Hi everyone. Great site!

Can I get some recomendations on what masters games to study for the type of games I like?

Petrosian is my all time favorite player. I wish I could play like him!

However as black I am just now starting to get a firm grip on the French system and would like to stick with it vs. 1. e4.

Who in the past played the french and had good success, also is anyone out there playing it well today against e4?



Against 1. d4 I am just starting to look at the KID. WHat do you suggest to learn and improve in it?

THese are the two systems I really want to learn as black. I actuallly play as black better than I do as white winning 66% of my games. I believe it's because I am a poor attacker and when I play as white I just sit back and allow my opponent to take the initiative. I just play better reacting than creating!

Which brings me to my last question. I need to get better at attacking, especially as white. What should I do there, who should I study?

THanks for any help.

edit: in all my times of playing chess I've never bothered with studying masters games. I think this is the next step for me, but don't know who to look into for the types of games I like to play.

I used to have the problem of playing too passively and not knowing how to attack, too. I switched to a "nothing but wild gambits" opening repertoire in an attempt to learn to attack or die trying. And I did die trying quite a few times - my rating dropped about 100 points in the first couple of months. But then I bounced back and then some, becoming a much stronger overall player than I had been before.

Since you're happy with your openings as black, but not as white, maybe you should try my approach as white. I initially made the mistake of playing 1. e4 and having a different gambit against every response, which led to quite a bit of confusion. I did better when I switched to 1. d4 intending the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1. d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3), because there were far fewer ways for my opponents to avoid my gambit, so I got to play the same thing a lot and get used to it. I never did get very good at playing the gambit itself, but I won a lot of games where my opponents avoided it and went into lines that are favorable for white that I knew well. That's where having Tim Sawyer's "Blackmar-Diemer Keybook II", which covers all those variations, really helped.

--Fromper

I love the French! Veruzhan Akobian topples GMs with it all the time. If I were you, I'd check out his games. He's amazing with it!

Korchnoi and Botvinnik are worth looking up in the French. And more recently, Morozevich, Radjabov and Akobian.

Personally, I'd forego playing the KID with black in favour of the Tarrasch QGD (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5) to stay closer to French territory.

Pawnstorm,

If you want to learn about the KID, then I'd suggest picking up two books by Joe Gallagher:

Starting Out: the king's indian which is an introduction to the basic ideas behind the KID and play the king's indian which is more of a repertiore book.

I haven't found much on the French. I'm hoping to find some good info, although at the moment I'm also looking at the Nimzo Larsen Attack as both black and white.

With black that'd be the Queen's Fianchetto defense if 1. e4 b6. I'm not aware of any name for 1. d4 b6 (I suppose it transposes into lines from the English, some Indian defense or QFD), that said, I do use some ideas from that sort of opening when I play the Dutch defense.

I used watsons Play the French. Really helped me get a grip on it. Now I'm going to study the games of the masters suggested by the others.


Thanks everyone, I appreciate it. Your suggestions should keep me busy for quite awhile!

This is just my opinion:

The Kings Indian Defence is a very dangerous and difficult opening to master. So unless you are a rather good player I would not suggest trying this opening yet.

Have you studied Paul Morphy's games?

Not yet Ketch. Some folks say I should start with his games regardless of anything else. What say you?

I've neglected studying ANYONES games with any kind of effort. I've bungled my way to where I am now pretty much neglecting that aspect entirely.