Saturday, July 21, 2012

Silver Tape Chess Opening

The Holy Grial for DIY Chess Improvers must be the search to find the Silver Tape Chess Opening. The Opening that will get you into a game of chess with very little effort and a neglible risk of getting blown away before the middle game.

After reading a very interesting and inspirering book: "Barouque Chess"  I became a little curious about the Old Indian (ECO: A53-A55) as a candidate for the Silver Tape Chess Opening title.

I asked a question about chess books about the Old Indian and received a most helpful reply:

"Hi 
I'm not really "in the know" about chess books anymore. I the last 3 years I have only purchased one book (and I didn't even use it for long). My book on the Old Indian is by Andy (Andrew) Soltis. It is really old and just a pamplet in descriptive notation. The analysis is probably too outdated now. When I used to play the old indian, it was really hard to get analysis too. I'd say just use a standard all in one opening book like Modern Chess Openings, ECO, or Nunn's Chess Openings. These will give you all you need to know to play the old indian. Basically, you are just setting up Nf6,d6,Nbd7,e5,Be7,0-0,c6,Qc7 a lot of the time, so you don't need a whole lot of analysis. That's the great thing about the Old Indian. You can play it without learning much book. The downside is that a strong positional player will keep you passive for a very long time. (The Old Indian is almost identical to the King's Indian, except the bishop is more actiively placed on g7 than e7.) Still, it takes a certain level of player to really put the squeeze on you, and even then it's not a winning advantage for white. Try it! If you like the positions, by all means play it. It's a nice solid way to play and doesn't require a whole lot of preparation. Again, bookwise, your best bet is one of those big multi-hundred page reference manuals that covers all the openings in one book. Cheers! "

Have a look at this Capablanca game for inspiration: Juan Corzo vs Jose Raul Capablanca, 1913

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