學習國際象棋開局的價值

　　國際象棋的開局至關重要，它有可能決定一盤棋的勝負。下面小編給你介紹，歡迎閱讀。

　　

　　我敢肯定，你已經無數次地聽到“開局不是十分重要，你應該先學習戰術/殘局/中局，等你掌握了這些之後，在學習開局不遲”。雖然我認同學習戰術、局面、殘局非常重要，但我也認為學習開局也很有價值，是每一個棋手學習王國的必不可少的一分子。

　　我為什麼這樣想呢?首先，學習它非常容易，你要是個等級分較高的棋手，那就更不用說了。有些工具象Chessbase、TWIC，讓你學起開局變得更加方便。還有一個原因，有一個小孩，曾經參加過我主講的短期培訓，竟然不知道基本的開局變例，淨下些垃圾開局, 讓我感到非常傷心。

　　還有一個學習開局更好的藉口，你不僅是在學習開局，你同時也是複習你的戰略/戰術概念。我每學習一個開局的時候，我總是能夠學到一些其他的東西。

　　法蘭西開局，塔拉什變例

　　French Opening, Tarrasch Variation

　　1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Be7 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. c3 c5 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. O-O a5 9. a4 cxd4 10. cxd4 Nb4 11. Bb5 O-O

　　下一步最好走什麼呢?如果你從來沒有學習過這個開局，那麼你的等級分可能就在2000分以下，你能找到最好招法的概率非常低。可是，如果你能看到12.Nb1這步棋，那就意味著你已經掌握了一種非常有價值的可以運用到很多情況下的方法。關鍵點在於馬放在c3上非常好，既可以監督b5格子有可以釋放c1上的象。

　　現在，你已經知道了這個走法或者你自己找到了這個招法，但是，假如你的等級分已經超過1800，第一次看到這個變例。當你看到12.Nb1這步棋，你會問“誰走的這種奇怪的招法，為什麼白棋要那樣走?”當你找到答案，你就有了一個新的可以用到其他局面的概念。讓我們再看一些例子。

　　Saitek US Masters, Hawaii 1998

　　GM Joel Benjamin- Gregory Shahade

　　這是我14年前面對吉爾*本傑明下出的局面, 我想你能猜到下來他會走什麼?

　　16. Nb1

　　當他走出這步棋的時候，我印象深刻，不知道他要幹什麼。當然，當馬放在c3上的時候會改進他的局面，要比馬在d2上好多了。這也是計算機軟體霍德妮的首選，要知道計算機是最擅長髮現像Nb1這樣的步子的。現在，我已經真正理解了它的內涵，並能夠自然而然地運用在我的對局中。

　　這個結合法蘭西開局的例子，讓我回想起在聖路易斯邀請賽上的那盤棋。

　　Saint Louis Invitational, 2011

　　Greg Shahade- Tatev Abrahamyan

　　1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Be7 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. c3 c5 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. O-O g5 9. Qe2 g4 10. Ne1 h5 11. Qe3 Qb6 12. Nc2 cxd4 13. cxd4 Rg8 14. Kh1 Nf8 15.f4 Ng6

　　猜一猜我下來會走什麼?我和你開了個玩笑，所以你可能猜不對。我確實想走f5，但是她可能回以16...exf5 17. Bxf5 Be6，這樣子的話黑棋也不差。 但我想做的更狠些。於是，我就搜腸刮肚地把我所知道的戰術、概念、方法齊齊地過了一遍。我想到16.Nb1，它是我的首選，但我還有些不十分滿意;所以我就開始看別的選擇，16.a3就是其中的一個。要走16. a3， 那麼b4, Nb3就得跟進。問題是如果我走了16.a3, 她回以16...a5，我的計劃就不能順利執行了。這讓我又想到Nb1計劃，這個計劃對付她的a5不錯。

　　16. a3 a5 17. Nb1

　　Notice how I was able to use an idea that I learned from one variation in the French, in a different French line. Also note that this could have been another opening entirely, as Joel used the idea against me in a Sicilian. I hope you are a Nb1 genius now too! Let’s move to another motif:

　　Caro-Kann Panov Botvinnik

　　1. e4 c5 2. c3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 d5 5. exd5 Nf6 6. Nc3 Nxd5 7. Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb3 Bg7 9. Nf3 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. h3 Na5 12. Be3 Nxb3 13. axb3

　　A normal developing move for black would be to play 13...Be6, but it looks annoying after 14. Ng5 because either the bishop retreats or after 14...Bd5 white can trade a knight for a bishop and eliminate our two bishops advantage.

