In modern-day chess, a game that’s been played for thousands of years on 64 squares and with theory becoming so advanced, sometimes even to move 30, it can be tremendously difficult to find new ideas, especially ones that aren’t just plain bad. You would almost think that it’s impossible to create your own opening or variation as early as on move 5. In this post, I’m going to show you that it is possible and teach you how you can do it as well.
Let’s take a look at this position in the Semi-Slav, for example, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 and here absolutely everything that makes sense has been played Nf3, b3, Bd3, Bd2, Qc2, even such moves like f4 and Qd3 but here I found the move Rb1! this move isn’t going to win the game and objectively is equal but it does have its ideas, for example after: 5.Bd6 6.c5 Bc7 7.f4, White gains a grip on the black position and notice the fact that if the rook was on a1 then this idea wouldn’t work since b6 b4 a5 cannot be met by a3 with the rook on a1. So, it has its ideas and black would have to find all the best moves on his own which is very hard to do. Instead of 5.Bd6 the best move is probably 5.Nbd7, then there are more interesting ideas like Qc2 and even Nh3! To keep the c5 f4 idea after Bd6. I encourage you to look at the line as it’s only been played 4 times, and I was white in all those games, winning all of them!
Let’s now look at the g3 Benoni 1.d4 Nf6 2.d4 2.e6 3.g3 3.c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6. And here a lot has been played and it’s usually just about developing the pieces one way or another with Bg2 Nf3 and 0-0 but there are more interesting ideas… like 6.a4 the idea is obviously to stop b5 right? Okay black plays g6 and continues his development and here comes the fantastic 7. Ra3!!! With the idea that after Bg7 White can play 8.Re3 and White is already better! I analyze this more in-depth in my Catalan course, but it is a stunning idea, and objectively black can get equality with very precise engine moves which I don’t think is very likely that a human would find, so it’s a fantastic practical idea. There have only been 9 games ever played in this line, but the Russian grandmaster Pavel Ponkratov played it first in 2014 and won the game so I think we can safely call this the Ponkratov line.
Let’s look at another example where Magnus Carlsen found a new idea on move 5 in 2018 against GM Wojtaszek. 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 and now the move 5.Qd2 with the idea to play b3 Bb2 and 0-0-0 with a very dangerous attack with f4 coming up. This has since been played 1300 times and named the Carlsen line.
Another idea that Richard Rapport has played quite a lot is 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g4! As early as move 3 Rapport played a new move against GM Dominguez. The idea is to grab space on the kingside and later attack with h4-h5 and although he lost the game, he continued to employ the line from time to time with good results. What I like most is the fact that the computer says -0.30 but he simply doesn’t care, this is a very good lesson in the fact we shouldn’t look at the computer evaluation too much. Chess is a game played between 2 humans after all.
It’s Mesmerizing that as early as move 3 there are still new ideas being discovered even today in 2024 but how can we get better at finding such ideas? Here are some tips so that you can find the next brilliant idea as early as possible!
Tip 1. Look at the position yourself without the computer evaluation and try and find ideas that make sense to you. Later you can confirm with the engine and see if it has ever been played.
Tip 2. Don’t worry if the computer says 0,00 or even -0,50. It doesn’t matter as long as the opponent must find difficult moves that are hard for a human to play. Although they are easy for the engine, we cannot forget that the opponent must find all those moves without the engine!
Tip 3. When you find an idea you believe in, stick to it, and study it well at home, you can play it online before you play it over the board just make sure you have the idea well prepared before you play at a tournament.
I wish you good luck and hope this article inspires you to try for yourself to find creative and imaginative ideas and who knows maybe you will have a variation named after you one day!