Chess Zoo, Part III
- 13 hours ago
- 7 min read
Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!
It’s been a while since we've been to the zoo... Yes, that's right! Today, we’ll reveal Part III of our Chess Zoo series! There have been a lot of great trilogies throughout time, and hopefully this post about animal openings will be as good or even better than the first two! You can read Part I about The Cow, The Bird, and The Whale, and Part II about The Orangutan, The Elephant Gambit, and The Hippo!
Today we will tell you about… drumroll please... 🥁🥁🥁
THE POLAR BEAR! THE BLACK LION! THE KANGAROO!
Let’s get to it!
The Legend Vivaan: The Polar Bear!
Howdy! It’s the Legend Vivaan here. Today I’ll be talking about the Polar Bear system for White. This system was developed by Danish-Icelandic GM Henrik Danielsen who wrote two books about it, in a series called The Complete Polar Bear System, about ten years ago, a year before I was born! We actually got in touch with GM Henrik over social media and he was so nice and supportive of our writing and is excited that we're enjoying his system and helping teach newer players!
Before getting to this awesome system, here are some fun facts about polar bears:
Polar bears live in the Arctic, way up North! They are amazing swimmers and can swim over 200 miles at a time. They also have an epic sense of smell, and can sniff their prey (like seals) 10 miles away. Walruses are also prey but make for a tough fight, particularly in the water. Oh, they're not even white but have transparent reflective fur so they appear white, though they actually have black skin underneath! White and black like chess! Let's get back to it!
Here’s a GIF of the Polar Bear System main line, 8 moves deep:
The GIF above shows the following moves:
1. f4 d5
2. Nf3 g6
3. g3 Bg7
4. Bg2 Nf6
5. O-O O-O
6. d3 c5
7. c3 Nc6
8. Na3
The Polar Bear System (PBS, but not to be confused with the awesome TV shows I watch) is like a reversed Leningrad Dutch. What I like about this opening is that it really doesn’t matter what Black plays, and pretty much no one is prepared for it since it’s so uncommon. White gets the nice fianchettoed Bishop on g2, develops both Knights and castles and sets up the center attack e4 following this initial setup. This setup comes out of the opening called The Bird, which we talked about in Chess Zoo Part I.
I really like flank (side of the board) openings because most opponents are unprepared for them and focus on normal big ideas like controlling the center early. With flank openings like this, I can develop my pieces on the flanks and break into the center once I’ve had a bit more development. These openings also give me the flexibility to attack on both sides of the board, and not commit to only one aggressive plan, which I feel often happens with more traditional openings. It allows the opponent time to commit first to their ideas, and, once you see their plan, you can adapt and counterattack! Many of the games in this system that I’ve studied result in fun pawn storms on the Kingside.
Consider looking through this LiChess study (Polar Bear System (PBS) - Bird's opening) featuring several games and ideas in the Polar Bear System. Games include:
GM Danielsen vs FM Langerman
GM Davies vs GM Espig
GM Carlsen (yup it’s Magnus!) vs GM Adams
GM Danielsen vs IM Eriksson
Another fun game to look at that has similar themes, though it doesn’t come out of the Bird, is GM Fischer (Bobby!) vs IM Durão in the 1966 Havana Olympiad (my grandparents were my age then!) Here's me resting with my Polar Bear!
Time to pass the pen to my mane big bro who’ll write about the Black Lion!
The Myth Sarang: The Black Lion!
Yo! What’s good everybody?! The Myth Sarang is back for more openings and today in the spirit of Chess Zoo, I will be covering one of my favorite openings as Black which I play sometimes as a surprise weapon, the complex and sharp Black Lion. This opening was popularized by English GM Simon Williams (also known as GingerGM) and popular streamer FM James Canty III (also known as GMCanty). First, I will show our main setup, with no moves from White. This is shown below:
This is the main setup, and here we have most of our pieces developed and have a good position. The usual move order for this setup is as follows: d6, Nf6, Nbd7, e5, h6, c6, Be7, Qc7.
The Black Lion is d6, Nf6, Nbd7, e5, then after we want to go h6 to stop any Bg5 or Ng5 ideas which is one of our biggest problems, then c6, Be7, and Qc7 to get developed. Now let’s play this position with White moving, shown below:
Here’s the move order I used to get to this position:
e4 d6
d4 Nf6
Nc3 Nbd7
Bc4 e5
Nf3 h6
O-O c6
h3 Be7
Re1 Qc7
Now our idea is we want to play aggressively, with ideas such as g5, Rg8, Nf8-g6-f4, potentially even Be6 or Bg4, and even h5-h4 ideas.
