New & Forgotten Openings
IM Minev Content
Throughout his career, Nikolay has been interested in the observation that many
times opening trends and popularity are influenced as much by "fashion" as by
theory. Openings may drop out of favor, yet still be sound.
In these cases, these unusual openings can provide an advantage to the player
who springs the surprise. Because of this, he has championed the rediscovery
and revival of opening lines that have been forgotten by chess theory, but which
remain fundamentally sound.
As the Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen wrote (from the tournament book for the
Second Piatrigorsky Cup):
times opening trends and popularity are influenced as much by "fashion" as by
theory. Openings may drop out of favor, yet still be sound.
In these cases, these unusual openings can provide an advantage to the player
who springs the surprise. Because of this, he has championed the rediscovery
and revival of opening lines that have been forgotten by chess theory, but which
remain fundamentally sound.
As the Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen wrote (from the tournament book for the
Second Piatrigorsky Cup):
- Chess fans often ask about the way a master prepares for a tournament or
important game. In my case the answer is that I do very little special
preparation for a given occasion. I do a good deal of opening analysis all
the time, and then, sometimes years later, I get the opportunity to use one
of my surprise variations. Most of all I like "bad" lines, that is those
considered bad, in my opinion unjustly, by "theory". The reason for the last
quotation marks is that most so-called theory is only a collection of
examples from master practice.
| FORGOTTEN OPENING IDEAS Selected from the files of IM Nikolay Minev (positions marked with ** are not mentioned in Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and are probably worthy of further consideration) |
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 | A10 English: 1.c4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d3 e5 5.g4!?** |
| B16 Caro-Kann: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ | |
| gxf6 6.Ne2 Bg4 7.Qd3 Bh5 8.Qb3 Qc7!?** |
| C06 French Defense: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 | |
| c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 Qb6 9.O-O!?** |
| D01 Richter-Veresov: 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5 c5 4.Bxf6 gxf6 5.e4 | |
| dxe4 6.d5 f5!?** |
| E03 Catalan: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6. | |
| Qxc4 c5 7.Nf3 Nb6 8.Qd3 cxd4 9.O-O Be7 10.Nxd4 O-O 11.Nc3 e5 12.Nf3 Qxd3 13.exd3 Bd6 14.b3 Bf5!?** |