3 Easy Ways to Destroy a Weak Opening

Hi there, ChessKids!

In honor of GM Judit Polgar, who sadly for everyone is retiring from competitive chess, our lesson this week will be how to crush your opponent right out of the opening.

Polgar is an aggressive chess player, so she really makes it look easy. But we can take three very clear mini-lessons from her.

Judit was a chess prodigy in her youth, breaking Bobby Fischer's record of becoming a grandmaster at the age of 15. (That record has since been broken, most recently by Sergey Karjakin who became a GM at age 12!)

Polgar has won games against many of the top players in the world, including 10 world champions such as Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, and even Magnus Carlsen!

At her peak, Judit Polgar was eighth in the world, and she has been the best woman chess player for 25 years!

The Hungarian GM is a big proponent of kids learning chess and a big hero for many girls and boys, too.

So here is a game she played with GM Alexei Shirov in 1995. Shirov is from Latvia, and he is a strong player in his own right- - he used to rank number four in the world!

He chose to play the Modern opening against Polgar, which was, in my opinion, a dreadful mistake. Watch!

RULE 1 for destroying your opponent's opening:

Develop to the center as quickly as possible!

It's not that the Modern is, by definition, weak. The Modern Defense is a hyper-modern opening, meaning you attack the center from the side, and people do play it.

However, in this game, Black makes too many pawn moves and White, instead, develops her pieces to central active squares. 

RULE 2 for destroying your opponent's opening:

Open lines to activate your pieces!

The way to open lines is to get rid of pawns. Judit develops, is ready to castle if she needs to, and then offers a pawn trade to get her long-range pieces to attack!

Polgar centralizes her knight with 11. Ne4 and Black plays 11...Qc7. Now, open even more lines! Don't be afraid of losing a pawn. 

RULE 3 for destroying your opponent's opening:

Consider sacrificing material for the initiative!

Right! We aren't concerned with losing some material if our compensation is that we are making forcing moves, preventing our opponent from castling, and using all our pieces in a strong attack!

Shirov decided it would be too risky to castle, and held onto his f7-pawn with his king by playing Ke7. What a perfect opportunity to sacrifice!

What are some pieces Polgar hasn't developed yet? Can you develop with initiative? Now you can see how useful those open lines are! Your third move will be a fearsome fork!