Universal Chess Opening against d4 

Yesterday I applied your opening as white against 1. Nf3, d5 while playing against Stockfish on Level 6 - and I won - thanks man!

THIS is what I've been looking for. I rediscovered the game of chess two months ago and I have dreaded playing as black right up to the time I watched this video. I watched it twice and immediately had success. I found your instruction crystal clear, and you have done more for my chess game than any other resource I've used. I appreciate your generosity and I am indebted to you. XD

As a Caro player - this system is a great all-purpose defensive system for black against D4 - I have had great results with it. Very much appreciated !

Thank you GJ! I used to play the hedgehog, another semi-passive hypermodern opening. Now your system has helped me win several games

Thanks GJ-chess.My grandson won 3/4games using your system!🥳

Thanks GJ for introducing this opening to me.I used this opening in my tournament matches and my opponent was confused throughout the whole match.Looking foward to be learning more from you!!God Bless!!:)

HI gunjan,your teachings are very good and easy to learn.AND YOUR A VERY FUNNY GUY😂😂😂 ."THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME HE WILL BE PLAYING CHESS" THABKS FOR THE AMUSEMENTS I LOVE YA KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AND UPLOAD MORE VIDEOS THANK YOU

GJ your videos and instructions and personality make you a unique and excellent teacher. I am a 2000+ player and have learned from your videos. I watched everyone many many many times so the themes set in my brain. Thank you for your generosity.

Thanks this was the first d4 opening i learned for black and after trying others i agree its very flexible and not likely to get trapped. I use this all the time. Thanks for teaching me chess!

great video. I like the way you show the systematic set-up in the beginning of the video with the white pieces taken away.

another great lesson , thanks for taking the time to do all these , i have learnt a lot .

This is the best video i ever show against d4. You do a great job! Thank you!

Is there any way to see more games you have played using this system, so we can see more variations?

thank you,GJ_Chess!!!with this sistem i won a lot of D4 games.for me at least it is a strong opening.i saw many players witch dont know how to play against this setup.thx again! :)

I really enjoyed this video. For a long time I am looking for a solid system against d4. And this is really something I will adopt in my repetoire. I usually played King's Indian or Slav/Semi-Slav against d4, but with little success especially in rapid games. Thank you very much!

I thought that c6 and then d6 opening for black would lead to a very cramped game but you seemed to work out a way out of it. Thanks a very interesting video.

Hi, to me this looks like playing a variation of the Caro-Kann defense (e4 c6 2. d4 d6 3. Nc3 Qc7) against pretty much anything white throws at you. Very nice idea, and well explained in my view. This should really work well against a lot of opponents, especially those who are not very well prepared for Caro-Kann lines. I really like that the black pieces really seem to flow quite naturally and support each other, which is in my view more than enough compensation for the space penalty for any black player who isn't grand master material (yet). The only potential tactical weakness I found when looking this over is the heavy reliance of the system to get the black bishop out to g4, as this critical piece looks pretty forlorn if it cannot make the transition. And this can easily be prevented by white playing a rather unusual passive h2-h3 early on, say as the 4th or even 3rd move. This should lock in the black bishop very effectively, basically either forcing it's development over the queen side (weakening the pawns and still looking passive), or even worse getting it stuck on the base line. Therefore, what are your thoughts on how to continue against a white opponent that uses h2-h3 as the third or fourth move? Of course accepting the notion that an opponent probably will only ever get the idea of playing such a passive move if she/he prepared for your system, and notices the importance on the biship g4 move ...

Tq gj..i was struggling against d4 now im winning almost every game in this opening!tq so much..my rating also improved to 1600+ its a big deal for me

Really good set of videos, Gunjan! I've learnt a lot! Thanks so much

I just started seeing your videos now and trust me.. they are so helpful!! Keep up the good work!!

I m an old man fond of chess, believe me the way U explain the situation is superb non of one match, best wishes for your future Aleem from karachi

I love this video! Well taught. I like playing the Budapest gambit as black, but if my opponent doesn’t play 2. c4, then I transpose into this opening. It will baffle white. I have played this 24 times in my club , and my record is 22-0-2. Thanks for the video!

