Project 30: 9th Mike Closs Memorial Tournament Openings (1)

The 9th Mike Closs Memorial tournament will feature set openings in all of the rounds, for the first time since the inaugural event back in 2010.

We did utilise the themed openings aspect once more, in the 7th tournament, but that was just for half of the event and for the rest of it the players were free to choose their own favourites.

I have selected 12 opening lines that formed part of Mike's sharp repertoire and we will take a quick look at each one over the course of this week.

Not every opening will be used in the tournament. One of the 12 will be randomly selected before the start of each round, just to keep the participants guessing.

The Sicilian Defence (1 e4 c5) featured heavily on both sides of Mike's repertoire with the following variations being particular favourites.

Sicilian Defence Dragon: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6

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Sicilian Defence Accelerated Fianchetto: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6

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Sicilian Defence Najdorf: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6

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Sicilian Defence Wing Gambit: 1 e4 c5 2 b4

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Once the diagrammed positions have been reached the players are free to branch off into any lines the choose.