Expert: Len Molden - 11/14/2007

Question
Hi Len,

I'm a 1900 strength player returning to tournament competition after a 10 year hiatus and I'm hoping you can suggest a few openings, and opening books, to round out my repertoire.  Specifically, I'm looking for a line for white in the Grunfeld, the Nimzo-Indian and the Sicilian.  I'm also considering taking up the Nimzo-Indian with black as an alternative to my Semi-Slav.  Ideally, I'd like to avoid as much theory as possible; opening study is not really my cup of tea.  My style tends toward positional, so I generally avoid the sharpest lines.  I currently play the Exchange QGD, the Exchange Slav, the Classical Nd2 KID, and the Exchange Ruy Lopez with white and the Caro-Kann, Semi-Slav, and Scheveningen Sicilian with black.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Allen


Answer
Hi Allen,

Welcome back to the tournament scene.  Here's what I recommend for you:

Grunfeld:

The best line in my opinion is the exchange variation with 7.Nf3 followed by 8.Rb1.  I like this because Rb1 counters Black's development since Nc6 can now be met by d5.  It also stops Bg4 as well.  The other major reason is that the Rook should be on the open file, whereas you want flexibility in where to put the Bishops.  Of course the trade-off is that you have to be prepared to give up the a pawn but Vladimir Kramnik's games show best how to play this setup.

Nimzo-Indian:

The best for White is still 4.Qc2 as it has been since Capablanca played it.  Getting the Bishop pair without weakening the pawn structure after B:c3 is worth it.  The three variations to know well are Black's 4...0-0 (main line) 4...d5,  4...c5.  

Sicilian:

Unless you want to go into the open Sicilian lines with N:d4 and all the theory you must know, a good, practical variation against the Sicilian is the Grand Prix attack.  It has a sound positional basis involving a combination of two ideas: a Closed Sicilian-type setup with an aggressive kingside strategy of f4.

As there are so many opening lines and variations to consider with these openings you play, two of the best recent books I highly recommend are contained on the following page:

http://www.chessmastery.com/chess-opening-ideas.html

Regards,

Len Molden