A few weeks ago, I saw the total solar eclipse over North America. It was an incredible, surreal experience. Yet what made it even more memorable was coincidentally, the night before the eclipse, I found something equally rare and hard to belie...
I've played the Dragon since I was a kid. It's one of those openings that's great to teach to someone starting out, as the pieces come out easily and the ideas are easy to learn. Most people eventually move onto more "refined" Sicilians, but I ...
Aside from castling, what instances come to mind of early king moves in the opening? Specifically, where the king moves up? In the f3 Nimzo, the king often finds a hideout on f2. In the Caro and Scandanavian-type structures, often Kd7 is ...
I find 5.Nbd2 to be the critical line against the Albin Countergambit. Every once in a while, I like to re-check this line, quietly hoping for some new miracle attempt for Black. I wanted to make this post because finally, I'm more optimistic a...
The Albin Countergambit has always been an opening I've had a soft spot for. I've since moved onto other sounder openings for Black, but back then it was my favorite opening. Around 2015, I was convinced I had revived it, discovering a collecti...
These days, my favorite opening ideas are the less glamorous ones. It is nearly impossible today to find an opening bomb that is like Excalibur, some magic sword that leads to an advantage. Rather, it is far more possible and fun to go "dumpste...
I find the Dutch Defense a fun opening to study from the white side. Black's first move is so provocative, and there are so many aggressive options for white. Recently, I found a brand-new approach against the Dutch after 1.Nf3. Let's take a look!...
The Candidates tournament has always been inspiring to me. Once a year, it's like we travel back in time to the 'Kasparov era' of chess openings, where round after round, top GMs unleash sharp novelties in critical main lines. These novelties are ...
Continuing in our series of bleak opening articles from White's perspective, I wanted to share the complete refutation of a line I was actually considering to play as White. Oh well... I think the Reti is an underrated opening for White. It is e...
The f3 Nimzo has always been one of my favorite openings for white. It's wonderfully bizarre in terms of the positions it leads to, but it can also be incredibly brutal and aggressive. Out of all the tries against the Nimzo, it is undoubtedly the ...
With the new engines, it's recently gotten much easier to prepare an equal or playable position with black, and conversely much harder to prove anything with white. So, I've recently taken my main white repertoire into the shop for repairs, and ch...
Like many people, the Two Knights was one of the first chess openings I learned. What kid can resist that tantalizing 4.Ng5 jump, hoping for a quick win with the Fried Liver Attack? It continued to be a source of inspiration for me as I wa...
The French Defense is experiencing a new rise in popularity these days, with Grischuk and Nepo wheeling it out in the Candidates, both confident that it would withstand the highest level of preparation. But perhaps this is not surprising. Compar...
We have reached our twentieth opening discovery. This blog has been a fun creative outlet for me, and I hope you all have enjoyed reading about the opening bombs as much as I have finding them. For the occasion, I thought I'd share an idea I'd nor...
Recently, I finally decided to study 1.e4 e5 seriously. Better late than never I guess! I'm taking baby steps though, and I'm beginning my journey with the Cozio Defense. The Cozio has always been considered slightly dubious, but I was exc...
The academic semester is over, which means I now have more spare time to write about my opening discoveries. The problem with finding opening bombs is that I get inspired by an opening too easily. I'll uncover a nuke in the Nimzo-Indian an...
These days we're seeing a whole new wave of modern King's Indian experts, such as Jorden van Foreest, perhaps the entire Greek national team, and some amazing correspondence specialists such as Pospisil. The recent super engines have not killed th...
The Grunfeld is probably the only 'fianchetto' opening for black left standing these days in terms of theoretical soundness (although I think the Dragon is severely underrated). There are countless lines where white comes within a fraction of a te...
There's a huge group of players that like to start with 1.Nf3, and only after 1.d5, they play 2.d4. This move order avoids the Benko Gambit, the Albin Counter-Gambit, the Chigorin, and all the Benonis. In other words, this is no problem for normal...
Happy New Year! To kick things off, I'd like to share one of the most lethal discoveries I've recently found: a new idea that might refute the popular 3.h6 French. One of the advantages of playing the French as black is that it's great to ...
I've always enjoyed studying the 4.Bg5 Grunfeld for the wealth of creative ideas that are possible for black. It's one of those lines that for some reason keeps on giving. For instance, here are just a few exotic tries I've toyed around with in th...
I have always been a Fianchetto player through and through. To give you an idea, my first ever chess opening was the Hippo, which I literally played every game for both white and black up to 2100 USCF. It goes without saying that I needed to...
Every so often while panning for new ideas I come across one that meets all my criteria for what I consider to be the perfect novelty: Shock-Factor: Is the idea deep or bizarre enough to even stump computers at first? Does it camouflage well and...
