WEBVTT 00:00.930 --> 00:01.620 Hi there. 00:02.130 --> 00:07.140 In this letter, I just want to introduce you to the concept of the main line, which you might hear 00:07.140 --> 00:12.300 about the main line of an opening, say, in particular opening here. 00:12.300 --> 00:14.970 The main line is actually night Afri. 00:15.630 --> 00:16.530 That's the main line. 00:16.950 --> 00:22.110 And other lines are variations of that main line. 00:22.120 --> 00:24.320 So this often goes into the royal past. 00:24.330 --> 00:30.630 The royal past is the most heavily trodden main line generally in Chinese history. 00:32.520 --> 00:36.360 So survive the test of hundreds of years and remains popular today. 00:37.650 --> 00:40.050 Are the lines so often? 00:40.060 --> 00:45.420 If we could play nicely free kind of Vienna game, we could play the king's gambit. 00:45.660 --> 00:48.900 And each of these have their own main lines. 00:49.380 --> 00:53.760 So, for example, after E takes her for the main line, it's actually not a free hand, the most trodden 00:54.030 --> 00:55.560 path through history. 00:57.220 --> 00:58.740 An alternative, though, a variation. 00:58.740 --> 01:01.070 Here is Bishop C for the bishop's committee. 01:01.110 --> 01:06.540 It doesn't work anymore, but this is actually OK because there are some upsides for wanting to change 01:06.540 --> 01:07.860 the queen away later. 01:08.490 --> 01:11.070 So there are mainlines and there are variations. 01:11.070 --> 01:16.100 And in a particular variation, there are five main lines you can expect. 01:16.830 --> 01:23.300 So in sin, in defense, one of the main lines for Blank is the Sicilian Neudorf. 01:23.760 --> 01:28.840 There are other variations, but this is considered like the main line of the Sicilian defense. 01:29.820 --> 01:34.860 A lot of games, most games tend to go along this route. 01:35.640 --> 01:42.060 When you look in database's, you'll see that in recent trends, say the last few years, there might 01:42.060 --> 01:47.850 be a tendency for other variations to become more popular within a certain time window and then the 01:47.850 --> 01:49.110 kind of trendy lines. 01:50.130 --> 01:56.160 But if you look through the period of the whole history of chess, you know, the more mainlines these 01:56.160 --> 01:59.100 tend to possess rather than modern trends. 01:59.500 --> 02:05.610 And there have been books and magazines, you know, on these late opening trends as well, more time 02:05.610 --> 02:06.180 sensitive. 02:06.180 --> 02:12.900 You know, just in recent years, what has been trendy, for example, a recent trend in many recent 02:12.900 --> 02:19.050 years in the world of has is for black to actually, instead of playing aspects to play the Berlin defense. 02:19.290 --> 02:25.950 This has risen greatly in popularity and is a candidate for being the kind of new mainline. 02:26.910 --> 02:32.710 If you took just, you know, the recent years subset of games, this is actually a great contender. 02:33.210 --> 02:35.870 It's become super popular compared to the past. 02:36.210 --> 02:39.780 So mainlines reflects a certain popularity. 02:39.780 --> 02:45.540 Actually, it's not necessarily a scientifically correct diagnosis that the main one is the absolute 02:45.540 --> 02:47.780 the best thing since sliced bread. 02:48.240 --> 02:56.550 So quite often you want to explore, mainlines, but quite often I like finding lines in particular, 02:56.790 --> 02:59.160 which might not be the main line at all. 02:59.910 --> 03:03.930 And even, you know, Bobby Fischer, you know, after assets is sort of retreating. 03:03.930 --> 03:10.650 The bishop sometimes he'd play Bishop AHCCCS and only surprise and a certain Olympiads, he had Freewinds 03:10.650 --> 03:15.420 with this, you know, called, you know, triplets of winds with this Bishop C6. 03:16.200 --> 03:19.080 So sometimes sidelines can be really, really dangerous. 03:19.080 --> 03:22.440 It depends how long you back it up with your own research. 03:22.440 --> 03:30.450 There's nothing wrong with playing sideline variations because ultimately the objective of chess is 03:30.450 --> 03:35.550 not to play what everyone else has been playing for chess history, but try and win your particular 03:35.550 --> 03:41.430 chess games against your particular opponent in your particular time, control and other circumstances. 03:42.120 --> 03:47.220 So sometimes you do want to play surprising original creative openings. 03:47.460 --> 03:51.600 Sometimes sidelines, which you've investigated is much more than the opponent. 03:51.780 --> 03:55.800 So you've got a greater informational advantage than your opponent. 03:56.640 --> 04:04.260 So, you know, Fisher in many games later cancelled and proved that C7 was a weakness in some of those 04:04.260 --> 04:05.340 free wins, for example. 04:05.730 --> 04:09.660 So the more research you do, you can play all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. 04:10.500 --> 04:17.370 The French defense, for example, has literally what John wants to call dangerous weapons in this book, 04:17.400 --> 04:18.840 dangerous weapons in the French defense. 04:19.110 --> 04:22.290 So usually after 92, you'd be fined Lefsetz. 04:22.560 --> 04:26.910 But there is also the you know, the Guaymas, which was a bit of a sideline. 04:27.150 --> 04:33.360 But because of this book I got for this dangerous weapons book, I had a lot of success with agreement. 04:33.930 --> 04:37.170 So quite often players didn't really know what to do. 04:37.530 --> 04:42.000 And the difference is, you know, you attack the heads of the pawn chain quite often. 