Training Archives - Easy Chess Tips

Category: Training

1.d4 Chess Opening Repertoire: Nimzo-Indian Mnemonic Memory Challenge!

August 21, 2021

In this video I demonstrate how my 1.d4 chess repertoire mnemonic memory system works by looking at a random selection of Nimzo-Indian variations.

The challenge is to see if I can recreate the specific variations from the keyword associated with their location in my memory system.

The Nimzo-Indian Variations in my 1.d4 Repertoire

I have included ten variations of the Nimzo-Indian in my 186 variation 1.d4 opening repertoire. They are variations 41-50 in my system and as such they are allocated the following keywords based on the Major mnemonic memory system:

41 = “rat” = 4… c5
42 = “rhino” = 4… b6
43 = “ram” = 4… 0-0
44 = “rower” = 4… 0-0
45 = “rail” = 4… d5
46 = “arch” = 4… d5
47 = “ruck” = 4… Nc6
48 = “roof” = 4… d6
49 = “rope” = 4… Ne4
50 = “lasoo” = 4… Ne4

Watch on YouTube (below) or on Odysee (link):

Look Before You Leap Into Extending Your Pawn Chain!

May 30, 2021

Beware of casually extending your pawn chain to “usher away” your opponent’s queen!

Here’s what happened in an online rapid game I played against my regular opponent. All I can say is that none of my opening errors were punished by my opponent, so the #pubchessbluffer bluffed his way through to victory!

I was White and opened with 1.d4:

d4 d5
c4 c6
Nc3 Nf6
Nf3 [my usual move here, if I follow John Watson’s repertoire, is 4. e3] g6
Bg5 Bg7
e3 0-0
h3 Qb6
b3 Ne4
Nxe4 dxe4
Bxe7? exf3
Bxf8 Kxf8
a3? Nd7?
c5?? Qc7? [White extends his pawn chain and Black misses a game-winning opportunity.]

Here’s the situation after 13. c5??

Can you find the best move for Black after 13. c5?

Basic Chess Problem #2

February 12, 2021

This is the second of a series of short chess problem training videos. Here is the problem:

Black to move…

Basic Chess Problem #1

February 9, 2021

This is the first in a series of short videos that I’ve started making for a group of Japanese college students who are studying English, and who, with some prompting from me, have recently taken up chess. The students all started as complete beginners. Most of them also have no experience of playing Shogi, or Japanese chess. So chess is something completely new for them.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to start a line group to discuss chess. I post a problem to the group once every few days, and then a day or two later I post a video that goes through the problem in what I hope is an easy–to-understand way.

The videos are all less than five minutes long, and each one focuses on just one problem. That makes these videos ideal material for “Easy Chess Tips”!

Each video looks at just one chess problem and explains why the solution is the best (or only) option.

Here’s Problem 1, Taken from 100 Chess problems for the Rest of Us, by T. E. Klemm. It is White to move.

So the question is, what is White’s best move?

1.d4 Opening Repertoire Mnemonic Memory System Challenge part 2: QGD and QGA

January 16, 2021

Here is the second set of ten variations (11-20) of my 184 variation 1.d4 opening repertoire mnemonic memory system.

The variations are in the Queen’s Gambit Declined and the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. The QGD section includes these variations:

The Hennig-Schara Gambit
The Austrian Defence
A Ragozin/Nimzo Indian
The Alapin Variation