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
Requirements
- Be familiar with the basic rules of chess and how the chess pieces move
Description
Welcome to a fascinating exploration of the major chess openings, tailored for those eager to delve into the dynamic world of chess strategies. With FIDE CM Kingscrusher as your guide, discover the chess openings that align with your personality, playing style, and improvement objectives.
This course offers an in-depth overview of the most significant named chess openings, accompanied by Kingscrusher's insightful commentary about potential plans, the ebb and flow of each opening, and their varying levels of tactical, positional, and entertainment value.
Our journey through the openings includes but is not limited to:
Classic approaches: Alekhine's Defence, Bird's Opening, Caro-Kann Defence, Dutch Defence, English Opening, French Defence, and King's Gambit.
Sicilian Defence: Dive into the intricacies of its various variations like Najdorf, Dragon, Classical, Scheveningen, Sveshnikov, and more.
Gambits and Unorthodox Strategies: Explore the Budapest Gambit, Danish Gambit, Elephant Gambit, Latvian Gambit, and more.
Defences and Counter-Attacks: Understand the plans behind the Bogo-Indian Defence, Grünfeld Defence, King's Indian Defence, Nimzo Indian Defence, Petrov Defence, Philidor defence, and others.
Exploring Openings Named After Locations: Ruy Lopez, Catalan Opening, London System, Scotch Game, and the Vienna Game.
The course categorizes these openings into three tiers of importance, identifying key named variations and essential plans for each opening. Using example games, we illuminate the major themes and ideas of a specific opening or variation, highlighting the pros and cons to give you a balanced understanding.
Whether you are a seasoned player or a chess enthusiast, this course offers a unique approach to understanding chess openings. You'll gain a solid foundation to experiment with different openings, helping you to develop a versatile and exciting game. So, are you ready to embark on this chess adventure?
Who this course is for:
- Beginner to Intermediate chess players curious about Chess Openings
Featured review
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 2,760 Reviews
- 13,787 Students
- 33 Courses
Tryfon Gavriel, also known as "Kingscrusher" on the Internet. I am a FIDE Candidate Master (CM), and 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 4 marathons so far. Top 50 finisher in 8 marathons so far. Top 100 finisher in 4 marathons so far. And top 500 in 2 marathons so far. Won quite a few tournaments at lichess - in fact giving me 3rd rank overall behind Lance5500 and papasi in a recent detailed statistical blog analysis titled "Lichess Marathon Statistics".
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 attacking chess, chess tactics, and combinations, and it is probably no accident that my "Complete Guide to Chess Tactics" has been a best-seller shortly after its release here at Udemy.
In general, I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic attacking, aggressive tactical aspects of playing chess. My favorite heroes are mainly Attacking style tactical players: Paul Morphy, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov. if you want to be a dynamic aggressive attacking style player, I may be able to encourage you and find you relevant resources on that path. The dynamic aggressive attacking players 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 :) They were masters of finishing combinations naturally as they sought to reduce the king's safety of the opponent in various ways including bringing the King out for often beautiful mating combinations.
Chess Openings
In terms of concrete openings to make use of potentially teaching here at Udemy through courses. I like King-Attacking aggressive openings even with the black pieces like the King's Indian Defence to 1.d4 which my heroes Fischer, Kasparov, and Tal made use of extensively.
As White, I sometimes 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. For 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. Also, I like surprising opponents with openings such as the Nimzo-Larsen attack, the King's Indian Attack, The London System, and Queen's Knight attack system 1. Nc3, all of which I have courses for here at Udemy.
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 :)