Anti-Grünfeld Systems · English Opening Theory

[@HangingPawns]

For easier navigation, you can find the PGN with all the variations imported on www.patreon.com/hangingpawns Just search for the English or the Anti-Gruenfeld or type "opening" into the search bar and all that are available should be listed there.

[@Aisatsana1971]

I have always played the English, so im extremely excited for this. Thank you!!!

[@ReiAyasuka]

Boring :P

[@edoggo1887]

if you think English is boring you’re definitely bad at it

[@happydogger5009]

I just gotta say that channel name Hanging Pawns is epic af

[@zeTETicTruthTube]

This series has been very helpful for me. Thank you 🙂

[@darrentran2647]

Keep it up. Your videos are amazing

[@JohnPreston-nj8dm]

Thank you for these 🙏

[@FrGOMG]

I really appreciate the effort. Thank you so much!! Keep up!

[@FrGOMG]

hii can you make a video on the e4 series with openings such as the vienna, bishops opening and ponziani

[@big062]

I am a new player but the english seems very theory heavy so thanks for the tremendous work

[@tonysu8860]

Actually not. I highly recommend the English for anyone who doesn't want to study book lines but to learn systems where move order is usually not as important as placing pieces and pawns on the right squares. You can't avoid basic fundamentals, but especially if you think that your fundamentals are better than your opponent's, the English is a good choice.

[@theviscount9985]

​@@tonysu8860Agreed. I never formally learned the English and I play at quite often, even at tournament games. It allows me to get to the middlegame safely and just play chess.

[@huntglory8774]

Wow million thx for ur effort

[@stoutlager6325]

I don't like Nc3 in the Great Snake lines (g6 Bg7). It gets hard to win in some variations despite the nice looking structures you normally manage to achieve.

[@OvalMish]

To try and work on it, study the lines with stockfish and see where you usually end up going astray

[@musaarif3126]

Is this also called the Great Snake variation?

[@adamtheamazing4411]

The great snake is the modern defense against the english but most people transpose into a leningrad dutch

[@conovan5081]

Nice

[@jhvhyrseedddd]

Staffan hear hear hear hear everywhere

[@malek_sa]

52 minutes WTF !😂

[@styenwanninayake3]

❤❤

[@tonysu8860]

I'd like to suggest a different approach than in this video for the positions in this video. The assumption in this video is that Black if not obstructed will attempt some kind of Guenfeld approach, to achieve a setup that has a Gruenfeld flavor. Strictly speaking, preventing a Gruenfeld type position can be done only one way... Play an early e4 setup creating an English Stonewall (pawns on c4 and e4 with a backward d pawn) to either prevent or discourage black playing d5 Black is then left to either continue a King fianchetto which if White "fills in" his center with d4 becomes a King's Indian or can play e6 followed by d5 which is the Mikenas line. Any other response by either side is less forcing and leads to either a Neo-Gruenfeld (If White chooses to occupy the center with a delayed d4 or a kind of Reti position if White hangs back and doesn't occupy the center immediately and invites Black to occupy the center at his peril. or the only somewhat unique line that should be looked at because it's often played is the Black exchange of White's Nc3 with the recapture bc. That last line is somewhat interesting because a lot of players will try to play the position like a reversed Dragon which is one of the main objectives of playing the English but having a semi-open b file is very different than a semi-open c file which a lot of Sicilian players learn when playing variations like the Taimanov Sicilian. You won't have active pressure and control of squares closer to the center. You're attacking a 2 pawn Q-side pawn cluster instead of a 3 pawn cluster. You have more pawns in the center but unless you advance them, they might be more in your way than you're used to in a Sicilian. So, the ideas and strategies playing the position don't really mesh with Sicilian ideas too well but at least initially you do have a position more like a Reti but without a good likelihood of a Q-side fianchetto. As for all the potential Neo-Gruenfeld positions including the maligned c6 by Black in this video(that's a very popular line), I highly recommend just opening up a resource on the Neo-Gruenfeld instead of relying on the content in this video which appears to be based more on personal evaluations rather than "book." But even this is optional because there is a reason why Neo-Gruenfelds are somewhat rare at all levels unless the players just happen to enter these positions from ignorance and chance. Neo-Gruenfelds aren't considered particularly threatening and are mostly "just a game" that attempts to avoid book lines the other player might play. Lastly, I'd caution anyone who might want to use computer analysis to assist in developing a Gruenfeld or Neo-Gruenfeld repertoire. Gruenfeld positions are a category no chess engine understands at all today, it's one of those blind spots Leela and Stockfish have and those engines avoid Gruenfelds like the plague. When they're forced to start from a Gruenfeld position, you see them trying to get out of those positions ASAP and into positions more to their liking. Does that mean that the Gruenfeld is fundamentally unsound? I doubt it. It probably means that playing the Gruenfeld requires an insight and understanding that is different than playing "normal chess."

[@siraf1234]

There is no magic about it, the Grunfeld is perfectly sound and the engines actually like it. No matter what, black achieves 0.00 since the lines get very forcing. Its in fact one of the openings with the least blind spots because analyzing some deep positional opening to 0.00 is much harder than the grunfeld which is black throwing the kitchen sink until he achieves a perpetual. The setups dont fully avoid the grunfeld unlike a botvinnik setup, but they clearly discourage it.

[@vrebds2484]

Am I the first one!