Category: Openings

June 16, 2025 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

In my last blog post, I left you with 2 intriguing middlegames which the engines assessed as dead equal and yet would only be the start of hostilities in a human game! I spent some time looking at these positions and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. Let’s start off with this one:…

June 15, 2025 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

I said in my last blog post that I had concluded my examination of …c4 in Trompovsky / Torre / London system structures but… I lied 😉 During a sleepless night, I got thinking about the main engine line after Mariotti’s 7.Bd3 (as you do) and decided to try and understand better what was going…

June 8, 2025 Matthew Sadler 2 comments

After a little digression highlighting games from the wonderful 3rd Cambridge Invitational, it’s time to dive further into my obsession with the …c4 plan in Trompovsky / Torre Attack positions and to examine an all-in plan of counterplay for Black! We start here 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Nd2 Nbd7 4.Ngf3 h6 5.Bh4 e6 6.e3 c5…

June 6, 2025 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

Undoubtedly one of the most dramatic games of the final round was British IM Brandon Clarke’s win against Indian IM Siva Mahadevan who had impressed everyone at the tournament with his strong play. White needed just a draw for a GM norm but he was faced with an opponent who put the whole board on…

June 1, 2025 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

In my last blog post, we cast our minds into the nightmare of endgames future and saw some evidence that we need to play decisively as Black in the middlegame and not allow ourselves to drift into a passive situation. Just in case we still aren’t totally convinced, it’s also instructive to look at the…