　　13…Be6

　　Still a good move. The point is that after 14. Ng5 Bd5 is nothing to be worried about, as after 15. Nxd5 Nxd5 followed by something like ...e6, and we have a nice position as white's pawns are weak and we have great control over the d5 square. Now maybe for many of you this idea was obvious, but it made an impression on me. Let's see it in action in another opening.

　　1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd3 O-O 9. O-O Nc6 10. Re1 Nf6 11. Bc2 b6 12. a3 Ba6 13. Bf4

　　This is a tricky position. The natural move is certainly 13....Rc8, but it runs into an annoying trick involving 14. d5! Nxd5 15. Nxd5 Qxd5 16. Qxd5 exd5 17. Bf5 Rcd8 18. Bc7 Ra8 19. Bd7 and white is starting to generate annoying threats. After analyzing this I decided I didn't really want to play into this position, and with the help of ChessPublishing, although I'm sure I'd have found it anyway, I decided black's best is 13...Bc4 with the idea that we don't really mind sticking the bishop on d5 in some positions, allowing white to capture.

　　14. b3

　　For instance if 14. b3 Bd5 looks quite playable for white, as if 15. Nxd5 Qxd5 black has good control over the d5 square and I consider the position to be fully playable.

　　14…Bd5

　　So again we find an idea that would be easier to find if we already learned the idea in a different opening. Depending on your rating/experience level, this idea may be obvious, but the more ideas you have in your arsenal, the better.

　　I hope that these examples do convince you the enormous benefit of properly studying the opening. What should you do when you study an opening? Well you should look for as many ideas like this as possible. Whenever you see a move that strikes you as odd, or is something that you wouldn’t normally consider….you should focus on it, and try to really figure out what’s going on and whether it could be applicable in other situations. I have been doing a lot of opening study lately and am quite certain I’ve picked up many such ideas that it would be harder to grasp from middlegame study.

　　Another common yet annoying saying is “focus on learning the ideas of an opening, not exact variations.” That’s complete nonsense. Yes you should know the ideas in all openings you play, and in some openings the ideas may be more important than precise moves. The Carlsbad Structure of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, the Closed Sicilian or the Giuoco Pianissimo all come to mind. However in the majority of openings you should know exactly what to do in quite a few critical positions. You shouldn’t find yourself in a key position thinking “well I know these three ideas in the position, I wonder which one is best”.

　　The ideas over concrete lines is a stupid saying that is misinterpreted by coaches everywhere who constantly repeat it back to me without having any idea what it means, which basically gives kids to be lazy and not memorize anything. If you play the Dragon you better know the ideas, but you definitely ought to know exactly what moves to play against many of white’s sharp replies.

　　It’s quite hard to predict in which openings precise move memorization are important, and which ones it’s more important to know ideas. For instance, in some really sharp Najdorf positions, the precise move order is not known so deeply even by top players. An example of this would be the lines like 1. E4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. D4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 and the lines where white plays Qd2 and 0-0-0 immediately without committing to whether their f-pawn will go to f3 or f4. After studying these lines, I believe most top players may know a few specific ideas, but there are so many different move orders in play that they are also playing very much with a set of ideas and concepts.

　　By contrast, an opening that would seems far quieter than a Najdorf, is the endgame after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Nb6 8. Ne5 a5 9. f3 Nfd7 10. e4 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Qxd1 12. Kxd1 Be6 13. Kc2

　　We have what seems like a pretty dry position but if black plays this line they should know exactly what they are supposed to do to achieve equality. A strong, aspiring player is irresponsible to come into this position armed only with ideas.

　　You have to figure out which positions require concrete memorization, and which ones you can get by with a few ideas. However it never hurts to learn precise moves, because these precise moves often contain key ideas within them.

　　As evidence, look at chessplayers all around you, players rated 100-200 points higher than another player. In the large majority of cases the stronger players have a much deeper and stronger opening knowledge than those rated 100-200 points lower. It’s not true in every case, but it’s true more often than not, which should show that openings do matter. If they didn’t matter why would anyone bother studying them at all, and why would all the stronger players know them much better than weaker players?

　　So study your opening, and do whatever you can to make sure that you learn the key ideas and look for ways to use them to increase your chess game as a whole. However don’t use that as an excuse to not know exactly what to do against every critical response by your opponent. Use your ideas when your opponent plays a new unexpected move, but if your opponent plays a move that has been played many times before, you should know what to play.