Champion Repertoire

ONE frequent piece of advice given to club players is to base an opening repertoire on the repertoire of a famous master.
The idea is that such a repertoire has already been worked out, so the club player 'merely' has to study the indicated lines.
This used to be easier said than done, but the advent of databases and, just as important, database-sorting tools such as ChessBase, mean obtaining a ready-made repertoire is relatively easy.
In this series I want to look at the repertoires of some of the best players in history.
I am starting with Wilhelm Steinitz - partly because he was the first official world champion but also because he favoured open games that are often recommended to club and improving players.
Steinitz had a long career - more than 40 years as a strong player - and naturally his openings varied over time.
The repertoire I am putting forward here consists wherever possible of his commonest choices: the lines for which he seemed to feel the highest affinity.
In cases where two or more possible lines are very close in popularity, I have gone for the line with which he had the greatest success.
White
Open with 1.e4 with the aim of playing the Italian Game: 1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. If Black replies with 3...Bc5, hit him with Evans' Gambit: 4.b4!? Steinitz scored 92% with this in 19 games, according to the 2020 Mega database.
If Black plays the Two Knights Defence: 3...Nf6, go for rapid development with 4.d4. Steinitz more often played the so-called patzers' move 4.Ng5!? but scored just 25% with it.
When Black avoids the Italian Game by playing the Petrov: 2...Nf6, Steinitz scored a very impressive 90% with 3.d4.
Steinitz only faced the Philidor: 2...d6 four times. He twice played 2.Bc4 and twice played 2.d4, winning all four games. If adopting this Steinitz repertoire, I would suggest choosing 2.Bc4 as it is less well known.
Against the Classical French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 Steinitz scored 94% with 4.e5, which is known as the Steinitz Variation. After 4...Nfd7 he won all four games in which he played 5.Nce2!? which today is often called the Shirov-Anand Variation.
Against the Winawer: 3...Bb4 he scored 94% by exchanging on d5, the idea being to show the black dark-square bishop is misplaced on b4 (it usually goes to d6 in the French Exchange).
The Sicilian Defence: 1...c5 was not very popular in Steinitz's day but he won all six games in which he replied 2.Nc3. However he generally did not aim for a Closed Sicilian, instead continuing with 3.Nf3 and 4.d4. One advantage of this move-order today is that black players might easily be taken out of their usual Open Sicilian repertoire by playing something on move two they would normally only play against the Closed.
Other replies to 1.e4 only featured in 11 of Steinitz's games, but generally he played what are today still considered main lines, eg against the Scandinavian: 1...d5 his games went 2.exd5 Qxd5 (no opponent played 2...Nf6) 3.Nc3, while he met the Caro-Kann: 1...c6 2.d4 d5 with 3.Nc3.
Black v 1.e4
Steinitz almost always played 1...e5 against 1.e4.
Meet the Spanish: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 with 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nge7!? His games continued 5.d4 exd4 with the most-popular line running 6.Nxd4 Nxd4 7.Qxd4 b5 8.Bb3 d6 9.c3, whereupon he had most success with 9...Be6.
Steinitz never faced the Modern Exchange Variation: 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0, and played normal moves against the main alternatives, 5.d4 and 5.Nc3.
Against the Italian Game: 3.Bc4 he liked 3...Bc5. Meet Evans' Gambit: 4.b4!? with 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 and the mainline Giuoco Piano: 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 with 5...exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+.
Against the Scotch: 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 he favoured his own variation, 4...Qh4, generally meeting the critical 5.Nb5 with 5...Qxe4+ 6.Be2 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Kd8.
Against attempts to play the Four Knights with 3.Nc3 Steinitz liked 3...g6 when the main line ran 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6.
He met the Ponziani: 3.c3 with 3...d5.
The King's Gambit: 2.f4 was very popular in the 19th century. Steinitz always accepted it with 2...exf4, generally meeting 3.Nf3 with 3...g5, and 3.Bc4 with 3...Ne7. Clearly anyone adopting Steinitz's repertoire will have to do some serious studying here.
Black v 1.d4 and Others
Steinitz was generally happy to defend the Queen's Gambit: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6. Meet 4.Bg5 with 4...Be7, playing 5...0-0 against both 5.e3 and 5.Nf3. He never faced the Exchange Variation: 4.cxd5 as far as I can discover, but liked to meet 4.Nf3, the most-popular move in his day, with a delayed acceptance of the Queen's Gambit by 4...dxc4 5.e3 c5.
He only faced the London System: 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 once, attacking vigorously on the queenside with 3...c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.c3 Qb6.
He rarely faced the English: 1.c4 but he liked a Dutch set-up, either with an immediate 1...f5 or by first playing 1...e6. Steinitz only once faced 1.Nf3, meeting it with 1...d5.

