Openings · B06

Modern Defence

Fianchetto first and decide the rest later: the most flexible answer to 1.e4, and the least forgiving of drift.

1.e4 g6played as Black

The idea

1…g6 keeps every option. Black can transpose to a Pirc with …Nf6, play the pure Modern with …a6 and …b5 on the queenside, or hit the centre with …c5 and …d6 — and White has to be ready for all of them from move two.

The cost of that flexibility is that Black is not fighting for the centre yet. Every Modern game is a race between White's pawns and Black's counterplay, and a Black player who develops without a plan loses that race by move fifteen.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.e4g6

White is answering…

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Turning it into a Pirc by accident

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 Nf6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.e5

The mistake: Playing …Nf6 into the Austrian set-up without meaning to be in a Pirc.
Why it costs: The knight on f6 gives f4–f5 and e4–e5 something to hit, and White gains the tempo that makes the attack run. The Modern's whole point was to leave that square empty until White commits.
Instead: …c5 or …a6 and …b5 first. If you want to be in a Pirc, choose it on move two — the Modern move order exists to keep out of it.

The bishop traded on h6

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.Bh6

The mistake: Starting on the queenside while White is already aimed at g7.
Why it costs: Bh6 trades the piece that holds the dark squares, and h4–h5 follows. Counterplay on the other wing is the right idea and it has to be faster than this — or the bishop has to be kept.
Instead: …Nf6 and …Ng4 to hit the bishop first, or …h5 to stop the pawn before it starts. In the 150 Attack the trade on h6 is the whole game and it has to be answered, not ignored.

The early ...d5

1.e4 g6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3

The mistake: Striking in the centre before the bishop and the knight are out.
Why it costs: 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3 gains a tempo on the queen, and Black has a Scandinavian in which he has spent a move on …g6 rather than on developing. The fianchetto and the early …d5 are two different plans.
Instead: …Bg7 and …d6 first. The …d5 break belongs later, after …c6 or …Nd7 has prepared it.

Try it on one of your own

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