1...b6?! How much study should I do versus off beat openings?

4d ago (edited) in ⁉️ Game Review Requests

With limited time for study we cannot prepare/study against every response that Black is going to throw our way. Moves such as 1...b6 are only seen about 2% of the time when you open with 1.e4. What does that mean for us then? Well we need to have a general idea of what a decent set up is against these openings. It might not be the perfect advantage gaining top moves but it will put us in a comfortable position heading into the middle game. I find this is where YouTube really shines. Players like GM Naroditsky do a great job of recommending how to play against these slightly of beat openings so that we do not have to dump tons of hours in to theory study.

Not every game is going to be perfect and you are not always going to find the top engine move. That is fine! Our goal is just to play solid moves that improve our position/move forward our game plan without majorly blundering the game away. In the game below you can see that through out the middle game I constantly was only finding the 2nd or 3rd engine move but they still held an advantage for me and was causing a mounting of pressure on Black's Kingside until he finally cracked. Did I miss some big winning moves? Yes. But all my pieces were safe, active, and had a responsibility while Black's King remained in the middle of the board, and his Queen side was non existent!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/128276936183?tab=analysis&move=17

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