Here Steinitz plays the Evans against long-time rival Johannes Zukertort in their 1872 match.
Steinitz - Zukertort
Match (London), Game 2
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.0-0
This is still very much the main line of the Evans. In fact it is more mainline today than when it was played back in 1872.

How should Black proceed?

*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
7...dxc3!?
Grabbing a second pawn has fallen from popularity when compared with 7...d6 and 7...Nge7, the latter being recommended by Tim Harding in Evans Gambit And A System Vs. Two Knights' Defense (Chess Digest 1991).
8.Qb3 Qf6
This seems to have been first played by Jean Dufresne in a win over Adolf Anderssen in 1851. Black temporarily defends f7 and c3, but White has two main ways to deal with this.
9.Bg5!?
More popular today is 9.e5 but the text comes to be very slightly preferred by analysis engines Stockfish11 and Komodo11.01.
9...Qg6 10.Nxc3 Bxc3 11.Qxc3 Nf6!?
Zukertort's innovation. Previous games in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database feature 11...f6, 11...Nge7 and 11...Nh6.
12.Bd3!?
The engines' prefer 12.e5 but it is unclear whether this gives White any advantage.
12...0-0
It turns out Black can safely ignore White's 12th move, which may be more-or-less a loss of a tempo.
13.Rae1
If 13,e5 then 13...Ne4 14.Qc2 d5 15.exd6 f5 gives Black an edge, according to the engines.
13...b5?
A mistake. The engines reckon Black is better after 13...d5 14.Bxf6 Qxf6 14.Qxf6 gxf6 15.exd5 Nb4 16.Bc4 Rd8.
14.e5?!
Even stronger seems to be 14.Qd2!? when the threat of e5 is hard to meet now the black king's knight can no longer use e4 and now ...Nd5 no longer comes with a hit on the white queen.
14...Nd5 15.Qc2
Again Qd2 seems stronger - winning, according to Stockfish11. Komodo11.01 is not so impressed but comes to agree White is much better after best-play of 15...Qe6 16.Be4 Nde7 17.Nh4 Bb7 18.f4.
15...Qh5
This would not work against 15.Qd2 as White could meet 15...Qh5 with 16.Re4.
16.a3
Not 16.Re4? Ndb4.
16...h6 17.Bd2 Nde7?!
The engines prefer 17...Nce7, leaving the knight on d5 covering important central squares.
18.Re4 Ng6 19.Rfe1
Black remains two pawns up but White has completed his development, has the bishop-pair and can look forward to a powerful kingside attack.
19...Bb7 20.g4 Qh3 21.R1e3 f5?
The black queen is lost anyway but the engines reckon Black can still put up a fight after 21...Rae8 22.Bf1 Ncxe5 23.Bxh3 Nxf3+ 24.Rxf3 Bxe4.
22.exf6 Rxf6 23.Bf1 Qxf3 24.Qb3+ d5 25.Rxf3 Rxf3 26.Qxf3 dxe4 27.Qxe4 Nge5
Steinitz wrapped up the win with ...
28.f4 Nc4 29.Qe6+ Kh8 30.Bc3 N6e5 31.Bxc4 1-0

Miniature

IT is not often that one of the best players in the world loses in under 20 moves - still less that the game ends in checkmate.
But here is an example drawn from Tartakower and du Mont's 500 Master Games Of Chess (notes in italics are algebraicised from the book).
Johannes Zukertort - Adolf Anderssen, 1865*
Spanish Cozio
One of the many tragedies which, from time to time, are enacted around the ominous square f7.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7
The Cozio Defence, which variation embarrasses Black's game more than any other, and which has no longer any adherents (the book was published in 1952 by G Bell & Sons - I have the 1975 Dover reprint).
4.c3
The most energetic line of play is 4.Nc3 g6 5.d4 exd4 6.Nd5 Bg2 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bf6 etc.
Less good is 4.d4 at once, because  of  4...exd4 5.Nxd4 d5, and Black frees his game.
Most popular today is 4.0-0, which has been played by Karpov, Kramnik, Shirov and Leko. The mainline runs 4...g6 5.c3 Bg7 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.Re1 Be6 10.Bg5 Qd6, with a position that has been reached more than 200 times in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database. White scores well with the continuation 11.Nbd2, but there are plenty of deviations possible for both sides long before this (for instance, I have a plus score with both 5...d6!? and 8...Qxd5!?, although neither move is held in high regard).
As for "the most energetic line of play," Alexey Dreev in Anti-Spanish: The Cozio Defence (Chess Stars, 2014) implicitly rejects 4...g6, and another quite popular reply 4...Ng6. Instead he concentrates on "a more modest and not so risky move," 4...d6.

