Chess Openings - Four Knights

Welcome back to chessopenings.com. Today's video is all about the four knights opening which begins with the moves, pawn to e4, pawn to e5, knight f3, knight c6. Then knight to c3 and knight f6. With this solid four knights opening, White's idea is to slow down from some of his main ideas and instead just focus on sensible development, and later choose a strategically interesting plan. Let's take a look. The four knights opening is a king pawn opening. After the traditional moves, pawn to e4, pawn to e5, and knight to f3, White draws Black into playing the defensive move, knight to c6, defending the pawn on e5. Now White's most popular options include the moves, bishop to b5 which would be the Ruy Lopez or bishop to c4, which would be the Italian game. With both of these moves, White aims to castle kings side fairly quickly. At the same time, he eventually wants to play for the moves, c3 and pawn to d4. White is building this strategy on the fact that it's now much harder for Black to use the same strategy since he's already been baited into this move, knight c6, a defensive move, which has blocked in the C pawn on c7. However, with the four knights opening, White takes a fairly different tack here in favor of a developing move, knight to c3. He actually gets rid of this benefit of being able to move the C pawn and just looks for different ideas instead. Today, we'll see that White still has real possibilities of fighting for the initiative in the center. It's just that he plans to do it a little bit more gradually. The position known as the four knights opening begins after Black's standard reply, knight to f6. Now, the main attraction for White to the four knights opening is not so much the objective strength of the move, knight c3, as it is that White has an opportunity to minimize the theoretical, the amount of lines which White might need to learn in order to play the four knights. At the same time, he's hoping to catch Black a little bit less prepared than Black might otherwise have been against the more popular treatments of the king's pawn opening. However, if Black knows what he's doing in these positions, he should have very little problems reaching a comfortable game. The most common move here now is bishop to b5. This logical move sets White up to castle early and addresses the problem of deploying the light squared bishop. If we studied the alternative squares for this bishop's deployment, we do find that b5 is the most sensible square. From e2, the bishop wouldn't attack anything and it would also block the natural file for the rook after White castles. From d3, the bishop would kind of look up [inaudible 02:58] and block the D pawn. There's also a slight trick involved that now, if White plays bishop to c4, he gives Black an option to play the excellent move, knight takes e4, capturing a center pawn using a fork trick. When Black gets an equal or even slightly better game after the move, knight takes e4 d5. Or, after the possibility of bishop takes f7, king takes f7, knight takes the pawn to d5. Theory has shown that both of these options do not leave White with a very good position. If White is serious about deploying the bishop, the only natural square turns out to be b5. This has the added benefit of putting some pressure on the e5 pawn, though White is not yet ready to act on this as a serious threat. Black has two major replies to this set p. The first is just to follow suit with this move, bishop to b4, achieving the exact same aims that White was achieving just a move earlier. Black is making it possible to castle early. He's also deploying the bishop to the most sensible square. Right away, you're probably wondering, why doesn't White just win a pawn with the moves, bishop takes c6, D takes c6, and knight takes e5? In summary, in turns out that the pawn on e4 is just a little bit too shaky here so that Black equalizes with a strong move, queen to e7. In all variations, he's going to be able to recover the pawn on e4 under pleasant conditions. For example, the move, d4, simply allows knight takes e4 because we've created a new pin on our old knight. On the other hand, the move f4 can be met with bishop takes d3, followed by knight takes e4, which also promises Black clear equality. Probably the relatively strongest move in this position for White would be to play knight d3. But once again, Black has no problems equalizing after the moves, bishops takes c3, followed by queen takes e4 check. Essentially, what we've found here is that even though Black's e5 pawn is somewhat shaky, so is White's e4 pawn. This is not surprising given the fact that the players are playing in symmetrical fashion. Instead, White simply tends to castle in this position first. Black once again follows suit with castling. Finally, White shores up his own e4 pawn with the move, d2 to d3. At this moment, the e5 pawn really does come under threat. But once again, Black simply follows suit with the move, pawn to d6, defending the e5 pawn. At this moment, White now plays bishop g5. For the first time, we reach a position in which Black cannot successfully mimic White's moves because this threat knight to d5 is becoming very strong. If White were able to play knight to d5 in this moment, he would first of all be threatening the bishop on b4. For example, bishop takes c6, followed by knight takes b4. He would also be threatening to damage the structure on the king's side. Since this threat is so strong, Black finally does have to find a different option. That excellent reply turns out to be the move, bishop takes c3, eliminating the offensive knight. Now White simply recaptures the bishop on c3. The maneuver by Black here is also very instructive. Black still wants to get rid of this pin on the knight on f6. So he plays the move queen, to e7. At first glance, we may not see how this move fits