WEBVTT 00:01.050 --> 00:10.710 Hi there in this slideshow, I'd like to introduce you to the English opening, so the English opening, 00:10.710 --> 00:11.750 I know I'm from England. 00:11.760 --> 00:12.600 It's funny, isn't it? 00:13.500 --> 00:19.590 OK, so the English opening, see, for it does help control a key central square. 00:20.100 --> 00:27.420 Quite often you're aiming to quite naturally increase the pressure on D5 by playing moves like noisey 00:27.420 --> 00:29.610 free and fair and scattering the bishop. 00:30.210 --> 00:35.200 So you have multiple pieces and --'s eyeing the D5 Square. 00:36.180 --> 00:43.560 In fact, I remember as a junior player, Andrew Webster was giving me a helpful tip, you know, before 00:43.560 --> 00:49.650 playing one of the strongest ever players in UK history before playing Michael Adams before I should 00:49.650 --> 00:51.230 try the English opening. 00:52.050 --> 00:53.300 I don't think it would have helped. 00:53.310 --> 00:59.310 I didn't actually take his advice, but I did experiment with the English opening later with some good 00:59.310 --> 00:59.850 results. 01:00.600 --> 01:03.780 So the English opening is a positional opening. 01:04.350 --> 01:10.950 Andrew Webster Leeds became an instant international monster and had some fabulous games with the English 01:10.950 --> 01:11.400 opening. 01:11.790 --> 01:13.680 So there are NHANES variations. 01:14.280 --> 01:16.350 C5 is the symmetrical defence. 01:17.070 --> 01:23.880 If I was a bit like a reverse Sicilian, sometimes called reverse Sicilian, because the Sicilian defense 01:23.880 --> 01:25.920 is like the English opening, isn't it? 01:26.430 --> 01:33.150 But it's very, very different actually having well, it's like playing a reverse Sicilian defense, 01:33.150 --> 01:33.690 you might think. 01:33.690 --> 01:36.180 Well, Sicilian defense is really cool. 01:36.180 --> 01:36.540 Wow. 01:36.550 --> 01:39.660 More people playing the English opening. 01:40.710 --> 01:43.910 Actually, a lot of top modern grandmasters love the English opening. 01:43.920 --> 01:51.120 They they do play it regularly, but you hardly get to play the same kind of variations as the Sicilian 01:51.120 --> 01:51.600 defense. 01:51.810 --> 01:55.710 The Ashimov makes a huge amount of difference generally in chess. 01:57.860 --> 02:02.540 You know, for that reason, you know, you might play the French defense as black, but it phrase quite 02:02.540 --> 02:08.350 a rare bad move, although I have played it myself or the correction, you might play the Congonhas 02:08.360 --> 02:15.230 way, but yeah, CIFOR is pretty popular and this is the reverse Sicilian. 02:15.740 --> 02:17.770 But they can also play a six. 02:18.010 --> 02:18.650 A six. 02:18.680 --> 02:24.330 I mean, their options are open at five so they can lead by transition if you wanted to. 02:24.590 --> 02:31.970 If you see five, you can transpose it into a Dutch defense C6 for the same thing. 02:31.970 --> 02:38.810 You know, you can transpose it into ASLAV or you can try and keep it as a distinctive English opening 02:38.810 --> 02:48.830 line by not transposing it with the force, but by playing, for example, Jeoffrey, on the free basics. 02:48.980 --> 02:58.610 You know, the English defense against the English opening D5, the Anglo Scandinavian G5. 02:58.850 --> 03:02.390 And this is where the wacky stuff B5, the Japanese gambit. 03:02.510 --> 03:05.980 OK, I have played that once with success and Wanggai. 03:06.440 --> 03:06.860 Yeah. 03:06.860 --> 03:13.010 So if you really want to irritate opponents with a gambit on a first time control, maybe B5 is the 03:13.010 --> 03:20.080 way to do that before they get their comfortable possession, which they love with Mitzy Free Jeoffrey. 03:20.110 --> 03:20.890 Bishop Geto. 03:21.200 --> 03:23.270 So the English opening, oppositional opening. 03:24.830 --> 03:31.100 Why have modern grandmasters migrated some of them to play things like the English opening? 03:31.290 --> 03:33.530 Why not stick with ifone defore? 03:35.710 --> 03:42.010 Everybody for y y C4, isn't this this is a different tune, is that C4? 03:42.280 --> 03:46.750 Well, one theory is basically there's so much theory. 03:46.750 --> 03:50.080 One theory is that there's so much theory of A4. 03:50.110 --> 03:52.000 It's been over analyzed. 03:52.660 --> 03:55.840 And there also there are there are systems for black. 03:56.110 --> 04:03.190 If you play if you're going to play like 85 classically and royal, there's even the Berlin defence 04:03.190 --> 04:07.750 has gained huge popularity, thanks to Vladimir Kramnik and it's fallen. 