I've started to play the so.kolsky as my third opening
what does it take to play that opening correctly. ?
I played some games with and they do not lead all to something I like, The sokolsly gambit lead me to something unconfortable, I was wondering how can I play that opening correctly.
I've had some success playing 1.b4 and with the st george as black.
More importantly, I've had lots of fun, too.
I'm thinking of changing after having played it for a couple of seasons for a few reasons.
1) I've played it against everyone in the league, its no surprise now.
2) I get the feeling it requires extremely accurate play. Other openings can be more forgiving of slight inaccuracies.
3) I've come to the realisation that I don't understand it well enough, and I don't know how to find out more about it.
4) Some people think I'm a chimp.
Its really important to understand the ideas behind b4 and what you're trying to achieve with it.
Happy to kick some ideas around i it'd be helpful.
Have also sent you a PM.
Phil.
It is worth having a working knowledge of the 1.d4 and 1.c4 openings before taking up the polish - a sensible black player will not try and initiate wild complications from the beginning and these quieter lines can often transpose into known positins from the above two opening moves. You will also find more games played by stronger players which begin 1.c4 and 1.d4 from which to draw some ideas of how you would like to proceed in your middlegame strategy, thus giving you the chance to then take up b4 without having to step into the unknown.
For a player around your rating, what is the point of playing 3 openings as White!? If you play 1. c4, and 1. d4 for instance, that is enough in and of itself to keep you busy studying for years. To learn all of the theory and ideas behind 1. d4 alone is quite a bit, but 1. c4 and 1. d4 work nicely together because of the various transpositional possibilities available to you, so it's doable.
In my opinion, you'd do quite a bit better to stay with whatever your first two are, since they're invariably (probably) better 1. b4, and study those, along with some middlegame and endgame study. You're not going to get better by adding a crappy 3rd opening to your repertoire, but if you for some reason are a glutton for punishment and enjoy that kind of the thing, the more power to ya dude! 😀
I agree with Mr T & !-TONY-! But as RHP's resident Sokolsky champion - I won the themed tournament in December 😛 - I would add that the games from that event don't make a case for the opening.
1. b4 plays well against weaker opponents who don't dominate the centre, meanwhile allowing White space gains on the Q-side. But against strong players, 1.b4 just weakens White's pawn structure while conceding the centre.
If you want an off-beat flank opening, try Larsen's (Nimzo's) 1.b3 instead. It's a much better choice
I don't see 1.b4 as losing for white. Perhaps it leaves black with some advantage given best
play on both sides so not the choice for a GM. But for an advantage to mean anything the
player has to:
a) Recognise and understand what the advantage is.
b) Know how to capitalise on it.
For this reason I think there is a benefit in getting to know something about the off beat
openings.
I never think it's going to be an easy game when I meet one of them. I like to think my
opponent is so tactically strong they can get away with it.
Is black winning here?
!.b4...c6
2.Bb2..Qb6
3.a3...a5
4.c4...axb4
5.c5...Qc7
6.axb4...Rxa1
7.Bxa1...
