Sharpen your chess-sense with IM Watson! - Repertoire for Black - The English Defense #3

Opening: : English defense

Player(s): Starostits, Bunzmann, Hirsso, Jyrki

IM John Watson, with his video course, help us build a strong and efficient repertoire of openings, for White and for Black. In the previous few lectures, John showed us how to react to White's first move 1.e4 and 1.d4. In this new series our IM starts showing us how to play against 1.c4. The first opening Watson teaches us is the English Defense: 1.c4 b6 2. d4 e6 (or, with a simple transposition: 1.d4 b6 2.c4 e6).

In this formation, White can get a strong pawn center, with the move 3.e4, but Black puts pressure upon the center with moves like ...Bb7 and ...Bb4. The basic idea were developed by Philip Normal Wallis, and the opening has seen its moment of glory in the 70's, when important players such as Tony Miles, Jonathan Speelman and Raymond Keene adopted it. Nowadays the English Defense is a somewhat unusual opening, but it's been used at high levels, often as a surprise weapon. Don't miss your chance to add another great piece of opening theory to your repertoire!