A fun lovers Guide to the Major Chess Openings
What you'll learn
- The ability to use guiding rules and principles to play any opening to a good standard and follow art of war philosphy
- The ability to experience the personality and style of different openings from important instructive examples
- The ability to get familiarised with the basic plans of many different named openings and variations
- The ability to see connections and transpositions between openings more easily
- The ability to experiment more with different openings knowing some of the personality of an opening
- The ability to be aware of some major traps to facilitate experimentation more with openings
- The ability to know some of the basic pros and cons of each opening from both sides
- The ability to use Opening names as a starting point for further investigation and example finding
- The ability to play or not fall into key Opening traps
- The ability to recognise key variation names within Major Openings
- The ability to see an illustrative game on each named Opening or variation that generally tries to weave a positive advert over a negative advert
- The ability to know what an opening is e.g. the "Caro-Kann", the "Scandinavian"
- The ability to play some of the funniest named variations in chess and boost your social media through sharing those games!
- The ability to enjoy your chess much more by finding openings really suitable to you like tailored clothing
Description
A Guide to the Major Openings of Chess
This course provides an instructive tour and overview of the major named openings of Chess. It also provides where appropriate value-added insights from FIDE CM Kingscrusher for the potential plans and ups and downs of each opening. It also creates a 3 tier framework for these openings and in particular separates out entertainment value, chess improvement value tactically, positional improvement value.
The major named openings of Chess that this course goes over with example games include:
Alapin's Opening
Amar Opening aka Ammonia Opening
Albin Counter-Gambit
Anderssen's Opening
Alekhine's Defence
Balogh Defence
Baltic Defence aka Grau Defense aka Sahovic Defense
Barnes Opening
Benko Gambit
Benko's Opening aka King's Fianchetto Opening, Hungarian Opening, Barca, Bilek
Benoni Defence
Bird's Opening
Bishop's Opening
Bogo-Indian Defence
Budapest Gambit
Caro-Kann Defence
Catalan Opening
Center Game
Clementz Opening
Colle System
Ware Opening aka Meadow Hay aka Corn Stalk Defence
Danish Gambit
Desperez Opening
Dunst aka Reverse Tango, Baltic, Van Geet, Romanian, Queen's Knight Attack
Dutch Defence
Elephant Gambit
English Opening
Evan's Gambit
Four Knight's Game
French Defence
Giuoco Piano
Grob's Attack
Grünfeld Defence aka Gruenfeld defence
Hippopotamus Defence
Italian Game
King's Gambit
King's Indian Attack
King's Indian Defence
King's Indian Defence - notes
King's Pawn Game
King's Pawn Game - notes
Larsen's Opening aka Nimzo-Larsen Attack aka Queen's Fianchetto Opening
Latvian Gambit
London System
Mieses Opening
Modern Defence
Nimzowitsch Defence aka Tango
Old Indian Defence
Owen's Defence
Nimzo Indian Defence
Petrov Defence
Philidor defence
Pirc Defence
Queen's Gambit
Queen's Indian Defence
Queen's Pawn Game
Réti Opening
Richter-Veresov Attack
Richter-Veresov Attack - notes
Ruy Lopez
Saragossa Opening
Scandinavian Defence aka Center Counter
Scotch Game
Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence:
Sicilian Defence: Najdorf Variation: 5...a6
Sicilian Defence: Dragon Variation: 5...g6
Sicilian Defence: Classical Variation: 5...Nc6
Sicilian Defence: Scheveningen Variation: 5...e6
Sicilian Defence: Sveshnikov Variation: 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 e5
Sicilian Defence: Accelerated Dragon: 4...g6
Sicilian Defence: Kalashnikov Variation: 4...e5 5.Nb5 d6
Sicilian Defence: Taimanov Variation
Sicilian Defence: Kan (Paulsen) Variation: 4...a6
Sicilian Defence: Four Knights Variation: 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6
Sicilian Defence: Pin Variation: 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4
Sicilian Defence: Alapin Variation (2.c3)
Sicilian Defence: Smith-Morra Gambit
Slav Defence
Sodium Attack
Sokolsky Opening aka Orang Utan
St George Defence
Stonewall Attack System
Tarrasch Defence
Tennison Gambit
Torre Attack
Two Knight's defence
Van't Kruijs Opening
Vienna Game
Vienna Game: Frankenstein-Dracula Variation
Wade Defence
Ware Opening
Zukertort Opening
It puts these named Openings into various Tiers of importance
It identifies key named variations and key plans for each opening.
