The openings
Grouped the way every opening book groups them. Each opening teaches a handful of variations; each variation is a page of its own.
Open Games
1.e4 e5- Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game)C60–C99
The most respected opening in chess. Slow pressure that never goes away.
- Closed Spanish — Chigorin — 22 moves
- Morphy Exchange Variation (4.Bxc6) — 18 moves
- Berlin Defence — The Berlin Wall — 20 moves
- Morphy Defence, Anderssen Variation (5.d3) — 21 moves
- Open Spanish (5...Nxe4) — 23 moves
- Marshall Attack — 35 moves
- Deep dive — the Chigorin middlegame — 35 moves
Opening Traps
know them from both sidesFour moves to checkmate — and the cure that turns the queen raid into a lost tempo.
- The attack, met correctly — 15 moves
- The four-move mate — 7 moves
- Defusing it as Black — 12 moves, played as Black
- Punishing the wayward queen — 16 moves, played as Black
- Deep dive — how the tempo gets spent — 21 moves
- Fried Liver AttackC57–C58
A knight lands on f7 and the king walks. Learn to spring it — and to never be its victim.
- The Fried Liver, executed — 19 moves
- Polerio Defence — 5...Na5! — 20 moves, played as Black
- Surviving it as Black — 22 moves, played as Black
- Traxler Counterattack — 20 moves, played as Black
- Deep dive — the attack cashes in — 23 moves