I'm supposed to share some fun facts about black lions. Here's the problem. They're not real. The big cats that can have enough melanin to darken their coat to be black are jaguars and leopards, and they are usually called black panthers. A fun fact about lions is that they live in groups, called a pride, and are the only big cat to do so. The male lions also have a neat feature called manes, an extra special type of facial hair!
Here is a full model game of a Black Lion attack shown in the GIF below:
If you want to learn more about this opening, check out Simon Williams’s Chessable course (The Black Lion | Chessable) & James Canty III’s videos (youtube.com/@JamesCantyIII). Let’s hop down to Australia now to meet The Man Benji!
The Man Benji: The Kangaroo Defense!
Hello, friends, the Man Benji is back, to talk about the Kangaroo Defense! What in the world is the Kangaroo Defense, you might ask? Well, I’ll explain it in a minute, but first, here are some juicy kangaroo facts!
Kangaroos, iconic animals from Australia, are large marsupials belonging to the genus Macropus, meaning “big foot”. They certainly do have big feet and can leap 30 ft in one jump and travel as fast as 30 miles (48 km) per hour. Beep-beep! Their muscular tails help them balance when they jump. Kangaroos can’t jump backwards, though, only forwards, so no reverse gear for these guys!
A baby kangaroo is called a joey, which is only the size of a jellybean at birth! Joey's travel around Australia inside their mother’s pouches. At 10 months of age, it’s time to leave that comfy pouch!
Scientists recently noticed that most kangaroos are left-handed. Hey, that’s something I have in common with these ultimate jumpers! Today, my job is to find out if the Kangaroo Defense is as awesome as these animals are. Let’s find out!
The Kangaroo Defense, aka the Keres Defense (popularized by the Estonian GM Paul Keres in the 1940s-1950s), or the Franco-Indian Defense, starts with:
1. d4 e6 (The Horwitz defense)
2. c4 Bb4+
The dark-squared Bishop leaps forward, like a kangaroo, to deliver a check! Here, White has quite a few options to block the check.
3. Nc3 is a popular response, according to the Lichess database, and if Black answers with Nf6, the position transposes to the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
The most common masters’ response to the check is a provoking
3. Bd2
Then Black plays a5, which seems a bit unusual, but goes with the kangaroo spirit: no jumping backwards! Here is the opening position after the first three moves:
White might be tempted to take the Bishop, thinking they create a weakness by doubling Black's pawns and having an easy target, but not so fast! If White is not careful, the pawn will become a trap! Check out this video to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRy8FvcK4_I
Instead, it is recommended for White to ignore the Bishop and continue normal development:
4. Nf3, then fianchetto their Bishop.
In turn, Black can play
4. … Nf6, continuing their own development.
After 5. g3 by White, Black could play 5. … d5, which leads to a more normal Queen’s Gambit Declined position, or we could play the mysterious-looking 5. … d6.
The plan is, after 6. Bg2, Black will play Nbd7, and, after White responds with 8.O-O, Black will strike in the center with e5! Here is GIF to show all of this:
This opening, although not sharp or tactical, is pretty solid for Black, and leads to a more positional middlegame. Here is a grandmaster game played by GM Nikita Vitiugov, demonstrating how to create opportunities and improve the position in this opening! The only small difference in the opening moves was, instead of 6… Nbd7, he played Nc6, but still went for the same e5 plan.
I hope this has inspired you to look into this opening more or learn more about kangaroos, the amazing animals they are.
But wait! Before you go to study more kangaroo lines, enrich your sense of humor with these chess zoo knee-slappers!
Why did Vivaan analyze The Polar Bear opening?
So he can be pre-beared for it!
***
What did Benji say to Vivaan before he played his Polar Bear prep?
“Nothing is im-paws-ible if you set your mind to it!”
***
Why do the Polar Bear and the Kangaroo never play OTB chess with each other?
They live too fur away!
***
What did Benji do when he won a game with the Kangaroo Defense?
He jumped for joey!
***
Why did two Kangaroos start arguing on their chess stream?
Because one wanted to listen to hip-hop, and another to hopera!
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When will the Kangaroo become a World Chess Champion?
Leap year!
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What did the Kangaroo say when it blundered its rook?
Oh no, my kanga-rooooooooook!
***
Why should you always trust Sarang’s opening analysis?
Because Sarang's never lion!
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In what state do people play the Black Lion opening?
Maine!
***
I once played a game against a Polar Bear.
During our game, it touched its queen and said,
“ I………………………….. adjust.”
It was all suspicious, but I didn’t say anything.
I just thought Wow, that was a big paws!
***
Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!
The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivaan
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