The Berlin Defence. This is an opening I never used to like the look of - particularly the Black side - but then I saw how popular it was amongst GM's and thought "Well, if it's good enough for them..."

So I began to study the opening, looking at GM level games (such as the recent Carlsen vs Anand match) to try at least play what is known as the main line

This is still common theory, but look at Black's position here: doubled c-pawns, no centre pawns, and a King without a castle... I can understand why some players avoid playing this

The deviation from main line theory begins to happen here

? Although not many great alternatives seemed to be available (perhaps Bf4) this move was a mistake, as it weakens the King, and allows Black to gain tempo by hitting the Rook- exploiting the pin on f2

thus losing a pawn... at least Bf4 would have stopped Ng3

It was probably fine for Black to take the Bishop on h4 now, but I didn't like the idea of my King becoming even more exposed than what it was already

And besides, this move stops his Knight from using the e5 square, which I thought could have led to tricky stuff

Now to deal with this pesky passer

This is good for Black.. I'm starting to see how the Berlin can be used as an effective, aggressive defence