This is incontrovertible and cannot be disputed.

>shitting on Sicilian Defense and other grandmaster staples
Those openings are popular for a reason.

>>53381273
Chess hipsters fuck off.

>>53381362
Not that I don't respect the Kasparovs and Anands of the world, but it's a sad fact that when you get to elite GM level, you lose the ability to do anything but hide behind a pawn wall like a little bitch and try to perfect your position for a winning endgame. They almost never do openings like King's Gambit which invite a lot of tactics, because one slip and you fall off the cliff. Positional chess is much safer.

It is nice, almost touching, that Carlsen has a pretty large opening repertoire because even Kasparov, for all his skill at opening preparation, very rarely deviated from the usual "safe" openings like Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, and Indian Defenses, and his choice of openings got even more conservative in his later career.

>>53381362
I've never been able to appreciate the Sicilian. I'm reminded of how Paul Morphy once said he couldn't understand the fetishization of this opening, and that was back in the 1850s.

>>53381460
???

>>53381485
>He thinks there aren't tactics in modern GM games.
You know how I know you don't know chess? You play things like a Slav, or a Sicilian, and there's a LOT of tactics. The reason people don't play the Kings gambit is that it's shit, not because chess has somehow gotten less tactical and more positional.

>>53381485
Some of the 50s-60s-70s GMs like Spassky and Larsen were fond of the King's Gambit, but I can't think of any recent ones who've seriously used it other than that one game Carlsen played with some chink in 2014.

>>53381273
Cool, I haven't left troll tier!

>>53381760
Fischer was a tactical guy definitely, he was notorious for always (like in 90% of his games) opening with 1. e4 and only started using queen pawn openings in the 70s. But he said the King's Gambit was broken and offered 2...d6 as a refutation.

>>53381708
>The reason people don't play the Kings gambit is that it's shit
You should check out Bill Wall's KG miniatures. Fun stuff.

>>53381760
Bent Larsen liked using openings like King's Gambit and Bird's Opening to troll GMs who didn't know them and weren't prepared for them. He beat Karpov with a Scandinavian Defense when the latter was fresh off his 1978 WC victory.

>>53381980
Yeh it's pretty easy to trip up high level players since they typically have a certain set of Sicilian or QGD variations or somesuch that they've memorized and if you go off-script, they fall apart.

>>53381980
Bird's Opening is pretty damn dangerous for White, especially if Black decides to play From's Gambit. King's Gambit does expose the king, but at least White is preparing to castle quickly.

>Pirc Defense

Seem like an easy mate for White with bishop to A5, unless i'm misunderstanding something? I don't know chess incredibly well.

>>53382378
The white bishop on a black square is surrounded by pieces in that picture, it's not going to A5 for quite a while.

>>53382762
>The white bishop on a black square is surrounded by pieces in that picture, it's not going to A5 for quite a while.

Are we looking at the same picture? Seems the right White Bishop has a clear shot to mate King.

>>53382378
>>53382827
It's not mate because black has a pawn and a bishop that can block it.

>>53382827
A5 is a black square, the bishop that moves on black squares is surrounded. If you meant B5, then there are multiple pieces that can jump in between the king and b5 if the bishop moves there.

>>53382901
Ah ok, see I don't know chess very well. I thought when you check the opponent must move the king out of check.

>>53382933

Yeah I mean't B5

>>53381273
>No Danish Gambit

>>53381572
The reason he couldn't see the fascination with the opening? he was playing blindfolded

>>53383009
Never mind I guess that falls under "Center game"

>>53381485
It's a bit like poker, pros are pros because they don't made mistakes.
The tactics are there, but you just don't see them. Get better, you'll enjoy the game more.