Chessmate

English Defense · White

Broad Center and the Pawn Wedge (A40)

Claim the center and keep both neighboring pawns ready to advance.

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Step through the line. Every move has a reason.

Practice this line from memory on the free trainer

More courses in this opening

Continue through the English Defense repertoire from another tabiya.

English Defense · BlackDifficulty 2/3

Black repertoire · ECO A40

Sample line with full explanations: Undermine the Broad Center.

All lines in this course

ECO A40

Every one of these lines is explained move by move in the app — with recall practice and spaced review.

Train this course
  1. Broad Center and the Pawn WedgeSample

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Nd2 g6 5. Bd3 Bg7 6. Ne2 Ne7 7. O-O O-O 8. f4 c5 9. d5 b5 10. d6 Nc8 11. e5 f6 12. cxb5

  2. Answer the Bishop Check

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Bxd2+ 5. Nxd2 Ne7 6. Bd3 O-O 7. Ne2 d5 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Qc2 Ba6 10. e5 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 c5 12. f4

  3. Direct Move Order and Center Exchange

    1. d4 b6 2. c4 Bb7 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4 Nd7 5. Nf3 e5 6. Be2 g6 7. O-O Ngf6 8. Qc2 Bg7 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. Be3 O-O 12. c5

  4. Quiet Fianchetto Structure

    1. d4 b6 2. Nf3 Bb7 3. e3 Nf6 4. Be2 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 cxd4 8. exd4 O-O 9. Nbd2 Nc6 10. a4 e6 11. Nc4 Ne7 12. a5

  5. Meet `...f5` with Long Castling

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. a3 f5 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Bf4 h6 7. h4 d6 8. e3 Nbd7 9. Qc2 g6 10. Bd3 Bg7 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. e4

  6. Main `Nc3` Center Exchange

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. Bf4 Nf6 5. e3 Bb4 6. Ne2 O-O 7. a3 Be7 8. Rc1 d6 9. h3 Nbd7 10. Bh2 Re8 11. Nf4 e5 12. dxe5

  7. Early `a3` and Queenside Space

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. a3 Bb7 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 g6 6. Qc2 Bg7 7. e4 O-O 8. Nf3 d6 9. Be3 c5 10. d5 exd5 11. cxd5 a6 12. a4

  8. Quiet `g3` and the Bishop Exchanges

    1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Bxf3 6. exf3 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 c6 8. Nc3 d5 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. Bb5+ Nd7 11. O-O Ne7 12. Rac1