Owen's Defence (also known as the Queen's Fianchetto Defence or Greek Defence) is an uncommon chess opening defined by the moves: :1. e4 b6 By playing 1...b6, Black prepares to

fianchetto In chess, the fianchetto ( or ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of many " hypermodern" ...

the where it will participate in the battle for the . The downside of this plan is that White can occupy the centre with pawns and gain a . Moreover, 1...b6 does not prepare castling as 1...g6 does, and it is harder for Black to augment their pressure against the centre with ...f5, which weakens the kingside, than it is to play the corresponding move ...c5 after 1...g6.

Christian Bauer Christian Bauer (born 11 January 1977) is a French chess grandmaster and author. He is a three-time French Chess Champion (1996, 2012, 2015). In 2005 he won the 2nd Calvia Chess Festival. In 2009, came first at Vicente Bonil ahead of 21 GMs an ...

, ''Play 1...b6'', Everyman Chess, 2005, p. 5. . Owen's Defence accordingly has a dubious reputation. The move ...b6 has been played on the first or second move by grandmasters

Jonathan Speelman Jonathan Simon Speelman (born 2 October 1956) is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer. Early life and education He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Mathematics. Career A winner of the Br ...

, Pavel Blatny,

Tony Miles Anthony John Miles (23 April 1955 – 12 November 2001) was an English chess player and the first Englishman to earn the Grandmaster title. Early and personal life Miles was an only child, born 23 April 1955 in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birming ...

Edvīns Ķeņģis Edvīns Ķeņģis (born 12 April 1959, in Cēsis) is a Latvian chess Grandmaster. Ķeņģis is an eight-time Latvian Champion, winning the national contest in 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2004 and 2005. He won the Baltic Chess Champion ...

, and

Normunds Miezis Normunds Miezis (born 11 May 1971) is a Latvian chess Grandmaster (1997). Chess career He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1991 and 2006. He played for Latvia in the Chess Olympiads of 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 201 ...

, and International Masters Bricard and Filipovic. Instead of fianchettoing, Black can also play their bishop to the a6–f1 diagonal, the Guatemala Defence. Owen's Defence is classified as code B00 by the ''

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () is a reference work describing the state of opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Serbian company Šahovski Informator (Chess Informant). It is current ...

''.

History

The opening is named after the English vicar and strong 19th-century amateur chess player John Owen, an early exponent. David Hooper and

Kenneth Whyld Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) was a British chess author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', a single-volume chess reference work in English. Whyld was a str ...

, ''

The Oxford Companion to Chess ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' is a reference book on the game of chess written by David Vincent Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. The book is written in an encyclopedia format. The book belongs to the Oxford Companions series. Details The first e ...

'' (2nd ed. 1992), p. 286. .

Howard Staunton Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Ama ...

wrote in 1847 that 1.e4 b6, "which the Italians call 'Il

Fianchetto In chess, the fianchetto ( or ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of many " hypermodern" ...

di Donna,' although disapproved of by the earlier writers, may be made by the second player without harm, if followed speedily by ..e6and ..c5"Howard Staunton, ''The Chess-Player's Handbook'', Henry G. Bohn, 1847, p. 379. Using this opening, Owen defeated

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and is often considered the unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was c ...

in an informal game in London, 1858. An additional game in the match featuring this opening, where Owen varied on move 5, was won by Morphy.

Theory

The

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

of Owen's Defence is less developed than that of other openings. This makes it attractive to some players, since their opponents will often be ill-prepared for it and hence forced to think for themselves. GM

observes:

To be honest, I don't think Black can equalise as quickly with 1...b6 as he sometimes does in standard openings, and he may suffer against a well-prepared opponent. Then again, the well-prepared opponent is rare for such marginal variations as 1...b6, and in any case, with reasonable play I'm sure White can't get more than a slight advantage from the opening – a risk everyone is running as Black, aren't they?

According to '' MCO-15'', after 2. d4 Bb7 White gets the advantage with either: * 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nf3 c5 5. c3 Nf6 (5...cxd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Qe2 d5 9.e5 Ne4 10.0-0 Bxc3 11.bxc3 Nxc3 12.Qe3 Nc6 13.Bb2 Ne4 14.Ba3 and White had a large advantage in Adams–Vanderwaeren, Moscow Olympiad 1994) 6. Nbd2 Nc6 7. a3 d5 8. e5 Nfd7 9. b4 Be7 10. 0-0 0-0 11. Re1 "with a clear plus", or * 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 Bb4 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bxf6 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Qxf6 9. 0-0 d6 10. Nd2 e5 11. f4 Qe7 12. Qg4, as in David–Bauer, France 2005. Black may also be able to transpose into forms of the

Hippopotamus Defence The Hippopotamus Defence refers to various irregular chess openings in which Black moves a number of pawns to the sixth , often developing pieces to the seventh rank, and does not move any pawns to the fifth rank in the opening. As an , it can also ...