Thank you GJ for the wonderful video, you explain it so well...I'll put it to practice.

I usually play against d4 the Old Benoni. Very strong and fast equalization and even gives an advantage. I would recommend. This also looks interesting I must try in practice. Thanks for the interesting video!

This is a great opening against d4 and any more, specially blitz games. I won many games from that opening Thanks Gj

You have exploited my favorite opening, and this have made me a better player. Thank you.

This has really helped me a lot, thank you

I like your chess lessons, I have substantially improved my game. Thank you. I would find helpful (and I hope not to be the only one), if your could place the markings beside the chess board (a-h & 1-8) to assist with the moves. Keep up the good work.

I’ve applied this and won so many times, it’s not a guarantee you’ll win, but will give you that strong middle hand as the chai says. There are a number of ways this can play out early on, so hold your nerve and keep developing

Gujin I have been using this opening for about a month now, with great success

I always had problem playing against d4 but because of this I won 9 matches with this opening in tournament.Thanks a lot

Thank you for these interesting ideas!

I have been training with your system against chessmaster with very good results. I have finally tried it against human opponents on chess.com and have won 2 straight games. My opponents look confused and almost always take the extra space. I will use this system religiously. thanks. I will spend the rest of the week studying your videos.

Another great video for me.I wonder how can one be so generous like you to share this very informative learning system.I salute you for this kind of knowledge sharing.More power to you and all who made this possible.Thanks a lot for these material.

You are such a good instructor , Greetings from Egypt.

Thanks for posting Gunjan it is interesting and looks promising with openings involving c4. However as Tijany notes f4 is strong for white. Black tends to do very poorly. In particular after 1. d4 c6 2. e4 d6 3. Nc3 Qc7 4. f4 Nf6 5. Nf3 white has a strong position and wins the vast majority of top level games. After 2. e4 it's likely better to switch to a Caro-Kann defense with 2. d5 and use the Gunjan for 2. c4 openings. Looking forward to trying it out!

I like free lollies ;)

Thank you very much for this lesson. you are a talented teacher.

I use to play instinctively the same system with the difference that the bishop is on g7 after the pawn moves to g6 of course. One of the main ideas is to play rook to e8 or d8 after castling short, then the knight from b8 may come to d7-f8-e6 and d4 with support from the bishop but white may stop this plan with pawn c3. If the white pawn is on c4 then black has a strong outpost on d4. Black will have a pawn on c6 so white can't put a knight on d5. Another outpost for the black knight is f4...

King's Indian defense evolved back in the day from setups like this attempting to prepare meeting 1. d4 with e5 eventually in the center. The difference of the dark squared bishop in fianchetto instead of e7 like in your system was a side-effect of pushing g6 to support f5 (to fight for kingside space with e5-f5 in tandem).

really helpful... :) though I lost the first game as I played this same opening with white ... :) but then slowly I started winning against good players :)... thnx a lot

GJ, I think this is a great variation against the Colle System. Colle is an easy opening to remember. I always struggled against it and your variation might be a good response to it.

thank you sir as you have shared such a great thing with us.....

Wow, I did not think such a universal open was possible. Can not wait to try this in a bullet match. lol. Thank you very much for sharing.

Nice video! I am going to give the system a try in some blitz games

You gave tremendous knowledge

this was an awesome video... thanks for sharing! i will definitely be using this opening

Good job gunjan bro, it is very good opening especially for blitz games...thank you so much

You are a great teacher!

V good vid, GJ. Trying it out already in a couple of chess.com games. I for one would like to see a Part II - sampling other (posted games) where this system is successful. Hopefully I can post my own wins! Cheers

Wow, I’ll try this out

u are the most underrated chess analyzer on youtube!

I am not a very good player, so I can't offer any analysis, but so far this is working very well for me. Thank you for the video.

Thanks for the great video. I review it periodically.

Thanks Gunjan. This will help me.

GJ Thanks for all the wonderful videos. Subscribing to you and giving "thumbs up" to all.