04:07.750 --> 04:12.170 And some of those lines, you know, that why is having difficulty proving an advantage. 04:12.580 --> 04:19.450 So in general, the amount theory with E4 has been overwhelming and maybe with the advent of computers, 04:19.930 --> 04:23.920 you know, grandmasters are literally migrating from. 04:25.240 --> 04:31.450 Not a winter as such like birds, but maybe a winter of discontent that they can't win games so, so 04:31.450 --> 04:35.560 easily, so they want to go to less theoretically Analise territories. 04:36.580 --> 04:41.740 So things like CIFOR, they go kind of newfeld to experiment. 04:41.740 --> 04:49.120 And and I remember reading years, but, you know, John Spilman, one of Britain's leading grandmasters, 04:49.120 --> 04:50.770 you know, took up the quest for this reason. 04:51.330 --> 04:54.010 He wanted these new fertile grounds. 04:54.520 --> 04:59.590 And I remember some classic wins of his, like, for example, against Andrew Martin playing for that 05:00.250 --> 05:01.840 enjoyment of the great theoretician. 05:01.840 --> 05:09.400 But Spilman, you know, keeping it more kind of to put the opponent on their own resources, that's 05:09.400 --> 05:12.490 really quite a key weapon in chess. 05:13.630 --> 05:20.230 You know, you can have that as an opening philosophy generally, that instead of trying for a theoretical 05:20.230 --> 05:25.610 advantage, you just want an infinite informational advantage against your opponent. 05:25.630 --> 05:30.160 So a tool like the English opening is a legitimate first move. 05:30.400 --> 05:32.950 It is to many of the opening principles. 05:33.250 --> 05:39.310 And in fact, you know, if you think about it, the thing Katta really is going out of its way to amplify 05:39.310 --> 05:41.700 control over a key central square. 05:41.950 --> 05:47.260 So it feels kind of more positional for those positional principles and philosophies. 05:47.830 --> 05:51.550 One has as a beginner for controlling key central squares. 05:52.720 --> 05:59.530 When we think Catoe, we really are amplifying this positional feeling of taking care of a particular 05:59.530 --> 06:00.520 central square. 06:00.790 --> 06:04.390 In this case, you know, the English opening is looking after the definitive square. 06:05.290 --> 06:11.770 And yeah, you can look at, you know, many great exponents include, for example, Mikahil bottleneck. 06:12.160 --> 06:18.160 And it's actually a bottleneck system within the English opening where, you know, Mikio Bottleneck 06:18.220 --> 06:26.950 doesn't mind actually committing sometimes to the move e4 early on and he puts his night here. 06:27.100 --> 06:34.150 And this is like the bottleneck system within the English opening and that's worth checking out as well 06:34.150 --> 06:41.470 as a kind of system to play with the white pieces so you can actually get to play this largely independent 06:41.920 --> 06:43.380 of what the opponent is doing. 06:43.390 --> 06:45.370 So as a kind of set up, largely independent. 06:46.390 --> 06:55.420 So sometimes especially for the lazy or not just the lazy, but the more kind of time conscientious 06:55.420 --> 07:01.840 that you might not want to, you know, dive into the vast ocean of theory to opening foods. 07:01.840 --> 07:04.890 Memrise, you just want a nice system. 07:04.900 --> 07:08.620 So here is the bottleneck system within the English opening. 07:08.620 --> 07:14.080 So check out games of Mikahil bottleneck on a site like Chess Gamescom, find bottleneck on Google and 07:14.350 --> 07:20.770 look at his games, you know, starting with this English opening and he scores fairly well with it. 07:22.030 --> 07:30.040 So the English opening oppositional choice avoids more theoretically analyzed waters of chess. 07:30.730 --> 07:38.380 So grandmasters have migrated to this lyrebirds to avoid a winter of discontent for their results, 07:39.040 --> 07:46.570 because otherwise when they hit things like very heavily studied, studied openings in E for our objective 07:46.580 --> 07:47.650 still is to try and win. 07:47.650 --> 07:55.210 It's not just to do a competition of how much you've memorized of some main line opening compared to 07:55.210 --> 07:55.870 the opponent. 07:56.110 --> 08:02.050 You want to try and win your game to chess generally and also have fun doing so if you're not a professional 08:02.110 --> 08:04.210 player, which most of us aren't professional players. 08:04.630 --> 08:04.990 So. 08:04.990 --> 08:06.880 OK, so English opening worth a punt. 08:07.030 --> 08:07.720 Try out. 08:08.060 --> 08:09.040 Hope you have some of it. 08:09.310 --> 08:09.880 That's too much.