Learning the hypermodern style

Question

Which openings and middle game tactics are highly used when a player utilizes a hypermodern style of gameplay? What particular tactics are most effective when playing hypermodern?

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:48

One of the early pioneers, if not the actual founder of the Hypermodern style was Richard Reti, early in the 20th century. An example of this kind of play is his own Reti Opening.

The theory behind this is that center pawns on the fourth rank (or further) can become weak as well as strong. So the idea is to move out knights first, then pawns to the third rank, followed by bishops, etc. Then wait till the opponent commits his pawns to (his) fourth rank (your fifth) before deciding when to move yours to your fourth rank.

An "extreme" example is Alekhine's defense, when Black plays 1... Nf6 in response to 1. e4, to provoke further White advances, and (presuambly), weaknesses. The disadvantage to Black of moving the knight around seems to offset whatever disadvantages White may incur by advancing his pawns. Alekhine's Defense variation, understanding white's overextended pawns, black's multiple early knight moves

But if White opens 1. Nf3, he deters ...e5, and limits Black to playing ...d5 (or ...d6, if he wants to enforce ...e5). Hence, "hypermodern" openings beginning with knight moves seem to work better for White, who has the advantage of the first move. This advantage does give White a number of options, including playing "colors reversed" openings with an extra move that Black doesn't have.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '12 at 18:01

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This website does a good job of explaining some principles:

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Hyper-Modern-Chess

as well as this piece by Eric Schiller:

http://www.ericschiller.com/pdf/HypermodernChessOpeningStrategy.pdf

answered May 04 '12 at 18:01

xaisoft

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Schiller's Unorthodox Chess Openings received a noted two-word review from Tony Miles in Kingpin: "Utter crap."
Carsten Hansen wrote of Schiller's book on the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation of the Vienna Game that it was the worst book that he had ever seen. (from his wikipedia)

Don't read anything by Eric Schiller. And don't use wikihow to learn how to play chess.
– Aushin May 05 '12 at 14:11
@Aushin - so you downvoted me because I recommended something by Schiller. – xaisoft May 05 '12 at 16:52
@Aushin Have you read the booked linked above? Do you know of any reviews? Will you post your own answer to the OP's question? – Tony Ennis May 05 '12 at 17:29
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Telling someone "you can find the answer here" shouldn't be regarded as a great answer. It's just a link to look elsewhere, which does not bode well for this site. – Robert Cartaino May 08 '12 at 19:55
What should I do? Post the entire contents of the link in the answer. I don't think that bodes well for the site as well. – xaisoft May 08 '12 at 20:03
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Usually on SE we summarize the information in links. Eventually those links will go dead and your answer will be useless. As it stands, it's not that great anyway - the content in that link requires signing in to WikiHow. – indigochild Jul 16 '17 at 18:59

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 14 '13 at 23:34

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Richard Reti's book 'Modern Ideas in Chess' can be read in full here.

It is an amazing book!

Disclaimer: I am among the authors of the site ;)

edited Nov 14 '13 at 23:34

ETD

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answered Nov 14 '13 at 20:06

eolo999

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That's a very cool site. I hope it continues to grow. – ETD Nov 15 '13 at 00:59
Thanks @EdDean. Unluckily the second book is taking ages... I am too busy with day job. – eolo999 Nov 15 '13 at 09:01

Learning the hypermodern style

3 Answers3