Superb !! Very well explained.

Very nice opening. The systen leads to a very sharp middlegame, very flexible opening. This is the best opening against d4 for me. I am rated 1780 and I beat a 1900+ player with this opening. Thank you so much for showing

I learned a lot from your videos thanks Sir

Another great video, thank you. in this line: 1. d4 c6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 Qc7 4. e4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Be3 Be7 9. d5 what do you recommend? Just 0-0 ? What is the future plan?

Great Work, thanks

thanks for your lessons I suscribe

INTRESTING MOVES YOU HAVE THERE MY FRIEND.

The most of the time this works, thanks! But often whites block my bishop with early e4 and h3, then my knight at d7 blocks it as well. Here it stays till the end.

Great videos !!! Always !!!

I hope you know that was a compliment. :) I also love watching your chess vids.

Excellent video... I have just subscribed and I will spend the weekend perfecting your system. Thanks

Nice opening...thnxx,I have learnt a lot

Nice opening with black. I like it. :)

"I decided to grab the free Lolly" :D

You are a good teacher gun keep it up

I really needed to find this today. I play black against a d4 player in my local chess club and I need something to avoid his main lines.

thx for ur help.I was too getting confused!By this opening the for ur opinions!

Sounds great !

Thank you so much this will be useful for me

i like this!!! pls!! more options

Superb video!

I have been playing this opening for last 6 months and got very good results against london, classical, and three center pawn. But I am facing some troubles when opponent play four center pawn or three center pawn (f4 instead of c4), and when opponent delay Nf3. Please suggest me how should I respond against these moves.

Hi GJ, Awesome videos. I would like to explore this system more as my response to d4 (I use the dragon against e4). Does it have a name?

I do Nf6, d6, g6. There is often a queen side knight dance maybe even moving him back to original square but great command of the black squares undermining whites pawn formation. Even if white plays super aggressive with the 4 pawn attack any pxp leads to QxQ and white cant castle. Ultimately black should play f5 opening this f file or using it as a ram. My 2 cents.

Thx !

Amazing vidoe you got a like and a sub

dang, I gained so much knowledge O___O thanks.

Nice to know there are some easy defences or developements for those who prefer fighting in the middle game, tks!! What about avoiding e4 classical lines?

You really are a great player.

First of all I thanks to GJ chess for providing such a nice dirty tricks now I generally love to use d4 opening so I request you to help me in finding the dirty tricks in this opening and moreover when I play this d4 opening my opponent plal d5 so I will be glad to have the upcoming video from u GJ chsss

Great thanks for the system. Getting crushed by these d pawn openings despite being a very strong middle game player

setup looks a bit like old indian defence. very flexible system, thank you for showing it

Thank You !!!

Very nice lesson sir thanks

Maybe it's better to play d6 first? If 2.f4 you can play e5 (King's Gambit Declined) or Nf6, even c5 if you don't mind closed Sicilian.

Thanks, very good video. Am I correct that this can be used against both 1.d4 and 1.e4? Because after 1.d4 c6 2.e4 it's actually 1.e4 opening by transposition (Caro-Kann). So this is actually universal weapon against both 1.e4 and 1.d4, not just 1.d4.

as a d4 player this opening looked very weird to me but from watching the video, i can see that its solid. i think i may have even played a few games against this opening before in blitz games.

nice opening ... thx

thank you , gist for the mill, as a beginner it gives me something to work at .....

hey gunjan...yesterday i was going through the games database.....and found a very interesting game....aronian vs carlsen in Bottvinik memorial 2011....in which aronian made a double rook exchange sacrifice and won magnificiantly.....i studied the game fr about an hour and did some analysis myself.....but i think its best to let experts (in this case its you) analyze it ....by the way it was an awesome video

what if 1.d4 c6 2.e4 d6 3.f3? what would you do with the bishop in this case

thanks, this is my new opening for black

Hi gunjan bro, all your video lessons are very much useful.this opening is very good to confuse our opening prepared opponent.but can u also please explain what to do if white plays f4 ( bringing 4 paens towards the center).

I am so going to have fun with this.