, by playing ...g6 and ...Bg7, attaining a double fianchetto formation. This approach was used by GM Boris Spassky in games 12 and 16 of his 1966 World Championship match against the then World Champion

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style ...

; Spassky drew both games. It had been developed and played by the Slovakian International Master Maximilian Ujtelky a few years before this.

Illustrative games

Speelman vs. Basman, British Championship 1984:
1. e4 e6 2. Nc3 b6 3. d4 Bb7 transposing to a position more commonly reached by 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6. 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. Nge2 c5 6. d5! a6 6...exd5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Bxd5 9.Nf4 Bc6 (9...Be6 10.Be4 wins; 9...Qe7+!?) 10.Bc4! "gives White strong pressure". 7. a4 exd5 8. exd5 Nxd5 9. Nxd5 Bxd5 10. Nf4 Be6 11. Be4 Ra7 12. 0-0 Be7 Watson and Schiller also give 12...g6 13.a5! as favoring White after 13...bxa5 14.Bd2 or 13...b5 14.Be3 d6 15.b4 Be7 16.Nxe6 fxe6 17.Qg4 Qc8 18.bxc5 dxc5 19.Bh6, intending Rad1, Rfe1, and h4–h5 "with great pressure for just a pawn". 13. Ra3 0-0 14. Rg3 f5 15. Bd5 Rf6? Better is 15...Bxd5!? 16.Qxd5+ Rf7 17.Nh5 with a strong attack.Speelman's annotations in ''Chess Informant'', Volume 38, Šahovski Informator, 1985, p. 74. 16. Re1 Bxd5 17. Qxd5+ Rf7 18. Nh5 g6 19. Bh6 Nc6 20. Rge3 (see diagram) White threatens both 21.Rxe7! Nxe7 22.Nf6+ Kh8 23.Qxf7 and 21.Nf6+! Bxf6 (21...Kh8 22.Qxf7) 22.Re8+. On 20...gxh5, 21.Rg3+ wins; 20...Bf8 21.Re8 gxh5 23.Bxf8!; 20...Ra8 21.Rxe7! Nxe7 and now either 22.Rxe7 Qxe7 23.Qxa8+ or 22.Nf6+ Kh8 23.Qxf7 wins.

Matovinsky Gambit

A pitfall for Black in this opening, the Matovinsky Gambit, dates from a game by the 17th-century Italian chess player and writer

Gioachino Greco Gioachino Greco (c. 1600 – c. 1634) ( ελληνικά/greek: Τζοακίνο Γκρέκο), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently ''il Calabrese'', was an Italian chess player and writer. He recorded some of the earliest chess games kno ...

. Greco vs. , 1619:
1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Bd3 f5? Bauer calls this move "simply suicidal".Bauer 2005, p. 25. Black's kingside is greatly weakened by this attempt to gain , to the extent that White can win by falling into Black's "trap". Normal is 3...e6 or 3...Nf6. Also possible is 3...g6 ("" – Andrew Martin) heading for a

, when Martin considers 4.f4 f5! (as in the game Serpik–Blatny, U.S. Open 2003) strong for Black. 4. exf5! Bxg2 5. Qh5+ g6 6. fxg6 (diagram) Nf6 7. gxh7+ Nxh5 8. Bg6# 1–0 A better try for Black is 6...Bg7! Staunton wrote in 1847 that White got the advantage with 7.gxh7+ Kf8 8.hxg8=Q+ Kxg8 9.Qg4 Bxh1 10.h4 e6 11.h5. Over 120 years later, Black improved on this analysis with both 10...Qf8 ("!" – Soltis) 11.h5 Qf6 12.h6 Rxh6 13.Bxh6 Qxh6 Hendler–Radchenko, Kiev 1970 and 10...Bd5 ("!" – Kapitaniak) 11.h5 Be6 12.Qg2 Rxh5 Schmit–Vitolins, Latvia 1969, winning quickly in both games. However, White is winning after 7.Qf5! (instead of 7.gxh7+) Nf6 8.Bh6 Bxh6 (on 8...Kf8, White wins with 9.Bxg7+ Kxg7 10.gxh7 Bxh1 11.Qg6+ Kf8 12.Qh6+ Kf7 transposing to the 9...Bxh1 line below, or 9.Qg5 Bxh1 10.gxh7

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was forme ...

