Sometimes parents ask if I want to play a game of chess with their kid. Sure, no problem. And often they open up with moving their rook pawns up and moving their rooks out.
This is a classic strategic mistake (for many reasons) that kids often make.
At least I thought that way until I saw Magnus Carlsen play that exact same strategy against one of the best players in the world.
It helps me to understand chess more to analyze that game and actually see that there was purpose behind each move.
This idea list is just for me and might not be interesting to non-chessplayers (heck, it might not be interesting to chess players). Plus, I might write a book, "Magnus Carlsen's Most INSANE Games".
this is the entire game:
1. a4 g6 2. Ra3 Nf6 3. Rf3 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. h4 d5 6. h5 d4 7. hxg6 hxg6 8. Nb1 Bg4 9. Rg3 Nc6 10. d3 Qd6 11. Nf3 Bxf3 12. gxf3 e5 13. Nd2 Rae8 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. fxe4 Ne7 16. Rgh3 f6 17. c3 dxc3 18. Qb3+ Rf7 19. bxc3 Qb6 20. Qa2 Qc5 21. Bd2 a5 22. Rh7 Kf8 23. Bh3 Ng8 24. Be6 Ree7 25. Bxf7 Rxf7 26. R7h3 Qd6 27. O-O f5 28. Qd5 Qf6 29. Rg3 f4 30. Rg2 c6 31. Qxa5 Ne7 32. Qd8# 1-0
And you can link to it here: https://lichess.org/DGdAzqSE#3
This is a classic strategic mistake (for many reasons) that kids often make.
At least I thought that way until I saw Magnus Carlsen play that exact same strategy against one of the best players in the world.
It helps me to understand chess more to analyze that game and actually see that there was purpose behind each move.
This idea list is just for me and might not be interesting to non-chessplayers (heck, it might not be interesting to chess players). Plus, I might write a book, "Magnus Carlsen's Most INSANE Games".
this is the entire game:
1. a4 g6 2. Ra3 Nf6 3. Rf3 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. h4 d5 6. h5 d4 7. hxg6 hxg6 8. Nb1 Bg4 9. Rg3 Nc6 10. d3 Qd6 11. Nf3 Bxf3 12. gxf3 e5 13. Nd2 Rae8 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. fxe4 Ne7 16. Rgh3 f6 17. c3 dxc3 18. Qb3+ Rf7 19. bxc3 Qb6 20. Qa2 Qc5 21. Bd2 a5 22. Rh7 Kf8 23. Bh3 Ng8 24. Be6 Ree7 25. Bxf7 Rxf7 26. R7h3 Qd6 27. O-O f5 28. Qd5 Qf6 29. Rg3 f4 30. Rg2 c6 31. Qxa5 Ne7 32. Qd8# 1-0
And you can link to it here: https://lichess.org/DGdAzqSE#3
1. 1. a4!
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It's actually called Ware's Opening. Apparently Preston Ware came in 16th out of a field of 18 in the 1882 "Second International Vienna Tournament." Not so bad.
His namesake move seems a bit eccentric but who am I to judge. Stockfish gives an evaluation of -0.3 after the move. Carlsen's opponent in this game, IM Lawrence Trent, played ..g6 in response and suddenly Stockfish said the position with 1.a4 g6 is +0.3.
Did Magnus know what he was doing? And if he did, what can I learn from that.
First, I wondered what the basic ideas were.
1.a4 could be useful if the opening transposes into some kind of opening where black plays ...a6 and now a4 is a genius move that anticipated preventing ...b5. But I'm sure his opponent must realize that and will avoid any such transposition.
But, thinking from the point of view of a five year old, the move 1.a4 gets the rook ready to develop with Ra3!
The game continued:

Preview