The Gambit Guide to the English Opening: 1...e5

260 Pages·1999·4.81 MB·English

by  Carsten Hansen

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The
AMEE

Guide to the English
Opening: 1...e5

Carsten Hansen
First published in the UK by Gambit Publications Lid 1999
Copyright © Carsten Hansen 1999

‘The right of Carsten Hansen to be identified as the author of this work has been.
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Allrights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by
way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out ot otherwise circulated in
any form of binding or cover other than that in which itis published and without a
similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent pur-
chaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is available from
the British Library.

ISBN 1901983 19 6

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Gambit Publications Ltd

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Chess Director: GM John Nunn

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Assistant Editor: GM John Emms

German Editor: WFM Petra Nunn
Contents

Symbols
Bibliography
Introduction

The Reversed Sicilian: Introduction
The Reversed Dragon (Main Lines)

The Closed Variation

The Fianchetto Variation (King’s Indian Approach by Black)
The Taree Knights

The Four Knights without 4 g3

The Four Knights with 4 g3

Systems with ..£5

Systems with 2...d6 or 2...b4

Early Deviations

Sewmumaueune

Index of Variations
Symbols

+

penn ge esc eet

Ch

check

double check
checkmate

brilliant move

good move

interesting move
dubious move

bad move

blunder

‘White is winning

‘White is much better
White is slightly better
‘equal position

Black is slightly beter
Black is much better
Black is winning
championship

team championship
team tournament

world championship
European championship
World Team Championship
Buropean Clubs Cup
candidates event
interzonal event

zonal event

olympiad

junior evet

senior (veterans) event
women’s event
memorial event
rapidplay game.
correspondence game
the game ends in a win for White
the game ends in a draw
the game ends in a win for Black
nth match game

see next diagram
Bibliography

Books

Kotronias: Beating she Flank Openings (Batsford, 1996)

Bagirov: English Opening: Classical and Indian (Cadogan, 1994)
Kortchnoi: A29 - English Opening (Sahovski Informator, 1993)
‘Taimanov: Englisch (Sportvertag, 1987)

Nunn, Burgess, Ems and Gallagher: Nunn’s Chess Openings
(GambivEveryman, 1999)

Matanovié et al.: ECO A (Sahovski Informator, 1996)

Periodicals
Taformator
Correspondence Chess Yearbook
Introduction

‘The English Opening dates back to the first half of the 19th century, when a
group of English players headed by Howard Staunton began opening their games
with 1 ed, However, it was not until the hypermodem period in the early 20th
century that it became reasonably popular. Since then it has featured prominently
in the opening repertoires of a string of world champions: Botvinaik, Smyslov,
Petrosian, Karpov and Kasparov, as well as many world-class players, such as
Korchnoi, Larsen, Portisch, Uhimann, Ivanchuk and M.Gurevich to mention but
a few; this merely testifies to the long-lived popularity of the English Opening.

This book covers everything of importance in the English Opening, when
Black plays 1....5 in reply to 1 c4, Asa little extra, Ihave chosen to include some-
thing on the lines that can arise if Black chooses to play a King’s Indian Defence
move-order, something that happens very frequenily due to the popularity of the
King's Indian Defence.

In each chapter you will find the following topics:

+ Typical Pawn Structures

© Planning for White

+ Planning for Black

+ Quick Summary
+ The Theory of.

By cavering the different lines and systems in this fashion, I hope to achieve
the following:

1) Club players will find it easiex to understand the positions, rather than aim-
lessly studying the raw theory,

2) The Quick Summary is particularly useful for the players who do not have
the time to work their wey through all the theary of a given chapter, and will di-
tect those who wish to study the opening deeply to the most critical lines.

The theoty is in sufficient depth thateverybody, no matter what level of player,
will find this book a massive source of information that should satisfy even the
most inquisitive mind.

In the process of writing this book a number of people have helped me and de-
serve to be thanked: Peter Heine Nielsen, Carsten Lund, Uffe V. Nielsen, and in
particular Bent Hansen (my language consultant), Graham Burgess, John Nuan
and Stephanie Alexander.

Carsten Hansen
Isleworth, England, Juty 1999
1 The Reversed Sicilian:

Introduction

In this chapter we will have a look at
the lines after 1 o4 e5 2 G3 46 3 23
(D), where Black does not play 3...45,
which is more or less to be considered
the main line after 1.04 ¢5.

These less played lines appear to
offer Black excellent chances of
equalizing, and I suggest that those
who play the black side should study
these lines, as they offer Black good
chances of playing for a win ~ some-
thing that can be quite difficult against
the English Opening.

Typical Pawn Structures
In the next diagram, White has taken
‘on doubled c-pawns to strengthen his
centre, but since playing d4 would
eave the c-pawn vulnerable, the white
centre is quite static, and he will have
to seek an advantage elsewhere, e.g.
the kingside, where White may start

am a aw a
a.
oie ata

& ae Bs
an atack with f4, Black, on the other
hand, can play in the centre. He can
‘exploit White's structure with ..c6 and
nd5, and maybe force White to play
with three pawn islands against two
after the exchange of White's c- and
©-pawns for Black's c- and d-pawns.

‘This pawn structure is characteristic
of the Keres Variation. Black has a
marked space advantage, but his centre
g THE GAMBIT GUIDE TO TH ENGLISH OPENING: 1...e5

is fragile and is easily broken down by
3, hich may sometimes force Black
to play with an isolated ¢-pawn after
3.

Planning for White

In this position (from Line B),
White has won the bishop- pair in re-
tum for a slightly disrupted pawo
structure, What White ideally wants to
dois to keep control over the dS-square,
‘exchange the o4-pawn for Black's d-
pawn, and then open the position for
his bishops. Black's counterplay will
often come in form of ..d5 after some
preparation; therefore White should
try to prevent this or at least delay it.
White can do so for a while by punting
hhis queen on b3 and bishop on 23.
Then he can prepare further action,
such as exchanging his c-pawn with
5, playing d4, or starting an attack on
the kingside with £4.

In the following diagram Black has
more space, but he las spent consider-
able time building up a nice centre,
swhich is still fairly fragile. Therefore,
White should act quickly and attack
the centre before Black gets time to

bere ry
Mears 4
oS MO

consolidate and get his pieces devel-
oped. With a quick d3, White can put
the black centre under fire right away,
and often, due to his lack of develop-
ment, Black will have to exchange on
3, leaving the d5-pawn isolated.

Planning for Black

If Black allows White time to ar-
range his pieces properly, he will be
somewhat worse. Therefore, Black
hhas to act promptly to fight for the ini-
tiative, There are several ways for
Black to proceed; one is to play for a
quick ..d5, prepared with ...c6. The
idea is to exchange the ¢-and d-pawns
for White’s c- and e-pawns, leaving
‘White with an inferior pawn structure,