Graham Burgess Graham K. Burgess (born 24 February 1968 in Liverpool, England) is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In 198 ...

, John Emms, and Joe Gallagher, ''Nunn's Chess Openings'', Everyman Chess, 1999, p. 123. .) 9.gxh7 and now: *9...Kf8 10.Qg6 Bc1 11.Qxg2 Bxb2 12.Ne2 "and Rg1 will prove lethal"; or *9...Bxh1 10.Qg6+ Kf8 11.Qxh6+ Kf7 12.Nh3 with a winning attack.de Firmian 2008, p. 385. Den Broeder–Wegener, correspondence 1982, concluded 12...Qf8 13.Bg6+ Ke6 14.Qf4 d5 15.Bf5+ Kf7 16.Ng5+ Ke8 17.Qxc7 1–0. *9...e6! 10.Qg6+ Ke7 11.Qxg2 and White is two pawns up and Black's king is exposed, but Black is not immediately losing and has avoided the worst, and the pawn on h7 will fall. According to both Soltis and Kapitaniak, 7.gxh7+ Kf8 8.Nf3! (which Soltis attributes to F. A. Spinhoven of the Netherlands) is also strong: *8...Bxf3? 9.Qxf3+ Nf6 10.Qxa8; *8...Bxh1 9.Ne5 Bxe5 (9...Qe8 10.Ng6+) 10.dxe5 Bd5 11.hxg8=Q+ Kxg8 12.Qg6+ Kf8 13.Bh6+; *8...Nf6 9.Qg6 Bxh1 10.Bh6 Rxh7 (10...Bxh6 11.Qxh6+ Kf7 12.Ng5+) 11.Ng5 Bxh6 12.Nxh7+ Nxh7 13.Qxh6+; or *8...Nf6 9.Qg6 Bxf3 10.Rg1 Rxh7 11.Qg3!! Be4 12.Bxe4 Nxe4 13.Qf3+ Kg8 14.Qxe4 Nc6 (14...d5 15.Qe6+ Kh8 16.Nc3) 15.Bf4 with an extra pawn for White.

Boris Avrukh Boris Leonidovich Avrukh ( he, בוריס ליאונידוביץ' אברוך; russian: Борис Леонидович Аврух; born 10 February 1978 in Karaganda, Soviet Union) is an Israeli chess grandmaster. He was the World Under-12 champ ...

also recommends this line, and notes that 13...Nf6 (instead of 13...Kg8) 14.Qxa8 Rxh2 15.Bf4 Rh4 16.Qg2 Rg4 17.Qh2 leaves White "an exchange up with an easily winning position". Watson writes that although 7.Qf5! is the "traditional" refutation and does indeed win, "the analysis is complicated", and Spinhoven's 8.Nf3! "is clearer".

Guatemala Defence

Instead of fianchettoing, Black can proceed differently by playing their queen's bishop to a6, the Guatemala Defence, so-named because the Guatemala Chess Club used the line in a 1949 correspondence game.

Andrew Soltis Andrew Eden Soltis (born May 28, 1947) is an American chess grandmaster, author and columnist. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in September 2011. Chess career Soltis learned how the chess pieces moved at age 10 when he ...

, "GM Follies", ''

Chess Life The monthly ''Chess Life'' and bi-monthly ''Chess Life Kids'' (formerly ''School Mates'' and ''Chess Life for Kids'') are the official magazines published by the United States Chess Federation (US Chess). ''Chess Life'' is advertised as the "most ...

'', August 1997, p. 12.

writes that it has "no other discernible benefit than to get out of '

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

' as quickly as possible".

Joel Benjamin Joel Lawrence Benjamin (born March 11, 1964) is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation. , his Elo rating was 2506, making him the No ...

and

Eric Schiller Eric Schiller (March 20, 1955 – November 3, 2018) was an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century. Early life and education Schiller was born in New York City. He atten ...

see some logic in Black's concept to exchange the light-squared bishop as soon as possible, as it often proves troublesome for Black in many openings. White gets the advantage with 2.d4 Ba6 3.Bxa6 Nxa6 4.Nf3 Qc8!? 5.0-0 Qb7 6.Re1 e6 7.c4.Watson and Schiller 1995, pp. 111–12. The Guatemalan bishop deployment can also occur on Black's third move, from various transpositions. For example, after 1.e4 b6 2.d4 e6, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 b6, or 1.d4 b6 2.e4 e6, Black can follow up in all cases with 3...Ba6.

References

External links

* Marcin Maciaga
Flexible System of Defensive Play for Black – 1...b6
{{Chess, state=collapsed Chess openings