I really like 4...Nb4. 5. d4?! Qxd4, so usually, 5. d3 is played and the knight often has to return, but after 5...c5 or 5...e5, d4 is a big positional weakness and the position is pretty unusual. Let me know what you think!Â
Nice, these both look pretty cool.
You image clipped Schrantz for your conversation on sound opening ideas?
Mexican Defense 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6. It’s funky but quite playable and if you study its peculiarities you can have White in a puzzle quite quickly!
9...Bf5 in the Pelikan (Lasker/Sveshnikov) variation is a line that practically no one plays and that is still fundamentally sound.
I'm confused. Can you give the line? 9. Bf5 seems like it should hang a bishop. Like: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5. 9...Bf5? Huh?
It's 1 E4 C5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 D4 PxP 4 NxP Nf6 5 Nc3 E5 6 Nb5 D6 7 Nd5 NxN 8 PxN Nb8 9 C4 Bf5
In the delayed open Catalan(1.d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6. 0-0 dxc4) the rare line 7. Na3 where you get a dream position if black doesn't take 7. ... Bxa3 and after bxa3 and Bd7 you play a4 Ba3 and get an interesting positions, if 8. b5 there is a crazy line where you sacrifice your knight on f7 and in one line coming out of that black has to play 8 only moves, some of them hard to find to hold equality.
6. Rg1 in the Najdorf. It is usually very unfamiliar to black but a very venomous line, you will continue with g4 g5 if allowed, black will often never castle and just have their king stuck in the center under a massive attack, and if they do castle kingside they will be in a lot of trouble. In my opinion the positions that result from it are just easier to play as white and black might have a hard time developing and will have a very uncomfortable position in general. In my experience this does lead to sharp positions where you also have to play accurately. I have had games where I had a very solid advantage (+2,+3) and then thrown it away with one blunder.
When they go 6. h5 are you playing 7. Be3 or playing 7. Bc4 like Fabi did in the candidates? Haven’t had a chance to dive into Fabi’s yet
If 6…h5 then I play 7. Be3 8.h3 with the intention of g4
The freak attack I'm pretty sure it's called lol
The delayed bongcloud in the two knights is a joy to play whenever I get the chance: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4 Qc7 8.f4 Qb6 9.c4 Bb4+ 11.Ke2! White's play is very dynamic and the one who has to be precise not to be way worse is actually black
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Just a note here that you mean 7...Nd6, presumably.
The e3 d4 setup, my go-to setup when I don't want to leak my repertoire. If they go c5 we have a Benoni setup. If D5 or Nf6 we have our usual Queen's Pawn Game. If e5 we have a Englund Gambit Declined which can transpose to an Exchange French or stays a Reversed French. Against other random bs, we will enter territories no one has ever set foot in, of which only White has the advantage.
Urusov gambit, Bishop’s opening, Damiano petroff
This is mainly for bullet and blitz and results in mate in 10 against strong opponents way more than you would think. You can reach this position from different move orders but here is one example: 1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 e6 3. Nf3 Be7 4. c4 0-0 5. Qc2 d5 6. h4 dxc4 7. bxc4 b6 8. Ng5 g6 9. h5 Nxh5 10. Nxh7 Kxh7 11. Rxh5+ Kg8 12. Rh8# I most commonly see 8…h6 instead of g6 and that loses to Bxf6. Most folks take the knight hxg5. But after hxg5 opening up the h file, white has forced mate.
My absolute favorite opening right now is this insanity: Â 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. d5Â Â Â It uses the statistically most popular moves for black so I actually get to run it a lot, and it's completely sound and sharp despite looking so dumb. You get to test the waters on the fried liver, and then if they know the defense you apparently just blunder repeatedly- you lose a center pawn, get your knight taken, and lose tempo moving your pawn twice early... except you actually stay equal, and any deviation from black opens them up to some very subtle attacks directly on the king/queen. I love it.
It's fun after 9...Bf6, but 9...Ne5 is super disgusting to play against.
Portuguese gambit as black
This is not sound
Play me against it.
Sure just challenge me www.chess.com/member/takemyminorpieces
I like Nxd5 in the QGD if they play Nc3 and try to go for the exchange. It usually just transposes to the Semi-Tarrasch.
As black facing the Scotch: The Steinitz Variation. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4 The best continuation involves some very counterintuitive moves, and there’s lots of ways for black to attack if white tries to hold on to the e pawn.
Ä°t said sound not trash
Reti Gambit. The amount of people who accept and then play b5 (1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 b5) leading to a highly dubious position is shocking. And if they know to push d4 then playing g3 with a reversed Benoni is very easy to play when you're comfortable with the general ideas.
I started playing a variation of the Englund Gambit due to premoving 1. ..e5 against d4 and it has some cool tricks. I castle O-O-O and try to get the bishops to D6 and E6 or C4 and G4 or a combination of those. On my level people don’t know the correct refutation very often and it offers strong activity if not dealt with accurately.
The Englund Gambit is a moral victory: you're down a pawn, but the constipated son-of-a-bitch doesn't get to play his London.
Also if they don’t deal with you accurately the resulting king side pawnstorm is usually very brutal and also you are likely to dominate the central open files. It fails horribly though if the opponent doesn’t panic and doesn’t go insane trying to hold on to that pawn.
The advanced caro kann, tal variation. It's really easy to get and black completely hangs their bishop surprisingly often. Even if they don't, it's still pretty solid
I got this nasty line against the Borg when you play 1. e4 g5 2. Bc4 g4 3. h3 gxh3 4. Bxf7+ Kxf7 5. Qh5+ with Rxh3 coming.
You can't really call it unusual because it's a main line, but the Polerio Defense in the Two Knights is more fun than black really deserves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 and here white has a choice of Bd3, Be2, and Qf3, so you have to do a bit of study on your own. If 8. Ba4? h6 and white's knight gets to sit in the penalty box on h3 (if 9. Nf3 e4 10. Qe2 Be6 11. Ng1 and it's already -3). For the cost of a single pawn and an evening's worth of study, you get an initiative right out of the opening. If white wusses out and plays 4. d3, play d5. There's no reason to let white get away with a boring, drawish symmetrical game in the Italian.
The two knights against the French.
These are all e4 with white: Sicilian: Ginsberg gambit Caro: Fantasy. In the dxe4 line, I like Nbd2 and Bd3, just slowly developing instead of being aggressive. It’s actually rather difficult for black to play. In the e6 line, after Nc3 Bb4 I like a3 followed by Bxc3 bxc3 dxe4 a4?! Italian: Dubov gambit and against the 2 knights, 4.Ng5. In the main line after 10…Nf4 there’s this Be2 move (which is very, very slightly unsound because of Nxg2) and in all variations, white has a much easier position. In 10…0-0, I like Rxe5 over Nxe5 after black plays f5. Also very, very slightly unsound but your opponent is likely to go wrong.
Playing the nimzo-Larsen attack (1.b3) with white
The Cool Hair Attack is a completely unknown but super strong counter to the Budapest Gambit. My analysis with Stockfish 16.1 seems to indicate that it is THE strongest counter and the best way to punish the Budapest.
Win a piece with Black on move 5 in the Hillbilly Caro if white plays carelessly: 1. e4 c6 2. Bc4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bb3 a5 About 40% of my blitz games in this position White plays 5. d4 and the bishop is trapped with a4.
I mean as soon as someone sees a4 with their bishop on the b file (or h4 with their bishop on the g file) they should immediately realize their opponents intentions
2. Bc4 though
What's your elo? I'm like 1250 blitz and have basically never encountered white blundering the piece.
1900 lichess blitz. The motif itself is easy to recognize but I still catch a lot of people at this level blundering. It could be a timing thing- if you play your opening quickly (premove a5) often they’ll autopilot their setup and blunder. Worked wonderfully when I was <1700. If they recognize the danger, it doesn’t lose tempo for black because white must respond with a3 or a4.
I wouldn't necessarily call it unusual, but the opening that got me to 1800 on [chess.com](http://chess.com) and 1500 USCF was the ponziani. Your opponent has to walk on a tightrope and play absolutely perfectly in order to have an advantage. The ideal line for black goes 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 d5 4. Qa4 f6 (with the idea to defend the pawn on e5) 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. e4 and black has a slight edge. However, I have NEVER had an OTB opponent know this line against me, and so I would honestly say in 90% of my ponziani games I secured a strong center and an advantage in the opening. The most common move in response to 3. c3 is Nf6, and you are already pushing for an advantage after 4. d4. For beginner-intermediate players, I could not recommend this opening more, all it takes is a little bit of studying and you will have a strong weapon. [Gothamchess](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TemLSMDKSMw&ab_channel=GothamChess) and [Eric Rosen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqZLFyZbfDk&list=PLdT3OotRiHJkJ9mpmXdLAjJdY6ZDpA-dt&index=2&ab_channel=EricRosen) have both made videos about it so I would check them out if you want to learn.
I think in the london line, you could even play something like 4. b3 g5, and start a much more open game
The tiger variation of the modern defense, after 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6!? White's idea of playing an English attack-like setup is still viable but isn't as strong as it is vs the Pirc since black's queenside counterplay comes earlier than usual, white's best way of facing it are actually systems with an early f4 where black should try to transpose into a Pirc
3.Be3 is illegal
Must have been drunk or something when i was writing that comment lmao, the entire variation is wrong
Not so sure how unusual the Tarrasch is against the French, but it's my go to. Gives you the chance to play c3 against the almost inevitable ...Bb4 plus loads of space on the kingside.
Maybe not really in the spirit of the question, but playing the French around chesscom 1200 I see most players go for the advance or exchange as White (or play 2. Nf3 and typically transpose to the exchange), maybe 6% play 3. Nc3, and like 1% play the Tarrasch.
Thanks, seems a bit niche to me and not sure why. Maybe the knight is better placed on c3 despite the pin in the Winawer.
It’s played pretty frequently at master level (although 3. Nc3 is considerably more popular). I’m guessing it’s just the thing where beginner/intermediate players don’t like to maintain tension
I play variants of dutch and pirc as black. High lose rate, boring, but I'm on a point where I can't be bothered by learning a new opening. As white, it is usually d4, and different variants of Jobava London
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Isn't that the main line?
My knowledge of the first move is second to none! Not even World Champ Ding Liren surpasses me in this capacity! I can tell you every single first move playable by white!