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I have to play Torsten Lange with black this afternoon, so I am annotating one of his losses with The English Opening as preparation. |
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1. c4
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He always seems to play The English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Opening |
 
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1... Nf6
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Offering a transposition to Indian systems with 2. d4 |
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2. Nc3
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But Torsten seems to always stick to The English. |
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2... e5
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Fabian transposes to the Reversed Sicilian |
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3. Nf3
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Attacking e5 |
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3... Nc6
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Defending e5. This is also known as The English Four Knights for obvious reasons. https://www.chess.com/openings/English-Opening-Four-Knights-Variation |
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4. d4
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White's extra tempo due to starting first makes this move good, while in the Sicilian Defence an early d7-d5 is not normally good. Stockfish recommends 4. e2-e4 and 4. d3 and 4. g3 are both popular too. |
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4... exd4
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Blacks takes. |
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5. Nxd4
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White takes back. |
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5... Bb4
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Black pins the knight |
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6. Bg5
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Stockfish prefers 6. Nxc6 with equality. Stockfish gives a small advantage to black already. |
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6... h6
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This is the most played move although Stockfish prefers 0-0 |
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7. Bh4
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The bishop drops back. |
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7... Bxc3+
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Stockfish prefers 0-0 although it still gives a small plus to black. This is the most commonly played move. |
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8. bxc3
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White of course recaptures. |
1 comment
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8... Ne5
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Stockfish prefers 0-0 but Ne5 is the most commonly played move. Ne5 attacks c4. Stockfish now likes the pawn sacrifice 9. f4 Nxc4? 10. e4 Ne3 11. Qd3 Nxf1 12. e5 with advantage to white. But 10. Ng6 is equal. |
1 comment
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9. e3
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This move means that c4 is now protected by the Bishop on f1. |
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9... Ng6
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Knight drops back attacking the bishop |
1 comment
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10. Bg3
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Bishop drops back |
1 comment
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10... d6
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Blunting the bishop on g3. Now that black has exchanged his black squared bishop it makes sense to put pawns on black squares. |
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(2224)