Beat Black with 1.b3!

With GM Damian Lemos

Free Mini-Course 💻

Beat Black with 1.b3!

With GM Damian Lemos

Introduction to the Course

Learn the Larsen’s Opening!
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Deep Dive into 1.b3 - The Fun Starts Now!

Add a new secret weapon to your opening repertoire with GM Damian Lemos’ Deep Dive into 1.b3, Larsen’s Opening.

This quiet move hides some powerful ideas and has been played by both Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen in important games – as well as, of course, Bent Larsen, after whom the opening is named.

White enjoys incredible flexibility, able to castle either kingside or queenside and set up pawns and pieces in a number of tricky ways. By playing b3 and Bb2 on the first two moves, White invites Black to occupy the center – and then attacks it later in typical hypermodern fashion.

In this 6½ hour course, GM Lemos teaches you everything from the ideas behind the opening to the strongest, battle-proven lines against each Black setup.

Damian also provides expert analysis of top grandmaster games to help build up your intuitive feel for both attacking and positional play.

Discover…

Black’s natural mistakes. Many people underestimate 1.b3. Truth is, Black has to be very careful right away. Take the center with 1…e5 (Black’s most popular reply) and 2.Bb2 attacks that e-pawn… AND the g7 pawn behind it. Simple moves like f4 and Nf3 can make life very tough for Black.
The b2 bishop blitz! That b2 bishop is going to give your opponents nightmares! Gunning down the long-diagonal, it is very hard to stop. I show you how Nakamura destroyed a former world champion after the defensive 12…Ne8 (diagram, getting out of the way of g4-g5 and over-protecting g7). Literally one move and White has a winning position!
Keeping the upper hand. What if Black tries to neutralize our bishop by fianchettoing his dark-squared bishop too? We look at a textbook strategy from the guy with the record for youngest ever grandmaster: Sergey Karjakin! (By the way, Karjakin has beaten Caruana, Kramnik, Gelfand, Aronian, So, Giri, and even Kasparov with 1.b3!!)