Position after 4.Nc3 d6

Dreev states: "The position resembles in its structure the Old Steinitz Defence, but with an early sortie of White's knight to c3. In this variation, Black wishes to obtain a solid and stable position and would not avoid simplifications."
I faced 4...d6 at Tunbridge Wells last year. The round-three game Spanton (163) - Freddie Hand (208) continued 5.d4 ("This is the way for him to fight for a slight opening edge" - Dreev) 5...exd4 (Dreev recommends 5...a6) 6.Nxd4 Bd7 7.0-0, which Dreev says is "one of the positions of the Steinitz Defence in which White maintains a slight but stable positional edge" (1-0, 60 moves).
Not that I remembered when I began researching this article, but I actually played 4...d6 in a training game in 1992 against the Mephisto Polgar computer. That game continued 5.d4 Bd7!? (the most popular move in Mega19, but the engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9 reckon it is a mistake) 6.d5 Nb8 7.Bg5 (the engines prefer 7.Be3 or 7.Bxd7+!?) h6 (this seems a modest improvement over 7...f6, which was played in the tournament game Mephisto Polgar - Mark van der Kraan, Dieren 1991, won by the computer in 57 moves) 8.Bxd7+ Nxd7 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3, when White is surely better, but the game was drawn in 38 moves.
4...d6
Here 4...d5 5.Nxe5 dxe4 is indicated.
Tartakower and du Mont were writing long before Bobby Fischer played 6.Qe2 in a blitz game in 1971, which seems to be the improvement Dreev mentions as rehabilitating 4.c3 as "a serious weapon." The Russian grandmaster goes on to state that "all Black's three possibilities (4...d5, 4...g6, 4...a6) are about equally strong." But he says the latter two moves lead to "more stable, manoeuvring positions," while 4...d5 results in "complications full of tactical tricks." He does not mention Anderssen's choice, which nevertheless is still sometimes tried by strong players.
5.d4 Bd7 6.0-0 Ng6
In his obstructed position, Black cannot afford the time for such evolutions. Better is 6...g6.
7.Ng5 h6
A fatal weakening of the position. But after 7...Be7 8.Qh5, White still has the better of it.
I wonder what Tartakower/du Mont had in mind after 7...Be7 8.Qh5 exd4, which was played in Wolfgang Benischek (2070) - Dirk Nitsche (2235) in a German inter-club match in 2002. White immediately went wrong in that game with the wildly optimistic 9.cxd4?! Nxd4 10.Nxf7?? Instead of 9.cxd4?!, the engines give 9.Bxc6, with equal chances whichever way Black recaptures on c6.
8.Nxf7?!
This works swimmingly in the game, but a coming improvement by the engines suggests White should have settled for 8.Nf3 with the more pleasant-looking position.
8...Kxf7 9.Bc4+ Ke7??
This move, which was also the choice of a player rated 1905 in a Portuguese game in 2004, is not commented on by Tartakower/du Mont, but it seems to be the real reason for Black's loss. The engines give 9...Ke8, when 10.Qh5, which is so devastating in the game, can be met by 10...Qf6. After 11.f4 exd4 12.f5, Stockfish10 gives 12...Nce5!? (Komodo9's 12...dxc3 may also be enough for a slight edge) 13.fxg6 Bg4, when White has three sensible options, 14.Bf7+, 14.Rxf6 and 14.Qxg4, but each is assessed by both engines as better for Black. There are a lot of complications here, but the bottom line is that 9...Ke8 is better than the text.
10.Qh5 Qe8?
Falling into the abyss. He should at least have played 10...Be8.
Unfortunately, as the engines point out, 10...Be8 also leads to mate, viz 11.Bg5+! hxg5 12.Qxg5+ Kd7 13.Qf5+ 14.Ke7 Qe6#.
11.Qg5+
500 Master Games Of Chess has the less aesthetically pleasing 11.Bg5+.
11...hxg5 12.Bxg5#
*The game, one of a series of non-tournament, non-match games between Zukertort and Anderssen, was apparently played at the Prussian city of Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland).