Longer Chess Games #51 Larsen/Bird Opening

[@popeyethesailor1089]

Yessir! 🙋‍♂️ Good to see you again as always mr. Williams my brother. 🤴 I get excited as a kid when you post a game lol. I really enjoy your content. Im glad your not boring lmao. I watch your streams and videos almost immediately when I'm able to, I have probably seen 70-80%+ of your hundreds and hundreds of videos my good sir. I go back and watch your older videos, completing your content list bit by bit. I have learned so much about chess. So just wanted to say thanks.

[@meathead919]

Oh yes the longer games is where its at. THANK YOU GINGER GM!

[@stephen0793]

meathead919 I second that for lowly players like us the long play games are most instructive

[@michakonieczko6875]

Every time you upload a long play game I feel like it's christmas

[@LUwUcii]

I'm a beginner but this is the first opening I learned, it's so abstract I love it!

[@cloudownsyounoob]

The longplay videos have always been my favorite. It's hard to get as much out of blitz.

[@richardcochrane1966]

Thank you, Simon, a very interesting game, well played & well analysed

[@vga1232]

Keep bringing the vids on! :D

[@robertehrenworth3310]

Brilliant discussion of candidate move selection & tactics

[@diosn6909]

Another lovely instructive video! Thank you! Already have bought one of your programs and will buy one more for Christmas!

[@robwilliams3592]

Nice explinations... Very helpful...

[@michaela2098]

Great video. I will have to check more of his content.

[@zolle132]

I Love your Standard Games i Love all of your Videos i have to say.you inspired me to play chess.

[@Cortesncutsdub]

Sooo Instructive

[@bench5027]

Yayy another vid

[@stephen0793]

At 27:00 that tactic with Nd6 is awesome! Thanks Simon

[@JacobScott0000]

Very good

[@TalsBadKidney]

Can you please recommend some books on this? Thanks, Simon!

[@_AGX111]

Next Ginger GM course - Killer Nimzo/Larsen/Bird? I can't understand chess half as well when anyone else explains it. Just starting on your Chessable Hippo videos as well

[@mustafaalnoor2198]

Beautiful game

[@MamboRasco]

You have to play this in blitz. I thought a while back you were working on a bird dvd, is that still in the works? Though b3 is a pretty good starting move. You get a lot of interesting positions. Even some games you go ooo or lines with an f3 and attack.

[@ophiolatreia93]

Birds

[@beloglavisup2]

Against the Nimzo/Larsen attack, the best response is The Old Indian Defence.

[@teteeheeted]

That opening scares me

[@threethrushes]

Simon, how long should you try an opening for? I play London as white and Black Lion as black, for about 1-2 years.

[@ym276]

Until you master it, that's what he always says

[@chrisiver8506]

eh too long, to get better at chess you need to try all openings imo

[@ym276]

@@chrisiver8506 You should obviously know the general plans and ideas for all openings, but talking about serious play, you should stick to one and master it

[@chrisiver8506]

@@ym276 That's fair, I know a 2100 who has played the london and the philidor his whole life with good results. Probably keeping the same openings in your repertoire is good, but branching out into new ones in tournament play will help your chess more than sticking to the same ones.

[@Fyrwulf]

Okay, I suck at chess, but for the life of me I can't think of a reason why the opening move sequence shouldn't be B3, Bishop A3, Knight C3. So far as I can tell Bishop B2's only purpose is to protect the Queenside Rook without actually threatening anything, but it seems to me that all you're doing is inviting someone to pressure your Bishop and effectively neutralize your entire Queenside of the board. Bishop A3 seems superior to me because you're making the opponent choose between developing the center of the board or a Kingside castle and it makes E3 a stronger play. Knight C3 is doing the same thing that Bishop B2 would be doing, but it's better supported and is also pressuring D5. Am I wrong here? If so, why?

[@1b9d9j6]

Hey! I can think of two reasons, however take these with a grain of salt as I'm a mediocre player at best. (i) Black is likely to play 1... e5 as White is not taking the center immediately. Ba3 seems horrible to me then as you spend 2 moves to immediately trade off your Bishop for Black's undeveloped one on f8. In fact, in many lines Black will spend several moves to get his f8 Bishop to c6 to trade it off for White's great Bishop on b2. Thus, playing 2. Ba3 just makes Black's life easy. (ii) One of the key points of the Larsen opening is the control over the dark d4 and e5 squares. Without his great dark-squared Bishop, White cannot do this and Black will likely be better. During the whole game Simon kept preventing Black from playing e5. Without a Bishop on b2, e5 would be unstoppable and Black breaks through in the center.

[@beloglavisup2]

1. b3 e5, 2. Bb2 d6, 3. e3 Nf6, 4. f4 Nbd7...

[@sheledon3272]

2 to the 4'th power 👍's

[@Holestic_Honesty]

First

[@stevewild374]

B3? Shame on you