My experience with chess:
I've always known how to play chess but I only recently discovered the true beauty of the game. I was at my friends house and we saw a chess board so we decided to play a game. We really enjoyed the game so we kept playing chess during our lunch break and since we're both competitive, we started studying strategy, tactics and theory and bit by bit we improved. Now I am rated 1450 elo on chess.com, I've competed in under 18 club competitions and placed 2nd in my club, I've beaten a 2077 elo fide rated player in 5+3 blitz and I've been a chess teacher for a class of young students.
"It was a great pleasure working with Samuel and I would be happy to do so again. I wish him well [...] and look forward to hearing of his success" -Paul Mckeown, Manager-Fulham Junior Chess Club
My experience with different openings:
- The Vienna gambit:
- The Vienna Gambit is my favourite opening and it has led to me winning many games. I highly recommend it if you are under 1600. Even though moving the F-pawn opens the diagonal to your king with time you will learn to control the dangers. Furthermore, moving the F-pawn makes the game more interesting and takes the opponent out of their comfort zone. To recapitulate, the Vienna gambit is a fantastic opening for beginner to intermediate and it's what made me love chess. If you want to learn more about this opening, you can check out this video by Gotham Chess. He is a great teacher, has taught me a lot and since it's on Youtube it's free and accessible. Learn more
- The Caro kann:
- The Caro Kann is my go to opening with black against 1.e4. I play it every time and for good reason. The Caro Kann is a solid opening which is played at the Grandmaster level but it's also good for beginners and intermediates since instead of playing 2.e5 which would play into your opponents preparation you play a move they weren't expecting. Furthermore, if you learn the Caro Kann you will learn the h4 trap against it so if you are ever playing against a Caro-Kann you can get a 2 point advantage if they don't know the trap. To learn the Caro-Kann, I recommend the app chessable, you can also watch the Gotham Chess video but in my opinion it's not thorough enough especially since the Caro Kann is an opening where you must know your theory to not end up worse off since you do give away the centre and have to play with minimal space. Learn more
- King's Indian defence
- The kings Indian opening is what I often play against 1.d4, I learned it because it's a simple system like opening and I didn't need a great opening against 1.d4 since I rarely played against it. Although I've played the king's Indian opening in many games I wouldn't recommend it, you often end up with an uninteresting position and less space. The only reason I learnt it in the first place is because of its simple theory. All in all, I really wouldn't recommend the Kings Indian Defence even if you are looking for a simple opening with minimal theory, I still believe you are better off playing 2.d5 and going into their preparation.
- The London system
- The London System is a solid opening that can be played even at the higher levels. It's a system so there isn't a lot of theory to learn but you can still end up with a good position. As I've said, I mainly play the Vienna Gambit so I haven't got a lot of experience with the London System but I have played it a bit because I was looking for more of a solid opening and it has lead me to win beautiful games so I would recommend it. Learn more
- The french defence
- Coming Soon!
- The Italien
- Coming Soon!