It provides example games to illustrate the major themes and ideas of a particular opening or variation
Example games are used dynamically - more to show the importance of key variations within Major Openings and less for less obscure openings. The ups and downsides of an opening can also be demonstrated with pro and con example games.
Who this course is for:
- Beginner to Intermediate chess players curious about Chess Openings
Featured review
![Manuel Tanger](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
Course content
- Preview04:20
- Preview04:20
- 06:36Why a fun lovers perspective?
- Preview03:23
- 09:39Beginners steer towards: Systems and Gambits and focus on tactics as priority
- 05:58The Alignment concept and how it relates to this course
- 06:31Tradeoff theory - how it relates to Gambits and Dynamic pawn structures
- 03:56Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen are "fun lovers" playing outrageous openings
- 03:54Spicy bits as part of this framework - traps and immortals :)
- 03:50Time flies when you are having goal focused fun! Gambit coverage games
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 1,073 Reviews
- 5,005 Students
- 16 Courses
Tryfon Gavriel, also known as "Kingscrusher" on the Internet. I am a FIDE Candidate Master (CM), British Regional Chess Master, and run a popular Youtube channel for many years with over 114k+ Subs as of 2021 and a Silver Button Award.
I have done many shows on commercial chess servers. I am also the Webmaster of the correspondence style chess server Chessworld which emphasizes game quality and research.
Playing experience
Over 35 years of playing activity both online and offline. Peak ICC blitz rating of 2625 (18-Jun-1999). Peak ICC 5 min auto-pairing of 2383 (29-Jun 2012). ECF Grading peak classical: 212 (A) ECF. Peak Rapid rating: 217 (C). Lichess marathon top 10 finishers in 3 marathons so far. In the other two, top 50 finishers. Won quite a few tournaments at lichess
One of my earliest Over-the-board achievements in Chess was winning the Lloyds Under 18 national UK tournament in 1989. My trophy was awarded to me by Grandmaster and Ph.D. Mathematician Dr John Nunn.
Teaching experience
I have done teaching in Schools and also have done teaching online with several Lichess students on a regular basis, and have a very good coaching rating at lichess.
Other experiences
Played twice in the main British Chess championship. Many of my Youtube viewers claim big rating increases after watching my videos.
Best skills
I particularly love chess tactics and combinations, and it is probably no accident that my "Complete Guide to Chess Tactics" has been a best-seller since near inception here at Udemy.
In general, I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic aggressive tactical aspects of playing chess. My favorite heroes are Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and Mikhail Tal. if you want to be a dynamic aggressive player, I may be able to encourage you and find you relevant resources on that path. The dynamic aggressive were particularly strong tactically and would often trade off pawn structure neatness and material to try and checkmate the opponent's kings. Checkmate does win the game :)
Chess Openings
In terms of concrete openings to make use of potentially teaching here at Udemy through courses, I like Solid openings on such as the London System. I also like provocative openings like the Knight's Tango systems to encourage weaknesses from opponents. I am also at faster time controls especially, particularly fond of aggressive openings and gambits. As an example, the Smith-Morra Gambit vs the Sicilian Defence, and other gambits can be used aggressively even with the black pieces such as the Albin Counter Gambit. Gambits vary of course in soundness and it is important to teach what "ticks many boxes" for use in various time controls. In the search for the ideal courses to provide you, I like to search within myself for my core strengths and passions within the passion of Chess.
I truly hope you enjoy my courses and they improve your chess and your enjoyment of chess generally - and life generally :)