The English Rat Defense
The English Rat Defense starts with 1.d4 e6 offering White to take the center. If White plays 2.e4, we can continue with the Pirc Defense. And if White plays 2.Nc3 it stops us play the English Rat, but we can continute with Nf6 (King's Indian Defense style).
But very often White plays 2.c4 and planning to develop in a standard way (Nc3, g3, Nf3...) and we respond with 2.e5 (shocking the audience).
- Nc3:
If White plays 3.Nc3 we have a simple plan. We capture on d4. After Qd4 we attack the Queen with Nc6. Most often the Queen will retreat to d1 because otherwise it will get chased. At the higher levels Qd2 is more often played, temporarily blocking the bishop, which will soon fianchetto on b2. After that we can start an attack on the Queenside with a5 and a4 with a3 ideas kicking the bishop or damaging the structure.
In this line we gain back the material. White can't take on c4 because Rxa4:
There is a dangerous line where we can pin the Queen to the King in 10 moves if White isn't careful enough:
Even if Knight tries to defend b4, we can simply capture the Kinght and go for the same trap:
And if White takes on d5, we are not going to recapture, but we will go Ne4, kicking the Queen, and then capture the Knigt on a4, no matter where the Queen goes:
- dxe5:
This is the main line.
If White wants to keep the Queen and goes Qc2, Black goes Nc6, creating attacking chances. White's best move is e3, we play Nb4 attacking the Queen. White is in an awkward position. After Qb3, we simply go Bf5 with a threat on c2. If Nf3 defends c2, we develop normally with Nf6. If Bd2 we support the Knight with a5 and we have a superior position.
Castling kingside will not help White because a5. If the Queen goes to c3, we have Nxa2!!! (Checkmate and fork!)
If White trades the Queens right away, we can lose the right to castle, but it's not a dangerous position for Black. It's pretty much equal. There is not much aggressive lines for White here to take advantage of our King in the middle:
The opening was invented by the american chess player Eric Schiller who also was a chess author of more than 100 books.
He published a book called Unorthodox Chess Openings which contains more than 500 weird, controversial, arrogant, strange and unconventional openings with illustrations and diagrams.
- More about English Rat Defense:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Defense,_English_Rat
https://www.chess.com/openings/Queens-Pawn-Opening-English-Rat-Defense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhgCl0Ze6k
- More about Eric Schiller:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schiller
https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Eric-Schiller/62598148
https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/eric-schiller/436884/
https://www.chess.com/blog/eNoDev/unorthodox-openings-1987-joel-benjamin-eric-schiller-lichess-studies
