Bird's Opening

The Bird's Opening is the 6th most popular opening and is a very aggressive opening. White starts out weaking his king side and starts a flank attack on the center with his f pawn. This opening is not used in lots of top level play but some of the most beautiful games in chess history have been played using the Bird's Opening.

After black defends with d5 the game will transpose into a reverse of the Dutch defense, where white opens with d4 and black responds with f5. White's main focus is on the dark squares in the game which is a big difference than the usual light squares that white usually focuses on.

While the light square bishop is usually the key minor piece for white, in this opening the dark square bishop actually gets the nod. White will usually fianchetto his bishop on the queen side to b2 and add more pressure on the dark squares.

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Benoni Defense

The Benoni Defense is a very aggressive line that black can play to counter the very common open by white d4. While many defenses against the queen pawn opening are closed and drawish, the Benoni Defense gives black many opportunities to not only equalize the position, but also to gain an advantage and play for the win.

In the Modern Benoni Defense, the main focus of the game is white's center control of the light squares with it's key pawn on d5 and black's control of the center from the dark squares. Black will usually fianchetto his bishop on the kingside to g7 to add extra support to the dark squares.

For a white player you want to keep constant pressure on the d5 square and use it later on to set up outposts for your minor pieces and to apply pressure on black. For black players you want to keep white from applying pressure and keep them from getting any outposts on the e6 and c6 squares. The Benoni Defense usually opens up after the opening which means that bishops are more powerful than knights so be cautious about trading off your bishop.

Black should get lots of counter play and should have a very good game after things open up in the middle.

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Benko Gambit

The Benko Gambit is one of the most well respected gambits in chess. For this reason it is one of the main lines stemming from the Benoni Defense.

White can either accept the gambit or decline this gambit with Nf3. Although some players may prefer to decline the gambit if they are unfamiliar you will amost always see white accept with cxb5.

Black's entire goal is to give up a pawn early on to give himself a big advantage on the queen side. Black will continue to try to give white another pawn with a6. Many players don't mind playing down a pawn as black because of the great attacking lines that stem from the queen side attack in the benko gambit.

If you play as white in the Benko Gambit and you don't want to get into the main line, defending your queen side all game, it is common practice to give back the pawn material advantage and focus on building up your central control.

This opening is not for the faint of heart. It's a very aggressive opening and should be played accordingly.

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Alekhine's Defence

The Alekhine Defense is a hypermodern defense against the ever so popular e4 opening from white.

Black looks to allow white to chase his knight all over the board with tempo gaining pawn moves that will control the center of the board. In exchange for the center control, black will look to undermine the overextended pawns from white.

The one thing black must always remember is that after his knight has been chased around he no longer can play passively and instead needs to attack the center that white has built up or he will be crushed by the pressure white can build up.

White has three main lines that he can choose from but they all start out with 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6. From here things start to change and each variation takes on its on characteristics. White can choose from the very aggressive line of the four pawn attack where white will look to put his four central pawns in the center. He also might look to play the exchange variation that follows the four pawn attack but instead of the last pawn, instead opts to exchange with the d6 pawn. Black here can choose to play a sharp line capturing with his king pawn or play super aggressive and capture with his c pawn and really open things up.

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