In
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
, the Maróczy Bind () is a term alternately used to refer to an
opening
Opening may refer to:
Types of openings
* Hole
* A title sequence or opening credits
* Grand opening of a business or other institution
* Inauguration
* Keynote
* Opening sentence
* Opening sequence
* Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...
or its associated
pawn structure
In a game of chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawn (chess), pawns on the chessboard. Because pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus ...
, named for the Hungarian
grandmaster Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy (; 3 March 1870 – 29 May 1951) was a Hungarian chess player, one of the leading players in the world in his time. He was one of the inaugural recipients of the Grandmaster (chess), International Grandmaster title from FIDE in 1 ...
. When the Bind is discussed as an opening, it is defined as 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4.
The Maróczy Bind opening is a continuation of the
Sicilian Defence, Accelerated Dragon, where 5.c4 is the characteristic move.
When the Maróczy Bind is discussed as a pawn structure, attention is paid to strategic plans of both sides, as required by the placement of
pawns. Chess writers also note the possibility for the same or similar pawn structure to arise by
transposition, especially via the
English Opening
The English Opening is a chess opening that begins with the move:
: 1. c4
A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, one of the four most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins ...
or the
King's Indian Defense
The King's Indian Defence (or KID) is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves:
: 1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6
: 2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4, c4 b:Chess Open ...
. In the Maróczy pawn structure, White's c- and e-pawns control the d5-square, making it difficult for Black to open their position with ...d5. Instead, Black often settles for the less active ...d6 and may develop a
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...
pawn formation against the Bind.
History
The first game known to feature what would later be known as the Maróczy Bind was Swiderski–Maróczy, Monte Carlo 1904. Oddly, Maróczy never played it as White. However, the 1906 March–April issue of the ''
Wiener Schachzeitung'' reproduced from ''Magyar Sakklap'' Maróczy's annotations to the game
Tarrasch–
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
** Marshall railway station
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Is ...
, Nuremberg (match) 1905 (which began 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Nf3 a6 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be2 Bg7 6.Nc3 Nc6). "On four consecutive moves (moves 3–6) Maróczy stressed the value of the move c4."
For several decades, it was generally considered tantamount to a
blunder for Black to allow the Maróczy Bind. For example,
Harry Golombek
Harold "Harry" Golombek
OBE (1 March 1911 – 7 January 1995) was a British chess player, chess author, and wartime codebreaker. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. Biography
He was ...
, in ''Capablanca's 100 Best Games of Chess'' (1947), gave a
question mark
The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.
History
The history of the question mark is ...
to Black's fourth move in the line 1.e4 c5 2.Ne2 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6, a form of the
Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence, stating that 4...Nf6 was "necessary" to make White block his with 5.Nc3 and thus avoid the Bind. Golombek gave an
exclamation point
The exclamation mark (also known as exclamation point in American English) is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a ...
to 5.c4, establishing the Bind, explaining: "This strong move gives White control of the centre and Black must grovel about to find a counter-attack."
Reuben Fine
Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...
, writing in 1948, also considered the Bind very strong for White.
Beginning in the 1950s, the Maróczy Bind became less feared as new methods were found for Black to combat it. The ninth edition of ''
Modern Chess Openings
''Modern Chess Openings'' (usually called ) is a reference book on chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Griffith (chess player), Richard Clewin Griffith (1872–1955) and John Herbert White (1880–1920). The fif ...
'' (1957) stated that Black had "worked loose" from the strictures of the Bind.
Larry Evans wrote in the tenth edition (1965) that in response to the Accelerated Dragon, the Maróczy Bind "was once considered a refutation but now has lost much of its punch. White retains an advantage in space but Black's position is fundamentally sound." That remains the prevailing view, but some recent writers still emphasize that Black must find active or else be "strangled". However,
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...
and
Joe Gallagher observe:
[John Nunn and Joe Gallagher, ''Beating the Sicilian 3'', Henry Holt, 1995, p. 144. .] Although the Maroczy Bind is slightly passive for Black, players such as Larsen, Petursson and Velimirović Velimirović (Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongoli ...
have shown that by patiently waiting for a lapse of concentration from White this line can offer winning chances for Black. The theoretical opinion is that White should maintain a slight advantage, but no one should believe that this is a line in which White cannot lose.
Common opening lines
Common opening lines that reach a Maróczy Bind position include:
* The
Accelerated Dragon variation of the
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves:
:1. e4 c5
The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...
: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 ()
* The Kalashnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4
* The Prins Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 e5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.c4
* The
Chekhover Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.c4
* The
Taimanov Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4
* The
Kramnik Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4
* The Kan Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4
* The Moscow Variation of the Sicilian Defence: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7 Qxd7 5.c4 Nc6 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4
* The Advance Variation of the
Smith–Morra Gambit Declined: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 d3 4.c4
* The
Sämisch Variation of the
King's Indian Defence
The King's Indian Defence (or KID) is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves:
: 1. d4 Nf6
: 2. c4 g6
Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead and ...
: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 c5 7.Nge2 cxd4 8.Nxd4
* The Orthodox Variation of the King's Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 c5 7.0-0 cxd4 8.Nxd4
* The Averbakh Variation of the King's Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Bd2 Qxc5
* The
Four Pawns Attack of the King's Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Bd2 Qxc5
* The
Petrosian Variation of the
Queen's Indian Defence
The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is a chess opening defined by the moves:
: 1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6
: 2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4, c4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c ...
: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4
* The Classical Variation of the
Nimzo-Indian Defence
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. d4 Nf6
:2. c4 e6
:3. Nc3 Bb4
Other move orders, such as 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 Bb4, are also feasible. In the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', the Nimzo-Indian ...
: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5, later followed by e4
* In the
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...
formation, the opponent (typically White) has a type of Maróczy Bind, for example: 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.Nc3 e6 6.0-0 a6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.e4 Be7 10.b3 Nbd7
See also
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organised by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') code classification system. The chess openings are categorised into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken up into one hundred ...
*
List of chess openings named after people
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is name ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maroczy Bind
Chess strategy
Chess terminology