Hold My Beer... How To Master The Duras Gambit Most chess players have learned that the f7 square is sacred. It's the Achilles' heel of Black's position, vulnerable to the Scholar's Mate, protected only by the King and not to be touched lightly. Then along comes the Duras Gambit, which takes one look at conventional wisdom and says, "You know what? Hold my beer. Let's throw that pawn forward and see what happens." And in today's email, you're gonna learn what the hell is going on and how you...
13 days ago • 4 min read
How To Master The Van't Kruijs Opening If you want to confuse your opponents from move one without a truly offbeat move, then this week I've got the opening for you. The Van't Kruijs Opening is an unusual opening that catches most players off guard, where they'll spend half their turn trying to figure out what you're doing. While most players are clashing in the center with pawns, the Van't Kruijs takes a much more chill approach, making a deceptively modest move that offers a range of...
20 days ago • 4 min read
How To Master The Benko Gambit Tired of boring, slow chess games where nothing happens for 20 moves? Then you need to read this email. This week I'm covering the Benko Gambit - an aggressive opening that essentially says, "Here, take my pawn... if you dare!". It's the chess equivalent of starting a bar fight. Chaotic, exciting, and definitely not for the faint of heart. But if you come out on top... man, the pride is something else. Not to encourage bar fights... unless there's a chess board...
27 days ago • 3 min read
How To Master The Catalan Opening Think that chess openings have to be all-out attacks or boring defensive slogs? Think again! This week we'll look at the Catalan Opening – a sneaky system that combines the best of both worlds. It's solid like a fortress, but flexible like a gymnast, and it's been a favourite weapon of world champions for decades. So what's the deal with it? Let's take a look at how you can use the Catalan Opening to level up your game. Catalan Opening1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
How To Master The Elephant Gambit Ever played a normal opening only to have your opponent throw a curveball that leaves you scratching your head? That's exactly what the Elephant Gambit aims to do. This week, we'll take a look at this wild, offbeat opening that can catch your opponents completely offguard. Let's ride this elephant into battle. P.S. Fine, I'll talk about the elephant in the room... If you wanna skip the fluff and just get the cheat sheet now, here's a link. And here's a link...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
How To Master The Hungarian Opening Everyone's familiar with the classic starting moves e4 and d4. But do you know how to respond when your opponent plays g3, preparing a Kingside fianchetto? In this week's email, you'll learn the common moves of the Hungarian Opening so you know how to play or beat it. So, I hope you're 'Hungary' for some juicy chess tips... here we go.(I'll see myself out) P.S. Haven't grabbed yourself 1000 free Scandinavian Defense puzzles yet? Here's a link to do so....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
How To Master The Richter-Veresov Attack Yo yo yo, this week I wanted to take a deeper look at the Richter-Veresov Attack and its lines to help you destroy your opponent in the opening. This so-called Mirrored Ruy Lopez is an aggressive d4 opening best suited for intermediate players. It's a rare occurrence on the ladder, meaning it can catch your opponents off guard. But how do you play it, what are the common lines, and is it suited for you? Time to find out. Some quick updates I've been...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Win VS The Queen's Gambit With The Slav Defense To complete our array of 'royal gambit' openings from the past few weeks, I said I'd cover the Slav Defense. So today, we'll look into this popular response to the Queen's Gambit and how you can use it to dominate your opponent when they play the inevitable 2. c4. Before we do, though, a couple of quick announcements... For everyone who bought the Ultimate Bundle (or is planning to), I have now completely finished all of the opening guides. All...
2 months ago • 3 min read
The 'Highest' Win Rate Opening In honour of 4/20 on Sunday, this week's Chess Openings Tuesday is - you guessed it - on the Bongcloud Attack. Told you I would. Seen as a joke by some (most), this opening gives you a significant disadvantage by exposing your King and sacrificing castle rights... but if you can pull it off and win, the feeling is something else entirely. Maybe it's luck, maybe my opponent were playing awful, but every time I've played this opening on ladder (all 3 times), I've...
2 months ago • 3 min read