Question for 1.d4 players

Nick Burrows · Post by **Nick Burrows** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:00 pm

A broad question, however in your experience what are the most common responses to 1.d4 at sub-master level in the uk weekenders? Does it mirror master level games or are less popular defences played just as commonly?

Would a Brit-base database search be possible within certain grading parameters?

I am making the switch to d4 and am wondering how i should proportion my study time for the various defences....

Cheers, Nick.

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:30 pm

Nick Burrows wrote:A broad question, however in your experience what are the most common responses to 1.d4 at sub-master level in the uk weekenders? Does it mirror master level games or are less popular defences played just as commonly?

I'd be fairly sure there are people out there who play things like the Budapest, Albin, Hennig-Shara Gambit, Blumenfeld as well as mainstream stuff like the QDA, QGD, Slav, Semi-Slav, Tarrasch, Nimzo, Queens and Bogo, King Indian , Grunfeld, Dutch, Volga, Benonis Old & Modern etc. You can leave out quite a bit by playing the Tromp, Colle, London, Torre, Barry etc but so many people play this way, defenders are familiar with these.

Nick Burrows wrote:Would a Brit-base database search be possible within certain grading parameters?

At least two ways you can do this. One is to scour Congress websites for their pgn downloads and build your own private database. The other would be to extract games from British events from a commercial database searching by event or place - Hastings for example.

Nick Burrows wrote:I am making the switch to d4 and am wondering how i should proportion my study time for the various defences....

I'm not quite sure where you start, becoming familiar with typical positions and structures that arise for 1 d4 openings could be a starting point. Your own defence to 1 d4 gives you some sort of lead in.

Rob Thompson · Post by **Rob Thompson** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:45 pm

a bit of advice, find an online blitz site, and play games with d4. it'll help you learn ideas very quickly. Also, i'm not sure if people are that familiar with openings like the tronpowski, especailly not U160 standard. Idk exactly what standard you're looking at preparing for here though. Albin-counters can be easily avoided if you are willing to play 2 Nf3, and then transpose into whatever system it is that you want to play

Joey Stewart · Post by **Joey Stewart** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:18 pm

1... d5
1.... Nf6

Are the two most common replies that you will get against 1.d4 - if you can have a system against these two then you are well covered.

James Byrne · Post by **James Byrne** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:53 pm

Arshad Ali · Post by **Arshad Ali** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:12 am

Avrukh's two volumes are designed for master-level players and above (as are other opening monographs published by Quality Chess). They are thoroughly written (I have them) but unless you're a master facing other masters, want to adopt Avrukh's recommendations (which involve g3 and Bg2) and have a year to spare working through them, I'm not sure that's the best way to go.

Against 1.... Nf6, maybe go for 2.Bg5. Okay, black players are prepared for the Tromp -- but you get some interesting chess. And if it's okay for Hodgson, it should be okay for you and circumvent the need to wade through variations in the Nimzo, Grunfeld and other Indian defences. Against 1....d5, maybe something like a QGD exchange variation. You will still need something against the QGA and Albin. Against the Slav, maybe play the exchange variation.

Phil Neatherway · Post by **Phil Neatherway** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:36 am

I switched to d4 for a while. I found that at my level, the most common openings were:-
Nimzo/Queens Indian
Kings Indian
Queens Gambit.

The Dutch is quite popular, as is the Benko.

I rarely had to face the QGA or Slav.

2. Nf3 avoids most Black gambits.

In the end, though, I switched back to e4. I found that the closed positions were so unfamiliar to me that I made lots of mistakes and my results became a lot a worse. If you think you prefer more open positions, I would stick with e4.

Mike W. Richardt · Post by **Mike W. Richardt** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:42 am

I play 1.d4 for years now and the most common reply was either 1...d5 or 1...Nf6.

Like Joey said if you have a repertoire against both replies you should be well covered but make sure that different move orders don't fool you!

Sebastian Stone · Post by **Sebastian Stone** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:46 am

What would peoples replies be against 1...e6?

Myself, should I play 1. d4 (which doesn't happen) would feel compelled to play 2. e4.

James Byrne · Post by **James Byrne** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:51 am

Alan Walton · Post by **Alan Walton** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:58 am

Sebastian Stone wrote:What would peoples replies be against 1...e6?

Myself, should I play 1. d4 (which doesn't happen) would feel compelled to play 2. e4.

The players who normally play 1...e6 against 1. d4 would normally be French Defence players, so therefore playing 2. e4 could walk straight in there preferred opening

Also, against 2. c4 you could normally play against the Dutch, people play 1...e6 to avoid alot of the sharp gambit lines

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:20 pm

Alan Walton wrote: The players who normally play 1...e6 against 1. d4 would normally be French Defence players,

It can also be used if you don't want to face the Tromp. After 2 e4, both c5 and b6 are possible if you really don't want to play a French. Whilst many players follow Simon Williams in combining the French with the Dutch, almost any system involving ... e6 is still possible after 2 c4 or 2 Nf3

Arshad Ali · Post by **Arshad Ali** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 1:51 pm

There are more transpositional possibilities after 1.d4 (and even more after 1.c4 and 1.Nf3). I play 1.d4 and like the resulting positions in general (I'm not man enough to play 1.e4). Botvinnik used to play 1....e6 after 1.d4 because he was scared of the Staunton Gambit, and waited for 2.c4 before committing himself to 2....f5.

Sebastian Stone · Post by **Sebastian Stone** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:14 pm

James Byrne wrote:
Sebastian Stone wrote:What would peoples replies be against 1...e6?

Myself, should I play 1. d4 (which doesn't happen) would feel compelled to play 2. e4.
2. c4 and they would usually reply d5.

Or 2...Nf6

Robert Stokes · Post by **Robert Stokes** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:50 pm

If you are interested in 1. d4 as opening then take a look at "The System" by Hans Berliner. He was correspondence world champion in about 1966 and one of the first chess computer programmers. He insists that anything other than 1. d4 is wrong and he claims to have fully worked out ways to retain white's opening advantage against QGD, QGA, King's Indian and some others. When he wrote the book he wasn't sure about Nimzo-Indian and Slav.

Our club, which has player's graded 100 to 150, with only one higher than that, regularly use all of those mentioned.

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