Good morning, friends
I play a bunch of chess with my uncle, we are pretty close in skill but he always has an edge to win most of our matches. Most games come down to pawns/kings and 40+ moves. I'd like some suggestions on my opening, I'm playing the Sicilian and he plays the Ruy Lopez (we have a house rule of winner plays white).
Our openings are usually always the same -
1. e4 c5 2. Ng3 d6 3. Bf5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7 Nxd7
Once this exchange is done, I Fianchetto my bishop on g7 and castle King side. My uncle will always castle king side and we play from there.
What is the best way to handle this opening from white, am I not playing the right opening?
Sorry in advance if this should be in game analysis, first time post.
"Most games come down to pawns/kings and 40+ moves"
In that case you clearly have no problems in the opening. If you are losing in the endgame then that's where you need to learn more. You should focus on improving your calculation abilities (as all players should) and learning about endgames. You need to know, *before* you trade pieces into a K+P endgame, whether or not you will win, draw or lose in that endgame. If your uncle offers a trade of pieces, *before* you move, you should ask yourself "If I trade pieces here, can I still win the game? Can I even draw it?" In principle, for K+Ps, you can figure this out yourself over the board, but it will be much easier if you just spend some time studying endgames.
do not develop your bish to g7 but play e6 and d5 instead. Bish goes to e7 (or b4/c5 if possible). This is french but you have already exchanged your bad bishop.
There is no right or wrong opening, and your opening choice should be dictated by you. You should choose which types of positions you like to play and choose openings which suit your taste.
For example, though I am not a Sicilian player, I found out online that most opening variations in the Sicilian are more tactical rather than positional. There are traps, can be exchange sacrifices, positional pawn sacrifices etc.
There is clearly no problem with your opening if you can get to the endgame with pawns and kings, so perhaps it is there where your problems lie. Maybe spend some time going over typical endgame positions, practicing calculations won’t hurt either. Keep asking yourself questions about your play, what is my plan in this endgame, if I trade pieces who is better, can I win with my current position, if so how, if not can you change it?
Your uncle has "tricked" you from the very start by playing the Ruy Lopez vs. your Sicilian. Makes it quite impossible to win as Black.
As white you could try 3. d4 and then after cxd4 4.Nxd4. As black in the Sicilian you could try 2...e6 instead of d6 (as then Bg5 by white is a bit of a waste). Then after 3.e4 exd4 4.Nxd4, maybe try Bc5 which is a Basman. Or have a go at 2...g6, the always fun Hyper-Accelerated Dragon!
Same as Alistair, as black after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 I would recommend you try 2...e6. You can always transpose back into a Sicilian structure you like by playing ...d6 later, although you should note *not* to put your bishop on g7 in these lines. Its home is on e7 or sometimes b4.
As white I don't recommend you play 3.Bb5+ either. Trading that bishop so early will rule out a lot of good attacking plans for white where the bishop comes to c4, d3, or e2. Instead, try 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 for an open Sicilian. It's certainly among the most interesting openings in chess.
@Radicalatom #1
In chess master annotated games I kept reading that the line with 3...Bc8-d7 tends to be drawish, while the other options 3...Nc6 and 3...Nd7 are "fighting" options for black.
And that makes some sense. By not trading the Bc8, and if white would trade the bishop from f1, black can have play over the light squares.
Have a look at games from e.g. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, a Sicilian Najdorf expert.
"Maxime Vachier-Lagrave playing the Sicilian as Black" :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=56798&playercomp=black&opening=B20-B99&title=Maxime%20Vachier-Lagrave%20playing%20the%20Sicilian%20as%20BlackFurthermore, your remark "Most games come down to pawns/kings and 40+ moves." suggests that you are into trading pieces a lot (and are you any good in pawn endgames ? Pawn endgame usually require quite some calculation and can be tricky, better avoid them if there is no clear win visible). That is a mistake that some beginning chess players make.
Trading is fine, but good trading in chess is something that can be trained. And it is good to learn about good and bad pieces and strong squares, and knowing when to trade and when not.
Quote : "Do you realize Fischer almost never has any bad pieces? He exchanges them, and the bad pieces remain with his opponents. – Yuri Balashov".
Have a look at Bobby Fischer's games. He was a master in trading bad pieces, but also had a crystal clear endgame technique, with a focus on bishops.
For example, "Robert Fischer's Best Games, Compiled by KingG" :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1012702Good luck, have fun !
"Our openings are usually always the same -
1. e4 c5 2. Ng3 d6 3. Bf5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7 Nxd7"
First, please notice that the opening is not "Ruy Lopez" at all! Fighting the sicilian with Bb5+ is called the Rossolimo variation and (as has already been said) Nd7 or Nc6 as a response offer more chances for a fight with the black pieces. You should even welcome exchanging the bishop for the knight on c6: yes, it worsens your pawn structure a little bit, but on the upside you get TWO c-pawns to attack the white center (like in the french, where this is done similarly in some variations) and you have already halved the white bishop pair while retaining yours. The white-squared bishop is not at all weak, it will become a valuable piece once you smashed open the center.
As for white: it is just a gut feeling but the bishop on b5 is badly placed. It is more active on c4 (see: Sozin attack, Fischers preferred configuration, or Velimirovic attack) with the knights on d4 and c3. White should castle queenside and go for an all-out attack with f3, g4, h4, etc.., supported from behind with the rooks on h1 and d1/g1. A typical plan is to rip open the h-file, put the queen on h2 and seek to mate on h7/h8.
To put that into perspective: white won't always succeed with this because black has enough conterplay. This is just a sketch of what most times is tried. Black usually tries to mate the white king using the pressure along the c-file and the a- and b-pawns to open up whites king. Many games boil down to "mate him faster than he mates you".
I hope this helps you.
krasnaya
The Uncle played a Ruy Lopez. 1. e4 2. Nf3 3. Bb5
No matter Black played a Sicilian... he losses. The Ruy Rules.
With the OP's 2. Ng3 we can assume 2. Nf3 or can we?
Think you all might be being "trolled" by the master?
The "fingerprint" is no doubt 2Q1C.
These threads and usernames are adding up quickly.
Suggest clicking on profiles before responding.
The OP's brand new account, no games what so ever, and heads straight to the forums to create these threads that have his signature written all them.