into everything. But in fact, Black is freeing up the d8 square for a very interesting maneuver. He wants to bring his knight to d8. Then he wants to bring that knight to e6. Let's show that on the board for a moment. What we're trying to do is simply disturb that bishop on g5 by bringing the knight to d8 and then to e6. So the move to queen e7 simply prepares this maneuver. Now, it's true that if White really wants to eliminate this possibility, he can actually play bishop takes c6 in this position. But this would not really constitute a serious effort on White's part to gain an advantage. Again, it becomes a symmetrical position. Now we have very opposite colored bishops, and there's really no big winning chances here. Instead of bishop takes c6, White is hoping that his bishop pair and slightly more active placement of the pieces will continue to count for something in the struggle that lies ahead. Instead play actually continues with the move rook to e1, knight d8, pawn to d4, knight e6, and White retreats the bishop all the way to c1. Black has a fine position here as he has no weaknesses. White's pawn structure is somewhat damaged. Nevertheless, White can also be happy since he has the bishop pair and some extra space, some control in the center. This is a highly interesting and also unclear and balanced position. In general, the positions we've just discussed are quite decent for Black. However, he also has a second option here which is a little bit sharper, and that move is knight to d4. At first glance, this move looks a little eccentric. But in fact, it actually makes quite a bit of sense. Black is taking advantage of the fact that White's placement of the knight on c3 has a little tiny drawback. Because of the knight's placement on c3, the knight on d4 turns out to have a special kind of immunity. For example, if White were to try to take on d4 at this moment, after E takes d4, he now has a serious concern about what to do about his E pawn. In fact, in this position, White achieves very little after the move, pawn to e5, which is the response here. Now after D takes d3, pawn takes knight, queen takes pawn and pawn takes pawn. It's clear that White has not achieved anything out of the opening. After the move, knight d4, Black is simply threatening the bishop on b5, threatening to capture the bishop pair. Usually from here, White retreats to the a4 square. White hopes to show that Black's jump into the d4 square was premature, and that Black has to think now about how to defend his e5 pawn. Also, Black is strangely lacking the usual move, d6, here, since he is available to update at the moment. Also keep in mind that knight takes f3 check would not necessarily be a good idea for Black since in this case, it would be helping White's development along. Instead in this line, Black's idea is to look for piece activity with this very strong move, bishop to c5. At first, it just doesn't look like Black's doing a whole lot in this position. Why has he stuck this knight on d4? Why is he bringing the bishop out to c5, and why is he allowing the e5 pawn to hang? But we're going to figure all this out in just a moment. What I want to show first is just how powerful this knight on d4 and this bishop on c5 can contribute to attacking chances for Black if White is not careful. One move for White here would be to temporarily ignore the pawn on e5. Let's say, castling king's side, followed by castling king's side. But now I want to show what would happen if White would simply capture on e5 with knight takes e5. In fact, it turns out that after the move, d6, after White's best reply knight to f3, Black gets clear compensation with the move, bishop to g4, getting ready to ruin the pawn structure on the king's side. This is ultimately a function of the fact that Black has already placed the knight on this very nice square on d4. However, I want to show another line which is even more dramatic in its implications. That is, that the seemingly more natural move, knight to d3 actually loses by force in this position, and quite spectacularly after the moves, bishop g4, queen e1, and now the brilliant move, knight to f3 check followed by G takes f3 and bishop takes f3. At this moment, there's actually no adequate reply to the simple threat knight g4, followed by queen to h4. For example, White could try h3. But Black goes straight ahead and plays knight to g4 anyway when the queen's entrance on h4 will be decisive, no matter what. Another game continued knight takes c5 in this position. And Black simply continued knight g4. White sees that h2 is about to be the death of him. So he hurried to play pawn to d3. But it was still a little too late after queen h4, bishop f4. Instead of giving mate on h2, Black simply played queen h3, threatening mate on g2. Backing way up, after bishop c5, White can't afford to dilly dally. Since Black's extra piece play takes on tremendous energy very quickly. Therefore White ought to play knight takes e5. Now after castling king's side, White should be careful and avoid an unfavorable transposition with the bad move castling king's side. But instead should play aggressively, knight to d3 attacking the bishop, bishop b6, e5 pushing back to knight, knight to e8. This leads to one of the important positions for the four knights opening. White is ahead an extra pawn, but the awkward placement of the knight on d3 and the somewhat vulnerable situation of its king's side, gives Black roughly equal winning chances in this highly interesting position. That's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed looked at some of the fascinating chess available in the four knights opening. All and all, these positions offer roughly equal winning chances for both sides. It's up to you whether you'd like to take these positions on with White or with Black. That's all for today. I look forward to seeing you again.