Cambridge Springs Defense Opening Theory

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The Queen’s Gambit Declined is the most popular way to fight the attempt by white to give up (gambit) his c4 pawn. It has been played by top masters since the 19th century, and it will never lose popularity due to its solidity, flexibility, and the amount of different options it gives to black. In this video I have covered the Cambridge Springs Defense, a very sharp and aggressive way for black to fight the queen’s gambit.

The defense was named after a tournament played in 1904 in the Pennsylvanian town Cambridge Springs where it was employed several times. It has been played before though, first time by Lasker at the end of the 19th century. Its peak was the 20s and 30s, when Alekhine, Euwe, and other strong players played it on the highest levels.

Since then its popularity has declined, but it’s still sometimes used by top Grand Masters. Ivanchuk, Smyslov, Kasparov, Speelman and Bogoljubov are just some of the top players who used it in the “modern era” of chess.

The idea behind the Cambridge Springs, the move Qa5, is fairly simple. Black wants to unpin on f6, and start a quick counter attack by putting pressure on the c3 weak point in white’s position. The plan is to follow it up with Ne4 and Bb4, which is quite direct!

Now white could go badly wrong very early on. The g5 bishop is loose after black captures on c4, so there are blunder opportunities on the very next move. This makes the defense hard to play for people who are not familiar with it.

Theoretically, though, white is fine, and black doesn’t have a winning initiative if white knows his stuff. That being said, it’s still a very sound, fighting defense!

#chess