Responses to openings other than d4 and e4

Do they include responses to things like the English or Bird's opening?

I'm not familiar with the Bird but against English you could definitely play Dutch or Semi-Slav that ICS covers.

fanat wrote:I'm not familiar with the Bird but against English you could definitely play Dutch or Semi-Slav that ICS covers.

Well, the English also has some lines that aren't simply transpositions right? ICS should cover them.

Blue Devil Knight wrote:

fanat wrote:I'm not familiar with the Bird but against English you could definitely play Dutch or Semi-Slav that ICS covers.

Well, the English also has some lines that aren't simply transpositions right? ICS should cover them.

I definitely agree. ICS complete ignores any mention of English opening all together!

I am in month 1 and I remember reading somewhere that it says that you can transpose openings such as 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 into d pawn openings.

You can't expect ICS to cover every opening and every variation; it would take far too much. I believe their system is going to give the student a repertoire that is manageable to learn and use without having to know a lifetime of theoretical studies.

I certainly hope so anyway since learning the 230849739487 opening variations seems completely impossible to me and I don't bother even trying to memorise so much.

Anything that increases my opening choices is good though; I am very very limited in my opening selection OTB.

TBH I just wish I could calculate through all openings and completely forget opening study, but I realise that is probably impossible.

fanat wrote:I'm not familiar with the Bird but against English you could definitely play Dutch or Semi-Slav that ICS covers.

Sorry to disagree but the ICS line against Dutch is not for Bird hunting due to the one tempo down. We may need to use "conventional" lines against the reversed Dutch. For English I just hope for transposition and, luckily, I faced many faked Englishman and end up with KIDs.

I would recommend buying "Beating Unsual Chess Openings" by Richard Pallister, it's great for facing 1. c4 and 1. Nf3. For 1. c4 he recommends the rock solid Symmetrical English (which isn't as boring as it sounds) and black equalises quite comfortably + if white pushes too much it can backfire badly on him. Against 1. Nf3 he gives you lines so you can get into your favourite d4 opening as well, or if white is persistent and still goes for a fianchetto set up he has lines dealing specifically with that too. Furthermore he also deals with the: birds, 1. g4, Nimzo-Larsen Attack (1. b3), 1. Nc3 and the Sokolosky (1. b4).

It's definitely one of the most useful books I've ever bought, I'd also recommend buying Experts on the Anti-Sicilian later on as well, specifically when you reach the Kalashnikov material. The ICS Anti-Sicilian lines have a lot of missing stuff.

Beating Unsual Chess Openings - http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Beating-Unusual-Chess-Openings-Richard-Palliser/9781857444292
Experts on the Anti-Sicilians - http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Experts-on-Anti-Sicilian-Jacob-Aagaard/9781906552800

I like that Pallister book too, I got it when someone played the Orangutan against me in a tournament

Hope they will eventually add English opening as I see it quite often. I don't think every time I will be able to transpose it to QGD.

Chemwong wrote:Hope they will eventually add English opening as I see it quite often. I don't think every time I will be able to transpose it to QGD.

The game selections in month 11 include a lot of games illustrating transpositions to the ICS White Repertoire. Unfortunately, for the Black Repertoire we are left to our own devices.

I don't know if this helps, but if you use Chessbase you can create temporary book trees that will show transpositions. For example if you look at the Closed Catalan you will find that about 10% of the move orders to the key position follow 1.c4. You can quickly research similiar transpositions into other lines into your repertoire using the tool.

It's a lot of work, but worthwhile since it will allow one to capitalize on the openings they already kow.

Ah! 1. c4 than 1...e6.

Against 1. Nf3 I plays 1...d5. But sometimes Zukertort comes out and ICS missed this... I usually play French-like defense with ...c5 later.