Discovering Chess Openings

I’ve never been fond of studying chess openings. For one thing, I just don’t seem to have a good memory for variations. Dan Heisman told me repeatedly that whenever I played a game, I should look up the opening at the point where I went “out of book” and add the next move to my collection. I never found it to be that simple. For example, I have two different books on the Scandinavian, but it’s extremely difficult to find particular variations in them. Or the line I’m looking for simply won’t be in any book at all, such as when my opponents play Bf4 against my Leningrad Dutch. When I took lessons from Igor last summer, I think he was surprised that I took a long time to choose moves very early in the opening, and he urged me to study my openings more. But I just haven’t found a way to study openings that is both fun and effective.

So it’s been a pleasant surprise how much I’ve enjoyed working through a recent book by John Emms called Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles. At first, the book’s level seems too simple. It spends a few pages in Chapter 1 talking about the central squares and the classical center. Chapter 2, on development, discusses Scholar’s Mate, as well as why you might not want to develop your rook via a3 or h3. Chapter 3, on king safety, demonstrates the special problems associated with f2 and f7.

But really, I’m finding it to be very useful to “start over” at such a basic level. Emms aims to give the reader the tools to work out the logic of opening moves on their own, by discussing and illustrating the key principles underlying the logic, such as development, king safety, making and responding to threats, pawn play, etc.

Here’s an example from the book that I really found eye-opening. Here’s Exercise 3 at the end of Chapter 4:

The main line of the Caro-Kann Defence begins 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4. In this position, can you suggest two ways for Black to develop with threats and on each occasion consider White’s replies?

As a 1 e4 player, I regularly face the Caro-Kann. Fairly early I learned that Black’s most common reply here is 4… Bf5 and that I should reply 5 Ng3. A little while later I learned that Black might also reply 4… Nf6 and that I should reply 5 Nxf6+. But I never really thought very much about the logic of these moves. They were simply variations to be memorized (poorly).

This exercise made me suddenly realize why I faced these two moves in this position, and no others. These are the two Black choices that simultaneously make a real threat and develop a piece.

So what about White’s replies? After 4… Bf5 White must save his threatened knight. When answering this exercise I thought about these replies:

• Ng3
  Works and attacks the bishop.

• Nc3
  Works but loses time.
• Bd3
  Leaves the d4 pawn hanging.
• Qf3
  Works but interferes with the development of White’s king knight. (Now that I’m composing this blog entry I see that it also leaves the knight pinned because of the now-unprotected c2 pawn.) Leaves d4 pawn hanging but Black has to respond to the threat to f4 bishop.
• f3
  Works but opens a dangerous diagonal to White’s king, which is at least several moves away from castling. Also interferes with development of the king knight.

In his solution, Emms points out that Nc5 is also a possibility. I didn’t think of that. Given these various choices, the logic of Ng3 is clear.

You can follow a similar exercise to consider White’s various responses to Nf6.

Emms also gives pointers here and there about tactics that are “near” the main lines. For example, he asks “Is White really threatening to win a piece after Ng3? And the answer is no, because of the possibility of a queen check on a5.

Anyway, I’ve worked through about two-thirds of the book. I think that when I finish I’ll be able to go back and learn for myself the logic of the first few moves of the openings I regularly play. Then, hopefully, “learning” the openings will mean more to me than memorizing variations.

I recommend Emms’ book for players through Class C, and I think many Class B players will also find it useful.