How to respond to 1.g3

Sort:
DGerardP
Hi. New-ish to chess. Been playing 15 months. I've improved massively in past 3 months, especially in past month. Up to 1206 Rapid. Still quite rubbish but improving. I've been doing really well with black with the Tarrasch - playing it against everything apart from 1.e4 of course. The Tarrasch is working very well for me APART from against 1.g3/King's Fianchetto/Hungarian opening where I'm losing 7 out of 10. Help please! Thanks.
DGerardP

Oh, I should have added that ideally I want to play 1...d5 against it, and then go into a Tarrasch-type system (to keep things consistentfor me). So, in particular, I'm wanting advice please on how to play better against 1.g3 after I respond with 1...d5.

tygxc

#1
Your problem is not that 1 g3 is that strong, it is that stronger players play it.
AlphaZero ranks 1 g3 as the #6 of the 20 possible first moves, see Figure 31.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.09259.pdf 
Yes you can play 1...d5, 2...c5, 3...e6, that is viable.

Alchessblitz

1) g3-d5 2) Bg2-c6 3) Nf3-Bg4 or 3...Nf6 4.0-0_Bg4

Otherwise "generally" when the player with white doesn't play 1) d4 or 1) e4, it is for playing an enhanced black opening with reverse color [when is not transposed opening (example 1.Nf3-c5 2. e4 is a transposition of 1. e4-c5 2.Nf3)]

Example :

1) e4-d5 2) exd5-Qxd5 3) Nc3-Qa5 4) d4-c6 

 

1) c3-e5 2) d4-exd4 3) Qxd4-Nc6 4) Qa4 

 

DGerardP

Thank you very much indeed everyone. Very helpful 👌😀

DGerardP

And an especially big thank you to Mandala100. Honestly, your posts and suggestions are really helpful and interesting and I'm going to reflect more deeply on what you wrote. And very kind of you to look at some of my games.  😀

IMKeto
DGerardP wrote:
Hi. New-ish to chess. Been playing 15 months. I've improved massively in past 3 months, especially in past month. Up to 1206 Rapid. Still quite rubbish but improving. I've been doing really well with black with the Tarrasch - playing it against everything apart from 1.e4 of course. The Tarrasch is working very well for me APART from against 1.g3/King's Fianchetto/Hungarian opening where I'm losing 7 out of 10. Help please! Thanks.

You want to strive for a e4-d4-Nf3-Nc3 setup.  It will be up to black to play against the center.  Take the space and use it effectively.

The reason your losing games against 1.g3 is the same reason you are losing all your games.

You hang material.

You miss simple tactics..

You don't use your time wisely.  You move to fast.

Playing a certain setup is not going to fix these things.  You need to slow down and understand the position.

DGerardP

Thanks IMKeto. Sound advice. How are you? I've improved greatly since the input you gave me about a year ago. Still hang pieces for sure but waaaaay less. 😀

DGerardP

And thanks for your further comment Mandala100.

I find it funny that soooo many people - who want to help and have good intentions - are critical about newbie chess players wanting to learn about openings. For me, and lots of other new ish players, openings are a) fun and interesting,  and b) help our chess!! I still do more tactics/piluzzles than openings video/study. But there is no doubt that openings study had improved my chess.

By learning the basics of a few openings I then get to learn associated middlegame and strategic ideas and recurring patterns/motifs. My first successful and enjoyable openings were Colle Zukertort, Qa5 Scandi  - and meeting d4 with d5 but then being a bit unclear with ideas. Then moved on to the English, the Modern Scandi (I prefer this to the regular scandi)  - and then someone on a thread recommended the Tarrasch for everything but against e4. And, you know what, I watched 5 or 6 videos on the Tarrasch and did some reading and my win record with this is super! I kind of know what I'm doing! So, I think this idea that learning openings are not for players sub1600 is nonsense.

I will now stick with English, Modern Scandi and Tarrasch. I love them. Get to know them really really well over the years, and have more time for tactics and strategy and endgames. And  work on my responses to 1.g3!! 😀