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¦" ª²: ¤ ² ¤
18. Rdh1 Kf8
Game 89: Black plays variant Bv345xF G against a compact white fianchetto opening. Black s
strong bishop placements are well countered. Both sides have good play after the opening, but
black develops more threats, moving his pieces early into enemy territory.
1. g3 e6 9. Nc3 O-O
§Ü ¯³ ¨ § ¨³
2. Nf3 b6 10. Bg5 d4
¯
3. Bg2 Bb7 11. Nb5 Nc6
¹ Ü ¬
4. O-O c5 12. e4 dxe3
5. d3 d5 13. fxe3 Be7
6. c4 Nf6 14. Rad1 a6
Ü"
7. cxd5 exd5 15. Na3 Ng4
ª " "
8. Qb3 Bd6 16. Bxe7 Qxe7
: :
17. Qxb6 Nb4
¦" ¤² ¤ ¤²
18. Nc4 Bd5
Many of the most distant B-system variants are playable only against the Beginner s Game,
or other system variants. The two examples shown below are of this description. There are some
distant variants that are generally playable however, usually those that do not contest the center.
Game 98: Black plays the distant variant Bv3 456 C F against white s Beginner s Game.
After the opening both sides have good play. White s queen placement is better than black s. The
game continued into a difficult tactical contest, which resulted in a draw.
1. e3 e5 9. c4 O-O
§ ¯³ ¨ §¨ ´
2. b3 d5 10. O-O Qb6
Ü ¹ Ü
3. Bb2 Bd6 11. Nc3 Rae8
¹
4. g3 Be6 12. Re1 Bb4
5. Bg2 c6 13. a3 Bd6
6. Ne2 f6 14. b4 Qa6
7. d3 Nd7 15. Qc2 Kh8
ª
8. Nd2 Ne7 16. Qb3 dxc4
" : :
17. dxc4 f5
¦ ª² ¤ ¤¦ ²
18. Rad1 Bc7
Game 100: Black plays the strange looking distance 8 variant Bv13 456 8C F , against
white s Beginner s Game. After the opening black goes a pawn down, but he opens the queen
side, and gains ground against the standard opening. Black eventually wins in a close match.
1. e3 e5 9. c4 Ne7
§Ü ¯³ ¨ ¨³
2. b3 d5 10. a3 Nd7
¨ Ü
3. Bb2 Bd6 11. b4 c5
¹ ¹
4. g3 Be6 12. Qb3 dxc4
¯
5. Bg2 c6 13. Nxc4 O-O
6. Ne2 f6 14. b5 Nb6
7. d3 h6 15. bxa6 Rxa6
ª
8. Nd2 a6 16. Bxb7 Ra7
" : " :
17. Bg2 Nxc4
¦ ª² ¤ ¦ ² ¤
18. dxc4 Qa5+
By now the reader should have a better appreciation of the B-system and its relevance to
the Beginner s Game. Players of all levels are encouraged to stay within the B-system when they
play variants of the standard opening. In this manner you will profit most from any improvisations
you make, taking note of the variants that you are playing, and how well they do versus particular
adversary deployments. With experience you should be able to move into familiar variants that
respond best to different general categories of adversary openings.
The author hopes that this brief introduction to playing the B-system will stimulate the
interest of all readers. Try playing some of the variants shown here, and others in the B-system
variants chapter and in the games section. Better yet, define new openings of your own in the
system, and carry them on to victory !
Why Wasn't It Found Before? 113
10. Why Wasn t It Found Before?
You would think that we would have found the Beginner s Game long before now. After all,
chess has been around for a very long time. Hundreds of millions of people have played
hundreds of billions of games. Every new game is a search for the best way to play, from the first
moves onwards. There are only so many different valid openings. With the substantial novelty and
experimentation of every game, in probabilistic terms we should have found the Beginner s Game
and most of the B-system long ago. The reasons we didn t are thus primarily psychological ones.
The most obvious reason is that play in the chess opening has been purely imitation. Most
players seem to have accepted tacitly that the openings have already been thoroughly researched,
and that the best anyone can do is to imitate the established lines. That almost all players repeat
as best they can the known lines still seems a bit strange, given that in the rest of the game
everyone is completely on his own. Imitation rather than innovation has always characterized any
traditional activity, but often to its detriment. Starting with the premise that it was possible to find
something new, the author invented scores of valid original openings in just a few months.
Stylized though it is, chess is still a battle, encouraging aggressive behavior. Some players
slam down the pieces, or make other gestures showing their natural reaction to conflict. Even
better behaved players not indulging in these displays are nevertheless busy perfecting their true
aggressiveness in play. In this context the first moves, being the only ones that are also well
rehearsed, have been used almost theatrically to make an aggressive gesture.
No opening move is more aggressive than the double advance of a center pawn. About
ninety-five percent of all games start with one, and virtually all of the remaining few percent of
games use them immediately afterwards. So basically it would seem that everyone has been
playing aggressively from the start, too immersed in the confusion of battles started with their
first moves to consider whether the less aggressive openings might have some merit.
Another factor explaining our failure to find the Beginner s Game is what the author calls
the dance mentality . The music has started and our partner is already dancing, so shouldn t we
be dancing with him? In other words, shouldn t we be reacting closely to what he does? The
Beginner s Game shows that the answer is not necessarily yes. If you think again of the analogy
of chess with battle, the negative response makes more sense: instead of responding immediately
to our adversary s first aggressive moves, we first carry out a redeployment of our own forces, to
place them in battle formation. They are then better able to resist and repulse the invader.
It would also seem that practically no one was looking for openings with the characteristics
of the Beginner s Game. The main criterion for research for the author was that the same opening
moves could always be carried out, regardless of the adversary s play. Anyone seriously looking
for openings with this characteristic would have been lead to their discovery, because only a few
openings exist having this independence, even in a limited form. Among these few, the
Beginner s Game is almost certainly the most resistant of them all.
There are several other ways that anyone interested in looking could have discovered the
Beginner s Game and its close variants in the B-system. One is by looking for the most compact
developments possible. Another is by looking for the strongest defensive positions possible. Yet
another is by looking for the best offensive positions possible, in the sense of offering the most
lines for attack. The Beginner s Game is the unique answer to all these quests for the superlative.
If we can excuse most serious chess players for being too concerned with their results in
competition to be highly innovative in opening play, it is more difficult to excuse chess analysts,
whose main activity is to explore new lines. The author started his quest for a new opening with
pawn to King 3. This solid opening move with white has been almost completely neglected in
chess. A popular collection of best games commented that after this first move one was basically
moving into unknown territory. You might call it a more than a slight oversight.
Following the discovery of the Beginner s Game, the author began checking the chess
literature to see whether others had ever played anything similar. Some well known players had
come close, and could easily have found it. A few of those on the right road were Nimzovitch,
Reti, Petrosian, Larsen, and Spassky. But there have been many outstanding players with a
positional orientation who experimented with openings, such as Capablanca, Colle, Bogoljubow,
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