Hi there in this slideshow, I'd like to introduce you to the English opening, so the English opening,
I know I'm from England.
It's funny, isn't it?
OK, so the English opening, see, for it does help control a key central square.
Quite often you're aiming to quite naturally increase the pressure on D5 by playing moves like noisey
free and fair and scattering the bishop.
So you have multiple pieces and --'s eyeing the D5 Square.
In fact, I remember as a junior player, Andrew Webster was giving me a helpful tip, you know, before
playing one of the strongest ever players in UK history before playing Michael Adams before I should
try the English opening.
I don't think it would have helped.
I didn't actually take his advice, but I did experiment with the English opening later with some good
results.
So the English opening is a positional opening.
Andrew Webster Leeds became an instant international monster and had some fabulous games with the English
opening.
So there are NHANES variations.
C5 is the symmetrical defence.
If I was a bit like a reverse Sicilian, sometimes called reverse Sicilian, because the Sicilian defense
is like the English opening, isn't it?
But it's very, very different actually having well, it's like playing a reverse Sicilian defense,
you might think.
Well, Sicilian defense is really cool.
Wow.
More people playing the English opening.
Actually, a lot of top modern grandmasters love the English opening.
They they do play it regularly, but you hardly get to play the same kind of variations as the Sicilian
defense.
The Ashimov makes a huge amount of difference generally in chess.
You know, for that reason, you know, you might play the French defense as black, but it phrase quite
a rare bad move, although I have played it myself or the correction, you might play the Congonhas
way, but yeah, CIFOR is pretty popular and this is the reverse Sicilian.
But they can also play a six.
A six.
I mean, their options are open at five so they can lead by transition if you wanted to.
If you see five, you can transpose it into a Dutch defense C6 for the same thing.
You know, you can transpose it into ASLAV or you can try and keep it as a distinctive English opening
line by not transposing it with the force, but by playing, for example, Jeoffrey, on the free basics.
You know, the English defense against the English opening D5, the Anglo Scandinavian G5.
And this is where the wacky stuff B5, the Japanese gambit.
OK, I have played that once with success and Wanggai.
Yeah.
So if you really want to irritate opponents with a gambit on a first time control, maybe B5 is the
way to do that before they get their comfortable possession, which they love with Mitzy Free Jeoffrey.
Bishop Geto.
So the English opening, oppositional opening.
Why have modern grandmasters migrated some of them to play things like the English opening?
Why not stick with ifone defore?
Everybody for y y C4, isn't this this is a different tune, is that C4?
Well, one theory is basically there's so much theory.
One theory is that there's so much theory of A4.
It's been over analyzed.
And there also there are there are systems for black.
If you play if you're going to play like 85 classically and royal, there's even the Berlin defence
has gained huge popularity, thanks to Vladimir Kramnik and it's fallen.
And some of those lines, you know, that why is having difficulty proving an advantage.
So in general, the amount theory with E4 has been overwhelming and maybe with the advent of computers,
you know, grandmasters are literally migrating from.
Not a winter as such like birds, but maybe a winter of discontent that they can't win games so, so
easily, so they want to go to less theoretically Analise territories.
So things like CIFOR, they go kind of newfeld to experiment.
And and I remember reading years, but, you know, John Spilman, one of Britain's leading grandmasters,
you know, took up the quest for this reason.
He wanted these new fertile grounds.
And I remember some classic wins of his, like, for example, against Andrew Martin playing for that
enjoyment of the great theoretician.
But Spilman, you know, keeping it more kind of to put the opponent on their own resources, that's
really quite a key weapon in chess.
You know, you can have that as an opening philosophy generally, that instead of trying for a theoretical
advantage, you just want an infinite informational advantage against your opponent.
So a tool like the English opening is a legitimate first move.
It is to many of the opening principles.
And in fact, you know, if you think about it, the thing Katta really is going out of its way to amplify
control over a key central square.
So it feels kind of more positional for those positional principles and philosophies.
One has as a beginner for controlling key central squares.
When we think Catoe, we really are amplifying this positional feeling of taking care of a particular
central square.
In this case, you know, the English opening is looking after the definitive square.
And yeah, you can look at, you know, many great exponents include, for example, Mikahil bottleneck.
And it's actually a bottleneck system within the English opening where, you know, Mikio Bottleneck
doesn't mind actually committing sometimes to the move e4 early on and he puts his night here.
And this is like the bottleneck system within the English opening and that's worth checking out as well
as a kind of system to play with the white pieces so you can actually get to play this largely independent
of what the opponent is doing.
So as a kind of set up, largely independent.
So sometimes especially for the lazy or not just the lazy, but the more kind of time conscientious
that you might not want to, you know, dive into the vast ocean of theory to opening foods.
Memrise, you just want a nice system.
So here is the bottleneck system within the English opening.
So check out games of Mikahil bottleneck on a site like Chess Gamescom, find bottleneck on Google and
look at his games, you know, starting with this English opening and he scores fairly well with it.
So the English opening oppositional choice avoids more theoretically analyzed waters of chess.
So grandmasters have migrated to this lyrebirds to avoid a winter of discontent for their results,
because otherwise when they hit things like very heavily studied, studied openings in E for our objective
still is to try and win.
It's not just to do a competition of how much you've memorized of some main line opening compared to
the opponent.
You want to try and win your game to chess generally and also have fun doing so if you're not a professional
player, which most of us aren't professional players.
So.
OK, so English opening worth a punt.
Try out.
Hope you have some of it.
That's too much.