Closed games

A game on lichess.org, 2014. White has built a Stonewall: pawns on c3, d4, e3 and f4. The d3 bishop and the c2 queen stand on one diagonal and aim at Black's kingside. Black's pawns stand on f6 and g6, and only the h7 pawn defends g6. White to move.

A bishop and queen on one diagonal form a battery, and in closed openings it turns up all the time. The centre is locked by pawns, pieces slowly gather near the king, and one extra weakness decides the game. In this chapter we see how the openings after 1. d4 d5 work and how their fight differs from the open games.

How 1. d4 differs from 1. e4

After 1. e4 nothing defends the e4 pawn, and Black can attack it at once. After 1. d4 the queen on d1 defends the d4 pawn. So the centre is built more slowly: neither side hurries, both develop pieces and prepare pawn blows. The openings after 1. d4 d5 are called closed: the centre stays under pawns for a long time, and lines open later.

The main tool in such positions is the pawn break: a pawn move that attacks an enemy pawn and opens lines. In the French you have already seen the breaks …c5 and …f6. Here the most important break is White's, and White makes it at once.

In closed openings the move order matters. The same position arises after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 and after 1. c4 e6 2. d4 d5. Such coincidences are called transpositions. Players use them to avoid a line the opponent likes: the move order changes, but the position they want stays. That is why in closed openings it is more useful to know typical setups than long lines.

The Queen's Gambit

The move 2. c4 is called the Queen's Gambit. It has been known for a long time: it was analysed in a manuscript from the end of the 15th century. But it cannot be counted as a real gambit. If Black takes the pawn, they can hardly keep it: White wins it back, for example with e3 and Bxc4. Attempts to hold the extra pawn cost Black more than the pawn itself.

Here is the classic trap of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. After 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 Black defends the pawn with 3… b5. White undermines it: 4. a4 c6 5. axb5 cxb5, and the queenside pawns are gone. Look at the long diagonal.

More often Black declines the pawn and holds the centre with 2… e6. This is the Queen's Gambit Declined. It was the main opening of the 1927 world championship match between Alekhine and Capablanca: it was played in most of the games. Its main line is the Orthodox Defence.

The plans of both sides in the Declined are well known. White puts a rook on c1 and presses down the c-file, and sometimes plays cxd5 to get the Carlsbad structure, which we come to below. Black fights for a tempo. It pays to take …dxc4 at the moment when White's bishop has already gone to d3: then the bishop has to move a second time, and Black gains a move for the break …c5. This subtle fight over a single tempo is typical of closed openings.

The Declined also has a trap familiar from the chapter on opening principles, the Elephant Trap: White takes the d5 pawn with a knight, thinking the f6 knight is pinned, and loses a piece. It is a good example of a pin against the queen not being absolute: the pinned piece may move if it wins more in return.

Black's sharpest answer to 2. c4 is the Albin Countergambit: 2… e5, giving up a pawn in turn. Adolf Albin played it in New York in 1893 against Emanuel Lasker. After 3. dxe5 d4 the d4 pawn digs into White's camp. The careless move 4. e3 leads to a trap called the Lasker Trap: 4… Bb4+ 5. Bd2 dxe3.

The Slav and the minority attack

The Slav Defence, 2… c6, solves the c8 bishop problem the same way as the Caro-Kann: the c6 pawn supports d5, and the bishop comes out before …e6. Its main line looks like this.

If Black combines …c6 and …e6, the result is the Semi-Slav. The c8 bishop again stands behind the pawns, but the c6, d5 and e6 pawns form a solid triangle, and Black later prepares the break …c5 or …e5. The Semi-Slav is considered one of the most complex systems against the Queen's Gambit, and it is chosen by players ready for sharp play.

After the exchange on d5 in the Declined a structure arises that is called the Carlsbad structure: White has pawns on d4 and e3, Black on c6 and d5, and White has no c-pawn and Black no e-pawn. In it White has a famous plan.

The minority attack sounds odd: two pawns attack three. Its aim is weaknesses; it does not need a breakthrough. Black has to defend the backward pawn with pieces, and White gets a lasting edge without risk. Black in turn looks for play on the kingside, where they have more room, or trades pawns in a way that creates no weaknesses.

