Every Russian Shoolboy Knows
Building your opening repertoire with GM Yemolinsky - part 1
With my next "Every Russian Schoolboy Knows" episode I would like to begin a new series of videos representing a 10-week teaching course. The subject is how to build an opening repertoire. The target viewer is rated somewhere around 1700 USCF, but I hope anyone from 1300 to up about Expert level will find it useful. How do we choose our openings? Is that something our favorite player plays? Or do we find the name cool? Obviously, our selection process has to be intelligent and individually tailored to our needs. The sole purpose of the opening is to get a kind of middle-game position you like to play and good at it. A number of personality traits has to be considered, and, of course, absolute honesty is required when it comes to self-evaluating. Suppose you have made your selection. What to do next? Start watching the videos to get a Russian Schoolboy advice.
In this introductory video I tell a story of falling in love. In love with a particular line of The Richter-Rauser Sicilian that would become my absolutely favorite opening for decades to come. It all started with a handful of games a young Russian schoolboy found in magazines and tournament bulletins. In those games Black was able to overcome very heavy odds - double pawns, King stuck in the middle, disconnected rooks - to win the key strategic battles.