Chess Openings Handouts

Openings

N.B.
The example games used in the openings handouts are kept in a separate database.
10 rules for the opening {D}
The central dogmas of opening theory, and some other complementary notes.
The secret arts of castling {C/D}
"Castle because you will or because you must; but not because you can." -- Pillsbury.
Choosing an opening repertoire {DCBA}
Some brief and basic advice.

- Once you have played for a while you might want to look at some specific variations: for example, The Italian Game {D} (80K) for White or Black is probably all you need to know for the next year (Word 6 version with Tilburg font for download here).

N.B. Some of these booklets convert to hundreds of Kb of HTML with 8x8 GIF elements, so, I've used text-only diagrams here. If you want USCF-style diagrams instead of mine, try here, and if you have a good connection here's the Italian game {D} with GIFs (400k).

- After that you might want to look at Playing White against odd Black lines {C}, Playing Black against 1. e4 {D} [incl. Two Knights' Defence (*)] and Playing Black against 1. d4 {C}. I also have a sneaking fondness for the Petroff Defence for Beginners {C} as Black. [(*) I'm delighted to say that the Wilkes-Barre line has its own web pages at Echecs.]

If you are curious to expand your repertoire, having got the hang of attacking play and tactics, you might want to reconsider your basic Four choices in the opening {C}. Also, Steve Martinson described some openings to look at if you have had enough of 3. Bc4.

The latest addition to these opening guides is The Ideas behind the King's Gambit {B}, with an accompanying handout on the Variations of the King's Gambit {B}. [ I incline more to Lombardy's view that "at the amateur level, anything is playable" than the master view [ (1), (2) ] that all such openings suck. Well perhaps they do, at master level.]

Colle System {C} 73K
My first booklet was on the Colle System, which is based on some notes by Fine with example games.

[To see what this one looks like on paper there is 700k of PostScript on FTP]

Playing Black against 1. d4: the Dutch Stonewall {D} 30K
Botvinnik's treatment of the Dutch Stonewall, for juniors. I had another think about this and the Cambridge springs and came up with the Playing Black against 1. d4 booklet mentioned above.
Custer's Last Stand (over 100k) {C} {B}
Playing Anti-Indian systems: an introduction for White
Beating the Anti-Indians {B} {A} (about 200k)
Playing Black against Anti-Indian systems: strategies for players of Indian systems with ...e6 or ...g6 .
The French Defence for Beginners {C} (over 100k)
This is mostly on the variations: there is another one on the Ideas behind the French Defence {C}, which has example games in.
An Introduction to the Sicilian Defence {B}
Some basics with examples: includes An Introduction to the King's Indian Attack {C}. See also Steve Spurgeon's page at Bath.
Closed Sicilian with ...e5 {A} 12k ASCII
Some notes by my esteemed colleague Chris Bellers
The Hypermodern Approach
{B} (Not for beginners!)
The Modern Italian Game {B}
A modern positional approach to some old tactical openings.
You know when you've been Benko'd: {A} an introduction to the Benko Gambit from Black's point of view
Examples with light notes from my colleague Steve Homer
The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit {C}
There are a few things stirring on the net relevant to the BDG from Ryan Ripley, which led to something from me and from me again. These may now be compared with the variation index of BDG World magazine. Ryan's initiative was an attempt to get some newsgroup discussion going about opening choices, but not many folk contributed constructively and the thread died. Over to you!

I also posted something on Gary Lane's book (an author I usually admire, and a book which Tim Harding has praised).

There are some dedicated pages on the BDG from Jyrki Heikkinen (with superb stuff on the Diemer-Duhm Gambit, a related Anti-French line: a model of how to present chess openings on the Web), Tom Purser (editor of Blackmar-Diemer Gambit World magazine) and David Flude. There is even a BDG newsgroup in existence, but there is little or no relevant traffic on it.


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[cool_blue_cat] Dr. Dave