Hi!

Today I’d like to share with you a position reached after 12 moves in the game played between Russian youngster Andrey Esipenko (White) and world champion Magnus Carlsen (Black) last January in Wijk aan Zee.

Black to move

Here Magnus played the move 12...Qh4. Please take some time and ask yourself if you like this move or not.

And now let me tell you that I was actually shocked to see that move.

Let’s evaluate some important things in this position:

White has much better development. His 2 knights are already close to the center (ideal for knights) and the bishop has developed to e2. White’s queen on e3 is well placed, ready to move around the board if needed. On the other hand, Black’s has most of his pieces on the eight rank and even the knight on d7 will probably have to move to a better square, like e5 or f6.

White is a pawn down, but this material deficit is clearly compensated by White’s extra activity and development.

In fact, White has a better position.

In the game White played the strong move 13.Rg1 (attacking g7) and after 13…g6 14.0-0-0 we get the following position:

Black to move

Here Carlsen admitted that the move Qh4 was not the best and retreated by playing 14…Qe7, since taking another pawn after 14…Qxh2 would lead to even more problems after 15.Nf3, attacking the queen with the knight (which is now in danger of getting trapped) and the pawn on d6 with the rook on d1.

White still got a very nice position and won the game convincingly.

The move Qh4 is in my view, risky if not just really bad, because it breaks a very basic opening principle which is to quickly develop all of your pieces.

Carlsen knows this for sure and probably wanted to play something riskier as he has the pressure (as a world champion) to beat his opponents, but breaking basic principles can quickly backfire.

What should have Carlsen played instead of 12...Qh4?

More than one move was possible, but I particularly like the move 12...Bb7, planning to play Nc6 sooner or later, i.e. to simply develop pieces quickly and try to catch up with the lack of development.

Castling short is possible for Black but it is probably better to wait a bit (as Carlsen did in the game) in order to not invite the opponent to attack quickly after moves like Rg1 and f4.

Playing openings well might seem hard given the long lines that some players memorize. If you want to learn fundamental principles that will help you play openings well without having to memorize hundreds of lines, I suggest that you study my class about chess openings.

Throughout the class you will be testing your skills. There are activity files to download so that you can take your time and analyse the positions that I give to solve.

Access the class here: CHESS OPENINGS

I wish you a nice week.

Manuel

Manuel Ocantos

Chess Teacher, Engineer and Entrepreneur

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