04:42.210 --> 04:47.220 And if they took sometimes you're looking forward to really quite a dynamic, aggressive game with the 04:47.220 --> 04:47.500 map. 04:47.500 --> 04:51.420 He says with later even, you know, the queen coming maybe and even later. 04:51.720 --> 04:54.750 So whatever you play, it's how well, it's kind of backed up. 04:55.380 --> 04:59.820 You don't need to be insecure necessarily about playing the main lines. 04:59.940 --> 05:06.630 What has been tried and tested, the herd's confidence effects, you know, we have generally in advertising 05:06.630 --> 05:12.540 and social media doesn't really apply in a chess context because, in fact, if you think about it, 05:12.720 --> 05:17.910 if you're playing the main line, your opponents are most likely to be prepared for that mainlined more 05:17.910 --> 05:19.780 than a surprising sideline. 05:20.130 --> 05:23.330 So in chess, your objective really is to try and win the game. 05:23.760 --> 05:29.250 And quite often, you know, players in the past there was a player, you know, Ben Lawson, who was 05:29.250 --> 05:30.940 one of the strongest players in the Western world. 05:30.960 --> 05:33.990 It often played Be Free on his first move. 05:35.190 --> 05:39.540 And, you know, he's like maybe a role model because I like to play one night, see, for a lot of 05:39.540 --> 05:41.790 my place online with great success. 05:43.350 --> 05:47.070 So, you know, you can play unusual openings, unusual systems. 05:47.490 --> 05:48.990 You don't have to play mainlines. 05:49.140 --> 05:54.330 So mainlines are just basically the most trodden path through particular openings. 05:54.690 --> 06:00.900 It's what players by consensus agree are kind of the theoretically, you know, strongest moves. 06:01.120 --> 06:05.010 However, that is their own downside on those about mainlines. 06:05.010 --> 06:10.500 They don't want to do mainlines often stretch, for example, in the martial gambit for lots and lots 06:10.500 --> 06:11.070 of moves. 06:11.190 --> 06:19.980 So we go into the role of has and play into a martial gambit where games often are like this. 06:24.330 --> 06:32.160 And black plays D5 this, you know, carries on and on and on, there's lots of things to know how this 06:32.160 --> 06:35.690 is a very, very long line to know about. 06:35.700 --> 06:40.970 And for example, here you have to know this stuff to build, to build and free will create F1. 06:41.220 --> 06:48.080 So the Marshall gambit goes like 20 plus moves easily in some of its mainlined variations. 06:48.480 --> 06:54.510 So there are, you know, vast amounts of opening theory to potentially be aware of. 06:54.960 --> 07:02.460 But I would suggest in your initial development, you know, you may you may want to just get the fundamentals 07:02.460 --> 07:02.710 right. 07:02.730 --> 07:09.150 I can't repeat that enough to get the fundamental right in the opening game in-game, especially if 07:09.150 --> 07:11.160 you can become a tactical monster. 07:11.460 --> 07:16.860 Even if you get bad positions from openings, you can often be resourceful enough to even Swindell games, 07:16.860 --> 07:19.770 which you should have lost and to win wars. 07:20.160 --> 07:23.190 So becoming a tactical monster is the main undo button. 07:23.490 --> 07:28.410 The object of the game is to win, not to be an opening spirit and celebrate the most children learn 07:28.410 --> 07:29.400 through chess history. 07:29.580 --> 07:33.400 In doing so, you're just letting your opponent be very well prepared. 07:33.660 --> 07:39.240 The Mavericks have chess often deliberately bypassed the main lines, like Ben Lawson just playing even 07:39.240 --> 07:47.250 one before and, you know, kind of loathed the study of open free of the less successful players on 07:47.250 --> 07:47.820 the extreme. 07:48.060 --> 07:51.930 Basman with G4 they're all weird and wonderful, exotic opening's. 07:51.930 --> 07:53.640 You don't have to go to major extremes. 07:54.000 --> 07:56.040 You can just play slightly offbeat opening's. 07:56.040 --> 08:02.280 If the opposing self-defense, you definitely don't have to go into the main line open Sicilian, especially 08:02.670 --> 08:03.840 in the British market. 08:04.140 --> 08:06.390 Everyone seems to have bypassed the main line. 08:06.390 --> 08:06.880 Sicilian. 08:06.880 --> 08:14.400 There's the close Sicilian, there's the Grandpre attack, which can start off with Mitzy free and then 08:14.640 --> 08:16.520 later fall. 08:17.400 --> 08:22.860 So, for example, this Grandpre attack where the bishop might go to be five or CIFOR or there's the 08:22.860 --> 08:25.710 Smith Laurer gambit against the Sicilian. 08:26.250 --> 08:32.580 So these are interesting lines which may work in your particular time, control, especially Gambia's, 08:33.150 --> 08:40.920 if you're interested in winning than Gometz of the great advantages of peace, pressure, development, 08:41.370 --> 08:42.510 taking the initiative. 08:42.870 --> 08:46.830 And if the opponent has to play more precisely in a game because they're on the receiving end of the 08:46.830 --> 08:52.380 gambit, then often they're going to either lose on time or they're not going to play the right defensive 08:52.380 --> 08:54.570 moves and you might end up checkmating later. 08:54.870 --> 09:00.300 So there are all sorts of weird and wonderful variations which keep chess very, very interesting. 09:00.300 --> 09:07.110 You don't have to play the main lines, but I thought I should mention what they are and their place 09:07.110 --> 09:07.770 in the game. 09:08.010 --> 09:09.720 OK, and so much.