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This lesson is designed for chess beginners to learn the Bishop's Opening. It includes data to read, 2 chess videos, and the PGN file to see and analyze real games on the Bishop's Opening. The Bishop's Opening is named in such a way because the White bishop on the 2nd move goes on c4 to attack f7 and prevent the Black d-pawn on d5...
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I. Bishop's Opening: Data and Variations
Opening Name: Bishop's Opening
Type: Open Game chess opening (starts with 1.e4 e5)
Moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4
ECO Codes: C23-C24
About Bishop's Opening
The Bishop's Opening belongs to the Open Game chess openings which start with e4 e5. The Bishop's Opening is one of the oldest openings in chess, and it was a favorite opening of Francois Andre Philidor. Not so common today at master level, it is being used by chess masters as a surprise weapon for White. The Bishop's Opening is usually a fierce struggle from the very beginning.
The main feature of the Bishop's Opening is its flexibility and "changeability": It may easily transposes into other chess openings such as Vienna Game, Petrov's Defense, King's Gambit, Two Knights Defense, Italian Game. For White, the Bishop's Opening is not so popular at master level because Black may easily get equal position by answering 2... Nf6 (the strongest answer)...
Watch a Bishop's Opening Trap - The Scholar's Mate
However, the Bishop's Opening is popular at beginner level. And it may be recommended for beginners to start to learn chess openings from this one (because correctly playing the Bishop's Opening shows how to implement 3 opening strategies for White and Black)... When you are in the Bishop's Opening, always watch the Scholar's Mate -- a simple trap among the beginners.
The Scholar's Mate may run as 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qh5 Nf6?? 4.Qxf7# - a mate with the queen-bishop attack on f7. To avoid the Scholar's Mate, you may play 2... Nf6 (instead of Nc6) to attack h5. Or, (instead of 3... Nf6??) 3... g6 4.Qf3 Nf6; or simply 3... Qe7 -- defending f7. Always watch the weak f7 at the beginning!.. The Bishop's Opening has 20 official variations...
Bishop's Opening Main Variations
• Berlin Defense: 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 (most common for 70-80%)
• Classical Defense ("Boi Variation"): 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 (less common)
• Other Variations (2. ... c6; 2. ... Nc6; 2. ... d6; others)
• See 20 Official Variations of the Bishop's Opening
To get a visual feel of the Bishop's Opening, you can see Video 1 below:
• If the opening video has not shown up, please wait a little.
• If the video stops, drag a little right the player's handle.
II. Bishop's Opening: How to Play the Main Lines
You should know how to correctly play the main lines of the Bishop's Opening. To learn them, see Video 2: Bishop's Opening - How to Play; which is below. Just next below the video, you can find the main lines also in writing. To see Video 2: Bishop's Opening - How to Play, click the Play button below:
• If the opening video has not shown up, please wait a little.
• If the video stops, drag a little right the player's handle.
The following is a few recommendations how to learn the main lines of any chess opening. The main lines are best opening moves for White and Black. Try to avoid mechanical memorizing. Use the chess board. Analyze how both sides apply 3 main opening strategies and main opening rules. Learn the main lines to develop the feeling of correctly playing a chess opening.
See the main lines of Bishop's Opening in writing:
Line 1 (Bishop's Opening, Berlin Defense, The Main Line 3.d3)
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.ed cd 6.Bb3 Bb4+ 7.c3 Bd6 8.Bg5 Be6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Nbd2 Nbd7
• How to Play the Berlin Defense Variation of the Bishop's Opening
Line 2 (Bishop's Opening, Berlin Defense, Urusov Gambit Accepted 3.d4 ed 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qxd4)
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 ed 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qxd4 Nf6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Qh4 d6 9.0-0-0 Be6
• How to Play the Ponziani and Urusov Gambits of the Bishop's Opening
Line 3 (Bishop's Opening, Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit 3.f4)
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.f4 Nxe4 4.d3 Nd6 5.Bb3 e4 6.de Nxe4 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qd5+ Ke8 9.Qxe4+ Qe7
Line 4 (Bishop's Opening, Classical Defense, Philidor Variation 3.c3)
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 ed 5.cd d5!
• How to Play the Classical Variation of the Bishop's Opening
Note. The above Line 4 shows how to correctly play the Boi variation (the Boi variation is an unofficial name of the Classical variation of the Bishop's Opening with 1.e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5).
III. Bishop's Opening: Download PGN File to See Real Games
Below you can download the Bishops-Opening.pgn file to see how this opening works in real games. To read the file, you will need a PGN Viewer Program (see Lesson 16 to download a decent freeware PGN Viewer Program - you will need it to open and replay all chess games within a PGN file). Before downloading the Bishop's-Opening.pgn file, please read how it was created first.
The Bishop's-Opening.pgn file was specially created in the following way:
• The file includes main variations and displays how to correctly play the main lines.
• In addition, the file includes 24 real games played in 2008-2009 on Bishop's Opening.
• The real games were selected randomly, all players are FIDE rated 2017-2684.
• All the names of the chess players and their ratings were removed.
• The game results and tournament names were removed as well.
• The real games are shown from the beginning to the end of opening phase only.
• At this point, the opening positions were analyzed by a computer program.
• You will see the result of the program's analysis, like this...
• "If White finds this best line ..., White will be better at 0.55 pawns."
• The computer program's analysis will help you:
• To analyze each chess opening position.
• To understand how to correctly enter the middle game...
To learn how Bishop's Opening works in real games, click the following link:
• Download the Bishops-Opening.pgn File, 15 KB
Note 1. The above file will be downloaded from Google Drive. First click the above link to open, then click the download icon to download the PGN file.
Note 2. To read the above PGN file and see the chess games inside it, you will need a PGN Viewer software. (see Lesson 16 which will explain you how to download a decent freeware PGN Viewer software).
This completes Lesson 22 on the Bishop's Opening. The next opening to learn is King's Gambit (see Lesson 23 in the list of all chess opening lessons. You can find the link to all chess opening lessons at the top of this page). Please be advised that additional information will be added (via additional link on this page) to show how the Bishop's Opening is being played at the chess naster level in the year 2019.