In practice the minority attack looks like this: a rook goes to b1, the pawns advance b4, a4 and b5, and the knight and queen support them. Black often puts a knight on e4 and prepares …f5 to attack White's king while White is busy on the other wing. A race again: each side plays where it has more room.

Systems for White

Many White players do not want to learn the Queen's Gambit with all its branches and play a system: the same setup against any reply. The most popular is the London System: d4, Bf4, e3, Nf3, c3, Bd3 and Nbd2. In recent years even the strongest players, Magnus Carlsen among them, have played it willingly. The bishop comes out to f4 before e3, by the same recipe Black uses in the Slav.

A queen that comes out early to a square in front of its own pawns is easily trapped: its own pawns and the enemy pieces take away every retreat. This rule from the chapter on opening principles works in closed positions too.

Against the London Black has several tried and tested setups. The move …c5 strikes at the centre, and a queen on b6 attacks the b2 pawn, which the f4 bishop no longer defends. The move …Nh5 offers to trade White's strong bishop. Black can also bring the c8 bishop out to f5, mirroring White's setup. Each setup requires knowing a couple of precise moves, and whoever knows them equalises easily.

Another system is the Stonewall, the opening of the game that began the chapter. White puts pawns on c3, d4, e3 and f4 and a knight on e5. The d4 and f4 pawns hold this knight firmly, and it stands right in the centre, eyeing f7 and g6. The only pawn move that can drive it away is …f6, and that weakens Black's own king. The d3 bishop, the queen and sometimes a rook on the f-file attack the king. In the Colle System White builds a similar setup, only without f4, and prepares the break e4.

Systems are handy because the plan is known in advance, and the time on the clock goes on calculation: there is hardly any theory to recall. But they have a weakness too: White barely fights for an edge in the opening. If the opponent has placed the pieces sensibly, the position is equal, and the middlegame decides everything. For a player just starting to build a repertoire this is rather a plus: less to memorise and more to play.

The e5 knight is the Stonewall's main attacking piece. It guards f7 and helps the queen reach the king.

Typical mistakes

Black's most common mistake in closed openings is shutting in the c8 bishop and forgetting about it. In the Declined it stands behind the e6 pawn, and without the break …c5 or …e5 it stays passive until the endgame. The second mistake is clinging to the extra c4 pawn in the Accepted. The moves …b5 and …a6 weaken the queenside and the long diagonal, and White wins the pawn back anyway.

White more often goes wrong by playing a system blindly. The London and the Stonewall are good because the setup is known in advance, but the opponent knows it too. If Black quickly brings the queen to b6 against the f4 bishop, the b2 pawn needs defending. If a black knight lands on e4, it has to be traded or driven away. A setup does not replace looking at the board.

Both sides should remember that a closed centre does not mean a safe king. The attack in closed openings comes slowly, but once the pieces have gathered near the castled king, one blow is enough. The games at the start and the end of the chapter are examples: in both the mate took two moves, and the king stood behind weakened pawns or in the centre.

How to choose

If you play White and like clear plans, start with the London or the Stonewall: they need less theory and teach you to gather pieces for an attack. If you want rich positions with a fight for the centre, learn the Queen's Gambit: White gets an edge more often there, but there is more to know.

Against 1. d4 Black should choose one solid setup. The Declined and the Slav give a firm centre and clear plans. The Albin Countergambit is sharper, but White players who know it get an edge. Study the traps of this chapter from both sides: in fast games opponents fall into them all the time.

Remember transpositions. If you play the Slav, White can reach it via 1. Nf3 or 1. c4. If you play the London, Black can answer 1… Nf6, and the position belongs to the next chapter. Prepare the setup and its ideas: one sequence of moves will not be enough.

To check yourself, play a few games with your chosen setup and go through each one on the analysis page. Note when you made your first pawn break and where the c8 bishop went. If the bishop never came out by the end of the game, that is exactly where to start working on your opening.

What's next

Black does not have to answer 1. d4 with 1… d5. The move 1… Nf6 leads to the Indian defences, where Black first controls the centre with pieces and only later decides where to put the pawns. They and the English Opening, 1. c4, are the subject of the next chapter.