Hi there.
In this letter, I just want to introduce you to the concept of the main line, which you might hear
about the main line of an opening, say, in particular opening here.
The main line is actually night Afri.
That's the main line.
And other lines are variations of that main line.
So this often goes into the royal past.
The royal past is the most heavily trodden main line generally in Chinese history.
So survive the test of hundreds of years and remains popular today.
Are the lines so often?
If we could play nicely free kind of Vienna game, we could play the king's gambit.
And each of these have their own main lines.
So, for example, after E takes her for the main line, it's actually not a free hand, the most trodden
path through history.
An alternative, though, a variation.
Here is Bishop C for the bishop's committee.
It doesn't work anymore, but this is actually OK because there are some upsides for wanting to change
the queen away later.
So there are mainlines and there are variations.
And in a particular variation, there are five main lines you can expect.
So in sin, in defense, one of the main lines for Blank is the Sicilian Neudorf.
There are other variations, but this is considered like the main line of the Sicilian defense.
A lot of games, most games tend to go along this route.
When you look in database's, you'll see that in recent trends, say the last few years, there might
be a tendency for other variations to become more popular within a certain time window and then the
kind of trendy lines.
But if you look through the period of the whole history of chess, you know, the more mainlines these
tend to possess rather than modern trends.
And there have been books and magazines, you know, on these late opening trends as well, more time
sensitive.
You know, just in recent years, what has been trendy, for example, a recent trend in many recent
years in the world of has is for black to actually, instead of playing aspects to play the Berlin defense.
This has risen greatly in popularity and is a candidate for being the kind of new mainline.
If you took just, you know, the recent years subset of games, this is actually a great contender.
It's become super popular compared to the past.
So mainlines reflects a certain popularity.
Actually, it's not necessarily a scientifically correct diagnosis that the main one is the absolute
the best thing since sliced bread.
So quite often you want to explore, mainlines, but quite often I like finding lines in particular,
which might not be the main line at all.
And even, you know, Bobby Fischer, you know, after assets is sort of retreating.
The bishop sometimes he'd play Bishop AHCCCS and only surprise and a certain Olympiads, he had Freewinds
with this, you know, called, you know, triplets of winds with this Bishop C6.
So sometimes sidelines can be really, really dangerous.
It depends how long you back it up with your own research.
There's nothing wrong with playing sideline variations because ultimately the objective of chess is
not to play what everyone else has been playing for chess history, but try and win your particular
chess games against your particular opponent in your particular time, control and other circumstances.
So sometimes you do want to play surprising original creative openings.
Sometimes sidelines, which you've investigated is much more than the opponent.
So you've got a greater informational advantage than your opponent.
So, you know, Fisher in many games later cancelled and proved that C7 was a weakness in some of those
free wins, for example.
So the more research you do, you can play all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.
The French defense, for example, has literally what John wants to call dangerous weapons in this book,
dangerous weapons in the French defense.
So usually after 92, you'd be fined Lefsetz.
But there is also the you know, the Guaymas, which was a bit of a sideline.
But because of this book I got for this dangerous weapons book, I had a lot of success with agreement.
So quite often players didn't really know what to do.
And the difference is, you know, you attack the heads of the pawn chain quite often.
And if they took sometimes you're looking forward to really quite a dynamic, aggressive game with the
map.
He says with later even, you know, the queen coming maybe and even later.
So whatever you play, it's how well, it's kind of backed up.
You don't need to be insecure necessarily about playing the main lines.
What has been tried and tested, the herd's confidence effects, you know, we have generally in advertising
and social media doesn't really apply in a chess context because, in fact, if you think about it,
if you're playing the main line, your opponents are most likely to be prepared for that mainlined more
than a surprising sideline.
So in chess, your objective really is to try and win the game.
And quite often, you know, players in the past there was a player, you know, Ben Lawson, who was
one of the strongest players in the Western world.
It often played Be Free on his first move.
And, you know, he's like maybe a role model because I like to play one night, see, for a lot of
my place online with great success.
So, you know, you can play unusual openings, unusual systems.
You don't have to play mainlines.
So mainlines are just basically the most trodden path through particular openings.
It's what players by consensus agree are kind of the theoretically, you know, strongest moves.
However, that is their own downside on those about mainlines.
They don't want to do mainlines often stretch, for example, in the martial gambit for lots and lots
of moves.
So we go into the role of has and play into a martial gambit where games often are like this.
And black plays D5 this, you know, carries on and on and on, there's lots of things to know how this
is a very, very long line to know about.
And for example, here you have to know this stuff to build, to build and free will create F1.
So the Marshall gambit goes like 20 plus moves easily in some of its mainlined variations.
So there are, you know, vast amounts of opening theory to potentially be aware of.
But I would suggest in your initial development, you know, you may you may want to just get the fundamentals
right.
I can't repeat that enough to get the fundamental right in the opening game in-game, especially if
you can become a tactical monster.
Even if you get bad positions from openings, you can often be resourceful enough to even Swindell games,
which you should have lost and to win wars.
So becoming a tactical monster is the main undo button.
The object of the game is to win, not to be an opening spirit and celebrate the most children learn
through chess history.
In doing so, you're just letting your opponent be very well prepared.
The Mavericks have chess often deliberately bypassed the main lines, like Ben Lawson just playing even
one before and, you know, kind of loathed the study of open free of the less successful players on
the extreme.
Basman with G4 they're all weird and wonderful, exotic opening's.
You don't have to go to major extremes.
You can just play slightly offbeat opening's.
If the opposing self-defense, you definitely don't have to go into the main line open Sicilian, especially
in the British market.
Everyone seems to have bypassed the main line.
Sicilian.
There's the close Sicilian, there's the Grandpre attack, which can start off with Mitzy free and then
later fall.
So, for example, this Grandpre attack where the bishop might go to be five or CIFOR or there's the
Smith Laurer gambit against the Sicilian.
So these are interesting lines which may work in your particular time, control, especially Gambia's,
if you're interested in winning than Gometz of the great advantages of peace, pressure, development,
taking the initiative.
And if the opponent has to play more precisely in a game because they're on the receiving end of the
gambit, then often they're going to either lose on time or they're not going to play the right defensive
moves and you might end up checkmating later.
So there are all sorts of weird and wonderful variations which keep chess very, very interesting.
You don't have to play the main lines, but I thought I should mention what they are and their place
in the game.
OK, and so much.