Originally posted by nimzo5
d4 d5 - play classical chess till you are class A/expert player.
I disagree completely.
Play what your comfortable with. A classical education in chess is
not a type
of opening training. Your openings are a choice you make based on personal comfort.
You assess your opponents play, and play a comfortable defense based on your own
study. Not the study of others.
If you like watching Morphy play, then you need to play e4. You need to know what a
Guccio Piano, and a Guccio Pianossimo is. You'll want to know the Ruy Lopez. But that
will be O.K. Why? Because you can just watch Morphy.
"Well I like the Queen's Gambit!" Perfect. Watch Akiba Rubenstein. "I don't like that
stuff, I play the bird". OK, watch Robert James Fischer - He's instructional on how
to use that f pawn!
Don't push yourself into learning super deep openings, just watch good players play
them. Try to understand as much of it as you can. Look at the squares they
purposefully develop there pieces to, and towards. Notice there choice of pawn
structure.
Then emulate, creatively.
To the thread creator, I'd personally recommend looking at Nf6 as my exclusive
response to d4. Learning the Queen's Indian, a poweful weapon against the Queens
pawn openings, is worthwhile. There is good theory on it, from great players, but
its not played out.
I like watching Lev Polugaevsky play it. Here is a favorite of mine.
If you like it to, then search for Lev Polugaevsky and watch his QID games. You'll
be wanting to mess around with it in no time. 😉
[Event "Moskou, ch-USSR"]
[Site "Moskou, ch-USSR"]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Boris Spassky"]
[Black "Lev Polugaevsky"]
[ECO "E12"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "102"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Nc3 Bb7 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 Ne4
7. Nxe4 Bxe4 8. Bf4 O-O 9. Bd3 Bb4+ 10. Kf1 Bxd3+ 11. Qxd3 Be7
12. h4 f5 13. Ke2 d6 14. g4 Nd7 15. Rag1 fxg4 16. Rxg4 Nf6
17. Rg5 Qd7 18. h5 Ne8 19. Rg2 b5 20. c5 dxc5 21. h6 Rf5
22. Be5 c4 23. Qe4 Qd5 24. Qg4 c3 25. b3 b4 26. e4 Qb5+
27. Ke3 Rf7 28. hxg7 Nf6 29. Bxf6 Rxf6 30. Rxh7 Rxf3+ 31. Kxf3
Qd3+ 32. Kf4 Bd6+ 33. Kg5 Kxh7 34. Kh5 Qb5+ 35. Kh4 Be7+
36. Kh3 Qg5 37. Qxg5 Bxg5 38. Rxg5 Rd8 39. f4 Kg8 40. Rc5 Rxd4
41. Rxc7 Rxe4 42. Kg4 e5 43. a3 Rxf4+ 44. Kg5 a5 45. axb4 axb4
46. Kg6 Rg4+ 47. Kf6 Kh7 48. g8=Q+ Kxg8 49. Kxe5 Rg1 50. Kf6
Rf1+ 51. Ke5 Rb1 0-1
Now when you play through Lev's games, you'll see how he plays similarly, through
different defenses. He'll have systems. Alongside the Queens Indian, Lev is a great
Sicilian, and Nimzo-Indian player. Lets watch a great win in the Nimzo-Indian over
Gligoric...in his titled system!
[Event "URS-JUG"]
[Site "Soviet Union"]
[Date "1965.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "5"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Svetozar Gligoric"]
[Black "Lev Polugaevsky"]
[ECO "E54"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "76"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c5 5.Bd3 O-O 6.Nf3 d5 7.O-O
dxc4 8.Bxc4 a6 9.a3 Ba5 10.Bd3 Nbd7 11.Ne4 Nxe4 12.Bxe4 Nf6
13.Bd3 cxd4 14.exd4 Qd5 15.Bg5 Bd7 16.b4 Bd8 17.Re1 Bc6 18.Rc1
Rc8 19.Rc5 Qd6 20.Ne5 Nd7 21.Qh5 f5 22.Bc4 Bxg5 23.Nxc6 Rce8
24.Ne5 Nxc5 25.bxc5 Qd8 26.Nf3 Bf6 27.Rxe6 Kh8 28.h4 Rxe6
29.Bxe6 Qe8 30.Qxf5 Bxd4 31.Qd5 Bf6 32.Bd7 Qe2 33.Bf5 Be7
34.Be4 Bxh4 35.g3 Rd8 36.Qf5 Rd1+ 37.Kh2 Qxf2+ 38.Kh3 Qxg3+
0-1
Now if you find Lev boring (no account for taste, really), then you need to find
another player you do like, and watch them respond to d4.
-GIN